Setting up their enclosure

What type of enclosure?

Most hardcore isopod keepers have their isopods in plastic bins. There is absolutely nothing wrong with setting your isopods up in terrariums! But if you plan to collect a lot of varieties, stackable clear bins will be a lot more practical in the long run.

A small group of isopods can live in a deli-sized container for months without issue, but they will appreciate a larger space to roam—and I find it easier to maintain appropriate moisture levels over longer periods in larger enclosures. Bins are great at holding in moisture, so if you get a tank or terrarium you should also get a cover to help maintain humidity.

Less developed cultures can live in smaller bin sizes around 6qt, and around a 15qt size is what most keepers prefer for more mature colonies. There is no problem with putting a small number of isopods in a large enclosure, they just may take a little longer to find each other and begin mating. If you go larger, go for wide and low; isopods don't use height in enclosures much unless you have plants or prop up rocks or pieces of wood.

If your isopod colony fills the enclosure you can continue upgrading to larger bins, or separate them into two bins (always good insurance in case of culture collapse!). You can also thin or cull your colony to prevent crowding.

Ventilation

Without ventilation your bins are more likely to get too moist, and you can risk suffocating your isopods if ammonia builds up. That is one of the more common methods of accidentally genociding an isopod culture.

Cross-ventilation is more important than ventilation out the top; in fact the latter can cause your enclosure to dry out as moisture more readily evaporates. If you are stacking bins, top ventilation will be blocked.

There are several approaches to ventilation, but one of the more common successful methods is to cut a hole in one end and glue a fine mesh over it. You can purchase ventilation plugs pre-made online, Isopod enthusiast Ezyeddie has plenty of options available for good prices.

If you make your own ventilation, you need to ensure mancae and young isopods can't escape through ventilation holes. Some varieties are extremely small! Where I live in Arizona, escape means certain death by desiccation.

Moisture gradient

Having a gradient of moisture in your enclosure will be key to isopod health. This means having a dry end and a wet end of the enclosure. Individual isopods can seek out their preferred moisture level according to their needs. For example, mancae will seek out damper areas.

How wet and dry will depend on the species. I put sphagnum moss in one corner of the enclosure, and make this pile larger or smaller depending on the preferred humidity level for the species. Sphagnum moss holds moisture well to keep that end of the enclosure wet for long periods. That moisture will seep into the surrounding substrate, keeping it damp. Just use caution when you are new to designing enclosures: it can be easy to get the substrate overly wet if the sphagnum moss is too soggy and you keep misting it. The excess water will slowly seep throughout the soil, making the entire bin wet.

Water

Do not provide a water dish for your isopods, they don't need it. If you want a decorative water feature in the enclosure, just ensure there is a way for isopods to climb out when they fall in. Isopods can survive underwater for several hours (there are aquatic varieties!) but they will eventually drown without assistance. Your isopods will get the water they need from the moisture at the damp end of their enclosure.

Temperature

There are recommended preferred temperature ranges for isopods, but I'll be honest: if you keep your house a reasonable temperature it doesn't seem to matter. With heating and AC, my isopods live somewhere between 65–80°F year-round.

If your home gets considerably colder or hotter than that or has rapid swings, you will want to think about how to provide temperature control for your isopods. If you live somewhere with extreme temperatures you should also have a plan for long-term power outages. Otherwise a freeze could devastate your collection.

Substrate

With a lot of terrarium keeping, "substrate" means the soil base layer plants will grow from. For isopods, substrate is a vital part of their habitat and health. Choose your substrate accordingly, and not simply as a 'growing medium' or 'base layer' for your enclosure. Isopods can live on basic non-nutritious substrates like coconut coir, but keepers report they seem less robust in health over the long term.

As a gardener I'm lucky to have a lot of materials on hand to experiment with. When I make new substrate for my isopods I mix up a blend of organic topsoil and sphagnum peat moss. Ingredients like perlite and vermiculite are fine—they help prevent soil compaction over time. I add in a scoop of a few soil amendments if they aren't already included in the soil: bat guano, worm castings, kelp meal, oyster shell, and crab meal.

They're spoiled. You don't need all this fancy stuff, or pricy stuff like ABG mix. Any organic garden soil you can buy from your local nursery works perfectly fine. I say 'organic' because you want to avoid soils with chemical fertilizers or those little green pearls of fertilizer in them. Check the ingredients on the package; if organic soils contain "fertilizer" they will list ingredients, which are going to be isopod-friendly amendments like chicken manure, blood meal, lime, feather meal, and fish meal. I try to find a soil that already contains a handful of things isopods like, because nutritional variety seems to be important for health (Fox Farms brand is a good option!).

Leaf litter

Leaf litter isn't just part of your isopod's habitat, it's an important part of their daily diet. One of the number one issues with new isopod keepers is not including enough leaf litter! Don't be shy, you should have a good layer of leaves. I aim for a generous inch and a half to two inches thick, but you should use at least a half inch minimum. When I first establish an enclosure I use a mix of hard and soft leaves, since it can take a while for harder leaves to start breaking down enough for isopods to eat them. There are plenty of options for leaf litter but some favorites among isopods: I use a mix of live oak, magnolia, red oak, Indian almond, linden, maple, and hong kong orchid leaves.

I'm in the desert and have to ship in most of my leaf litter. If you want to collect your own leaf litter, be careful to do so in an area you know has not been sprayed for pesticides. Many commercial areas and city-managed streets treat their plants. So do most nurseries; I bought a tree for my isopods but I'm waiting for the first set of leaves to drop before I collect any.

Since isopods aren't technically insects (crustaceans!) some people argue these chemicals shouldn't be a problem. It's not one I'm going to mess around with though, given that studies show they aren't even particularly safe for humans either.

Hides

Plenty of leaf litter is your first hide. Pieces of wood are second. Cork is a popular hide among isopods, and it's good to have a chunk for them to congregate under. If you find sticks or pieces of bark covered with moss and lichen, that will also be very popular with your isopods as a treat!

You can provide all sorts of options as hides for your isopods, including rocks, cholla wood, coconut shells, seedpods, skulls, egg crates, and eggshells.

Rotting wood

Your isopods will not be interested in fresh wood, except as a hide. Things like Repti Bark and orchid bark will be wasted on them. Isopods will slowly burrow into cork and chew off any lichen, but otherwise don't show much interest in eating it.

Aged, crumbly, rotting wood is an important part of their diet, and another thing isopod keepers claim is vital to good isopod health. I'm able to find some pieces along hiking trails but not enough to sustain my collection, so I buy the rest. Look for rotting wood or 'flake soil' which is made of wood flake or sawdust.

The enclosure is PERFECT. Now what?

Release them into their new enclosure and pretty much leave them alone. Check on the enclosure regularly (every few days) at first to make sure moisture levels are doing okay, and once things are going smoothly you can move check-ins to once a week. Pat their sphagnum moss to see how damp it is, and mist the enclosure as needed to maintain the variety's preferred humidity level.

Keep a close eye on things until you are more practiced. It can be easy to get too soggy from overmisting, or too dry. A sudden die-off is a warning sign something is amiss, frequently to do with moisture or ventilation.

As hard as it can be, try to be minimally invasive when you check in on your newly established cultures. Frequent handling or flipping the cork hide will stress them out and can cause them to try to hide elsewhere. You can handle them more once they are established!

Feeding

Don't worry about this part yet. Remember the substrate and leaf litter are nutrition, so they aren't about to starve. I actually find that new colonies (starting from 10 counts) don't show interest in treats, and I have to remove food before it goes moldy. I quit offering food until the culture is a few weeks old. Even then, be cautious offering too many treats. Food can cause soil mite and soil gnat populations to proliferate before you get isopods and springtails established.

When you are ready to start feeding your isopod, check out the Isopod Food Pyramid (coming soon!).