Any springtail culturers

Geoff Armentrout

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
29
For those of you, if any, that culture springtails I have been reading and watching vids on culturing them and everytime some one says "just sprinkle a little brewers yeast on the substrate." they never mention a brand or where to get it (besides online). I don't want to get the wrong type active or inactive, etc..

Thanks,
Geoff
 

Aquarimax

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Messages
1,086
I use nutritional yeast (which is inactive) as the staple food for my springtails. It is similar to brewer's yeast, and works great. I buy it in the bulk section of health food stores. Now even my local supermarket carries it in the bulk section. I have found it works best to spread it sparingly on the substrate in quantities that the springtails finish within a day or two. As your culture grows, they will eat a lot more of it.

I have used active bread yeast as well. You need to be more careful with it, as too much could produce enough co2 to kill the springtails.
 

Geoff Armentrout

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
29
I use nutritional yeast (which is inactive) as the staple food for my springtails. It is similar to brewer's yeast, and works great. I buy it in the bulk section of health food stores. Now even my local supermarket carries it in the bulk section. I have found it works best to spread it sparingly on the substrate in quantities that the springtails finish within a day or two. As your culture grows, they will eat a lot more of it.

I have used active bread yeast as well. You need to be more careful with it, as too much could produce enough co2 to kill the springtails.
Believe I've watched a couple of your vids! I was looking at Twinlabs Brewers yeast online I was so confused, I don't know how many people knew there was yeast for nutrition cause I didn't. I just knew of yeast for baking and active brewers yeast for beer making the nutritional brewers yeast is apparently a byproduct of brewing said beer.

Thanks,
Geoff
 

Aquarimax

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Messages
1,086
Believe I've watched a couple of your vids!
:) I hope they were helpful!
I suffered the same confusion you did when I started researching different types of yeast. In fact, I only recently discovered that there is a substantial difference in nutrients between nutritional yeast and brewer's yeast (which, to add to the confusion, is also used as a nutritional supplement). Nutritional yeast is the same species as brewer's yeast, but is grown on a different medium and is rich in certain B vitamins. Brewer's yeast is, as you mentioned, a byproduct of beer brewing, and is not rich in B vitamins, but is a good source of chromium.

Luckily, both are great food sources for springtails!
:D
 

Geoff Armentrout

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
29
:) I hope they were helpful!
I suffered the same confusion you did when I started researching different types of yeast. In fact, I only recently discovered that there is a substantial difference in nutrients between nutritional yeast and brewer's yeast (which, to add to the confusion, is also used as a nutritional supplement). Nutritional yeast is the same species as brewer's yeast, but is grown on a different medium and is rich in certain B vitamins. Brewer's yeast is, as you mentioned, a byproduct of beer brewing, and is not rich in B vitamins, but is a good source of chromium.

Luckily, both are great food sources for springtails!
:D
They were quite informative I double checked my youtube history and I watched your springtail, cricket (needed a refresher), rice flour beetle, isopod, fruit fly and bean beetle vids.

Think I'm going to go with the twinlab yeast. It has a couple b vitamins etc. Pregnant women use it in cookies to help produce more milk so if it is good enough for pregnant women nuff said.

Thanks,
Geoff
 

Dark

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 15, 2003
Messages
538
Never heard about yeast, I bought a container full and I dumped them into every single container with soil I have. Some containers they multiple and explode in population beyond imagine, other containers they merely remain cultured but not in unbelievable numbers. My numbers exploded overnight when I gave them some rotting fruit. After that I started putting in any rotting thing I had from other containers, eventually I got mites but I suspect the mites were always there. Anyway, the container that my springtails do the best in is with my glowspot roaches. They are in coco fiber mixed with dried leaves, rotting wood, 3 pieces of cork-bark & whatever the roaches don't eat. The substrate is very moist which allows the glowspots to make tunnels that won't collapse and I primarily feed them cut up apple & carrot and maybe someday banana.

They're fairly straightforward, I'd toss a couple into a bunch of different setups and see what works. I've reached a point where i could probably fill a bag with them as though they were rice and sell them by the pound. I'm exaggerating but I could probably get those numbers if I worked at it :p.

Good luck,
Eric
 
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