# What happened to my Isopods?



## T2theG (Jul 6, 2013)

I've had a master culture of dwarf purple isopods for over two months now and when checking it this morning everything was dead. The only thing living were some very small white looking worms that wiggled fast. I threw the entire thing out including the container just to be safe.

I have my isopods in one room on mite paper, ff in another on mite paper and my frogs in my room to keep everything separated. The isopods were in a large 6qt sealed tight container that was moist and kept at about 75 degrees at all times. I checked them everyday to ensure they got some fresh air. The only thing I can think of is that I read a post the other day about dwarf purple isopods loving bananas. It was time to feed my culture so I put about three teaspoon size bits of banana in and closed the lid. That was two days ago and now they are all gone. Damn you banana! 

I'm just wondering what happened and how my entire culture was destroyed? Something must have got in and done something. 

I will just have to start a new one.

Thanks for any help.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

My guess is suffocation. 
You say the container was sealed tight. I assume this means that you did NOT provide ventilation, via .3 micron filters? http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/94348-3-micron-filters-why-how-where.html
Your cultures chug along just fine for a while. You don't notice the worms that are growing inside, under the surface. Then you decide to try a new food, and it sounds like you put a lot of food in for a 2 month old culture. Remember, we are talking about tiny bugs, and not many of them yet. A teaspoon sized chunk is not a "tiny bit". It is a monstrous chunk. Actually, it is three monstrous chunks.
When you added a large amount of food, there was an explosion in the bacterial action in your culture. The bacteria, along with the increasing population of bugs and worms, used most of the oxygen. It used enough of the oxygen to suffocate the isopods. I'm guessing that the worms are able to withstand a low oxygen environment better, so they were able to survive. You may be seeing them for the first time because they were driven to the surface to seek out oxygen in a rapidly depleting environment.

My opinion is that a .3 micron filter would have allowed the culture to breathe and survive. 
You would likely still have a worm problem. The worms may have come in with the substrate, the culture, or on food. I'm guessing you have been overfeeding your culture, and that has exacerbated the worm problem. They higher humidity of your sealed culture may have also made the worm problem worse. 
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/fo...clean-your-mite-contaminated-springtails.html
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Totally agreed. That's why we put the breathable 0.3 micron filters on!


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## T2theG (Jul 6, 2013)

Pumilo said:


> My guess is suffocation.
> You say the container was sealed tight. I assume this means that you did NOT provide ventilation, via .3 micron filters? http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/94348-3-micron-filters-why-how-where.html
> Your cultures chug along just fine for a while. You don't notice the worms that are growing inside, under the surface. Then you decide to try a new food, and it sounds like you put a lot of food in for a 2 month old culture. Remember, we are talking about tiny bugs, and not many of them yet. A teaspoon sized chunk is not a "tiny bit". It is a monstrous chunk. Actually, it is three monstrous chunks.
> When you added a large amount of food, there was an explosion in the bacterial action in your culture. The bacteria, along with the increasing population of bugs and worms, used most of the oxygen. It used enough of the oxygen to suffocate the isopods. I'm guessing that the worms are able to withstand a low oxygen environment better, so they were able to survive. You may be seeing them for the first time because they were driven to the surface to seek out oxygen in a rapidly depleting environment.
> ...





frogparty said:


> Totally agreed. That's why we put the breathable 0.3 micron filters on!


Thank you for the replies and I will be reading all of the posts that you have referenced. I will make sure to do things right this time. I honestly thought that everything was going well, but its a learning process.

Thank you for helping, it is very appreciated.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I crashed a few before Frogparty shared his .3 micron filter idea.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I crashed multiple, springtails as well


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Somebody sent me a photo of many thousands of suffocated dwarf purples. He actually had the filter, but screwed up and put something over it, blocking the filter.


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