# Couple of cool finds



## H. laoticus (Apr 27, 2011)



Reactions: Like 2 | Love 1


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## OrdoMallus (Apr 27, 2011)

Hats awesome! I've heard of yellow and other coloured isopods but I've never seen any besides white. The ones I raise are just straight brown or solid grey colour.


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## The Spider Faery (Apr 27, 2011)

You found some colourful critters.


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## zonbonzovi (Apr 27, 2011)

That isopod looks like one from the iridovirus thread...neat!

I think that soil 'pede is Strigamia.  Nice


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## DawnW (Apr 29, 2011)

I love that little isopod! Very cool find


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Apr 29, 2011)

I see lots of those yellow spotted Armadillidium vulgare here, close, but never yellow to quite that degree. It would be great if somebody would selectively breed them into yellow marbles.

This is the yellowest one I've ever collected:


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## H. laoticus (Apr 30, 2011)

I saw a couple of the ones you posted while I was herping, Bugs In Cyberspace. I wasn't hunting for them specifically, just happened to flip a nice yellow colored one. I might just take what you said and find/breed them for fun since they are so cool looking


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## AbraxasComplex (May 1, 2011)

I find yellowish ones all the time. I also found some orange morph sowbugs yesterday which I plan to breed. Perhaps I should also do so with the "gold dust" pillbugs I keep finding.


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## ArachnidSentinl (May 1, 2011)

H. laoticus said:


>


Awesome! :clap:

Reactions: Like 1


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## J Morningstar (May 1, 2011)

I have a small bunch with a series of whiteish yellow spots down their backs I'm trying to breed I'll get pics soon!


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## ErinM31 (Mar 6, 2016)

The combination bright yellow and black on that isopod is quite stunning! I would love to have a colony of those!


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## Hisserdude (Mar 6, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> The combination bright yellow and black on that isopod is quite stunning! I would love to have a colony of those!


I had a few of these stunning individuals in my colony before it crashed a few years ago, since then I have not been able to breed this species, no matter how I try.


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## ErinM31 (Mar 6, 2016)

Do you mean you are unable to obtain individuals with this coloration or those that you have will not breed successfully? If the latter, I wonder if out-crossing with wild-type would help?


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## Hisserdude (Mar 6, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> Do you mean you are unable to obtain individuals with this coloration or those that you have will not breed successfully? If the latter, I wonder if out-crossing with wild-type would help?


No, I can't get ANY A.vulgare to breed successfully. Don't know why. However I do have a few that seem to be doing well in my mixed isopod cage meant for predatory rove beetles.


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## ErinM31 (Mar 6, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> No, I can't get ANY A.vulgare to breed successfully. Don't know why. However I do have a few that seem to be doing well in my mixed isopod cage meant for predatory rove beetles.


Bummer!  I hope you figure it out! I am new to the hobby. Thus far, I have only bred feeder insects, if it can be called that -- more like keeping an infestation under control!

Reactions: Like 2


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## Hisserdude (Mar 6, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> Bummer!  I hope you figure it out! I am new to the hobby. Thus far, I have only bred feeder insects, if it can be called that -- more like keeping an infestation under control!


Yeah, I got a bunch of other isopod species that are doing just fine, but for some reason that species doesn't like me...

Yeah, that's why I have shied away from keeping lots of the feeder roaches, I don't have room for huge roach bins right now!


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## Aquarimax (Mar 7, 2016)

Bugs In Cyberspace said:


> I see lots of those yellow spotted Armadillidium vulgare here, close, but never yellow to quite that degree. It would be great if somebody would selectively breed them into yellow marbles.
> 
> This is the yellowest one I've ever collected:


Hi Peter, @Bugs In Cyberspace 
(I'm Rus, the shrimp/millipede/isopod guy by the way)
It so happens that I have been working on just such a project! Here is a larger pic of the isopod in my avatar:





I have collected several high yellow individuals. They have produced a lot of young, and I've seen some evidence that the yellow is coming through...I won't really know for a while. We'll see if I manage to get a good strain isolated within a few years. I know that a few others are working on similar projects. I wish us all success, so we can bring them into the hobby.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Aquarimax (Mar 7, 2016)

H. laoticus said:


>


Excellent find! I hope you are planning on breeding it. : )  As I mentioned in another post on this thread, I am working on breeding a strain like that from some similar individuals.


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## Hisserdude (Mar 7, 2016)

Aquarimax said:


> Hi Peter, @Bugs In Cyberspace
> (I'm Rus, the shrimp/millipede/isopod guy by the way)
> It so happens that I have been working on just such a project! Here is a larger pic of the isopod in my avatar:
> 
> ...


Cool, glad they are breeding for you!  Too bad the offspring can take two years to mature...

Reactions: Like 1


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## Aquarimax (Mar 7, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> Cool, glad they are breeding for you!  Too bad the offspring can take two years to mature...


Yep, it will be a while, hopefully it goes well!

Reactions: Like 1


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## ErinM31 (Mar 12, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> No, I can't get ANY A.vulgare to breed successfully. Don't know why. However I do have a few that seem to be doing well in my mixed isopod cage meant for predatory rove beetles.


Perhaps this shall all be uninformative, things you have already checked, but as a biologist and interested in breeding this species myself, I've been doing some research on their nutritional needs, optimal diet and conditions, etc. Here is what I've found so far, maybe you will find something useful:


They will not breed if their environment is too humid.
They require calcium for their exoskeleton and prefer calcareous soil. Perhaps add some limestone or supplement with herp or other food high in calcium?
They will eat their droppings to reabsorb copper lost and require proper gut microbiota to digest their food (for this reason the young especially may consume feces from adults). Perhaps supplement their substrate with trace amounts of copper and well-used substrate from another of your isopod cultures that is doing well (as their diet is similar, they may do well with the same microbiota but I could find limited information on this).
We might do well to add soybean leaf litter, as a study found _A. vulgare_ to grow faster, live longer and have higher fecundity (Faberi et al. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 84: 407-417, 2011). Granted, this was relative to pasture and sunflower, not hardwood trees, but offering our isopods a variety seems to me beneficial.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Hisserdude (Mar 12, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> Perhaps this shall all be uninformative, things you have already checked, but as a biologist and interested in breeding this species myself, I've been doing some research on their nutritional needs, optimal diet and conditions, etc. Here is what I've found so far, maybe you will find something useful:
> 
> 
> They will not breed if their environment is too humid.
> ...


Yeah, I've tried various different humidity levels, I think they died out due to low ventilation levels. This species likes to be well ventilated compared to other isopods. 

As for calcium, Orin McMonigle says that he has tried giving his calcium supplements and they barely touch them, and he has cultured isopods for many years without calcium additives, and the isopods were just fine.

Trust me, there were a LOT of droppings for them to eat, the substrate had basically turned into frass by the time they started to die off.

Interesting, I would try to give them soybean leaves, if I knew where to get them. I have some A.vulgare that seem to be doing fairly well right now, they are even reproducing. Hopefully they will continue to do well.

Thanks for the information!


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## Pipa (Mar 12, 2016)

cool isopod

Reactions: Like 1


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## ErinM31 (Mar 14, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> As for calcium, Orin McMonigle says that he has tried giving his calcium supplements and they barely touch them, and he has cultured isopods for many years without calcium additives, and the isopods were just fine.


For calcium, egg shells and bones may not be edible or palatable to isopods (I believe this is what he tried). I mixed a pinch of calcium carbonate (bought for dusting herp food) into the substrate (perhaps not enough to make any difference but I would rather error in that direction) and I supplement with pieces of algae pellet made for fish that contain calcium and other vitamins. If nothing else my isopods find them tasty treats. 

For copper, I have tried fresh kale and shitake mushrooms so far since these are natural sources but my isopods seem to prefer dry foods so I will try dehydrating some and crumbling it in like old leaves.



Hisserdude said:


> Trust me, there were a LOT of droppings for them to eat, the substrate had basically turned into frass by the time they started to die off.


Wow, I am a newb but it would seem to me that there could be such a thing as too much frass... 



Hisserdude said:


> Interesting, I would try to give them soybean leaves, if I knew where to get them. I have some A.vulgare that seem to be doing fairly well right now, they are even reproducing. Hopefully they will continue to do well.
> 
> Thanks for the information!


I just bought some dry soybeans from the grocery store and am working on sprouting them before planting. I don't know how fast soy plants grow, but I imagine I'll be able to start collecting leaves in a couple months -- we'll see what my pillbugs think of them. 

Am I going overboard and making things needlessly complicated? Probably, but it is in my nature to over-investigate things and I rather enjoy it!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Noobcakes (Mar 14, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> Am I going overboard and making things needlessly complicated? Probably, but it is in my nature to over-investigate things and I rather enjoy it!


No such thing! Personally, it is the best part of this hobby! I love going around locally and add inverts to my "local" communal tank. I have been experimenting with adding calcium and chitin to my tanks for a few months. I haven't noticed a huge difference that I can attribute to the additives. I will be using a control group starting very soon to see how/if the additional nutrients affect them.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Hisserdude (Mar 14, 2016)

ErinM31 said:


> For calcium, egg shells and bones may not be edible or palatable to isopods (I believe this is what he tried). I mixed a pinch of calcium carbonate (bought for dusting herp food) into the substrate (perhaps not enough to make any difference but I would rather error in that direction) and I supplement with pieces of algae pellet made for fish that contain calcium and other vitamins. If nothing else my isopods find them tasty treats.
> 
> For copper, I have tried fresh kale and shitake mushrooms so far since these are natural sources but my isopods seem to prefer dry foods so I will try dehydrating some and crumbling it in like old leaves.
> 
> ...


I'd like to see how the kale and mushrooms work, could be an alternative to feeding them dead leaves!

Eh, all my other isopods's substrates have become frass, and they don't mind at all. 

Let us know how your soybeans do, I wonder how the isopods will react to them.


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## ErinM31 (Mar 14, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> I have some A.vulgare that seem to be doing fairly well right now, they are even reproducing. Hopefully they will continue to do well.


Glad to hear that and I hope so too!


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## ErinM31 (Mar 14, 2016)

Hisserdude said:


> I'd like to see how the kale and mushrooms work, could be an alternative to feeding them dead leaves!
> 
> Eh, all my other isopods's substrates have become frass, and they don't mind at all.
> 
> Let us know how your soybeans do, I wonder how the isopods will react to them.


Will do! I'll be sure to keep you posted!


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## ErinM31 (Mar 14, 2016)

Noobcakes said:


> No such thing! Personally, it is the best part of this hobby! I love going around locally and add inverts to my "local" communal tank. I have been experimenting with adding calcium and chitin to my tanks for a few months. I haven't noticed a huge difference that I can attribute to the additives. I will be using a control group starting very soon to see how/if the additional nutrients affect them.


That is smart! With everything I'm trying at once, I won't know what worked and what didn't. Once I get a sizeable colony, I'll see about doing some controlled experiments and recording the results.

What have you used to supplement calcium and chitin? Do please keep us updated on your supplementation results.


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