Protanura sp. "Orange" Care
(Orange Springtails)
We would like to preface this brief care sheet with the fact that we are learning as we go keeping Protanura, they seem to be doing well for us but the following is just our experience thus far. Protanura sp. "Orange" are a large species of Springtail that lack the furcula needed to jump. Not a lot is known about them but they were originally collected in Spain and as a result like it a bit on the warmer side, around 75-78°F however we have had great success at room temperature.
Protanura are lovers of damp loose substrate with lots of surface area to live and breed. For substrate we use our Isopod mix combined with worm castings as our research suggested they are often found in worm farms, if you would like to try our new Isopod or Springtail substrate please send us, please follow the links provided. We use a small 3qt plastic bin with a loose fitting lid and no ventilation and consistently damp, but not wet substrate though we are finding at night that they do climb the walls of the bin so a gasket style container may be better suited to them providing you add minimal ventilation, preferably with mosquito netting covering the holes.
Protanura seem to like flake fish food over most other foods but also enjoy nutrition yeast flakes and a broken up mushroom stem from time to time. Feed nightly, enough flake so that it is mostly eaten after one to two days, once their number are large enough you will be amazed how fast and how much they can eat.
If you have any further questions or any suggestions for this care sheet based on your experience, please do contact us.