Isopods - Dead Leaves Requirement?

[Myrmicinae]

Do isopods require leaf litter to be cultured successfully, or can other forms of nutrition be substituted?

Thanks in advance!

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Isopods feed on decaying vegetable or animal matter. Safest thing to use in a vivarium environment is leaf litter . They will also consume veggies, veggie fish flakes, or even mushrooms. Problem with the those is that they also could attract mites .

[Myrmicinae]

Hello and welcome to FF! Isopods feed on decaying vegetable or animal matter. Safest thing to use in a vivarium environment is leaf litter . They will also consume veggies, veggie fish flakes, or even mushrooms. Problem with the those is that they also could attract mites .

Thanks! The reason I ask is it's difficult to get ahold of pesticide-free leaf litter here in CO. We don't really have any natural deciduous forests.

[Mentat]

Josh Frogs sells leaf litter online .

[Ash]

Isopods do not require leaf litter to be cultured. however as Carlos mentioned they do require decaying plant material for nutrition. There are complex microbiological happening occurring at several levels. With the lack of leaf litter you may use other available substrate composed of dead plant material as well as simply feeding the isopods a range of healthy nutrition to them in the form of clean (hopefully organic) vegetable matter that they will consume at various stages of decay. Bacterial action of microorganisms in the substrate material will help in breaking down cellulose in the plant material in substrate and some isopods can additionally gain nutrition from these microbes. To put it simply a varied diet consisting of dead and decaying plant material is needed and leaf litter can be part of this or you may add in plant matter that will be eaten as it is broken down.

[Myrmicinae]

So they could subsist off of say decayed spinach leaves, as long as a bit of variety is added occasionally?