# Isopod Success... plus another little suprise



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

About a month and a half ago, during one of the last days of 05' the got much about 60 degrees, I set out on search for the last roly-polies of the season. I was able to find 10 Isopods in all- 9 of them were roly-polies for sure, and I believe 1 was a sow bug. Well, I placed them along with some rotting wood in a 8 oz. cream cheese container I had lying around, and filled it to about 1 inch away from the top with Eco Earth from a newly started springtail culture (this was from the very bottom of my massive culture, which was a 128 oz. sweater box). As I added the pieces of wood, I noticed some springtails that were cream colored with a black line going down their backs, probably their innards. I thought it was kind of cool, and just left them in the container with the Isopods. for about 3 weeks, I kept them on my computer desk in my room- the room temperture averages at about 68 degrees. The fairly moist Eco Earth always felt mmuch cooler than that. I fed the Isopods only one thing- brown rice. I noticed no fast movement in the roly-polies, no breeding, no nothing. But, to my pleasant suprise, I saw an explosion in the springtail population. The culture was teaming with springs- all slightly larger than the temperate springs that are commonly cultured. I had just finished making a waxworm culture earlier that day, and had decided to put that culture on top of my turtle tanks' flourescent fixture. I decided, 'sure, why not?' and placed my iso culture ontop of the fixture as well. I checked back today- 2 weeks later, and was VERY pleasantly suprised. I saw all 10 adult isos ontop of the substrate. As usual with this particular culture, I saw hundreds of the darkish springs hop, and burrow into the Eco Earth the moment I opened the culture. But, there was an addition to the culture this time. I saw about 25 tiny isopods about the size of the springtails. I saw another 10 of them just a little larger than that. It's been a nice present- getting a new species of springtails to thrive, having my isopod culture produce VERY prolificly, and all that with 10 Isopods and a couple of pieces of rotting wood. I'd also be happy to get some cultures out to people once mine if big enough to split (which probably won't be for several months, mind you).


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## SandyClaws (Nov 11, 2005)

Josh,

That sounds great. Congrats on the new culture booming 

Let me know when you are reayd to parse out some of the isopods.

Thanks

Kris
[email protected]


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

Bumping this post to find out if Josh has had any additional success with these new springtails. and if so, are you ready to sell any of them?


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## frogcrazy (Nov 23, 2004)

Congrats josh,Do you have any pics of the new isopods maybe we can make a thread on how many different ones we can get going.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

I actually passed this culture on to another frogger at IAD, so if you know who I'm speaking about... ask him.


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## biocmp (Mar 7, 2006)

did your frogs enjoy the snack?? I might be interested in trying that if it was worth it for you.


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