Our Isopods

General Pod Information:

Species that need special care are noted in their listing.

Water Parameters :

There doesn't seem to be a standard way of keeping aquatic isopods. This is probably due to very little  breeding aimed towards the hobbyist rather than only scientific research. Simply put, there are not enough people working with them. It’s our goal to help change that. Together as a community we can learn more about successfully keeping aquatic isopods and grow the supply within our awesome fish family. There are some general water parameters you can piece together from the internet but here is what I have found to work best for me at this point in time :):):)

Temp: 25-80°F (our systems 45-78°F)

PH: 7-8+ (GH and KH More Important)

GH: 12-20 (our systems 15-20) Prefers Hard Water

KH: 8-12 (our systems 9-11) Prefers Hard Water

Adult size: varies by species

In my personal experience, generally speaking, the isopods in harder water (GH 14-20 KH 9-11) seemed to thrive and reproduce better than the isopods in softer more acidic water (GH 3-5 KH 1-3). Several of the cultures with low water hardness failed to reproduce and some slowly died out. There are many factors affecting water hardness in all my experiments and further tests are needed to make any kind of definite conclusions. I like using a combination of crushed coral chunks, sea shells, and aragonite sand to help raise water hardness. 

Aquatic isopods are very peaceful and get along well with snails, scuds, neocaridina shrimp, daphnia and many other aquatic arthropods. 

Our isopods are farmed and raised in a controlled environment within our facility. Every single isopod that is sold is hand picked and thoroughly inspected to ensure quality control.