# Starting Giant Orange Isopod Culture



## xxmonitorlizardxx (Mar 12, 2013)

I originally ordered some dwarf purple Isopods from Neherp, but their cultures took a hit from the cold so they offered to either refund the money or replace with a different Isopod, and I choose to get Giant Spanish Oranges. I started out with about 4-6 adults, and now(exactly 2 weeks later) I have about 13-17(about 7 of these are adults). They are on NEherp substrate mix, and are feed mushrooms and fishflakes. How long should it take until I have a good size culture that I could split or be able to take some to seed my vivarium?




Does anyone have pictures of a good/booming culture?
Thanks!


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## radiata (Jul 24, 2010)

I find that Spanish Orange Isos reproduce rather slowly, and I'm surprised by your almost tripling of the isos in only two weeks. When you received the culture, did you dump it all (isos & media) into your own culture container, or just move in just the adults you located and toss the rest of the media, or just keep the isos and media in the same container? If either the first or the last, I'm not surprised as you probably already had juveniles in the incoming container/media. If the second, I'm really quite surprised!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

A long time. Isopods take much longer than springtails. Giant orange isopods will take longer to establish than dwarf varieties because of their longer grow out time. It takes them longer to reach adulthood. Actually, they take several months to grow up. 
I'm afraid it is not possible to have received only 4 to 6 adults, and have 7 adults 2 weeks later. You must have had more adults in there than you realize. Are you sure they are adults? A full adult is a good half inch long, and that's just the body, not including antenna. The largest one I have actually pulled and measured, was fully 5/8" long PLUS the antenna! 

It's a tough question to answer. There are just too many variables, such as available space, temperature raised at, how much you are feeding, how often you are feeding, and even if the culture has ventilation (.3 micron filters).
I like to say that springtails are a "weeks" or even "days" kind of thing, while isopods are a "months" type of thing.
There are some hints here to push the growth of giant orange isopods. 
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/64919-great-isopod-woodlice-culture-foods.html


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## xxmonitorlizardxx (Mar 12, 2013)

Thanks for the replies and information you guys! It's a shame that they reproduce so slowly. I do have about twice as many then when I started with, but those are mostly babies. And I just dumped the ketchup container that they came in into the container that they are in now. So I probably didn't see some.


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## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

You probably didn't see them, but when they establish in a viv they will be there. I have a viv wear I pull mine from. I notice that they do better in that tank because it's almost on the floor, where it's cooler. They like color temps from my experiences. The purple and the white reproduce faster.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

xxmonitorlizardxx said:


> Thanks for the replies and information you guys! It's a shame that they reproduce so slowly. I do have about twice as many then when I started with, but those are mostly babies.


That one I'll give you. In fact I can back it up and prove it possible. Isopods carry live young under their tail. I have packaged up 15 adults on Monday, and my recipient opened the box on Wednesday to find 15 adults plus babies. Actually, because the carry live young, it would be possible to find babies only seconds after packaging the adults, or even have babies released in your hand.

This thread inspired me to start a thread discussing why I believe that giant orange isopods actually reproduce as fast as any other isopod. 
You'll just have to read it. http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/fo...ge-isopod-reproduction-speed.html#post1756362


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