HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey I am thinking of getting rolly pollies in my tank I have a few questions before I get any though!
1. How to keep them from over populating
2. How to clean tank with rolly pollies in there
3. Do they eat hermit crab mites
4. Do they bother the crabs
5. Can I pick up some from outside and put them inside the tank
6. Will they have diseases if I get them from my backyard instead of buying them
7. Does anyone have any tips for me

HermitCrabCHICA wrote:Hey I am thinking of getting rolly pollies in my tank I have a few questions before I get any though!
1. How to keep them from over populating
2. How to clean tank with rolly pollies in there
3. Do they eat hermit crab mites
4. Do they bother the crabs
5. Can I pick up some from outside and put them inside the tank
6. Will they have diseases if I get them from my backyard instead of buying them
7. Does anyone have any tips for me

Don't do it.

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Um I am only planing on getting one right now. I am kinda hoping to get an answer to those questions does anybody else know about rolly pollies? Please?

There are a number of people here on the board that do keep rolly-pollies in their crab tanks. I hope one of them will come along soon. I have been keeping crabs for a long time, but I have never added rolly-pollies.

I am guessing that you are considering adding them because you have a food mite problem right now that you hope they can help with. That might be true, but without knowing how big your tank is, what kind of tank and lid you have, what kind of substrate and how deep, etc., it is hard to know if that would be the best solution, or if it would be a better idea to just take other actions to get rid of the food mites and keep them gone.

Ok I don’t keep them and don’t know a lot of this stuff but fortunately there is some stuff I can answer from lurking on here!!

The roley poleys will clean the tank for you! The substrate will generally not need any cleaning from you if you spot clean and the isopods spot clean enough.

They don’t bother the hermies! The hermies can even eat them if they’re fast enough to catch one hehe

Catching them does seem to be potentially dangerous but idk much about that. Personally, I’d much rather be safe than sorry.

To reduce breeding you can reduce food so there are less leftovers for them to eat (obviously don’t starve the crabs but just minimize leftovers). You can even sell if interested
(Edit: I just remembered also having two diff isopod types would mean that each keeps the other from overbreeding through competition)

I know this isn’t much but I do hope what I was able to answer is helpful!


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Thank you! I am planing on only keeping one in there so they don't breed because I don't feel like having 100 rolly pollies right now. Would one of them still be okay or would it be pointless?

I don’t think it would be very effective unfortunately lol but I mean it might be able to clean up a scrap here or there?


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Ooh I just saw this thread Wild Isopods?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic? ... source=app and it answers a lot of your questions!


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Thankyou that was very helpful!

No problem!


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HermitCrabHelp wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:48 pm

(Edit: I just remembered also having two diff isopod types would mean that each keeps the other from overbreeding through competition)

Not really, usually one species ends up outcompeting another leading to one species within the enclosure. If they are the same species (a lot of colour morphs are) they will interbreed, which most don't want as it doesn't make good resale.


Isopods colonies only get as big as the tank and food allows them to, before the numbers will eventually plateu (arguably at a high level!). However spot on, left over food will help increase populations to high amounts and even then, population numbers can be mitigated by removing individuals when you can.

Thx!

Ah okay! Thanks so much for correcting!!


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