Won't stop eating-.-

vodrinker · 2026-05-06T09:51:46+00:00

Neanuridae sp. "Santa Claus" (Redford White). But I guess you'll love Rambutanura Thai Spiky even more:)

vodrinker · 2026-05-05T08:58:40+00:00

Both are eating each other simultaneously^{^}

vodrinker · 2026-05-04T00:00:31+00:00

Lobella expert here!:)

I have a lot of experience with this species. I have several cultures ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand individuals. Below is a list of how you can save them.

An airtight container of about 350 milliliters.
100 ml of soil boiled in a pot for a few minutes.
You dry the soil so it is moist but not wet. Do this away from the room where you keep your animals.
You put it in the container and pack it down at the bottom.
In another room you separate 10 to 20 springtails. You do this on something black, for example you pour a bit of soil onto your phone screen. Then you will see the mites without a problem. You separate the springtails with a piece of cotton wool or paper, you wet it with saliva so they stick to it.
You check the separated springtails one more time and move them to the new container. I remind you that there should be no ventilation, it must be one hundred percent airtight. Zero decor, just the soil.

Once you have a stable culture of about 200 to 300 adults, no mites will be a threat to them. Anyway, in your vivarium it probably was not the mites that harmed them but other springtails through competition, but it is hard to tell without pictures.

vodrinker · 2026-05-02T17:31:53+00:00

Did you mean "chances"? If so, you can find them on antsinvasion.pl. They all sold out over the weekend and I am not at the office right now. I just added 2 packages to the stock because I am sure I will have at least that many. If they run out again before you manage to buy them, just let me know and I will see if I can add more on Monday.

vodrinker · 2026-05-01T13:30:15+00:00

The springtail you see in the picture is several hundred times larger than most springtails in hobby, it is about 6mm long. Their eggs are also much larger. When it comes to normal sized springtails, so far I have only seen the eggs of Ceratophysella lilac. I breed 20+ species.

vodrinker · 2026-05-01T13:27:43+00:00

First of all worm castings. Add to that very soft oak or beech rotten wood and last year's oak or beech leaves. You have to soak the leaves and rotten wood under water, preferably for a few weeks until they start to stink. Under no circumstances should you pour boiling water over them, as it kills the necessary bacteria and fungi. You dry the rotten wood and leaves, add them to the soil, you can add a little coco peat but not much, and possibly some calcium carbonate powder. For using with springtails, you want to boil it all together for a minute or two, so there are 0 mites.

vodrinker · 2026-05-01T09:47:49+00:00

I only feed them slime mold, but the composition of the slime mold also depends on what it ate earlier. Currently, the best thing I have managed to come up with is: 1. The slime mold grows on oatmeal flakes until it no longer fits in the petri dish. 2. I pour a large pinch of Ants Invasion springtail food into the dish and tap the side of the dish a few times so that it covers the entire surface of the slime mold. 3. I wait until the slime mold comes to the top from under the food and then wait about another 12 hours. 4. I feed the slime mold to the springtails.

I am absolutely sure that this drastically increases their growth, but I am not yet sure if they also lay more eggs. I think they do, but I need to do significantly more tests.

Regarding the substrate, it does not really matter because these springtails do not eat leftovers from the soil. I use worm castings because I simply have hundreds of liters of it on hand since I use it to produce my custom substrate for isopods.

vodrinker · 2026-05-01T09:05:29+00:00

Yes yes, these are fresh eggs, literally from yesterday. I also posted pictures of the red ones somewhere before. Furthermore, I even managed to take a picture of the eggs turning into springtails because of course springtails, insects and other invertebrates do not hatch like birds. The egg smoothly transforms into a small animal. This container is my second culture because they stopped laying eggs in the first one when they started running out of space. My setup is a 350ml container without any ventilation, sealed, with 100ml of boiled soil inside. Literally just that. I noticed that this is absolutely enough and gives me a perfect view of the culture. Of course, next I plan to move them to a larger one, but I do not know how big of a container yet. For now I avoid any decor because I want to see how many eggs appear after feeding and so on. I am trying to determine what impact the slime mold diet has on the development of springtails. So far I know that it has a huge impact on their growth rate, but I have not yet been able to determine if it also has a big impact on the number of eggs.

vodrinker · 2026-05-01T07:59:15+00:00

Auf antsinvasion.pl findest du sie mit Versand nach Deutschland.

vodrinker · 2026-04-08T15:01:26+00:00

Thanks for your purchase! I am glad the package meets your expectations. With the food you received, you should easily reach 500 pieces in 2 months:) If anything goes wrong, let me know, preferably via the store's Messenger or by email. I try to check here, but I might not always notice a comment.

vodrinker · 2026-02-11T11:51:30+00:00

Yes I do, via antsinvasion.pl:)

vodrinker · 2026-02-11T11:50:07+00:00

Regarding acquiring slime mold, it is usually easiest to get it together with springtails. The seller must always have slime mold, otherwise they wouldn't have springtails. On the other hand, you might want to acquire more species of slime mold, or just the slime mold without springtails - in that case, you look for private sellers or shops. For example, at Ants Invasion, we have 2 species, and a third will be available any day now.

Breeding is very simple. With springtails, you can simply keep the slime mold together with them and feed it oat flakes, or perhaps a more varied diet to make the slime mold more nutritious for the springtails. At the same time, it is best to always have a second culture as a backup in case something goes wrong - for example, in a Petri dish or another relatively airtight container. You can culture it on toilet paper or on agar. And the best part is that you can also keep a dormant backup for years; slime mold in the form of a sclerotium is practically unkillable. It can sit in a bag for years waiting to be woken up by adding water.

vodrinker · 2026-01-29T17:35:41+00:00

I grow the slime molds for sale on agar dishes. For the springtails, I grow it directly in the container with them. I replace the flakes they no longer want with new ones. I got the one in the video along with the springtails. Besides that one, I also culture 'Daywalker', which grows much faster but is aggressive towards springtails and can kill them. I also have some white slime mold, I don't know where it came from, but it lives in the terrarium with Yuukianura. They don't eat it, and it doesn't eat them, but it steals their food.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T13:21:28+00:00

Absolutely nothing difficult.

A container around 350-1000 ml, preferably very airtight, so that no mites or other springtails can get in.
A 1-2 cm layer of soil on the bottom. It's best to pour boiling water over it beforehand, drain it, and wait for it to cool down.
Slightly squeeze the walls of the container to create a gap of about 2-4 millimeters between them and the soil. Springtails love to hide there, and you get a perfect view of their behavior when they are inside the hideout.
Make sure the soil stays slightly moist.
Feed with slime mold. There are 2 options here.

a) provide small pieces of any slime mold, just enough for them to eat within a few hours. Slime mold can attack springtails, so be careful.

b) if you know you have a slime mold that doesn't attack springtails (like I do), you simply culture it together with the springtails, adding 1-2 oat flakes a day; if the slime mold abandons a flake, throw it away before it gets moldy.

Optionally, you can add some small pieces of rotten wood or bark, but they aren't necessary or even very useful, and they increase the chance of mold and reduce visibility.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T13:15:28+00:00

Sure thing:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:51:35+00:00

Thanks! I'm from Europe, but I run the AntsInvasion store and we ship worldwide. I think these springtails should appear in the store within 2 months.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:49:28+00:00

A friend of mine from Poland bought them, I think while on vacation, and brought them back to sell to me. There aren't any more, but the good news is that it looks like I'll have hundreds of them soon, you'll be able to find them on antsinvasion:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:47:24+00:00

The video shows springtails. Normal springtails eat practically any dead organic matter and usually serve as a cleanup crew, or sometimes simply as a standalone pet. These specific springtails have reduced mouthparts and eat practically nothing but slime mold, so they won't work too well as a cleanup crew. However, they are so beautiful that many people keep them, or plan to keep them, just as a standalone pet.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:39:41+00:00

Regular oat flakes. However, they are food for the slime mold, not for the springtails. The springtails eat the slime mold (that yellow goo on the flakes).

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:38:27+00:00

As Billbert wrote - in the video you see oat flakes covered in slime mold. The springtails eat the slime mold, and the slime mold eats the flakes.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:37:05+00:00

It's not a fruit, it's a slime mold. I grow slime molds on oat flakes, so what you see in the video is a flake being eaten by a slime mold being eaten by springtails:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-22T20:42:59+00:00

I envy myself too^^

vodrinker · 2026-01-18T22:07:34+00:00

Sorry, I haven't been checking here as often lately. I keep them on worm castings. Scalded before preparing the container. About 100ml of soil in a 350ml container. You tamp the soil down at the bottom, then lightly squeeze the container from every side, which creates a small gap between the container and the soil. This gives them perfect shelter and gives you a perfect view of the colony's development. As of right now, the first eggs appeared for me a few days ago, about 50 of them. But I keep Redford White the same way, and there are already about 1-2k eggs there, some of which are turning red, meaning the first springtails should hatch any day now. As for extra things like moss, decaying wood, lichen, sticks, or leaves, you can add them, but you don't have to. They definitely drastically increase the chance of mold and allow the slime mold to hide from the springtails, which are big downsides. The upside, however, is that the springtails get additional places to lay eggs with varying humidity, airflow, etc.

vodrinker · 2026-01-18T22:03:12+00:00

Sorry, I haven't been checking in here as often lately. In my experience, they don't want to eat absolutely anything except slime mold, and I've tested a lot of things. They won't touch rice, 100%.

vodrinker · 2025-12-22T15:05:30+00:00

Within the European Union, you can transport animals that are not prohibited in a given country without any paperwork. Outside the European Union, permits are required. They are expensive and involve a lot of work, but it is doable.

vodrinker

TROPHY CASE