The best medium for culturing springtails

Springtails need water, food and substrate (medium) to grow and breed on. 

Springtails thrive in moist environments feeding on organic waste. 

I tried different mediums to find the best one. 

Buy Springtails locally on Craigslist: 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?userpostingid=7391919122

 or buy Springtails on Amazon (paid link): 

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Provided daily with food and moisture Springtails breed abundantly on soil, mixed with peat moss, live mosses, polyester foam to name just a few mediums I tried.

I got great results on all mediums provided with daily care all year around. 

But what about going on a vacation for a week or two?! 

Weeks long interruption in daily care resulted in loss of Springtails cultures.

 It was the case until I tried to use wilted leaves as substrate to culture Springtails on.

 At the end of 2021, I set up a container with dry leaves and bark. 

Add some dechlorinated water and let it sit for leaves to soak the water. 

The next day I added more water.

 It turns out that wilted leaves take a lot of water. 

And then I seed Springtails from two well established cultures.

 In the next couple days I added more water.

 And left the culture as it is for 3 weeks. 

Three weeks later I checked on the springtails culture. 

The Springtails culture is alive! 

Springtails feed on wilted leaves and wilted leaves are great at retaining water. 

So, wilted leaves scored on three points: feeding, water retention and surface for breeding springtails.

 I culture Springtails for feeding my fish.

 My top feeding Endlers fish enjoy eating Springtails 1-2 times a week. 

Here you can see adult and young fish go frenzy after Springtails. 

There are about a couple dozen fish in this aquarium alone. 

And I have two paludariums and many more fish in my other aquariums. 

They all consume huge quantities of Springtails.

 I put a lot of effort in the past couple years to learn through experiments how to culture live food for all my pets. 

Making self-feeding sustainable aquariums helps - especially in times for me taking vacations. 

But through the year, I rely heavily on farming different types of live food for my pets. 

I've been culturing Springtails with Grindal worms on wilted leaves. 

I keep my farm on the bottom shelf next to my aquariums in the living room.

 Here are about 10 months old cultures as of November 1st, 2022. 

For the past year I've been using exclusively wilted leaves for culturing Springtails and Grindal worms.

 Keeping Springtails with Grindal worms is beneficial in 3 ways. 

2 cultures in one container is space saving for one.

 Grindal worms are one of the best live foods for fish and many small reptiles. 

Springtails actually prefer to feed on Grindal worm waste (poop). 

And for the third - cultures of Springtails with Grindal worms on wilted leaves seem to be the most stable.

 I did not lose a single culture in the past year. 

I will explain in detail how to culture Springtails with Grindal worms on leaves in future videos.

 Wilted leaves are ultimately the best natural organic substrate for culturing Springtails. 

Also, wilted leaves are available absolutely for free all year around even in New York. 

Pick one leaf or as many as you need all year around in parks, gardens, on streets - anywhere you go.

Have fun and happy Springtails :)