Porcellionides pruinosus – Cuban isopods successfully quartered

About my new acquisition from the Vogenspinnenbörse in Marbach you can find very little to nothing on the web. That is what made it so special for me. For this reason I proceeded according to Assel-Schema-F. For this you should ask yourself, what are isopods?

They belong to the higher crustaceans, basically they are the most advanced crustaceans in the world! They are the only ones that do not have to go into the water to lay their eggs, but can do everything on land.

Most isopods are herbivores and are not really picky about it. Therefore they belong to the first decomposers. With oak leaves and rotten wood you basically don’t do anything wrong. Before I take things from nature and put them in a terrarium, I do the following:

Wash thoroughly
30 seconds in the microwave
or at 100 degrees 10 minutes in the oven

This gets rid of all unwanted guests. Predators, such as spiders or mites, are no fun in a breeding setup. That’s why I always follow these steps and prevent problems later.

Since I also bought BraPlast boxes at the bourse, I will set up my Porcellionides pruinosus- Cuban isopods there. Since you can’t keep animals in plastic boxes, because they also like to breathe very much, you have to work on the boxes a bit.

To do this, I simply cut out a large piece of plastic on the lid and replace it with wire gauze. I simply glue the gauze with a hot glue and you have a well ventilated isopod terrarium.

It is amazing how well they take to the oak leaves. Within one day they have eaten the leaf up to the skeleton.

However, you should also offer them some protein. This can be added in the form of fish food, cat food or chick starter. To do this, you rub the food finely and add small amounts and slowly feel your way up. As soon as mold forms, you go back down with the dosage. Don’t worry, a little bit of mold does not harm the isopods, on the contrary they eat it, but this should not be a permanent condition in the isopod terrarium.

I keep them in my hobby room at room temperatures of about 24-26 degrees and spray a shot of water with my spray bottle into the terrarium in the evening.

Now I have to watch and pay attention to every little change and if necessary take countermeasures. I will keep you informed.

If you are interested in some beautiful offspring, please have a look in my store. There I offer you regularly a great selection of species and animals. Have fun shopping!

If you need more information about Porcellionides pruinosus- Cuban isopods, then have a look at the husbandry report. Have fun reading!

On my YouTube channel I go in the video isopod husbandry again very precisely on the subject of substrate and show you in detail which layer of soil to use from the forest and how best to treat them.