Aquatic Isopod Colony Starter Kit - includes isopods!

Isopod Starter Kit Included:

10- sweet gum seed balls

2 - small isopod rocks - the color and exact size will vary, large rocks are sold separately

3 - handfuls of aquatic isopod moss

1 - gallon sized bag of dried leaf litter

1 - calcium puck (water conditioner)

10+ - assorted freshwater isodops - Lirceus fontinalis

IMPORTANT: Contact to to be upgraded to the hot or cold weather shipping  option at no additional cost.

This is all the basics you need to start a small aquarium of isopods in your own home or office. All you add is the aquarium, dechlorinated water, large gravel (optional), and occasional fresh food. Isopods benefit from a small sponge filter.

Feed isopods SMALL AMOUNTS OF FOOD, no more than once a day. They have natural food included in the kit, you do not need to worry about them going hungry so long as natural leaf liter or other botanical products are present. Too much food can foul the water and make it uninhabitable for your pods. Wait until any fresh has been completely eaten before adding more fresh food. If piece of fruit or veggie is ignored overnight, consider removing it and replacing it with another option.

Isopods enjoy pieces all sort of steamed mixed veggies (peas, carrot, green beans, squash), soft veggies (zucchini, cucumber), and soft fruit (bananas, apples). For fresh food not on this list, please consult online discussions. Isopods also eat powdered high quality fish and shrimp foods, spiralina powder, and bee pollen powder.

Our sweet gum balls are harvested from nature and heat treated to prepare them for use in your tanks.

A biodegradable used to provide hiding spaces for aquatic isopods, shrimp, terrestrial isopods, millipedes, and springtails. Including these in your critter habitat reduces stress and provides a natural food source.

In aquatic environments, the spiky seed pods add hiding places for small animals such as isopods, baby shrimp, and any small freshwater crustaceans. They are also used as a food source for the same animals. The sweet gum balls release tannins that provide antimicrobial properties. Tannins in the water promote a healthy biofilm for your critters to forage, as well as limiting the growth of unwanted micro organisms. Before adding the balls, boil for about 5 minutes to release the air trapped inside them. If you don't they may float for a long time. Some of the tannins can be extracted from the sweet gum balls by boiling them for roughly 20 minutes or longer. Once cooled, the balls can be added to any aquarium for wildlife habitat or decoration. The cooled liquid can be used to control the amount of tannins being added. The liquid is useful in helping set up blackwater aquariums.

Big and hardy isopods. The males reach close to an inch in length. They love gravel, big rocks, leaf litter, and gentle filtration. Like other aquatic isopods they need plenty of places to hide and hard water. Males can reach an inch or more in length (about 25 mm).

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: 1-2 cm (some males larger)

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 calcium pucks, 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. 

Every single isopod that is sold is hand picked and thoroughly inspected to ensure quality control.

POLICIES

Limited guarantee on animals. This product must be shipped USPS Priority Mail. If there is a problem with the shipment you must contact us within an hour of package delivery. Do not remove from bag, 3 photos of unopened bag required for any replacement of stock. Extra stock included in most orders. Extra stock is to cover any losses in shipping and are not covered by guarantee. 

Shipping of live products will take place only on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings to ensure the animal or plant arrives before the weekend. We consider these products time sensitive. If there is concern about the shipment arriving before the weekend because of extreme weather or other such concerns, we will contact you and may delay a shipment to the next Monday.