My first isopods :)

[HomelandDreams]

Ive been wanting to raise isopods and decided to gather some wild types the other day. I have 2 enclosures, one with an Armadillidium sp. (I believe A. vulgare) and one Porcellio sp. (I believe P. scaber). If anyone can confirm this from the pictures, I'd greatly appreciate it!

For the enclosures I used 6qt sterillite totes. The substrate consists of topsoil from around our compost pile and a mix of hickory and poplar shavings. For the leaf litter i gathered some assorted hardwood leaves (Mostly cherry and aspen) and a small amount of fir needles. Each enclosure also has a piece of fir bark. For the moisture gradient, i dampened the whole top layer then watered 1/4-1/3 of the enclosure.

Any tips/tricks/criticisms are welcomed!

 

[Gnarled Gnome]

They are beautiful. Congrats on getting some nice isopods. They are very rewarding and fun to watch.
One thing I noticed with a couple species I keep is that soon after getting them they seemed to disappear. Not just hiding, but actually died off. Then within a week, the eggs they had apparently laid all hatched and the enclosure was full of little isos. After the bounceback they seem to do well. That's just my experience, and might be up to their age when I got them, but keep it in mind.
I have lots of wood available outside, but I'm also very lazy and dont want to have to sterilize it. So i got a bag of hardwood pellets from the hardware store. The kind used for pellet stoves. When wetted, they fall apart into wood dust, which the isopods seem to enjoy. So they have a layer of that. It's pretty cost effective since a giant bag is relatively cheap, and will last a long time, assuming you dont have billions of isopods.
Hope that helps.

 

[HomelandDreams]

Update: I was wondering why it felt like I'd seen a slight dip in activity, only to find a gap in the ventilation mesh on both enclosures and a dead P. sp. caught between the mesh and the tote :T

Lessons learned:

-Actual chiffon works better than cheap hosiery
-Packing tape works much better than electrical tape for securing the mesh.