8/11/2023: Blue birthday blobs

Another year, another birthday. I was grateful to yet again be joined by friends and family on my 31st. As is tradition the last few years, we did some hiking at Lake Erie Metropark and appreciated the blooms and bugs of peak Michigan summer.

Last year I collected some cf. Podura aquatica and had great success growing them in some of my fish tanks. Some other random springtails have joined their ranks and amid neglect of my fish rack (many of the winter residents are outside for the summer) I fear the springtails may be on the decline. Therefore, I decided to collect another batch of stock to propagate in a simpler set-up.

This species is very common in piles of Eurasian millefoil, tape grass, and other aquatic plants that have washed ashore. There is a pretty even distribution of sizes in the wild population, though I am leery I could be looking at a mix of similar species with size overlap at different points in their life cycle. Regardless, if I can get their numbers up in the simplified set up I will collect the largest and move them to another enclosure to colonize.

-Kyle