Pink Springtails For Sale (Coecobrya cf tenebricosa)

The pink is a blush, not a colour you will pick out across a room. Published descriptions of this animal settle on peach, or a faint pink cast over a pale body, and that is what turns up in the tub. If colour is the point for you, the Orange springtails do that job far better. What this culture offers is a warm-room workhorse that keeps working at the top of the temperature range, where a cool-climate species starts to slow down.

The name has moved, and the "cf." is deliberate

This springtail circulated in the hobby for years as Sinella curviseta. A collembologist eventually examined the widespread hobby animal and placed it in Coecobrya, and the old name is now understood to be wrong for it. Suppliers have since split: some list Coecobrya communis, others Coecobrya cf. tenebricosa. I use the second, and the "cf." is the honest part of it. It says the culture matches tenebricosa without a specialist having confirmed this particular line under a microscope. The genus name is a clue to the group it belongs to: Coecobrya means blind, and the described species are eyeless animals of soil and leaf litter. C. tenebricosa itself has been recorded from Europe, the Mediterranean, Macaronesia, Hawaii and the Caribbean mainland, a spread wide enough that most of those records are probably introductions rather than a native range.

The trade name is worth the same care. "Tropical white" is applied to at least two different springtails, this species in its pale form and the temperate Folsomia candida, which is part of why the pink label has stuck. It points at one animal.

What they do in an enclosure

The job is the one every springtail does. They eat mould and fungal film before it takes hold, break down frass and uneaten food, and keep the top of the substrate turning over. Adults reach about 1 to 3mm and move quickly, which makes them a workable feeder for dart frogs and young geckos as well as a cleanup crew. They sit alongside isopods without competing, because the isopods work the leaf litter and the bigger material while the springtails take the fine stuff and the surfaces.

Conditions

Keep them warm and damp: 22 to 28°C, humidity around 70 to 85%, and a substrate that is damp without standing water. Coco coir or a charcoal culture both work, and springtails are the one group in the shop where coir is a sensible base. Standing water is what kills a culture of these, so pour off anything that pools and let the surface recover. Feed a few grains of rice, a pinch of brewer's yeast or a dedicated springtail food, then leave them to it. If your room runs cool and unheated, the Temperate springtails are the better choice. This one is for heated setups and tropical vivariums.

How quickly they multiply

Sources disagree here and I would rather record that than pick the flattering figure. One supplier rates them a moderate to fast breeder; another calls them moderate and slower than temperate whites. Neither calls them explosive, so seed an enclosure a week or two before the animals go in and let the population get ahead of the waste. Longer-term culture keeping, including when to split a tub and what a stalled culture looks like, is covered in my guide to keeping a springtail culture alive.

How it is supplied

Each order leaves here as an established starter culture, already breeding, in the medium it was raised on. Tip a portion onto the substrate of the enclosure you are seeding and they will find the damp corners themselves. The 250ml size seeds one small to medium enclosure, 500ml covers a larger one or a couple of setups, and 1000ml suits several enclosures or a production culture you intend to harvest from. Dispatch is Monday to Thursday, Royal Mail next day by 1pm, and live arrival is guaranteed.

The rest of the range is in the springtails collection, including the plain Tropical White culture if that suits your room better, and the springtail mystery box if you would rather I choose.