# crashed my dwarf white isopods



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Back in the day we did not use isopods. Pretty much just FFs and springtails. I was growing a culture of Dwarf White Isopods (woodlice) out for the first time and I have just completely crashed it. Opened it up and every last one was up at the surface or on the plastic above the surface, dead. I was culturing in a mix of cocofiber, peat, and sphagnum with a few squares of cardboard on top. Feeding mushroom, pumpkin (they loved that) and baby cereal (mixed oatmeal and rice). It was coming along very nicely up till I killed it. I had them in a small Hillshire Farms meat tupperware type container about 6" x 4.5" x 2.5". I am sure I was probably doing a few things wrong but am wondering what might have been the killer. I did not have vents (stupid, I know) but was just opening it every other day to check them and let it breath. I opened it two days ago and I misted it. So what killed it?
1) Too much moisture
2) Culture grew big enough that they needed more air and I suffocated them
3) If the culture gets crowded enough can that kill them? I didn't think it was that crowded yet. Maybe around a hundred in there.
4) Something else??

Also, looking for some more dwarf whites. I found the thread by Markbudde on culturing woodlice. http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/46452-how-i-culture-woodlice-isopods.html I will try that one next time. Does anyone know if his method works for Dwarf Gray woodlice? I still have some of those and don't want a repeat crash!
Thanks,
Doug


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

sounds like they all suffocated if you found them all on teh surface, you need to have a little ventilation for them, you can not have the culture completely sealed off. what did you feed the isos before they died?


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Pumilo

I have my cultures in plastic shoe box containers. However, they're in the really cheap ones from Dollar Tree and the lids are pretty loose and ill-fitting. Every now and then, I stir up their dirt to make sure there's enough air. The isos don't crawl out of the loose lids. They seem to like the cultures a lot more than my dusty, dried out house. 

I tried Markbudde's iso culture. Couldn't find bird nesting so used rabbit nesting instead (balls of paper instead of strips of paper). This worked out well except that I kept them too wet and they got all soggy and gross. They also ended up with large populations of springtails. Not sure how that happened. I'm going to try that again, without so much water.


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## TDK (Oct 6, 2007)

I use a wood burner on all my Springtail containers to burn small 1/16" x 1/4" slits in the top for ventilation.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Thanks everybody, sounds like I suffocated them. I'll get some vents in my grays right away.


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## InnoEcto (Jun 28, 2009)

Hey Doug, 
Sorry to hear about your dwarf whites. We just got some of our own, as well as some oranges, so we'll see how fast they multiply. We also started pulling some dwarf striped from one of our tanks, and are going to try to culture them again. That thread you linked to looks very helpful. I migt have to set some up like that also. 
Anyway, as long as you are not in a huge hurry, we could make you a culture of our whites, once they get going.


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