# are wild isopods ok to use?



## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

i am getting a pair of pumilio and wanted to seed my tank with isopods and springtails, but had some questions... 
1. will the pumilio eat baby isopods or are they too big?
2. assuming they will eat them, can i just get some from outside? i have some places in my woods that haven't been sprayed and there are hundreds of these isopods under rotting logs. can i just take a bunch and dump them in the leaf litter and wait for them to reproduce? 
3. if i do put them in the tank, do i have to feed them or will they eat the leaf litter? 
thanks


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

1. Yes, but typically they are still hanging on mom at this stage... usually you'd "feed out" the babies by grabbing mom and blowing/brushing off the babies... at least with the larger species. They tend to develop the hard shells soon after leaving mom. I don't think they'd be a steady food source for the frogs as much as springtails are, and I am not really sure if the smaller, softer shelled dwarf species would be that much of an improvement... but they are softer shelled, meaning they'd be eaten more than the more typical species you'd find. I love the dwarf white tropicals because even as adults they can be eaten by those frogs that like large food... so really it's how much do you want them to be a food source vs. how easy it is to get the wild ones.

2. Sure, if you're looking for a cleaning crew, no real reason to get some of the more expensive cultured species. They will run around the tank with the springtails and help keep things clean.

3. You shouldn't have to feed them, their population will be controlled by the amount of food (fungus/mold) in the tank... especially when you add new leaf litter to decay they will keep up a steady population.


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

thanks! i still plan on feeding the pumilio ff and seeding with some springtails, i was just wondering f i could get some from outside to use along with the ff and springtalis so i didnt need to buy more springtail cultures. thanks


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

One thing I'd recomend, keep the isopods in a colony for a few months before you put them in the tank... I've heard of some bug people that have collected them and had them all crash due to some "bug" - parasite or otherwise. Better to know they are healthy and going to survive by putting them thru a "quarentine" than stuffing them in the tank and having them all crash and possibly introduce something


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

ok thanks for the tip. i had tried keeping about 10 of them for a month in a cup with dirt and a peice of roting wood, and they thrived, and reproduced so much i had to let some go. i will "quarentine" them then i guess. thanks


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

I'm keeping some striped woodlice that I think were collected locally, they don't get bigger than the dwarf white woodlice, and they seem to be doing well in my culture.


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