Beginning notes June 15th
Thank you Aileen, who provided me with the initial colony. Already thriving and in abundance, moving into a larger container already made sense (an assumption that would bite me for the orange springtails. Start small!).
Voracious, they love nutritional yeast, and adding a couple grains of rice every other feeding has worked well. The colony if large enough that they can consume a generous helping of yeast in a few hours, but the rice takes them a few days to completely eat, s it helps to tie them over. We experimented with a piece of bell pepper recently which it does look like they are eating, but at a pace simialr to a rice grain.
In terms of behavior, they are reactive to the lid being opened and will leap in response. Tapping the top of the enclosue before opening helps to get them to go underground so you can provide food without them jumping out. still, open container slowly and tap until enough of them have gone underground.
At rest, it is clear when not feeding they spend most of their time underneath the substrate. With a clear container you can see the congregates at basically all levels of the container, least so the top unless eating.
The enclosure
Since it was technically successful, here is a video of their enclosure build. A few notes though ae if possible, find a container with a bit more depth, and was the wood charcoal to remove dust before placing:
Jun 25th
We tried throwing in some scraps today and it actually worked! Threw is a piece of red bell pepper and as the piece began to rot, more and more began to eat. Also tried a blueberry, but it hasnt been well recieved. This will start the official food testing! that I will keep record in the list below
Good
Bell pepper
Bad
Blueberries
zooplank.com 