First off, I got a bunch of big broods from my Armadillidium gestroi and A.klugii. Those two are doing great for me, I also got a small brood from my A.werneri, and have more gravid females looking ready to pop, but for some reason they seem much less prolific and more picky than the other two.
Also, side note on the A.klugii, while they were sent to me as the "Montenegro" strain, a lot of the adults that popped up look like the "Dubrovnik" line or a mix of the two, so that's very likely what they are, a mixed "hobby line" of two or more klugii locales. Bit disappointing, but hopefully I'll be able to source pure "Montenegro" line klugii one day.
Sadly, two of my female Porcellio expansus died, both as they were super gravid. I think I kept them with too little ventilation, and they kicked it as a result (gravid isopod females seem the most sensitive to stuffy air)... I have one female left, which doesn't look gravid in the slightest, I might chuck her and a male in my Paranauphoeta lyrata bin, since this species apparently breeds very well when housed with Paranauphoeta. Overall, not a happy update, but there's aat least a bit of hope left.
My Porcellio hoffmanseggi have been doing very well, and I've gotten at least two broods from them so far. The babies grow pretty dang fast, and I do wish I'd have taken pictures of second instars, they look so chonky and weird for a Porcellio! 😂 Looking forward to having a big thriving culture of these giants!
Now for perhaps the saddest isopod related news here today... My Alloniscus perconvexus colony has completely died out. 😢 I'm honestly not 100% sure what happened, they did well for me initially, but were growing slow as all heck, and eventually just fizzled out. I think I may have over done it with the salinity TBH... Oh well, hopefully I can try with them again eventually.
Thankfully, in happier news, my Nesodillo arcangelii "Shiro Utsuri" have given birth to several broods, and by far are doing the best out of all my "Cubaris" type isopods. I just upgraded them to a gallon shoebox to accommodate the culture growth, and as y'all may have noticed, I added them to my For Sale List (with one of the best price rates for them out there that I've seen). 😉 Very happy these have been preforming well for me!
My Philoscia muscorum female has been going to town, so far I've gotten a total of three broods from her! I heard someone was saying something about females of this species only giving birth once in their lives... This is most certainly not the case, as I only started with a single female, who retained enough sperm from a wild mating to produce three broods for me, and may even produce a fourth before she dies! 😄
The offspring from the first brood are already nearing what should be sexual maturity, and the second brood babies aren't too far behind. I started keeping them a bit warmer, and so far they don't seem to mind the heat. It would seem really the main thing that's important for this species is very consistent humidity.
I also added this species to my FS list, and as far as I know, this may be the first time CB individuals have been offered in the US hobby? 🤔
Lastly, my Cubaris sp. "Rubber Ducky - Blond-ish" have thankfully given birth to a few broods. 😁 I did make a bit of a blunder a couple months ago though, and I dropped their setup a solid several feet... The lid opened in the fall and everything, it was nasty. So I ended up losing a few adults and small mancae as a result due to stress/injury. 😥
However they seem to be rebounding slowly but surely, especially since I dropped the humidity on one side of their setup and gave them more ventilation. They really do seem to like a humidity gradient, contrary to what I thought. Oh well, lesson learned, and their population is slowly growing, despite my learning curve mistakes.
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉
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