Isopods

[DigitalPunk]

Back in Marchish I bought a culture of Ispods. They cold winter nearly killed them all in shipping. I think I had 5 - 8 left alive in the culture. I put them in a bin with my Springtails. The springtail bin was some used ABG mix from my Red eye tank. I was working on breeding them in there along with the springs when the whole sulture got over run by these little black bugs.. So I moved the tub into the corner of the frog room and forgot about it. I figured the Black bugs and everything could die off in the tub and then I would repurpose the soil and start another isopod and spring culture. There the tub set (i forgot all about it). It had pieces of wood and egg crate stacked on it. I was downstairs on Monday cleaning things up from my latest build (which always seem to cause such a mess lol) and saw the tub. I opened it and poked around in the soil and didn't see a single living thing.

I don't know why but I decided to pick my way through the soil to see if any of the black bugs survived. Instead i started to find Isopods and lots of them. I spent nearly 4 hours picking through the soil. Each time i finished I would start back over again and find even more. I found a handful of babies (a little bigger than a springtail). I decided to call it good on the hand searching and instead set out some food on a leaf to lure them up to the surface so I could move them easier.


Anyways thought I would share the story of the survival of the is pod culture and this pic of what I had found halfway through my digging. Time to seed some tanks with Isopods!

[LilyPad]

I used to breed isos in a 10 gallon tank. Their resilience shocks me, I wasn't always as attentive as I should be and yet I had a booming population.

[deranged chipmunk]

Nice! I keep giant oranges as well. It is excruciating to wait for them to mature!! If I had known, I would have sent you a cocoa leaf with your plants. They absolutely love them. Well, that, and eggshells


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Strider18]

Good old isopods One time I was breeding some of the gray ones and forgot about the culture, and then I found it a month or so later and I had tons of babies crawling around Of course I ended up forgeting about it again and then they all died, but their resilience still is amazing

[DigitalPunk]

Haha Bill@ Yeah I put some egg shells in with them occasionally, but not to often. Do they actually eat the shells? I sorted the ones out I could into a smaller breeding bin and put it next to my 2 springtail bins. I had totally forgotten about these and wrote them off as dead. I am so thrilled they survived and from what I say the black bug infestation is over. I put a leaf and some yeast in the tank to see if any springs made it, but I am not hurting on those. I am actually thinking I may need a 3rd Spring culture soon. Those suckers are prolific breeders lol.

[deranged chipmunk]

No, they don't eat the complete shell, just the interior lining. I try to toss one in for them every couple weeks. One of these days, I'm going to remember to just use an eggshell from one I cooked instead of wasting a couple just for the cultures lol


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[DigitalPunk]

LoL Yeah I have to fight againt my wives obsessive compulsive nature when I am getting eggshells to use. I do all the cooking in out house, but she runs around the kitchen and cleans as i go lol.

[Ash]

This exactly what I tell customers to do with Isopods Cultures, put them in their housing with increased area and forget about them (moreso forget about using them as feeders) and only make sure they are watered and fed. The payoff for patience is amazing as you have noted