I am curious when did the isopod hobby start. For some reason I thought it really began and took off over the past 5 yrs.
What were some of the orginal morphs?
I assume it all started in the UK?
The original post asked when the "isopod hobby" started, not when the first human kept a wild isopod as a pet. I imagine that could have been ten thousand years ago, give or take all of history. There may be centurions alive today who kept an isopod when they were five. I believe I understood the question of the original poster but maybe your answer is the one requested.I strongly suspect people have been keeping isopods for decades. It's certainly gotten more common more recently, but I don't think people liking them is anything new. There's probably always been a few oddballs in any given population who like to keep bugs. People have certainly been keeping jars of pillbugs for longer than 14 years. I had a book somewhere about keeping pets in jars that was published in, I checked, 1979, and it has an entry on pillbugs.
Can you provide the name of the book and the author, maybe include a quote from the text?I had a book somewhere about keeping pets in jars that was published in, I checked, 1979, and it has an entry on pillbugs.
I believe the correct answer is located in posts 2 and 3.Which I guess brings us back to the question of what DO you consider the isopod hobby to be? I literally don't know how someone would define it.
I bought a copy of that book and there is NO mention of isopods, not a single word. I wish I hadn't bought it.The book is called "Pets in a Jar" by Seymour Simon, and I gave it away last year to a little girl interested in bugs, so I unfortunately don't have a quote. It's out of date, and among other things claims that you should be able to keep a starfish alive in a gallon jar, but the care info for most of the land animals isn't bad.