Which Springtails Should You Choose? A Guide to the Varieties

Once you've decided to add springtails to your enclosure — and if you've read our guide to what springtails do, you'll know why nearly every setup benefits — the next question is which variety to get. They all do the same essential job of eating mould and breaking down waste, but they differ in size, appearance, temperature preference and how visible they are, and those differences can help you pick the right one for your particular setup.

This guide walks through the varieties we stock and who each one suits. The reassuring news is that there's no wrong choice — any springtail will keep your enclosure clean. It's really about matching the variety to your conditions and what you want to see.

First, what they all have in common

Whatever variety you choose, springtails share the same core qualities: they're tiny collembolans that graze on mould and decaying matter, they coexist peacefully with isopods, millipedes, reptiles and amphibians, they need consistent moisture, and they reproduce readily into a self-sustaining population given damp conditions and a little food. So the choice below is about preference and conditions, not about one variety being "better" than another.

A good substrate of leaf litter and decaying wood suits all of them, and all of them slot straight into the kind of bioactive setup described in our enclosure setup and substrate mix guide.

The classic all-rounder: temperate white springtails

White springtails are the standard, do-everything choice and the variety most keepers start with. They're the small, pale collembolans you'll see shimmering across damp substrate, and they're an excellent general cleanup species for almost any setup.

Their main strength is adaptability. Temperate white springtails are comfortable at typical UK room temperature, reproduce quickly, and establish easily in a new enclosure. If you just want a reliable, fast-breeding cleanup crew and aren't fussed about appearance, these are the sensible default — and they're the variety most often used as a starter culture to seed bioactive enclosures.

Best for: beginners, general cleanup, room-temperature setups, seeding a new bioactive enclosure quickly.

A touch of subtle colour: lilac springtails

Our lilac springtails do exactly the same cleanup job as the whites but carry a soft lilac-purple tint that's rather lovely when you catch a culture in good light. They're a nice choice if you like the idea of your cleanup crew being a little more interesting to look at than the standard white, without stepping up in difficulty.

Like the whites, they're an easy, adaptable variety that establishes well and keeps mould down effectively. The colour is subtle rather than showy — these aren't a display animal in the way a colourful isopod is — but in a planted bioactive enclosure that extra hint of tone is a pleasant detail.

Best for: keepers who want a reliable cleanup crew with a bit more visual interest than plain white.

The best of both: lilac and yellow springtails

Our lilac and yellow springtails bring together two tints in one culture, giving a bit more variety and visual appeal while doing all the usual cleanup work. They're a good pick if you like the idea of a slightly more colourful, varied culture moving through your substrate, and they behave just like the other easy varieties — adaptable, fast-breeding and peaceful with everything else in the enclosure.

Best for: keepers who want the most visual interest from an easy, all-purpose cleanup springtail.

The vivid specialist: Thai Red springtails

The Thai Red springtail is the showstopper of the group — a strikingly coloured variety that stands out far more than the pale temperate species. If visual impact matters to you, these are the ones that genuinely register as a feature rather than a background cleaner.

The trade-off, as the name suggests, is that they tend to prefer warmer, more tropical conditions than the temperate whites, so they're best suited to setups that run a little warm — many tropical millipede and isopod enclosures, or heated bioactive vivariums. In the right warm, humid conditions they thrive and breed well; in a cool room they'll be less vigorous than a temperate variety. Match them to a warm setup and they're a brilliant, eye-catching choice.

Best for: warmer tropical setups, and keepers who want their springtails to be visibly colourful.

Quick comparison

Which should you actually get?

If you're starting out or just want a dependable cleanup crew, a temperate variety — white, lilac, or lilac and yellow — is the easy, room-temperature choice, and the colour is simply down to preference. If your setup runs warm and you want a springtail that's genuinely colourful to look at, the Thai Red is the standout. And there's nothing stopping you running more than one variety across different enclosures as you expand.

Whichever you choose, a single culture quickly establishes and produces enough springtails to seed further enclosures, so it's an investment that pays off many times over. They pair perfectly with isopods and millipedes — see our guide to keeping millipedes and isopods together for how the whole cleanup team fits into one enclosure — and they're equally at home in a reptile or amphibian bioactive vivarium.

Browse our springtail varieties in the springtails collection, pick up substrate and leaf litter from our accessories, and if you'd like help matching a variety to your setup, our live chat is always happy to advise.