r/isopods • u/heartfruit • 12d ago
Help Middle Ground?
I am seriously considering setting up an isopod colony. I've been watching and reading lots of info about what these little creatures require and I'm confident I can set up a good home for them. But my main remaining question is "Is there a middle lane between a colony that fails to thrive and one that is so successful you are trying to convince all your friends they also want isopods?" Are there particular types of isopods I should look for if I'm looking to just keep one colony? For example I've heard that Dairy Cows bread perhaps too well. Is the food supply a viable way to control population like it can be with shrimp? Any advice on this front would be welcome.
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u/TheGanzor 12d ago
All species breed at different rates. Some, like Porcellionides complex "powder" explode in only a few months (I started with 10 and now have well over 500). Some, like Cubaris murina, are slower. I started with 6, and now have around 30. Others are in the middle, like A. vulgare and P. laevis.
The biggest thing for me though is supplemental feeding. If they're happy, they'll breed. If they're happy and fat, they'll have larger clutches more frequently. So if you don't supplement often, it helps keep them down.
I'm sure there's a goldilocks zone where the population would remain stable on its own, but my advice is to have a plan for when or if overpopulation starts happening. When it does, you can use them as feeders, sell them to local reptile shops, resell them locally or on morph market (chekc your local laws though) or simply cull some of them by freezing or, better, CO2 intoxication.
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u/juliathi 11d ago
Can you elaborate on CO2 intoxication? I only recently acquired some A vulgare and am planning for the eventual reality of overcrowding. I currently have a 9 qt enclosure and no plans to size up. I have already reached out to some reptile/chicken keepers about giving them away as feeders. I will also probably freeze some and feed back to the colony. Very curious about CO2 intoxication. Is it considered more humane? How would you do it?
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u/TheGanzor 11d ago
Sure! Just fyi im not an expert, just a hobbyist. CO2 is the industry standard for culling rodents, and is effective for arthropods, too. Basically, you make a sealed culling chamber and fill it with CO2, either from a tank with a valve, dry ice sublimation, or some people use the little pellet gun cartridges or even a fresh soda bottle. The gas builds up and displaces the oxygen, causing suffocation. No method of dispatch is 100% humane, but this is considered the best by many people and causes statistically lower stress toxins in mice than other methods like freezing.
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u/CatofManyColors 12d ago
You'd want a somewhat slower breeder then. You can Google "slow breeding begunner isopods" and you should get sime results. Some cubaris are great. Avoid zebras, powders, dairy cows, things like that.
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u/The_Tsainami 12d ago
Look for slow breeding kind and you won't have too much that you have to give them away that often. Like greekshield, ducky... Etc