I have them in a moderately ventilated 5 gallon bin with an inch or so of coco fiber topped in coco coir chunks as the substrate, and lots of hardwood and cork bark for hides. I keep one third of the substrate moist, the rest dry. I am feeding them dog food and fruits, and have them at around 75-80F.
I recently acquired Leptotrichus cf. panzerii "Guadeloupe" from Spencer Thornton, and I gotta say I am in love with these little guys. They get about a cm long, and are almost circular in shape. They are so rotund and stout in morphology, truly an adorable unit of an isopod! They're basically on the exact opposite side of the spectrum of body shapes as Hemilepistus. 😂
Lastly, we have yet another isopod mix-up... I traded for these under the name "Cubaris sp. Purple Giant", a species I have been actively looking for for years. However after keeping them for a while I've noticed they are suspiciously fast growing and breeding, easy to care for, and breed at a much smaller size than I would expect for that species. They are also not quite as purple looking and the morphology seemed off... SO I took some pictures and asked a couple of my isopod taxonomist friends... and yeah no apparently they are just mislabeled Nesodillo arcangelii "Purple Ghost". 😭 Getting sick and tired of the rampant mislabeling of isopods in this hobby, my god...
Here are pictures of the adults, from my new phone and my normal camera:
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| Phone pictures |
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| Camera pics |
Truly stunning roaches, I am so hyped to have them, and eagerly look forward towards them breeding!
I also acquired some Capucina patula from this same locality (in fact the two species came mixed together as nymphs and I had to separate them). Those are finally starting to mature so I will hopefully soon have two established locality stocks of that species in my collection.
I also acquired some Capucina patula from this same locality (in fact the two species came mixed together as nymphs and I had to separate them). Those are finally starting to mature so I will hopefully soon have two established locality stocks of that species in my collection.
Next up, my Polyphaga obscura have matured! And they have wasted no time in laying oothecae! They are in fact a bit smaller than P.saussurei, as I expected for this species. Bigger than P.aegyptiaca for sure though, so a nice in between species in terms of size.
Some pretty decent phone pics of my adults:
Here's hoping their ooths are easy enough to incubate, and that I can then get them spread around and established in the hobby here!
My Gromphadorhina sp. "Unidentified" are doing great lately, which I attribute to me keeping them a bit more drier and switching over to eggcrates as their new hides. Recently they have thrown out some fairly large males (no true majors yet though), which I got a few decent pics of on my new phone.
The new phone that I keep mentioning is a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which I got specifically for taking better pictures and videos of my bugs on the go. I have been pumping out IG/FB reels lately, so for anyone interested in that short form content, feel free to check out my socials. 😊 And if not, no worries, I know that kind of content is not for everyone!
I recently acquired Leptotrichus cf. panzerii "Guadeloupe" from Spencer Thornton, and I gotta say I am in love with these little guys. They get about a cm long, and are almost circular in shape. They are so rotund and stout in morphology, truly an adorable unit of an isopod! They're basically on the exact opposite side of the spectrum of body shapes as Hemilepistus. 😂
Anyways, I got them set up in a moderately ventilated enclosures filled with an inch of old Opisthoplatia substrate (so coco fiber, sphagnum moss, leaf litter and a lot of roach frass), which they have since mostly converted to isopod frass. I am keeping them on a 70/30 humidity gradient, erring on the moist side. I feed them dog food and dead invertebrates, and am keeping them at around 80F.
Here are some photos of these chonkers:
Yet another underrated isopod species that I think more people should keep!
Lastly, we have yet another isopod mix-up... I traded for these under the name "Cubaris sp. Purple Giant", a species I have been actively looking for for years. However after keeping them for a while I've noticed they are suspiciously fast growing and breeding, easy to care for, and breed at a much smaller size than I would expect for that species. They are also not quite as purple looking and the morphology seemed off... SO I took some pictures and asked a couple of my isopod taxonomist friends... and yeah no apparently they are just mislabeled Nesodillo arcangelii "Purple Ghost". 😭 Getting sick and tired of the rampant mislabeling of isopods in this hobby, my god...
Anyways, got these in a well ventilated gallon shoebox filled with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with moss, leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at around 75F, and am feeding them dog food and fish food as their supplemental diet. Honestly though now that I know they are not Purple Giants I may need to lower ventilation for them and increase the moisture... that is if I decide to keep them.
Here are pictures of them:
So yeah... I am still on the lookout for trading for REAL sp. "Purple Giant"... And I am going to have to maintain a high level of diligence when getting new isopod stocks and ensuring they are what they are labeled as... Thankfully I checked these before selling any of them, unlike with those mislabeled sp. "Salmon Martinique"...
Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see y'all next time! 😉
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