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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Clay based Springtail culturing
#1
The 'New' Clay method as per Hobbyist Doug Hollister (Colorado).


Springtail culture Calcium Bearing Clay Substrate original recipe. (Sorry, I lost the extra crunchy):


3 Quarts Red Art powdered clay


1/2 Quart Sodium Bentonite powdered clay


1/2 Quart Calcium Bentonite powdered clay


1/2 Quart Fine Aragonite Sand


1/4 to 1/2 cup Calcium Carbonate**



Dry mix all ingredients in a sealed Ziplock bag. That keeps the dust down. Pour it in a 5 gallon bucket. Use water to hydrate mix. I use about 3/4 of a 2 quart container. Mix like crazy. I use a drill and a paint stirrer from Walmart. The better ones don't work as they get bogged down in the thick mix, get the cheapy with the red plastic stirrer on the end from Walmart.


**I have a new, much cheaper source for the calcium carbonate. While you are purchasing your clay, ask them for some "Whiting". Whiting is calcium carbonate.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#2
This is his original recipe minus the organics. Makes way too much for doing some cultures. I cut it by a third to make a batch. All I am waiting on is amazon to deliver my heavy duty culture cups to set them up.
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#3
(04-25-2020, 10:51 AM)ridinshotgun Wrote: This is his original recipe minus the organics.  Makes way too much for doing some cultures. I cut it by a third to make a batch.  All I am waiting on is amazon to deliver my heavy duty culture cups to set them up.

Big fan of tiny deli cups for these - so easy to feed / feed-out and store.

I've already 'broke' one the deli cup bottoms just from normal handling, so yeah, definitely start out with the extra heavy short cups.

One other thing, lightly moisten but never flood the cup with water. I made that mistake and the clay never really recovered- always stayed too mushy and prohibited growth.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#4
(04-25-2020, 11:12 AM)Philsuma Wrote:
(04-25-2020, 10:51 AM)ridinshotgun Wrote: This is his original recipe minus the organics.  Makes way too much for doing some cultures. I cut it by a third to make a batch.  All I am waiting on is amazon to deliver my heavy duty culture cups to set them up.

Big fan of tiny deli cups for these - so easy to feed / feed-out and store.

I've already 'broke' one the deli cup bottoms just from normal handling, so yeah, definitely start out with the extra heavy short cups.

One other thing, lightly moisten but never flood the cup with water. I made that mistake and the clay never really recovered- always stayed too mushy and prohibited growth.


hey where do you guys get deli cups and fabric lids I've been ordering from Josh's frogs do you have somewhere cheaper?
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#5
Don't ever order from Josh' if all they have as those lids with tiny holes. Hole = mites and fly access. They suck and I have no idea why Joshs is still pushing them - well, I guess they are cheaper, that's why.

I reuse all mine and have fabric covered lids that are 15 years old with about 100 cxs thru them,lol.

So i'm not sure where to send you....google search and you will find them, just make sure they are fabric covered lids and not with tiny holes.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#6
I like to order the waffle lids like these from Frogdaddy:

https://www.frogdaddy.net/fruit-fly-supp...fabric-lid

But I wouldn't want to use a vented lid with springtails so I just ordered heavy duty deli cups with normal lids (no venting) that are more stout than a regular FF culture deli cup.  Those lids won't interchange with the normal FF culture cups.

Nice thing about the waffle lids is you can peel back some of the covering if you have to travel and stick a culture in a tank if you have to go out of town for a vacation or something longer than a few days.
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#7
Just checked...Josh's does have fabric coated lids.

Now for these tiny Springtail cx's...I use the regular solid lid - no venting, so it keeps the humidity in. I open every few days to feed and someone said you could go days to even weeks without them suffocating.

I do NOT feed bakers yeast, which could cause off gassing. I feed powdered mushrooms and powdered sweet rice.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#8
I've used https://superiorshippingsupplies.com/ for years for all my supplies. They are definetly not the cheapest but shipping is fast and they have a huge variety of containers and shipping supplies
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#9
It used to be , where the FB link would have a nice pic from the link inserted.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#10
(04-26-2020, 06:25 PM)Philsuma Wrote: It used to be , where the FB link would have a nice pic from the link inserted.


Might be that the photo isn't there or in a restricted group?  It comes up as link unavailable when you click on it.
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#11
The photo is from the Dart Den FB page. I don't think the photos are restricted. I guess I need to check...
https://www.facebook.com/dartden/

https://twitter.com/DartDen


"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#12
Now it comes up as a broken link or image removed. I am pretty sure it was a 404 error the other day. Did you change the image at all?
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#13
No. The image link on my post above takes me right to the Dart Den FB page pic of my Springtail cxs.

So weird.
https://www.facebook.com/dartden/

https://twitter.com/DartDen


"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#14
FB used to have the choice in the upper right hand corner to link to a post. I see now that it has changed to an option to embed the post.



OH yeah the embed function works.  If you click on the little FB icon on the image it takes you right to the post.
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#15
awesome....there is a 'reputation' feature here for members and a start rating system for threads here but no 'thanks' for the exact post.

Thanks!

We will look to get that plug in / feature ^
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#16
I dunno. I still like charcoal. Can we have both?

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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#17
Its a toss up for me. I think my charcoal cultures take off quicker but the clay cultures once established really produce.
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#18
My charcoal cultures do great, I can harvest just about every week.
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#19
Aw yeah guess what came in today!  Now I just have to find time to mix a batch of clay.

   
[-] The following 1 user Likes ridinshotgun's post:
  
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#20
I’m sure liking the clay myself. The output I’m getting out of such small cultures is impressive.
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