# Huge isopod culture



## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

I have several isopod cultures in plastic shoebox bins and I was wondering if it would be better to stick with the shoeboxes or go to something much bigger?

Maybe something like this: Sterilite 28 Qt. Latch Box

Does anyone have experience with large isopod cultures or see any potential problems with this?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Dwarf white isopods are "lazy". If you start them in a big container, the population seems to grow slowly. In a smaller container, they are closer to each other, and it seems to jump start them. It was only the dwarf whites that I noticed this with.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Other than that, Poison Beauties used to run his cultures in great big, under the bed, plastic, sweater bins. He said it worked well. I do remember though, when he crashed a culture once, it was a big loss. It must have worked well enough, as he used to sell cultures at about a third the price of anywhere else.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Great! Thanks for the info. A big crash was my main concern but it seems like the way to go. I'd rather maintain a couple big cultures than 20+ little ones. They get overcrowded so fast!

It's probably not realistic but it would be cool to use a taller enclosure and try to build underground layers in the culture kinda like an ant farm


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## boabab95 (Nov 5, 2009)

I've done both, and found the same as Doug; the bigger the culture the longer they take to build a huge colony (though I didn't time it, so it may have been a negligible difference). Once it grew to a big enough colony though, it takes off! It does seem to help if the substrate isn't too thick (~2'' or so).

I'd start a bunch of little ones, and once you have them coming out of your ears, try a couple bigger cultures.


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## Frogsarefun (Nov 25, 2015)

Pumilo said:


> Dwarf white isopods are "lazy". If you start them in a big container, the population seems to grow slowly. In a smaller container, they are closer to each other, and it seems to jump start them. It was only the dwarf whites that I noticed this with.


I totally agree, white Isopods hardly move.
I start with small cultures for all my Isopods, and move up as the culture grows.
I like to top the cultures with leaf litter 
Or cardboard squares so they can have a dryer area if they want it.


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## Ruskii_Nomad (Sep 12, 2019)

Thank you everyone for talking about all of this here, this was very helpful!


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

I have realy big isopod cultures of porcellionides pruinosus and they trive better in this, whites are indeed better if kept smaller.


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