# Reducing my isopod count in my terrarium



## Roblicious (Jun 14, 2012)

I've had a recent explosion of pillbugs and woodlice in my tropical scorpion 'vivarium'

I had a few in there to help clean and what not

But a few days ago I noticed one of the female scorpions hanging upside near the substrate with her babies on her back and some of the isopods nabbed some of the babies off her back!

It wouldn't be much of an issue if I could just reach in and pull them out but I have so many isopods now and they hide everywhere and its a huge elaborate enclosure as well

Is it because they were hungry cause there wasn't enough of their food source they resorted to eating live prey? Is there like a 'trap' I can set to round up a few each day to throw them out?  Or should I throw in some vegetables and dead prey items for them to eat? 

Any tips or advice would be great


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## GiantVinegaroon (Jun 14, 2012)

You have a few options here.  You can remove most of the isopods and put them in their own enclosure, toss in some food for them(ie veggies or dead prey items), or just remove a bunch and euthanize them to cull the population.


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## Roblicious (Jun 14, 2012)

Yeah I want to cull them all and toss them out

More worried about getting stung by a scorpion lol
Sounds like a weekend project lol

Would it be logical to say that they fed on the baby scorps due to lack of food? If that's the case ill toss in dead dying roaches and leftovers every now And then


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## Mamata Polle (Jun 14, 2012)

Isopods will breed as much as the food source will support!

Yes, I think that they probably went after the scorplings because they were hungry for protein. I personally have never seen an Isopod kill anything, but I have seen them actively steal food out a spider's fangs before I figured out that they need more than vegatable matter. LOL

My suggestion is that you remove all the adults an put them in their own colony, or outside if they're native. Keep the smallest ones in the cage and the process will begin again.

P.S. Do you remove your scorpion when you tend the cage?

Be Well and God Bless,
Mamata


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## Roblicious (Jun 14, 2012)

Mamata Polle said:


> Isopods will breed as much as the food source will support!
> 
> Yes, I think that they probably went after the scorplings because they were hungry for protein. I personally have never seen an Isopod kill anything, but I have seen them actively steal food out a spider's fangs before I figured out that they need more than vegatable matter. LOL
> 
> ...


I'm going to have a friend come over this weekend to try to clear as much as we can out of it and also get a accurate count on how many I have in there
I 'should' have 9 but I am only able to see the 5 adults and I see molt pieces here and there.I hope that they are just hiding extremely well and not.dead lol

Its just a pain trying to get the moms out with their babies on the back cause they get knocked off lol


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## Galapoheros (Jun 14, 2012)

Later, after you worked through all that, maybe a good way to go is to toss the sub and all those isopods and get the smaller white dwarf isopods.  A lot of people have those, I have them if you wanted any.  They are really small, clean up really well and mostly hide under the surface.  I've had problems with Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill bug, and I think Porcellio scaber, the faster ones people more often call sow bugs.  But the smaller white dwarfs haven't caused any problems that I've seen.  The others, I've seen them pick at the ends of legs even on adult inverts.


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## Roblicious (Jun 14, 2012)

You know I might just do a complete overhaul of everything and put springtails in instead
And I might take you up on the isopods

I don't have to worry about this with my emperors but my gracilis aren't as big lol


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## Mamata Polle (Jun 14, 2012)

Galapoheros said:


> Later, after you worked through all that, maybe a good way to go is to toss the sub and all those isopods and get the smaller white dwarf isopods.  A lot of people have those, I have them if you wanted any.  They are really small, clean up really well and mostly hide under the surface.  I've had problems with Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill bug, and I think Porcellio scaber, the faster ones people more often call sow bugs.  But the smaller white dwarfs haven't caused any problems that I've seen.  The others, I've seen them pick at the ends of legs even on adult inverts.


That's a really good idea. Now that I think of it, pill bugs can be quite a problem when your invert needs to molt, is growing old, or is just prone to stress. There are ways around this, but if there is a species that is easier to manage, then it's probably worth it.

Be Well and God Bless,
Mamata


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## Galapoheros (Jun 15, 2012)

Mamata Polle said:


> That's a really good idea. Now that I think of it, pill bugs can be quite a problem when your invert needs to molt, is growing old, or is just prone to stress. There are ways around this, but if there is a species that is easier to manage, then it's probably worth it.
> 
> Be Well and God Bless,
> Mamata


I'm with you there!  Here is a Captive born Scolopendra heros heros, I have several and each had isopods in the container each was in.  For some reason, the isopods attacked this one right after it molted.  There was no problem I could see with the others though.  They were nipping at the ends of it legs and then backing away, taking a bite now and then.  One or two would track the centipede down and take another nip at the legs.  The centipede would run away, about an inch or two and settle down again.  Not the norm but it happens.  The little dwarf white ones, never seen a problem with those.  I think Orin got those going early on in the hobby world but I'm not sure, they are the best so far for this kind of stuff imo.  This pede is healthy, eating, going to molt with full legs again, I can tell.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mamata Polle (Jun 16, 2012)

Wow, I've never seen anything that extreme... poor little pede.  I'm glad it's going to be okay though!
BTW, despite the leg losses, she really pretty!
Could you help me find out what kind of Centipedes and Millipedes live in my area?
Be Well and God Bless,
Mamata


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## Roblicious (Jun 16, 2012)

ended up doing a huge overhaul of my florida bark scorpion bank, ended up finding one that died and was being cleaned up by the isopods, I deicded to put my emperor colony into the bigger tank and switch the gracs into a 10 gallon

there were TONS of isopods that I ended up throwing out


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## J Morningstar (Jun 17, 2012)

Same thing happenend to a few of my Tiger Leg, leg ends grew back fine...


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## RobynTRR (Jun 18, 2012)

The OP's original description sounds like some kind of horror movie. Too bad you don't have that on video!


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