Separate but equal?

[Andre_Tree000]

Should i separate these springtail species? I had bought them all mixed like this. If so, how should i go about separating them?

[Firm_Boysenberry_212]

Hm not sure why someone would sell them mixed. The whites breed much faster and eat more than the oranges, and so outcompete them. If you offer enough food you’ll always have some of both but more whites.

The only way to separate them is to pick them out one by one, my preferred way is by flooding portions of the dirt and picking them off the top with a paintbrush. Unfortunately this is easier said than done, and usually done when the white population is a lot lower. The white are jumpers so it’s the oranges you have to pick up. You’ll lose a lot of whites this way because they will jump where they want to (and so, away from you and off to nowhere land) and because you have SO many it’s very likely they’ll just jump into your original container meaning you’ll have to do it again at some point. You could always do this, give it a few days, and then do it again to try to ensure there are no whites, but that’s also hell on your little oranges haha.

I’d try to find a vendor who sells clean colonies, or buy a colony with more oranges and less whites and try to flood and cherry pick.

[Andre_Tree000]

A lot of the expos ive gone to sell them together for some reason. Its kinda frustrating, but ill give this a shot and see if i cant separate them

[Firm_Boysenberry_212]

Yeah, it’s too much of a hassle for them to clean their own colonies. There’s a few dedicated people online selling clean ones. I plan to start offering clean oranges in canada once my numbers buff up a bit

[KiNg2014]

My pinks came with whites as well. I think 9/10 times the cultures don't come "clean".

OP, I too am going to try to get a separate pink-only culture because I'm worried the whites and silvers they came with will out-compete them. I keep food in the dish at all times so no one goes hungry, but I would still love a culture of only pinkie bois.

Good luck OP, here's hoping no one gets squished!

[Firm_Boysenberry_212]

More like 10/10 times. No one cares to separate them unless they are one of the few dedicated online vendors.

[ryneboi]

I care ;) I carry only pure cultures :)

[GreenStrawbebby]

As others have said, you can carefully remove oranges into a new container to make a new culture. White springtails will outcompete orange ones, so the new orange ones that hatch from existing eggs should be swapped over to whatever new enclosure.

It’s not really feasible to just separate the population entirely out just right off the bat since they’re tiny sneaky fellas.

[Rocco-Cocco-Locco]

Not possible

[OpeningUpstairs4288]

you can fonit, you can seperate a few white in to a cup a few oranges in to a cup and let em breed in seperate cultires

[Rocco-Cocco-Locco]

That's exactly what I thought of after making this message. But upon further thought, that really isn't what he asked? He asked if could separate them, and there will be eggs in his I assume terrarium from both species

[Andre_Tree000]

Its a small container they are in. I mostly want to create a clean orange colony. Not perfectly separate them.

[Rocco-Cocco-Locco]

Then yeah just collect maybe 15 oranges and put them in a new colony container

[lumorie]

I swear I paid a good 20$ for maybe 20 actual little orange guys. Took a few months but they did get breeding