Writing a blog post telling you all how much, at the age of 32, I love playing with slime isn't something I ever expected to do. Even my 9 year old daughter has started to "be too old" for slime now — but here we are!
So what slime is it that I have been fascinated by recently? None other than Blob Yellow Slime Mould (Physarum polycephalum).
Why Springtails Suddenly Became My Focus
Over the past few months, my passion for keeping springtails and learning more about their care has been one of my main focuses within this hobby. Although I had always kept springtails even before isopods, I had never really focused heavily on them. I thought them quite simple — some soil, yeast, fish flake, and moisture in an airtight tub and there you are. But properly how wrong I was!
Keeping springtails is a craft/skill just as much as keeping isopods. Over the past few months I've given up on my fear of them escaping on me, and now increase the ventilation on the top using the vents I also use for my isopods (which I buy from Tom at Exotic Empire). This one change — from going to just sealed tubs or tubs with drilled holes covered with organza — properly changed my colonies seemingly overnight. I noticed how much more active they all were, especially when it came to feeding. I also noticed they were more spread out. I'm not sure if that means anything other than them just actively searching for food perhaps, but it's something I didn't see as often in the old style enclosures.
Substrate Changes
In addition to the ventilation change, when I created new tubs I also fully changed the substrate/soil. The first time I cultured springtails I used topsoil — which is a big no/go for me now. I found topsoil to be often home to worms and other pests like mites, which is very difficult to avoid.
I now use a mixture of:
- Arcadia Earthmix — which we use with all of our isopod colonies and have done for years
- X Terrarium premium substrate (ABG mix) from Grow Tropicals, which is actually located very close to us in Leeds
I was advised of this product actually by SpringtailRanch on eBay. When I restarted a lot of my cultures I bought most from them, and asked what substrate they kept their springtails in, as I was very happy with the quality when they arrived.
Enter the Slime
Anyway, back to the slime. So I was seeing a lot of recommendations on Facebook about feeding springtails "slime," so I asked within one of the WhatsApp groups where to get it from. Si from The Bug Room sent me a link for it on eBay and explained how easy it is to look after.
Quick honest note on what this actually is, since I had to look it up myself: Physarum polycephalum is properly a slime mould — but despite the name, slime moulds aren't actually moulds (or fungi at all). They're classified in the supergroup Amoebozoa, properly distinct from true fungi. The "slime mould" common name has stuck around even though it's not technically accurate. They feed on bacteria, oats, and other organic matter, and they're famous for showing problem-solving behaviour despite having no nervous system. Genuinely fascinating organisms.
The First Week
I received the pot on the 1st April, and it's labelled as potted up on the 28th March. Since receiving the slime I have watched in awe how quickly it seems to be growing in the petri dish it came in — rapidly expanding like a scene from Venom as it takes over the tub, including the lid, and of course all over the oats that came with it.
I noticed I think on the 3rd that some of the slime was going dark. I thought this may be it drying out, so added a few drops of water. Now on the 5th, those brown spots have gone back yellow. I'm not sure if that is the slime actually going back yellow or if new slime is just growing over the old one.
(Quick honest note again: what I observed is properly consistent with slime moulds forming sclerotia — a dormant resting form they enter when conditions become unfavourable (drying out, in this case). When conditions improve, the sclerotia can revive and the slime mould re-emerges as the active plasmodium stage. So adding water likely revived the slime that had gone brown. Properly an impressive piece of biology — the slime can basically pause its life when conditions go wrong and resume when they're back to normal.)
I am yet to add more food yet and will continue just adding drops of water like this until the original oats are gone. This seems to be growing much quicker than I expected, and although I have had it not even a week I am already debating splitting it into more dishes or feeding some off to the springtails. I will keep logging this and update you all as I progress with it, and also start to actually use it as food for my various springtails.
Where to Get Your Own
If you would like to try some yourself, this is where I got mine from: slimesupport on eBay.
I will post another update on this next weekend and keep updating this in a thread. For springtail keeping more broadly, browse our springtail collection or check out our other springtail-related articles in the useful articles section.
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