Isopod Questions by KyMart

[KyMart]

What are isopods? I know they are a "cleanup crew", I know they are alive. But what are they exactly? What kinda are safe for crabs? What is the best beginner kind? How do you keep them from taking over? Do you have to feed them anything? Where do I get some? Do I have to breed them? So many questions!

[IamSam]

Isopods are woodlice, rolypolys, potato bugs or whatever you call them where you live. And if you were curious it is not reccomended to bring them in straight out of your yard.

They will eat the bugs that will inevitably be in the tank. Sadly no avoiding those. I don't have isopods personally so I don't know much about what a beginner would need to know. What I can say is that your crabs may eat some of them. And if conditions are good for it they can populate more then you might wish.
You can probably get them online or breed them yourself from some you may find in your yard, however I remember being told that you should wait three generations before putting them in the tank if you go this rout, but you should double check with someone more knowlagable then me on this. I've never seen a pet store that carries them but some might.

If your interested in adding isopods to your tank that's up to you to try if you wish. I don't have them myself but other crabbers do and may be more helpful with the questions I couldn't help with.

[myllkti]

You may know them as roly polies or pill bugs! Porcellio species are more protein hungry so are not as great to keep with crabs, something like powder blues/powder oranges (same thing in diff colors afaik) are better safety wise but multiply extremely quickly and Ive heard of a few cases of them overcrowding and bothering crabs. Totally doable if you just give them away or sell them. Other choices include dwarf white and little sea, which idk as much about other than that they are safe (I'll have to brush up on my ispods sometime oops)

TLDR not dairy cows and other porcelios, most if not all others that are kept in captivity are pretty safe

[myllkti]

You dont have to breed them, they will breed themselves, often times so much you have to give them away or sell them! (thats how you keeo from taking over). You mostly dont need to feed if your crabs have leftovers/if you keep foragables like leaf litter in the tank

[myllkti]

You can get them from Josh's frogs, GotButterflies gives them out, and also sometimes people give or sell them on Facebook hermit crab groups

[KyMart]

Isopods are woodlice, rolypolys, potato bugs or whatever you call them where you live. And if you were curious it is not reccomended to bring them in straight out of your yard.

They will eat the bugs that will inevitably be in the tank. Sadly no avoiding those. I don't have isopods personally so I don't know much about what a beginner would need to know. What I can say is that your crabs may eat some of them. And if conditions are good for it they can populate more then you might wish.
You can probably get them online or breed them yourself from some you may find in your yard, however I remember being told that you should wait three generations before putting them in the tank if you go this rout, but you should double check with someone more knowlagable then me on this. I've never seen a pet store that carries them but some might.

If your interested in adding isopods to your tank that's up to you to try if you wish. I don't have them myself but other crabbers do and may be more helpful with the questions I couldn't help with.

Would just one do anything? I am upgrading to a 40 gallon breeder and would love to have a little bit of help cleaning up! Will they bother molting crabs?

[myllkti]

Would just one do anything? I am upgrading to a 40 gallon breeder and would love to have a little bit of help cleaning up! Will they bother molting crabs?

like i mentioned porcellio are more likely to bother molting crabs. One would make very little difference and unless its a gravid female it would just live out its life, snacking lightly, and then die. People never give nor sell just one anyways, most likely you would get a bucnh and depending how many you might let them continue breeding a few days/a week before adding to your tank

[jclee]

Fun fact: Isopods are land crustaceans, just like our crabs! They won't eat bugs in the tank (I think someone said that above?) but they'll eat leftover or hidden food. You won't see them much, since they'll spend a lot of their time hiding, and they'll benefit from the calcium supplementation that you put in for the crabs (cuttlebone or oyster shells and whatnot.)

And, yes, I second the vote for the dwarf species or "powder" porcelio species. They'll be cheaper than many other species, having been long-established for general care of high humidity enclosures (i.e. they're not currently "trendy" pet species, like many others are, so they don't fetch as high a price.)

Springtails are also humidity loving enclosure cleaners, and they particularly love eating mold/fungus and wood/leaves/detritus, so they may also be worth looking into, if you're thinking of adding a clean up crew to your enclosure. Many breeders that sell high-humidity animals (like frogs) will also sell some basic clean up crews (like springtails and isopods). I would lean into one of those, for the purpose of a hermit crab clean up crew. (They have become rather desirable as pets, themselves, so you can also find a *lot* of sites selling a variety of isopods, but if they're selling less common species to be kept as pets, themselves, you'll be paying pet prices, rather than "worker animal" prices.) Even a few, if fed and kept in humidity, can populate any enclosure, but you may be waiting a while if your enclosure is pretty big. Some people buy a few cultures at once, for a larger space, so that the colony can get established a little more quickly.

[KyMart]

Fun fact: Isopods are land crustaceans, just like our crabs! They won't eat bugs in the tank (I think someone said that above?) but they'll eat leftover or hidden food. You won't see them much, since they'll spend a lot of their time hiding, and they'll benefit from the calcium supplementation that you put in for the crabs (cuttlebone or oyster shells and whatnot.)

And, yes, I second the vote for the dwarf species or "powder" porcelio species. They'll be cheaper than many other species, having been long-established for general care of high humidity enclosures (i.e. they're not currently "trendy" pet species, like many others are, so they don't fetch as high a price.)

Springtails are also humidity loving enclosure cleaners, and they particularly love eating mold/fungus and wood/leaves/detritus, so they may also be worth looking into, if you're thinking of adding a clean up crew to your enclosure. Many breeders that sell high-humidity animals (like frogs) will also sell some basic clean up crews (like springtails and isopods). I would lean into one of those, for the purpose of a hermit crab clean up crew. (They have become rather desirable as pets, themselves, so you can also find a *lot* of sites selling a variety of isopods, but if they're selling less common species to be kept as pets, themselves, you'll be paying pet prices, rather than "worker animal" prices.) Even a few, if fed and kept in humidity, can populate any enclosure, but you may be waiting a while if your enclosure is pretty big. Some people buy a few cultures at once, for a larger space, so that the colony can get established a little more quickly.

What happens if they overpopulate, then what do you do? Do you have to replace the substrate??

[jclee]

They'll breed in relationship to food available, so you could cut back on feedings (of the crabs... since you're not feeding them directly) or treat them like a pest, by setting traps with desired food items and manually removing as many as you can each night. Once they're in there, if conditions are right, they're just kind of going to do their thing and breed. If you did change your mind and want them entirely gone, you probably would have to dump/replace the substrate. They're born rather small*, so trying to remove the whole breeding population at once, without a full substrate dump, would be unlikely to work.

They're not really going to bother the crabs (especially if you stick with the "dwarf" or "powder" species), so I generally never worried about population blooms. They just bred in relationship to the leftover food in my enclosure and/or edible decor. (I popped an old grass hammock in at one point -- meant for reptiles -- and the isopods spent months eating it as a preferred food source.)


*The females carry eggs in their undercarriage, and they hatch out as fully formed, baby isopods, which I think is rather cool.

[KyMart]

They'll breed in relationship to food available, so you could cut back on feedings (of the crabs... since you're not feeding them directly) or treat them like a pest, by setting traps with desired food items and manually removing as many as you can each night. Once they're in there, if conditions are right, they're just kind of going to do their thing and breed. If you did change your mind and want them entirely gone, you probably would have to dump/replace the substrate. They're born rather small*, so trying to remove the whole breeding population at once, without a full substrate dump, would be unlikely to work.

They're not really going to bother the crabs (especially if you stick with the "dwarf" or "powder" species), so I generally never worried about population blooms. They just bred in relationship to the leftover food in my enclosure and/or edible decor. (I popped an old grass hammock in at one point -- meant for reptiles -- and the isopods spent months eating it as a preferred food source.)


*The females carry eggs in their undercarriage, and they hatch out as fully formed, baby isopods, which I think is rather cool.

That's actually super cool! I'm going to keep all of this in mind and consider the pros and cons as I decide if I am going to get them or not!

[curlysister]

Also keep in mind that if you have an over population, you should NOT release the extras into your yard/ field/ environment/ outdoors. When you replace the substrate, you will be disposing of (killing) the exta isopods.

[KyMart]

Also keep in mind that if you have an over population, you should NOT release the extras into your yard/ field/ environment/ outdoors. When you replace the substrate, you will be disposing of (killing) the exta isopods.

Just out of curiosity, why can't you release them into the wild?

[jclee]

If you've purchased them, there's a good chance that it's not a native species in your area and could quickly become invasive. Even if they're wild-caught from your area, there's an argument against releasing any animal you've been keeping and feeding because it may have been exposed to pathogens/parasites inside of your home that it could bring back to the wild population.

Many people freeze old substrate for a few days to prevent accidentally releasing isopods when doing substrate changes for these reasons.

[KyMart]

If you've purchased them, there's a good chance that it's not a native species in your area and could quickly become invasive. Even if they're wild-caught from your area, there's an argument against releasing any animal you've been keeping and feeding because it may have been exposed to pathogens/parasites inside of your home that it could bring back to the wild population.

Many people freeze old substrate for a few days to prevent accidentally releasing isopods when doing substrate changes for these reasons.

That makes sense, thank you!