Care and Feeding of your isopods
Enclosure
We recommend providing an enclosure with at least 6 quarts in overall volume (about 1.5 gallons) to start a small colony from one of our Isopod starter cultures. The Isopods we work with won’t readily climb clean glass or plastic containers with vertical sides. A Sterilite container, small aquarium, or tiny glass terrarium would work great for this purpose depending on your goals.
Providing a small vented area on the top of the enclosure is especially important, as adequate airflow has proven to be highly beneficial to Isopods in captivity. The ideal size of a vent depends on your ambient conditions, but we personally add a 2-in vent on a 6 quart (1.5 gallon) container.
All vented areas should be covered by fine screen mesh to prevent unwanted guests from joining your Isopod colony.
Substrate
Substrate should be at least a couple inches deep, and a few inches away from the top of the enclosure. A thin layer of Leaf Litter is then applied on top of the substrate, with care taken to ensure it doesn’t reach too far up the sides to allow for Isopods to escape.
We recommend moistening the whole enclosure evenly at first as an easy baseline. Afterward, one end of every enclosure is kept slightly more dry than the other to allow the Isopods to naturally hydroregulate. We try to keep all of our Isopods between 70°F-85°F year-round.
Isopods prefer areas to hide under. We recommend cork bark, oak bark, or coconut hides. These provide ample areas for hiding and climbing.
Maintenance and upkeep will involve adding more crushed leaf litter as the supply is eaten, misting once or twice a week as needed and performing at least partial substrate changes every 4-6 months. This will provide your isopod culture with the environment they need to thrive.
feeding your isopods
There are many ways to ensure your Isopods can thrive in captivity.
LEAF LITTER
As the Isopods fragment & devour the leaf litter do your best to replace it ASAP. Hand-crushed magnolia leaves are a great choice since they are inexpensive, frequently available, and thicker than most others on the market. Live Oak and Sea Grape leaves also work great. All leaf litter should be sterilized (boiled) before introduction to prevent contamination from any possible external pathogens.
FRESH VEGETABLES
Offering your isopods a range of fresh vegetables such as zucchini, squash, carrots and sweet potatoes at least twice a month will also provide nutrients that will help your isopods thrive.
NUTRIENT RICH FOODS
If an environment doesn’t offer enough nutrients for the Isopods to thrive naturally, offering nutrient rich foods may be beneficial. This is most commonly required when Isopods are kept as a primary inhabitant of an enclosure. We recommend for their optimal health and vitality, a specially crafted blend of Repashy products, including Bug Burger, Morning Wood, as well as Supreme Isopods Isopod Chow. We also provide them with bee pollen and calcium , nutrients that promote growth and enhance reproduction.
Your goal is to offer only what the Isopods will devour within 36-48 hours at each feeding, and only offer more food once the original amount has been gone for 1-2 days.
If an abundance of nutrient-rich food is left out for too long, it may attract unwanted guests like Fungus Gnats. For this reason, it is absolutely critical not to offer too much food at one time. To start, we recommend adding a pencil eraser sized portion of either Repashy Product and checking to see how quickly it’s devoured. From there, it should be easier to get an idea of exactly how much a specific culture will devour within a given time. It’s better to feed a little less than to feed a little too much.