# Isopods



## BobGrill (Jan 6, 2012)

Recently got some isopods and put them in with my emperor scorpion, and I have a few questions regarding them. I know they eat the decaying matter and left over food remains in the tank, but will they also need to be fed other foods to keep them alive? I'm also concerned about my scorpion eating them.


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## zonbonzovi (Jan 6, 2012)

It depends on the amount of leftovers your scorpion leaves and how many isopods live in the tank.  Your emp is unlikely to be interested in these as I presume that your isopods are much smaller that what you feed?  If your emp eats everything(mine does, except for wings), a little carrot or lettuce will do.  I do mean a little.


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Jan 6, 2012)

This is a good match in the tank, I think. A forest species tank could conceivably have some crushed, dry leaves as part of the substrate. They could be very finely crushed so as to be hardly noticed. The isopods would love these as a primary part of their diet.

Both species like to hide under various decor like a piece of bark, etc.

It would be interesting to know what number of isopods would be required to sustain a population in a tank:

of size x
with x availability of food
being kept with a single scorpion that may or may not prey on them
etc.

Is your concern about the scorpions decimating your isopod population or your scorpion not being interested in eating them? Either way, I think you should be fine if you provide hiding places for isopods and supplement with crushed leaves.


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## BobGrill (Jan 6, 2012)

I'm using them only as cleaners, so my concern is them being eaten.


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## Elytra and Antenna (Jan 7, 2012)

If your concern is them being eaten you should use the white or jungle micropods. These species never grow big enough to be noticed and eaten.


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## Formerphobe (Jan 7, 2012)

I added about a dozen gray isopods (sorry, don't know the species) to my P. imp tank about a year ago.  When I moved the scorps to a new tank recently there were literally hundreds of isopods.  I harvested a few dozen to go in my swamp-dwelling tarantula enclosures.  Put several dozen in their own little tank to have for later, and the rest went back in with the scorpions.  If the imps are eating any of them, it's not noticeable.  I've even seen a scorpion chewing on one end of a superworm with an isopod chewing on the other end.  In the isopod only enclosure, I've been adding a pinch of ground up dog food once a week or so.  They seem to be doing well.  

The biggest 'pods I've seen in the tanks were ~0.5".  My scorp tank never smells musty, I never see any mold.  Substrate (coconut fibre, peat moss, potting soil, and a little vermiculite) looks and smells like clean dirt.     'Pods do a good job.


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## Arachno Dano (Jan 30, 2012)

I just ordered some isopods after reading this thread! :biggrin:

~Dano


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## Mamata Polle (Jan 31, 2012)

Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only one who did this!

Hi, I'm new here.
I've been keeping local Isopods (Pill Bugs) in all my animal tanks for about a year now, I use them for Lubber grasshoppers (Romalea Microptera) Wasps, True Spiders, Roaches and Feeder Crickets. Like Formerphobe said, they keep everthing smelling great and mold free, even cricket and roach tanks which usually smell terrible if you don't clean them EVERY DAY. And yes, they breed like Bunnies LOL, just put a few in some dirt with enough food and especially water, (Get to that in a minute) and they're population explodes! The babies eat VORACIOUSLY, and will clean up leftovers even faster than the adults. Some really great things about them is that they won't touch anything that's alive, and most creatures won't eat them because of their hard shells and (I assume,) foul smell. Pill bugs excrete ammonia through their skin, which I imagine isn't very appetizing, (Even spiders are reticent to eat them, if at all).  There are three things, (In my experience) to watch out for; the first and most important is water, Pill Bugs are land dwelling crustacians and while they do have a type of, "Lungs," nontheless they need moisture to breath and thrive. Not sure how that works really, but with mine, if I don't keep the enclosure moist and provide a wet paper towel for them to hydrate on, they either just die or they drown themselves in the water bowel. The second thing is that with the exception of Lubber grasshoppers, most creatures do not provide enough waste for them to survive on, to counter this I give them moist, dead leaves, a little vegetable garbage and a dead insect every now and then. The combination of vegetable and protein matter keeps them healthy and calm and able to do their jobs. (They run around like mad if they don't have what they need.) The third thing I've noticed is that if your animal is small, like a jumping spider, then if they die of old age etc. over night or whenever you're not watching, then in few hours the body will be completely eaten! I have searched my entire house thinking I had an escapee' because of this! LOL
Would you all like me to post a thread about what I've learned of these creatures?

Be Well and God Bless,

Mamata

Reactions: Like 5


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## Arachno Dano (Jan 31, 2012)

Awesome, there is some very good information here! If you want to post additional information about isopods feel free to post it here! There is no need to create another thread about the same topic. I know I would appreciate any information you can give! :biggrin:

~Dano

Reactions: Like 1


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## Galapoheros (Jan 31, 2012)

I've been doing it for a while also, people have been slow to try it, worrying about unknown consequences I think, going by comments I've read anyway.  They have part of solving a grain mite prob I've had for years, man, FINALLY!


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Jan 31, 2012)

Isopods,redworms,and larval flies will all eat the premoistened and therefore thoroughly softened "skin" inside eggshells.
Since uneaten "eggskins" smell like garbage if they are not kept dry anyone who wants to use mashed eggshells as a calcium source-and doesn't have time to get all the "skin" out- might profit by some invertebrate assistance.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mamata Polle (Feb 1, 2012)

*Pill Bugs*

Thanks Arachno Dano!

I'll split the ways I keep Isopods in 3 catagories, Semi Arid, Completely Arid, and High Humidity Enviroments:

Semi Arid: 
     As I said, water is VERY important to Isopods. So when I am housing them with creatures that don't do well in high humidity, I take a paper towel, fold it either into a square or a rectangle, and saturate it with water, then I lay it on top of the substrate on one side. The Pill Bugs will then spend most of their time clustered on and beneath the paper towel, but when they're hungry, they venture out and start cleaning up anything they can find. Pill Bugs recyle their own waste for the copper, (The carrier in their blood is copper instead of iron, which gives them blue blood instead of red,  ) so when you see little black specks on the paper, don't worry about them. Some creatures, like wasps for example, just don't produce enough waste to sustain even a few Isopods. In this case I take horseweed leaves, (Similar to Dandelions) which I grow myself, put a thin layer of them on the floor and add a dead insect occasionally. I've never seen these leaves mold and if you sprinkle just a little water on them every now and then it feeds them for months. 

Completely Arid:
     For animals that really can't take any humidity or dead leaves on the substrate, such as Ts or Scorpions from the desert, I would suggest a different if slightly more attention requiring method. Place the wet paper towel as mentioned before, and underneath it, put a soft, dead leaf. Because you have only provided vegetable matter for them, they will most likely seek out your carniverous animal's waste for protein... if they poo on the substrate, not on the wall.
Note: Pill bugs reproduce very slowly if at all in dry, low protein enviroments.
Note: They can't climb glass or plastic unless it's got many scratches in it, also the only time I've seen these very terrestrial creatures climb anything is when they don't have enough food/water.
     The problem with this method is that you have to check the paper towel every few days because in can mold a little, however this type of mold usually gets eaten rather quickly by the Pill Bugs, nontheless if you let it go forever it WILL get nasty and even the Isopods won't like it. What I do for both the semi-arid and completely arid methods is I change the paper towel regularly, (Once a week for Semi Arid and once every four days for the Completely Arid Method.) You can do this by picking up the paper towel, scraping the dirt off into a bowel and then tapping the clean side with a stick rather hard. I do the tapping because Pill Bug young are VERY small and usually white or light gray, thus they blend in with the paper! The tapping makes them fall off though. Take any mold clumps or food material out of the enclosure, and out of the bowel, when your bowel has only substrate and Isopods in it, dump it back into the enclosure and replace the towel and Pill Bug food as described and you're good to go!

Humid to High Humidity:
     When the animal does well in a moist enviroment, such as feeder crickets or roaches, I try to make their living area in simulation of their natural outside habitat. Incidentally, I live in Florida, so when I say, "Outside," I mean somewhat wet and alive with bugs when you pick up the dirt.  My biggest Isopod colony, (At least a thousand) lives in a terraruim in perfect harmony with my feeder crickets. For substrate I've taken Florida soil, (Which is very sandy BTW) and microwaved it until it's dry and smells a little burnt, (Be careful) to kill all mites and other harmful critters. Be careful what dirt you use, or don't use dirt at all, I'm pretty sure peat or coconut fibre would work just fine but I didn't have those. I got the dirt from my own yard so I know it doesn't have any pesticides in it. After putting the soil in the terrarium I wet it down really well with a spray bottle, then I mix it and turn it over and repeat. When the soil is very moist, but with no puddles or anything, I cover the top of it with Horse Weed leaves, (Dead or alive, it doesn't matter.) Both the isopods and the crickets will eat these, and if Horse Weed is like Dandelion, (Which I suspect it is because they are related) then it's probably high in calcium. Then I add a dead insect or two and the Isopod population takes off like a rocket! This is very much like the ideal enviroment in which they would be living outside, so you can expect massive amounts of babies! It's actually quite hard to have too many of them in this situation as long as food is plentiful, but if you think you've got too many, just take the largest adults outside, (As long as they are native!!!) If you still think they're over populating, then pick up a particularlly thick and wet clump of dead leaves and you will probably see a whole mess of Isopod young. Just get yourself a spoon and pick them up and take them outside. To maintain this enviroment mist daily with a spray bottle and add leaves and dead insects as needed.

Notes:
1. Don't give them fruit, or if you do, take it out when it molds. The kind of mold that fruit produces grows too fast for even a large population of Pill Bugs to keep up with, the situation will play out eventually but by that time your animal may have breathed quite a few spores!
2. If you see them climbing things and running around every where then they probably don't have enough water.
3. If they don't have enough water they will drown themselves in a water bowel, otherwise they're usually very smart about open water and won't go near it.
4. They give live birth, and like to do so in a moist area, the wet paper towel facilitates this.
5. To get a colony going quickly, find the largest Pill Bugs you can, very gently pinch grab them on their sides before they ball up, and look at their undersides, pregnant females will have little white dots here.
6. They usually forage in the dark, so if you don't see them doing anything but clustering, don't worry. 
7: I've never known them to harm even the smallest creatures when they're alive, and just about anything gets along with them, even crickets, (Who will usually chew on anything that sits still long enough!) however, the second something dies, they know, and young ones in particular will swarm the body.
8: One particularly interesting use for them is their ability to strip even the most delecate bones clean without breaking them, I have a turkey wishbone that was cleaned in this way. 

That's all I can think of for now, if I learn anything else, I'll post it here if you like.

Be Well and God Bless,

Mamata

Reactions: Like 1


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Feb 1, 2012)

Mamata Polle said:


> Completely Arid:
> Note: They can't climb glass or plastic unless it's got many scratches in it, also the only time I've seen these very terrestrial creatures climb anything is when they don't have enough food/water.
> Mamata


I don't disagree with the above comment from a really informative post, however I did take the following video last week. The behavior is aberrant to say the least. Then again, this is the newest species to come on the market and perhaps they are better climbers??? I wonder if the surface tension of the water droplets provided this dwarf striped isopod with footholds.

[YOUTUBE]QdJ_D9afFzY[/YOUTUBE]

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## Mamata Polle (Feb 1, 2012)

Wow! That is interesting... 
I think you're right about the water tension serving as foot holds, but I do wonder if this species has extra foot equipment. If you see them doing this again, hopefully on a see through surface, try looking at the bottoms of their feet. Maybe they have little sticky pads like some other arthropods, instead of just the claws? Sorry, please be patient with my lack of scientific terminology...

Be Well and God Bless,

Mamata


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## llamastick (Feb 2, 2012)

BobGrill said:


> I'm using them only as cleaners, so my concern is them being eaten.


I've kept these guys with emperors from 3i->adult and never noticed any being eaten. The scorpions completely ignore them. Come to think of it, the only thing I've ever actually seen eat isopods was this Dysdera spider.

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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Feb 2, 2012)

That is a really impressive shot of the woodlouse hunter impaling its prey and helps to round out a good thread going on the subject.

I will make some more observations about the climbing specimen.


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## Mamata Polle (Feb 3, 2012)

That is a fabulous photo Llamastick, so it's called a, "Woodlouse Hunter," it makes perfect sense that everything should have a predator, it looks to me like your spider has some specialized equipment for breaking through their hard shells, look at those fangs!

Be Well and God Bless,

Mamata


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## OBT1 (Feb 21, 2012)

Well thy should do fine so long as there is plenty of dead cricket/other food parts in there. But they do like it humid...


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## SC Tarantulas (Feb 21, 2012)

Alot of really good info in this thread! Thanks alot guys.


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## SC Tarantulas (Feb 22, 2012)

Is there a recommended species of isopod to put in T enclosures? Or are they all going to do the same job there is just a different sizes?


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## AbraxasComplex (Feb 22, 2012)

Brad1980 said:


> Is there a recommended species of isopod to put in T enclosures? Or are they all going to do the same job there is just a different sizes?


I find dwarf tropical woodlice work best for me since they do not get consumed and survive heat waves. I lose quite a large percentage of my local, temperate isopods during the summer since I do not have AC.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Mar 8, 2012)

I have seen frogs eat isopods.

Some animals do.

But not desert scorpions.


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## TarantulaTyrant (Mar 9, 2012)

Formerphobe said:


> I added about a dozen gray isopods (sorry, don't know the species) to my P. imp tank about a year ago.  When I moved the scorps to a new tank recently there were literally hundreds of isopods.  I harvested a few dozen to go in my swamp-dwelling tarantula enclosures.  Put several dozen in their own little tank to have for later, and the rest went back in with the scorpions.  If the imps are eating any of them, it's not noticeable.  I've even seen a scorpion chewing on one end of a superworm with an isopod chewing on the other end.  In the isopod only enclosure, I've been adding a pinch of ground up dog food once a week or so.  They seem to be doing well.
> 
> The biggest 'pods I've seen in the tanks were ~0.5".  My scorp tank never smells musty, I never see any mold.  Substrate (coconut fibre, peat moss, potting soil, and a little vermiculite) looks and smells like clean dirt.     'Pods do a good job.


 i only own tarantulas atm...the enclosures are no bigger than just kritter keepers, and a 5.5 gal for my G. rosea....and a 8-8-12 exo terra for my A. avic. so thats all. 

where can i buy them and how many would i keep in normal tarantula keepers you see? can i use them in dryer and more humid both? sorry for these questions haha thanks!


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## stingray (Mar 9, 2012)

TarantulaTyrant said:


> i only own tarantulas atm...the enclosures are no bigger than just kritter keepers, and a 5.5 gal for my G. rosea....and a 8-8-12 exo terra for my A. avic. so thats all.
> 
> where can i buy them and how many would i keep in normal tarantula keepers you see? can i use them in dryer and more humid both? sorry for these questions haha thanks!


I get all my isopods from Jason....
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?226996-isopods&highlight=isopods


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Mar 11, 2012)

They don't do well in dry environments. A moist substrate is essential, even if it is just portions of the substrate that remain moist. Providing a bit of ground cover helps. I have a caresheet for isopods on my website that may help, but I'm happy to answer specific questions here too. It is best to run a separate tank for your isopods in addition to your tarantula enclosure. A small tupperware container is usually sufficient. This way you always have a backup source, supplementing them with foods that they may not have access to in the T's enclosure. They do a great job cleaning up, but a communal tarantula and isopod tank does require a little bit of attention towards both species.


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## Saark (Mar 16, 2012)

I find this to be very interesting! Could I put a bunch of (and what kind) isopods in my T. stirmi set up? It's a good size tank, 36in x 18in floor space and I keep the substrate (Eco-Earth)very moist to keep the humidity way up. If these little buggers could reduce the possibility of mold (actually I have already cleaned up a little bit of what may have been mold) and eat up the bits left behind by Shelob, that would be wonderful.


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Mar 17, 2012)

They'll feed on mold a bit, but I think the main benefit is that they help to prevent it from occurring in the first place by feeding on the leftover bits of food that fall through the hole in your tarantula's lip. That and they'll clean up the waste products of your pet. Springtails are great mold feeders, but I suspect they might annoy terrestrial tarantulas. Arboreals might be less exposed.


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## Saark (Mar 18, 2012)

Are there any isopods that are more suited to a terrestrial tarantula tank? I am getting bits of white mold on my substrate for no real obvious reason. The eco-earth is kept damp but there is decent ventilation and no uneaten food/remains lying about. I am trying to let one area dry out a bit but I don't want the overall humidity to drop.


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## digiwalker (Mar 22, 2012)

*Reddish Pill Bugs*

As a kid I kept Roly Polys and sowbugs as short term pets on the west coast. Well, I recently got a nano terrarium and I knew it was too small for many reptiles/inverts. So I planted it with local mosses and plants and placed it on my desk at work. A few days later I was cleaning behind the shop and moved some old cardboard..it was covered in roly polys! (aka pillbugs) I thought I might gather a few for terrarium maintenance of mold/mildew. While picking up the tiny things I noticed one that was different, a kind of rusty red color, like the soil...that got me to thinking there might be more. So on my lunch I scoured the area more thoroughly and ended up with about six of them.

I put the normal ones in the terrarium. I have the reddish ones housed in a small Gladware container. I am curious to see if this is a trait or if they are in some kind of transition between molting. They are from about 2mm to 5mm so they are all different stages. I have been able to find pictures of red sowbugs on here, and calico pillbugs, but nothing like the ones I found.


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