# isopod quarantine?



## Dillon (May 7, 2008)

So...

Spring rain hit today, and isopods were out and about in full force.

I managed to catch at LEAST 30...

I had a small group (10ish) beforehand, whom I had been quarantining, because ive read so much about them carrying pesticides/insecticides. 

I threw all of my new 30 in with my old ones, not thinking beforehand that i potentially contaminated them all again..

My question is, am i really just over worrying this?  Does anyone out there toss the isopods straight into their enclosures without breeding them out a generation?

Thanks for reading.


----------



## cacoseraph (May 8, 2008)

lots of ppl toss them into their cages WC
lots of ppl have no ill come of it


would i do it? nope.

why? well, i am in the middle of doign research for an article on arthropod pathogens and there is all kinds of nasty stuff out there. it seems like the average case of infection does not actually kill the arthropod, though that does happen.  it seems like most cases are pretty hard to spot w/o disection and microscope work.

do i think in the average case of tossing in 30 WC isopods something bad will happen?  not really.  but i don't want to risk it.


there is actually a really interesting disease of isopods that i want to collect and keep as a pet. check out iridovirus http://www.google.com/search?num=50...=iridovirus isopods&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw
http://microecos.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/a-passing-glance/
^ good pic there


----------



## Brian S (May 8, 2008)

Dillon said:


> My question is, am i really just over worrying this?  Does anyone out there toss the isopods straight into their enclosures without breeding them out a generation?


YES AND YES


----------



## arachnocat (May 8, 2008)

I have lots of iridovirus isopods near my work. Unfortunatley they die pretty quick once they're all blue/purple. i tired to keep some for a while didn't have much success with them. I wonder if you keep adding uninfected isopods you could keep a nice blue colony going for a while.


----------



## arachnocat (May 8, 2008)

And yes I do toss lots of isopods into my tanks, even the blue ones. Haven't had any problems yet.

Here's a pic of a blue guy with some normal ones:


----------



## Anastasia (May 8, 2008)

arachnocat said:


>


Woah, how come so blue??


----------



## arachnocat (May 8, 2008)

The virus makes them blue and reflective. I didn't Photoshop them, I swears. - Or spraypaint them. Hehe.


----------



## lukatsi (May 9, 2008)

Nice colors, it's a shame it's lethal...
I have never found blue ones, can I find them in Europe, too?
And can the isopods infect other bugs with this?


----------



## cacoseraph (May 9, 2008)

arachnocat said:


> I wonder if you keep adding uninfected isopods you could keep a nice blue colony going for a while.


kind of what i was thinking would be required

all things must eat, after all


----------



## drbio (May 11, 2008)

When an isopod dies, the others will eat it.  This can pass the infection but not 100% of the time and the blue color only comes in the late stages once the virus has cloned itself enough to produce crystalline formations throughout the entire body.  So even if you had a very high infection rate, only a small percentage of your colony will be blue at any given time.


----------

