Churning sub and isopods

[NLindsey921]

Will churning sub kill my isopod population. I have drawfs and I know they don't normally bury down very far. However I need to churn the sub it's dryer on top and looks like it might be too wet at the bottom. I believe all my crabs are top side. But will this kill my isopods or will they be fine?

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[LadyJinglyJones]

I've been puzzling the same thing... I assume survival depends on how deep a given individual ends up (?).

I settled on using potato traps for two days before a planned churn, catching and temporarily removing as many as I can, to be safe. But I don't really know... and if everyone is up, you might not want to wait. :dunno:

[NLindsey921]

I went ahead and did it anyway. What I did was I know a whole lot live right under the food bowl so I grabbed a large handful of the substrate and moved it to a different container. That saved a bunch. I did this twice. I set that container to the side and removed all crabs and decorations. Then I churned up the sub. I replaced everything and dumped the container with the isopods in it back in the tank. Then I put the crabs back in. I will check in a couple days to see how bad the population dropped. I'm expecting most of the deaths to be babies.

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[aussieJJDude]

Since its been churned, I imagine that the majority should survive since the substrate has not compressed yet - aka complete lack of airflow. You may have some deaths, but from my experiences most should make it that ypu will barely see a population drop - and since you have dwarfs, I'd imagine that most would make it unlike larger species available.

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[GotButterflies]

In the future, you could always put a piece of bark in before you churn the sub and they will flock to that

[Kermie16]

Mine seem to have a few favorite spots - coco wall, cholla , cork rounds and under our big rock and oyster shells. I recently took everything out of the tank, turned the sub and replaced everything and I am still seeing plenty of isopods so not much harm done!


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[NLindsey921]

The isopods appear to be fine. There is at least 25 adults under the food bowl alone.

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