Blonde & Blond-ish Rubber Duckies!

Ty Randall Shipment Series Pt. 3/5

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Well, it was inevitable, and it's finally happened... I have Cubaris sp. "Rubber Ducky" isopods. 😂 These have got to be some of the most wanted isopods in the hobby, a new hobby staple that every isopod enthusiast must own! At least, that's all I ever hear about this species, the past few years have seen the isopod hobby turn into quite an expensive one, and one might say that these "Rubber Ducky" Cubaris sp. might be one the biggest contributers to this, starting the "Cubaris Craze" that even to the day has a firm grip of the isopod community as a whole. Now, Ty sent me two types of "Rubber Duckies", and there is actually some debate as to whether these two strains are even the same species or not... At the very least, they are different localities from each other.

Let's start off with the Cubaris sp. "Rubber Ducky - Blond-ish" strain he sent me. Now this is an orange strain isolated from the normal C.sp. "Rubber Ducky" stock, and it's not true breeding (not yet at least), some individuals still pop up with faded orange or more prominent grey markings on their backs, while others are fully orange on their backs.

I've got mine set up in a moderately ventilated half a gallon container with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. On top I've got bark pieces and long-fibered sphagnum moss for hides, as well as leaf litter for food. As their supplemental diet I'll offer dog food. I'm keeping them humid and cool (68-73F°). 

Here are some pictures of these little duckies:

Now I will say, for all my ranting online about how overrated "Rubber Ducky" isopods are, I've found they are MUCH cuter in person, photos do not do them justice... Still overrated compared to Spanish Porcellio spp. though IMO. 😂

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Now onto the Cubaris sp. "Blonde Ducky". This strain is a true breeding orange line, and was supposedly collected from a different locale than the normal "Rubber Ducky" line. They were collected as orange individuals, and little to no selective breeding of this morph was needed to consistently produce plain orange individuals. 

I have noticed that while adults of the two strains look much the same in person, "Blonde Ducky" immatures are noticably wider than those of the "Rubber Ducky - Blond-ish" strain. At least, that's how it looks in person, I should probably do a side by side comparison photo some time... But for now I'm too lazy. 😜

I have this strain set up in an enclosure identical to my C.sp. "Rubber ducky - Blond-ish".

Here are a few pics, it was harder to get decent shots of these than of the other strain sadly:

Hopefully both species do well for me, I've started with good numbers of each, so I expect to see offspring soon! 😁

Anyways, that's gonna be it for this post, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉