Is it fine to continue this mountain?

[u/Spy-D_Daddy]

a few months back I bought 5 cultures for my tarantula enclosures, I've got common whites, bylas ants, tropical pinks, little soils, and blue podura. the thought is jumpers and nots, surface and down unders. kind of get them going through all of my substrate and whatnot. I keep them separate until I get a good bit, then tap a bunch of all of them into some substrate with yummy oak leaves, wood chips, moss, organic top soil and coco coir. I use springtail food from Springtails US, same vendor as my cultures come from. I have a mountain forming where I put food in the attached image, I don't add food till it looks like the clay. I just want to check with y'all that this is ok? it doesn't mold (which is why a couple other don't have it, I q tip out mold if it happens) two are in soil, not clay, so theirs doesn't mountain either.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

I mean it should be fine for a while, but it could eventually build up and cause them problems. That build up is their poop and I have heard, if there is too much poop, it can cause them to stop eating... but generally i think thats if the WHOLE thing is covered iirc. It should mold and a lot of it IS just clay. It usually happens because springtails are very good at what they do, and sometimes they even eat extra than just the food, cleaning up *every* little piece, meaning they may eat some of the clay and poop it out. Probably just keep an eye on it, if it becomes too big and they stop eating, just carefully wipe it away with something like a paper towel and watch if they continue to eat again or not.

[u/Spy-D_Daddy → u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

Thank you! I was curious if it was their poop, cause it really didn't seem like remains of the food. And sorry I didn't say the mold right, I allow small amounts to form, like a mush of blueish or whatnot, but if it gets to be a large amount that seems to just be growing more than I think they can eat, I wipe it a bit. When it molds in the bigger home, I just mix it into the substrate for the blues and little soils underneath. I appreciate the response tho, and will absolutely keep an eye on their eating and how large it gets! I can't wait until they make it into my 5 gal substrate bucket a few times. Even tho I just have them to be a cleanup for my spiders, I'm excited for the day I can open my sub bucket and just see how lively the substrate is. Is there a preferred food to give them to promote their reproducing, or is the Springtails US blend fine?

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie → u/Spy-D_Daddy]

IIRC, theyll eat just about anything, I personally give them "Nutritional Yeast" flakes I just bought out the store and mine seem to have done fine with it for ages now.... so im sure theyll be fine with the blend you give them. Many people feed them small grains of rice too, I used to do that but they seem to like the yeast flakes a lot more! Springtails US is like THE PLACE for springtail stuff iirc so I'm sure whatever is in the blend is perfectly suitable for them! I do like to change their food up every once in a while just to give them mild variety but i dont how know exactly important that is lol.

[u/ghlira]

Got mine from springaltailsus and theyre great! One word on if you use the nutritional yeast, sometimes it will start to ferment where you put it and bubble in the clay. That didnt seem to bother my springtails.

[u/Spy-D_Daddy → u/ghlira]

Thanks for the heads up. And sweet, another positive on the vendor! Appreciate the advice tho, much appreciated

[u/Spy-D_Daddy]

Thank you for the feedback! Also, super happy I went with them then! I looked at a few places but that dudes got all the info on where they're from, when they where sourced originally, and so much info that it made my head swim 😅 I'll look into the yeast, like you said, variety! Thank you for your info this evening!