Dwarf white isopods

[xelda]

I had my friend from firereptiles.com help me take pictures. I thought these came out pretty amazing. You can even see their eyes.

 

[KyuZo]

very nice pix. how big are they actually?
do they breed like crazy? do they make good feeders? do they feed on live plants?

 

[nepenthes]

They are omnivores I believe, simply those Pill bugs you find under stones all the time. I don't know how well of a feeder they make because they are mostly Exoskeleton. I know i had some one who had these infest their Ant colony, they didn't harm the ants, but they stole the food, the ants couldn't do any thing cause they were so tough.

Looks like its got a Mite on it though.

 

[xelda]

KyuZo, thank you. They're really tiny. The adults are only about 5mm long. Yes, they breed like crazy. They're used as feeders mostly by dart frog and other amphibian keepers.

Nepenthes, these actually aren't pill bugs because they don't roll up into a ball. I spend a lot of time flipping stones, and I've yet to find a culture of them in the wild. They actually do make a good feeder because they're a natural food source for many burrowing animals. And believe it or not, there are isopods known to be symbiotic with ant colonies. But isopods in general are very diverse, so I wouldn't lump them all into one category. That's not a mite by the way. It's a piece of substrate.

 

[bugmankeith]

How did they breed them so they lack color? They look like freshly molted isopods.

 

[nepenthes]

Thanks for clearing that up i haven't done much research on them, just basic information on the general group. But its hard to tell which ones roll up and dont, how do you tell?

 

[xelda]

How did they breed them so they lack color? They look like freshly molted isopods.

I see what you're saying, but freshly molted isopods actually don't look like freshly molted insects. They only molt half their body at a time. But even the freshly molted portion is never white like an insect's. It's just a slightly pale version of its normal color. If you ever look at a large colony of terrestrial isopods, you'll see one or two that are a different shade of color on each half of its body.

These white ones weren't bred by anyone to be white. They just naturally are white. Well, actually more of an off-white color because they do have the slightest hint of peach color.

 

[arachnocat]

I've been collecting ones with the iridovirus for my terrarium. I thought about getting some white ones too. Those are amazing pics.