Large Canyon Isopods

Gsc

Gsc

Fifth Instar
Hey everyone, I've heard a few people mention a large Canyon Isopod from Southern California (San Diego) that reaches almost 1". Anyone have any pics or links to pics? Any care hints/tips? Do they reproduce in captivity?

Thanks in advance,

Graham

 
Gsc said:
Hey everyone, I've heard a few people mention a large Canyon Isopod from Southern California (San Diego) that reaches almost 1". Anyone have any pics or links to pics? Any care hints/tips? Do they reproduce in captivity? Thanks in advance,

Graham
Click to expand...
...Our moderators may know how to get them.. :o

 
We have some pretty large isopods here in MI. I found one the other day barely hitting an inch.

 
Zephyr said:
We have some pretty large isopods here in MI. I found one the other day barely hitting an inch.
Click to expand...
It may have seemed that big at a glance but if you stuck it on a measuring device it would not exceed 15mm (the species you find is a common adventive across the US). The canyon isopod is a native species that exceeds 20mm, which is a big size difference, but the problem is it can take many years for them to reach that size in captivity. A strange aspect of ispopods is they continue to grow after reaching sexual maturity and they breed at very small sizes relative to the ultimate normal size (i.e. even the biggest isopods can usually reproduce before reaching 8mm). There's a photo of an adult on the bugsincyberspace.com site.

 
GSC:

They reproduce almost as easily as the orange Porcellio. If you contact JSUN he has some wild adults which are worth seeing (if he hasn't traded them off yet).

 
Thanks Orin...I have a small group coming from KuyZo next week... I'm excited about "big" isopods that will breed in captivity... If they breed anywhere close to as easy as the Spanish Orange Isopods and/or the Dwarf White Isopods, I'll have no troubles. I'm sure the regular setup of coco fibre/rotten wood & leaf mulch substrate a few inches deep with a covering of hardwood leaves and a few chuncks of rotten wood will work just fine for them. I wasn't sure if they needed to be kept drier or not, but from your abopve comments, I don't think so.

Graham

 
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Well I got a small group (10) shortly after making the initial post... Pretty impressed...a few of the 'older" ones where as large as I was really expecting.... I've been offshore working for the past week and a half, but will be home the beginning of next week... I'll be keeping an eye out for babies.

They are currently hosued in a 2.5 gallon tank with rotten wood substrate (covered with a layer of moss for hiding spots/moisture retention).... I'll probably move the group to a larger tupperware container so I can get a large colony going.

I'll keep everyone informed on my success or faliure with these guys. Thanks for the advice/info everyone.

 
I read about these on a topic on AB but I've never seen any pictures of them. Congrats on obtaining some. Could you post pics because I've never seen them before. And Google didn't come up with what I was looking for. Thanks alot!

Again good luck with them. And remember PICS! :D

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