# Desert Isopods?



## eric10686 (Jan 21, 2009)

Has anyone ever heard of these? This species sounds like it would be pretty cool to have a colony of them and put them in the spider containers for clean up duty. They live in the desert so you dont have to worry about the humidity as much. They get up to 18mm too. here is a link to some pictures of them...
What is you guys opinions on this species?

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...i&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_en-USUS299US303&sa=N


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## Matt K (Jan 21, 2009)

Oh contraire-

Many desert inverts actually rely completely on humidity, as that is the only sorce of moisture.  There is dew on the ground in the early a.m. and then *poof*- its gone just after sunrise.  The term "desert" is a little broad, as it does not mean exclusively dry sandy arid land (central Saharan desert).  The downside being that if they get too much moisture they can drown.  In this case- isopods- all have gills that are encased in little chambers, so there must be some moisture somewhere to wet thier gills- I would guess from morning dew, plant roots, or some other source.


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## Matt K (Jan 21, 2009)

....then there is the near impossibility of the daydream that such an obscure critter can ever get into the bug hobby....


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## Scythemantis (Jan 22, 2009)

How large is the largest known terrestrial isopod?


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## Matt K (Jan 22, 2009)

_Terrestrial_ being the key word....I would think the giant canyon isopod would be about it at 3/4 of an inch, though I thought I heard a rumor of one being an inch long.  The largest of the large would be one of the _Bathynomus sp._ which are rediculous, and marine dwelling.


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## What (Jan 22, 2009)

Matt K said:


> though I thought I heard a rumor of one being an inch long.


I have a few that havent reached full size yet and are over 3/4"...






(smallest of 3 I started from)


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## eric10686 (Jan 22, 2009)

What said:


> I have a few that havent reached full size yet and are over 3/4"...
> 
> 
> 
> ...





What, those would probably be good for just tank maintenance right? Or can you possibly feed them off? I wouldn't think so because they get bigger which makes their shell harder?


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## What (Jan 22, 2009)

Bit too large to make effective tank maintenance isopods in my experience... The other inverts like to munch the larger ones. 

I stick to the standard A. vulgare(or whatever the species is) for cage cleaners, these I just keep for fun/decorative cleaners in a vivarium I am working on.


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## What (Jan 22, 2009)

Scythemantis said:


> How large is the largest known terrestrial isopod?


I would expect some of the Sea Slaters that are out there in the family Ligiidae or a similar one are the largest...


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## eric10686 (Jan 22, 2009)

What said:


> I would expect some of the Sea Slaters that are out there in the family Ligiidae or a similar one are the largest...



Yea, but I think sea slaters need salt water to breed in captivity. Right or Wrong?


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## What (Jan 22, 2009)

I doubt that...As far as I know they are just restricted to the coast due to the high humidity, not due to the need for saltwater.


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## Scythemantis (Feb 5, 2009)

> Terrestrial being the key word


Which would be why I specified it. _Bathynomus giganteus_ has already been one of my favorite animals for most of my life. I assumed they couldn't get much more than an inch on land, but I wondered which came closest in case they might be obtainable. 



What said:


> I would expect some of the Sea Slaters that are out there in the family Ligiidae or a similar one are the largest...


See above; I specified "terrestrial" for a reason. This is the largest aquatic isopod:


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## What (Feb 5, 2009)

Scythemantis said:


> See above; I specified "terrestrial" for a reason.


Since when are sea slaters aquatic? In my experience they live on rocks near the high tide area, but not in the water.


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## Matt K (Feb 5, 2009)

What said:


> Since when are sea slaters aquatic? In my experience they live on rocks near the high tide area, but not in the water.


Are you serious?

When he typed the word terrestrial, he meant exactly that- in case you did not know "_*terrestrial*_" means to *live on land*.  Sea slaters are _aquatic_, they can come out on surfaces above the waterline, aka _the littoral zone_, but cannot go away from the water, they need to be near the water.  *Terrestrial* means they can go live on land, _away from water_.  The rocks at the waters edge are *not* considered terrestrial.


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## What (Feb 5, 2009)

Matt K said:


> Are you serious?


Yes.


> When he typed the word terrestrial, he meant exactly that- in case you did not know "_*terrestrial*_" means to *live on land*.  Sea slaters are _aquatic_, they can come out on surfaces above the waterline, aka _the littoral zone_, but cannot go away from the water, they need to be near the water.


So if I took you away from all water for more than a week would you live? How about something like sticking a slug from the rainforest in the desert? Or, how about taking a fern from the rainforest and sticking that in a desert?

All those things are terrestrial yet need to be near water to survive... See the problem with your definition?


> *Terrestrial* means they can go live on land, _away from water_.  The rocks at the waters edge are *not* considered terrestrial.


Since when are rocks *outside* the water not a terrestrial environment? I mean... would you consider the S. mesaensis I found 3' from the Salton Sea aquatic? They live closer to the water than some of the sea slaters I have found...

Seriously, sea slaters do not live *in* the water, how are they aquatic if they dont live in the water? (Worth noting that I have never seen a sea slater actually *in* the water either.)

Also: See the wiki article about how penguins, seals, walruses, and fiddler crabs are defined. Hmm... they seem to be terrestrial animals even though all of those spend far more time in water than sea slaters...


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## Matt K (Feb 5, 2009)

What said:


> Yes.
> 
> So if I took you away from all water for more than a week would you live? How about something like sticking a slug from the rainforest in the desert? Or, how about taking a fern from the rainforest and sticking that in a desert?
> 
> All those things are terrestrial yet need to be near water to survive... See the problem with your definition?



Ok, if you want to pick your narrow and naive side of the argument apart one piece at a time, here goes:

If all living things on Earth require water to live, are you then saying that all living things are aquatic? 




What said:


> Since when are rocks *outside* the water not a terrestrial environment?


 When they contact the seawater in any fashion.  It is called a _*littoral* environment _where aquatic and semi-aquatic life forms can survive in the same area.  Maybe though you never had a science class in school, or even went to school.



What said:


> I mean... would you consider the S. mesaensis I found 3' from the Salton Sea aquatic? They live closer to the water than some of the sea slaters I have found...


Foolish note.  We all know that S. mesaensis cannot survive under water for prolonged periods of time - lacking any kind of gill structure- like sea slaters.  But maybe you never took an anatomy class.  Or any other class.



What said:


> Seriously, sea slaters do not live *in* the water, how are they aquatic if they dont live in the water? (Worth noting that I have never seen a sea slater actually *in* the water either.)


Then I would have to say that you are either not very observant or have not looked at the rocks in the water very much.  They are found both above and below the water surface.  Try keeping some alive in the same setup that you keep tarantula and see how long they live.  They are not considered amphibians...



What said:


> Also: See the wiki article about how penguins, seals, walruses, and fiddler crabs are defined. Hmm... they seem to be terrestrial animals even though all of those spend far more time in water than sea slaters...


You have _clearly_ misunderstood the article.  Two things: Bear in mind that a quater of what is in "Wikipedia" is written by people like you or paraphrased by someone off another source, not by authorities on the matter.  So Wikipedia is not extraordinarily reliable as a source. Second: The one thing going in the general direction of your comments are the wiki-mention of amphibians, which still *require *the use of an _aquatic environment._

So, What-ever, why do you always persist in pretending to be an expert without reliable resources?  Use the Google. Its your friend.


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## What (Feb 6, 2009)

So I can keep too much bulk out of here, I will forgo quoting your post.

Sea slaters will drown if kept submerged, and most other terrestrial isopods also have gill structures. But to follow your logic, this means that due to them drowning after being submerged for prolonged periods they are terrestrial. (And for the heck of it, I have plenty of science classes in highschool and college, the lowest grade being in chem and that was a B.)

As for keeping them, I have done so, damp sand worked quite well for me and they survived for a couple weeks before I fed them off to my assorted inverts.

Now, for your question "why do you always persist in pretending to be an expert without reliable resources?" Why do you persist in pretending to be an expert while citing absolutely no sources?


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## Matt K (Feb 6, 2009)

What said:


> Now, for your question "why do you always persist in pretending to be an expert without reliable resources?" Why do you persist in pretending to be an expert while citing absolutely no sources?



...Presumably just to shake things up a bit, and particularly to rattle your cage!   Though I never claimed to be an expert on this topic.

Ok- white flag of truce, I give!  I ran out of good combative material for sea slaters to promote a heated debate.  Though if you want, there is another thread on keeping assassin bugs that is something like 5 years old and still being argued.....:razz:


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## dtknow (Feb 6, 2009)

Haha.

Yes, sea slaters get pretty big. They are tied to marine environs though...it is not due to humidity. I know E & A tried keeping them in captivity with only moderate success.


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