Porcellio Laevis Mystery

[Edoggerson]

It's been a couple months now, and the fact that my isopods have seen little prosperity has really been boggling me. I've done everything I can for them; given them tons of protein, made obvious gradients in heat and moisture, added various kinds of hides.. Yet I've seen no results. Of course they've gotten bigger, I mean that's only what happens when you give them food.. but why haven't I seen any new ones? Some people say their colonies take upwards of seven months, but I've never seen a SINGLE thread about porcellio laevis breeding this slowly, or not at all. I'm really lost about all this.. and I don't want to overreact if this is actually really normal. It's my first time keeping them and I want anything but for the little guys to die off.

 

[Matts inverts]

Mine took three to four months to first see babies. Also, how much water are you using because over watering is bad especially with not enough ventilation. Mine took a long time especially for my caramels. Also, what do you mean when you say heat? Room temp is perfectly fine. Also, in your picture, you have sphag and the sides are wet, do you spray everything or just the sphag moss?

 

[Edoggerson]

Mine took three to four months to first see babies. Also, how much water are you using because over watering is bad especially with not enough ventilation. Mine took a long time especially for my caramels. Also, what do you mean when you say heat? Room temp is perfectly fine. Also, in your picture, you have sphag and the sides are wet, do you spray everything or just the sphag moss?

I literally just sprayed an hour ago for the first time in about 5 days, so I go everywhere and let it evaporate off rather than frequenting the edges. The heating is about 73 Fahrenheit due to the fact that my house temp goes to about 60 at night. Ventilation is fine, I have a large slit.

 

[Matts inverts]

All I can say is they just do this. All I can recommend is adding more fast breaking down leaves.

 

[Gail]

I have found that my laevis do better with good ventilation. Depending on the size of the slit you cut in the container vs. the container size, they may need a bit more air. They like it damp, but not soggy - humid but not stagnant.

 

[Polenth]

They can start breeding young, but they're going to breed better when they're bigger. My dairy cows were older/larger and started breeding really fast... but my oranges were smaller/younger and took more time to get going. You also won't see babies the moment they're released. They're tiny and they don't like coming to the surface until they're a bit bigger.

If they're growing and doing fine otherwise, it's likely that everything is fine.