Isopods and mopani wood

[moricollins]

I've been cleaning out my crested gecko tank and took the mopani wood out to move it to the new tank and it was the hot bed of Isopod activity. There were probably 10-15 of the dwarf white Isopods on the wood and numerous other ones in the area. Anyone else have this experience with Isopods and mopani wood?
I'm thinking of taking some mopani wood and adding it to my isopod containers.

 

[Aquarimax]

I've been cleaning out my crested gecko tank and took the mopani wood out to move it to the new tank and it was the hot bed of Isopod activity. There were probably 10-15 of the dwarf white Isopods on the wood and numerous other ones in the area. Anyone else have this experience with Isopods and mopani wood?
I'm thinking of taking some mopani wood and adding it to my isopod containers.

I have found isopods gathered in good numbers under mopani wood. The same is true of many other types of wood,but mopani wood is certainly a suitable one...and probably longer lasting than many.

 

[StampFan]

I've been cleaning out my crested gecko tank and took the mopani wood out to move it to the new tank and it was the hot bed of Isopod activity. There were probably 10-15 of the dwarf white Isopods on the wood and numerous other ones in the area. Anyone else have this experience with Isopods and mopani wood?
I'm thinking of taking some mopani wood and adding it to my isopod containers.

I have a bioactive enclosure with numerous critters including three species of isopod, and my zebra isopods seem to conglomerate under the mopani wood.

 

[moricollins]

I have a bioactive enclosure with numerous critters including three species of isopod, and my zebra isopods seem to conglomerate under the mopani wood.

That sounds like a cool setup. Do you have pictures?

 

[StampFan]

That sounds like a cool setup. Do you have pictures?

Its just my bearded dragon bioactive set up. Haven't had it going very long, only a few weeks, but populated it with superworms, mealworms, P scaber (orange), A maculatum, and A nasatum (peach). I also added springtails. So far so good. The nasatum seem to go wherever they want, I haven't seen many scaber (I'm sure I will, I put a bunch in there), but the maculatum really seem to like the mopani wood, which I don't have in my maculatum enclosure.

Its an aside, but bearded dragon poops are pretty stinky (i.e. omnivore with high animal protein diet) so a bioactive that masks odours and eats poop is a nice change from cleaning up poop.....plus the plants provide nutrition. Its pretty much a win-win-win once its established.

 

[moricollins]

I cut up some mopani wood and added it to my Isopod cultures, I'll check in it in a couple weeks and update this thread

 

[moricollins]

Its just my bearded dragon bioactive set up. Haven't had it going very long, only a few weeks, but populated it with superworms, mealworms, P scaber (orange), A maculatum, and A nasatum (peach). I also added springtails. So far so good. The nasatum seem to go wherever they want, I haven't seen many scaber (I'm sure I will, I put a bunch in there), but the maculatum really seem to like the mopani wood, which I don't have in my maculatum enclosure.

Its an aside, but bearded dragon poops are pretty stinky (i.e. omnivore with high animal protein diet) so a bioactive that masks odours and eats poop is a nice change from cleaning up poop.....plus the plants provide nutrition. Its pretty much a win-win-win once its established.

That sounds like a

Its just my bearded dragon bioactive set up. Haven't had it going very long, only a few weeks, but populated it with superworms, mealworms, P scaber (orange), A maculatum, and A nasatum (peach). I also added springtails. So far so good. The nasatum seem to go wherever they want, I haven't seen many scaber (I'm sure I will, I put a bunch in there), but the maculatum really seem to like the mopani wood, which I don't have in my maculatum enclosure.

Its an aside, but bearded dragon poops are pretty stinky (i.e. omnivore with high animal protein diet) so a bioactive that masks odours and eats poop is a nice change from cleaning up poop.....plus the plants provide nutrition. Its pretty much a win-win-win once its established.

That sounds like a great idea for a setup

 

[Trevors]

Isopods will eat wood so if mopani is only wood they have access to that's what they'll use. If you put a rotten piece of oak, maple or any hardwood and a similar sized piece of mopani beside it I think you'll find mopani isn't their preferred choice

 

[moricollins]

Update:
I have a few types of bark in my enclosures: some locally collected bark, cork bark and the mopani wood.
My mancae love the mopani, they choose it over any of the other bark types, particularly for my powder blue isopods.