# orange isopods



## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

I got a free culture of orange isopods at NAAC as one of the vendors was closing up. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about how he cultures them. Anybody else have these and how do you have them set up and what do you feed them?

Thanks.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

These are easy to culture, Gary. I have several cultures going. The substrate should be a moist (but not soggy) mix of chopped leaf litter, coco fiber, orchid bark with pieces of cardboard mixed through out. The isopods will congregate under the cardboard. I feed vegetable matter (carrot peelings, potato peelings, algae wafers) weekly. My cultures produce best in the dark in 190 oz containers.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

THANKS Jason.

What temps do you have them at? Are they just at normal room temps? I have a heated cabinet for my springtail cultures where I could put them if they need to be a little warmer.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

> What temps do you have them at? Are they just at normal room temps?


Everything amphibian related is in the basement, which is ranges from 62 in the depths of winter to 70-72 during the hottest dog days of summer. Normal room temps do the trick. A word of warning- isopods culture slowly


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Got it. Thanks.


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## bLue_reverie (Mar 2, 2008)

one thing i have learned through different cultures is that they go through food a lot easier when it is processed. i used to just take slices and small cubes of carrots and apples and throw it in there and it'd be good for awhile. after we got a juicer, i just took the mush left over and put that in the tank and they dramatically comsumed it faster which in turn made them grow faster. it was like steroids.


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## Jonny5 (Jan 26, 2005)

Hi Gary,
You got the orange Isopods from me at NAAC. i water them until they are moist and let the culture dry completely out before watering again. For me they do better on the drier side. I feed them vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, mushrooms and magnolia/oak leaves, and carrots. Hope this helps.
Jon


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

I have to second the mushrooms, they love them. I, as well, let my culture dry out a bit and then water again.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Jonny5 said:


> Hi Gary,
> You got the orange Isopods from me at NAAC. i water them until they are moist and let the culture dry completely out before watering again. For me they do better on the drier side. I feed them vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, mushrooms and magnolia/oak leaves, and carrots. Hope this helps.
> Jon


Hey Jon,

THANKS again for the culture. These guys are really cool looking. 

I feed my springtails mushrooms so it won't be a problem tossing one into the orange guys container as well. I've also heard they like it dark.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

These guys seem to do best with 'benevolent neglect'. I water the culture tubs when I remember- maybe every two weeks at times- and they reward me with good numbers. The adults are far too large to feed to anything but larger Epipedobates and Phyllobates, so I culture them pretty much exclusively as tank janitors for all the amphibian tanks (frogs, salamanders, caecilians). They get snapped up by the salamanders on occasion, though.


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## bkochis (Sep 23, 2016)

What should the babies look like, are they orange immediately? I have some small white isopods in my bin, they are about the size of a springtail.

So...


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

bkochis said:


> What should the babies look like, are they orange immediately? I have some small white isopods in my bin, they are about the size of a springtail.
> 
> So...


To the naked eye, baby orange isopods look pretty much like dwarf white isopods, but are much more active.

Gary, if you want to push your numbers on the giant oranges to get them started, when you start to see babies show up, pick the adults out and move them to a fresh, new culture. I have noticed that not only do the babies grow much faster when competition is removed, but also the adult isopods breed more when all they see are empty, unlimited resources to raise a family in. In addition, giant orange isopods are cannibalistic. If your food additions are low for a week, mom and dad may well go on a killing spree looking for more protein. This can happen even when there is plenty of decomposing leaf litter.


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## JoeKitz (Sep 18, 2017)

Pumilo said:


> To the naked eye, baby orange isopods look pretty much like dwarf white isopods, but are much more active.
> 
> Gary, if you want to push your numbers on the giant oranges to get them started, when you start to see babies show up, pick the adults out and move them to a fresh, new culture. I have noticed that not only do the babies grow much faster when competition is removed, but also the adult isopods breed more when all they see are empty, unlimited resources to raise a family in. In addition, giant orange isopods are cannibalistic. If your food additions are low for a week, mom and dad may well go on a killing spree looking for more protein. This can happen even when there is plenty of decomposing leaf litter.


I was looking at my Giant Orange isopods last night and thought they had gotten contaminated from my dwarf white isopods.  The babies were running around like Springtails and I was thinking how much more active they are than the other dwarf white cultures I have. 

Reading through some of Doug's posts on raising isopods, I have not added the Giant Orange to any of my tanks for fear of eating my plants, especially my Jewel Orchids. And by the way, Doug's posts on all things isopods are very informative.


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## rjs5134 (Feb 1, 2017)

I don't have orange isopods, I have dwarf grays, dwarf white, Dalmatian, powder blue and 2 or 3 different(I think) local species and I have often wondered what the small white things running all over were. A few cultures have fungus gnats but it's good to know what I thought might be mites could be juvenile isopods.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

A source of calcium seems to be more important with giant oranges, but not from a vitamin mix. Feeding them vitamins can cause some vitamins to be sequestered in the isopod. This transfers to your frog. Vitamin levels get out of whack in your frogs, and that can block the uptake of other vitamins. (Gary, I figure you are probably well aware, but we always have new people reading.) 

I've heard of people using pulverized egg shell, cuttlebone, or, my favorite method, put a calcium bearing clay substrate under them.

I would also agree that giant oranges like it dryer than the dwarfs.


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