Powder Orange Isopods home aka fancy Roly Poly / Pill Bugs

[Autumnsky]

Decided to get these Powder Orange Isopods because I found them at a nearby lfs. Had thought of ordering them in the future but saw them locally and bought them.

Fairly expensive imho for a rolly polly, even if it is orange! ($$$ nothing like other harder to acquire species)

About $1.00 each, a couple tiny babies were there too, didn't exactly count them all. About 13 tiny small medium and a couple larger ones.

Powder Orange Isopods eating a couple Crab Cuisine pellets. The instant the pellets dropped into the container the biggest one nearly flipped over backwards to race to get some! A second later the smaller one followed. There are about 6 eating right now.

Looking to get them into a larger space and allow them to make a nice colony.

Considering getting them into a container with some bog type plants. Not sure if it is a closed container how it will work with a couple I had in mind also depending on if I can get them locally need to try online.

The lfs said they can get me the Dwarf Purple and a couple others. The ones I really liked were the
Cubaris sp. Amber / or Purple Giant / or the "Rubber Ducky / Zebras are cute
Or Porcellio sp. magnificus / haasi High Yellow

 

[Ayi]

Are these going to be raised as live food? Kinda give me the heebeejeebeez

 

[Autumnsky]

Not for foods, just a cleaning crew. They seem interesting and part of an ecosystem. They are very clean looking.

Not that they wouldn't possibly be germy. One would want to wash up before handling and after just like with reptiles and amphibians.

Guy, at the lfs /employee, keeps giant ants and another type ant, I told him I wasn't that bold. That would creep me out. I told him I would worry they could escape! He showed me pics of their tunnels...

I got weird looks from a two people I told/ showed, and a couple were mildly interested, and one really liked them.

Not all things interest everyone. I'm not a fan of ever having a tarantula of my very own. I like arachnids just fine but do not want to keep one of those, lol!

 

[shellyx]

Autumn they are really creepy! Haven't seen them before, they would get munched up in my tanks lol

 

[Autumnsky]

They are for terrariums, we call them Pill Bugs or roly polys around here- also are called wood lice which is a horrible name, lol but ours are really just usually grey ones sometimes with dots and sometimes with some light yellow white, and once in awhile I have seen a white one.

I am setting up a little rectangle vase, I couldn't find the gallon pickle jar I thought I had, only a gallon jug which used to have apple juice in it.

May still just go buy a 2G jar but I wasn't able to get over to that store yet plus it has a lid which fits tight and I would maybe need to add more plants for O2 and otherwise maybe drill a a couple holes in the glass lid

Pics soon, I am headed outside to find a rotting piece of wood.

 

[shellyx]

Thank you!

 

[Autumnsky]

Didn't find the right piece of rotting wood, cleaned up the side yard a couple weeks ago and threw out some pieces of old rotted wood, I guess all of it.

Didn't find a single wild roly poly either. Didn't spend that much time looking but under a few rocks and stepping stones. Did see a millipede or 2. Those I do not want in the house either! Saw earth worms too.

So after I watered yesterday I will go out and see if the moisture got them up and about.

The Powder Orange went into a rectangle vase with some natural organic potting soil, and some Sphagnum peat moss that had been soaking since January I would guess. Had it ready for the Paludarium I haven't got to yet.

Also added a couple Elm Oak leaves and need to add a few more kinds as well. A couple starts of plants some Tradescantia zebrina from one I had rooted. And a bit of Brazillian Pennywort Hydrocotyle leucocephala and a single stem of Lemon Button fern, both plants nearly died on me and that is what I rescued from the brink of death.

The Vase is maybe ~ 9" tall x 3.5 inches 11" long/wide. Like for flowers. And I use a piece of plastic wrap laying on top.

I just sprayed the glass and some of the dirt and water is still on it will need to tidy up.

basically the same pic with a background separating the back with the potted plants behind it.

As of now I didn't put any of my collected moss and bark in yet, waiting for the larger container.

Maybe will add one chunk of wood now since they like it so much.

 

[Autumnsky]

Seem to be hiding very well, haven't seen any dead bodies, but I haven't seen the live ones roaming around. They are somewhat nocturnal from what I read. Didn't turn their house upside down but curious what is going on in there.

 

[goatnad]

This is very cool. Nice to see you keeping less common pets. We also only have the common grey roly polys.

 

[Autumnsky]

It is just funny about them - they hide really well, making it not that great of "pet" lololol.

Still planning to do a terrarium with some moss and plants. Busy schedule right now. Not too much time for shopping.

The Roly polys would drown in the paludarium, so I plan to get a few plants and do a terrarium-ish house for them.

Looked today for some plants and found a climbing peperomia - from the looks of it maybe Ruby Cascade. Only one available no tag, dried out and not looking great, but under $5. will be nice for growing on and up some wood. I might go to the good lfs for a chunk of wood and a new kind of stone.

Hoping tomorrow to grab a couple more plants.

Maybe something ferny and/or mossy not the normal stuff from the big box and similar stores, I need a specialty nursery/plant supplier for better options.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I misted the container they are in now too much and got a bit of mold from the woodland litter stuff I added .

Removed the plastic wrap across the top over night, then set it on top with open sides to keep aired out but still a bit moist.

 

[Autumnsky]

Guess I forgot to update this. Ooops!

There are sooooooo many of them.


Months ago, I gave away 2 or 3 cultures/ groups to people from the CAS group. When I was talking to people who were interested in learning more.

There are 2 starter cultures Powder Orange of around 20+ and a very large colony.

Springtails
One thing I think is the Springtails probably like it a little more damp than is is in my Isopod containers. The terrarium and jars with moss and plants see to be okay for the Isopods.

So I culture them in 2 deli containers with charcoal pieces (like small bits of lump charcoal and or aquarium carbon) and water 1/8-1/4 inch of dechlorinated water.

I add fish food into the containers, and a slice or 1/2 slice if its big, of organic mushroom 1 or 2 times per month.

Foods

Springtails will eat up molding leaves so if I find that in the terrarium I will add it in there.

Mostly I use
Hikari Seaweed Extreme
" Crab Cuisine
New Life Spectrum Probiotix small pellets

Other misc shrimp food samples I have on hand and am using up.
Hikari Carnivoire pellet

Seaweed sheets small pieces

For the isopods add in a few bits of veggie peelings too when I remember.

The Springtails just somehow keep multiplying.

It is a very useful way to keep a (glass) container planting, or terrarium cleaned up! A cool little ecosystem.

Isopods substrate

Purchased about 4 cups of the specialist substrate ABG which works well for Isopods from a shop as they were out of the prebagged /retail bag and used theirs from their bulk stock for their reptiles and other creatures.

I had been collecting misc. bargain, clearance items for terrariums, orchids, paludariums and vivariums when they were available.

So I used
Coco fiber
a big bunch of my home collected 2 kinds of Oak leaves and Maple leaves, some crushed and some mainly whole.
Orchid potting mix - lots of barky pieces
Reptile Bark
Torn up sphagnum moss lots of it

I will have to recall what else.

All mixed up though and it is wonderful.

Use charcoal and Hydroton on the bottom. just over half full of the substrate. Then cork bark, old decaying wood pieces if available, and large leaves and a chunk of wood sticks for them to crawl on. They love the cork bark for breeding hangout, and chillin.

 

[Autumnsky]

One additional thing, was that I bought moss from a seller in the USA, and got a slug population going in one tank. I just grab them out if I see them. They might eat plants but do not see any issue with the population of Isopods. Or Springtails.

 

[TMaier]

What do the isopod look like? I have cultures of grindals for my fish. Who do you feed the isopod to?

 

[Lokilow]

My SO has a pacman frog and keeping a culture of isopods for cleanup and feeding would be great. How fast do they reproduce?

 

[Autumnsky]

Reproduce fast! And I have a large amount now. The Powder Orange are wandering around in daytime all day long in their Jar.

Best deal found here Lokilow! PM me

I have fed the Springtails to the fish but not the tiny Isopods. Also, imho reproduce fast!

EASY!

Anyway TMaier, pics in post #1. They get to be like a Roly Poly/ sow bug/ pill pug in the garden only orange! They hang out all over the cork bark and grasses clump. So simple to care for.

 

[TMaier]

Ok I spotted them. I’m going to have to google the purple ones now. Lol

 

[Autumnsky]

Just posted some of these guys locally to reduce the load. Too many right now.

Every couple few weeks refresh the leaves and substrate (time to do that now), feed some foods pretty much every 7-10 days. Add a bit of water if I see it's drying, rarely with the lid now!

See the skeletonized leaves!

 

[Autumnsky]

Wanted to point out how much these guys do for their daily work, lol.

How it looks before / needing a refresh...

After

I don't have the pic for today, a month later, but the leaves and everything is half gone already.

 

[Autumnsky]

Found a home for a bunch of these guys. happily so. Need to find a home for 2 more jars.

Since I have been moving around the containers in my plant, Isopod and one fish tank tables and doing a clean up and revamp, I thought I should combine something.

After rehoming about 125+ of the PO Isopods, I thought I would be getting low, in the container I took the others out of. Only to discover oh, no, they are everywhere!!!

Also thought that since I couldn't see hardly any in that rectangle vase I would just dump them into the big jar. BUT, again when I removed the loose top substrate into the dish tub, a ton! Then inside the bottom of the vase, they had tunnels in the tighter lower part of the "soil". Scurrying in and out trying to figure out what was going on! And I will deem that vase to be a success. Even though I thought it was a bust.

Being that I do not need this many PO Roly Pollies, I need to find homes for hundreds more. Hoping to sell the 2 other whole jars, and the starter culture of appx 30. Leaving one jar and the vase.

 

[Autumnsky]

Update, finding homes for some more, and sharing the interesting hobby of terrarium making ecosystems. Have about 6 people now enjoying them. And a handful who are using for feeders. Makes the terrarium more interesting. Will need to get some more pics posted from the last couple months.