#isopod ask

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I know very little about isopods but they seem pretty neat (I had no idea there were isopods in so many colors!)

Care to share some of your favorite isopod facts with a new isopod enjoyer?

something fun that usually shocks people who don't know much about isopods: they're crustaceans, like lobsters and crabs! this means they actually breathe through gills, and require a sufficiently moist environment in order to not suffocate.

a couple more:

it's thought that the yellow spots/splotches that many species have might be meant to help them camouflage with lichen.

the fancy word for the "rolling up" that many species do is conglobation.

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here's an individual i found in my vulgare tub 👀 most likely (obviously) vulgare but i want your eyes on the matter

oh wow! that's quite a stunning individual. It's always fun to see what mutations pop up when the selective pressure is gone (no predators).

sometimes isopod morphs with extra yellow in them get called "high yellow", but I don't remember if there's an established line of high yellow vulgares. I wouldn't be too surprised if there was!

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Hi! How are you with Asian isopods? I have some mystery pods I might post if you think you can help identify them :)

Well I'm certainly not perfect but I will try my best! If these are pods that youve found yourself in the wild I can suggest posting them on iNaturalist, there are many isopod experts on there, and it's an awesome project/resource in general.

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what do you know about porcellionides pruinosus morphs, like what kinds are there to your knowledge? which ones are your favorites ?

There are four morphs that I'm aware of, the wild type (powder blues), powder oranges, oreo crumble, and i think orange koi? Orange koi are probably my favorite appearance but oreo crumble is such a cute name.

edit: there is also a white morph called "white out" and what I think is a relatively new morph called "butter pecan"!

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my boyfriend loves isopods so I'm now following you to have more isopods to send him :3

Wonderful! Spread the isopod joy! I always love it when people in my life send isopods to me :)

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hi yes hello can you please help me identify these babies? they're wild caught from a friends backyard, just started captive breeding. my apollocheese if the pics are not up to snuff <3

They look possibly porcellio spinicornis ! Your ask got lost in drafts whoops

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Not a submission or anything but my babies from a few weeks back are starting to have more prominent spots :)

Wonderful!! }(:)))))))<

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Hi I Love Isopods and id like to tell you of my Dreams. one day i want a bioactive tank for a small reptile, but a good third of my excitement is just the prospect of getting to see isopods and other cleanup crew crawlin around and workin hard. i also hope to see some neat natural mutations later down the line :-)

That’s awesome! I hope your dreams come true. I will say from personal experience watching isopods amble around and munch on things is really lovely.

I wonder if color mutations will be as prevalent/stick around in a tank that has a predator in it, or if they’ll succumb to selective pressure provided by your resident small reptile. Guess it depends on whether they think isopods is good eatin.

Btw, if your dreams come true, I would love to see some pictures. I love reptiles as well as isopods