Isopod Swap with Anthony!

Did a trade with Anthony Green recently, and got a couple neat isopod species off of him. :) 

First off, I got a group of 9 Trogodillo sp. "Green Spot". This is a beautiful species with very broad and flat morphology, and used to be labeled as a Cubaris species, though thankfully we have a better genus ID now (the species name is still under some debate, some keepers think they are T.rotundatus, but the general consensus among isopod experts is that they don't match the description of that species).

These have proven difficult for some people to breed consistently, while others have absolutely no issues with them. I unfortunately fell into the former category, I started with 9 and am down to only three of those starting individuals, all of which are females. Thankfully they're mated females though, and a couple small litters of mancae have been born, so I'm pretty sure the colony is at a net positive from when it started.

The main issue I had when starting them out was likely either lack of adequate ventilation, or too small of an enclosure for an adequate humidity gradient (or both). I started them out in a smaller container, but after the multiple deaths I moved them to a proper gallon container with lots of ventilation, and a proper 50/50 humidity gradient. This seems to have fixed things, as there haven't been more deaths since then and I'm pretty sure a new litter was just born in the new setup. So I guess so far, so good, and the colony is slowly growing.

BTW the substrate is an inch or so of coco fiber topped with bark slabs, smaller bark and wood chips/chunks, sphagnum moss and leaf litter. Keeping them at 75-80F°, and feeding them dog food in addition to the leaf litter.

Here are some pictures of the beauties:

Unfortunate that I had such heavy losses to start with, however the colony seems to be stabilized now, and the mancae are growing slowly but surely. So hopefully I'll be able to establish a healthy colony of this beautiful species.

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He also sent me a group of Cubaris sp. "Miyako, Japan", often traded under the common name of "Japanese Red Edge". These little cuties have often been labeled as "Cubaris iriomotensis" by many vendors, however that is an invalid name, a synonym of C.murina actually (which these are definitely not), so I will not be using that name, Cubaris sp. "Miyako" is the best labeling for these ATM, however they probably aren't even true Cubaris and may actually represent an undescribed genus.

These are a hardy and easy species to keep and breed, I have mine in a well ventilated container with an inch of coconut fiber as the substrate, topped with sphagnum moss, bark hides and leaf litter. I'm keeping the entire enclosure pretty humid, (though based on their slow breeding rates ATM I'm gonna try a half and half gradient soon and see if that works better), and have them at around 75-80F° right now. I'm feeding them dog food in addition to the leaf litter.

Here are some pictures of them, this species is pretty variable in coloration and varies from mostly grey, grey with red edges, and some are just completely red/orange:

A cute little species, which has already bred for me, hopefully I'll get a big culture going in no time!

Lastly he did send me a small group of Blaberus nymphs he wants me to identify. My suspicion is that they're a craniifer x "fusca" cross, though they could just be pure "fusca", we'll see when they mature I guess.

Well, that does it for this post, big thanks to Anthony for sending me these isopods! Hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time! 😉