I put the females in a well ventilated enclosure with a few inches of a coco fiber and sand mixture, probably 80% coco fiber, 20% sand. I keep one third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and have them at around 75-80F°. I am feeding them dog food as the staple diet.
I've already reached F2, the F1 larvae pupated communally in their setup and those resulting adults have produced more larvae. An easy species for sure, and very cute too!
I got a group of Cubaris sp. "Snow Bee" from Joe Loma of Reptiform earlier this year, and they've done quite well for me thus far! This kinda surprised me, since they are supposedly a different morph/locality of sp. "Emperor Bee", which I absolutely bombed the one time I tried keeping them (however I think that was due to an immediate and severe overwatering incident).
I've got them set up in a moderately ventilated container with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark hides. I'm keeping the entire enclosure humid, but not too moist, and have them at around 75F°. I'm feeding them dog food as their supplemental diet.
Looking forward to watching the colony grow! Joe noted that his stock was throwing out some pink and whiteout looking individuals, so I'm interested to see if any of that genetic variability will carry over to my colony.
My Cylisticus convexus "Ukraine - Pied" have been doing phenomenal, however due to some Proporcellio vulkanius getting into their bin I've had to rehouse them recently. They seem to be adapting to their new home quite well though, and I managed to snag some pics of them in the process.
Their new setup has micromesh ventilation, so now there's no possible way other isopod species could get in. I'm going through the process of switching all my enclosures over to mesh ventilation instead of my usual method of poking small holes with the tip of a soldering iron. These are just one of many I've swapped over to the new ventilation, there's a LOT more to go though... 😅
Speaking of isopods I recently rehoused and switched to micromesh ventilation, the same goes for my Porcellio sp. "Canary Islands, Spain - Spikey". I almost lost these last year, still not 100% why, but a few stragglers survived what must have been an overwatering incident or something of that ilk. From there they built up slowly but steadily in numbers, and eventually were back in the dozens! Then someone randomly sent me a booster starter culture as a freebie a couple months back, so I'd say I now have a established culture at the moment.
They really seem to like a humidity gradient and good ventilation, similar to other Spanish Porcellio. They really seem to like the area where the moist substrate meets the dry substrate the best, so for them I keep the furthest quarter of each end of the enclosure moist, the middle half dry. There are bark hides that cover most of the length of the setup, so they can all hide and cluster right in the semi-humid areas.
A very cute and heavily textured species, definitely one of the more underappreciated small Spanish Porcellio spp.!
Back in late Summer, a local keeper gave me their entire colony of Dermestes maculatus, a commonly cultured and easy to breed Dermestid species that I had yet to acquire myself. These are the species of beetle most commonly used to clean skeletons of flesh for taxidermy and research purposes.
I've got them in the 3-4 gallon tank they came to me in, with a screen mesh lid with some cloth underneath to make it escape-proof (or rather to keep other Dermestids from getting in). The substrate seems to be some sort of animal bedding but I'm not sure what kind. I spray down one of the corners every now and then, but keep things mostly dry. I've been feeding them dog food and dead roaches, and the occasional dried herring. I keep them at around 75-80F°.
These are definitely one of the easiest Dermestes species to keep. I'm growing tired of the more finicky members of the genus; D.friischi, lardarius and marmoratus all crashed on me over the Summer and Fall, and I'm honestly not so sure I want to try them again. D.ater, maculatus and undulatus are all far easier and more consistent breeders.
Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading! I hope everyone enjoyed, and I will see y'all next time! 😉
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