IF YOU ARE ON A MOBILE DEVICE, TURN YOUR PHONE SIDEWAYS TO UN-SQUEEZE THE CHART
ARID: Isopods that are comfortable in humidity percentages between 30-50%
TEMPERATE: Isopods that are comfortable in humidity percentages between 50-70%
TROPICAL: Isopods that are comfortable in humidity percentages between 70-90%
FEEDER: Isopods that have a softer exterior texture, making it easy for your pet to ingest.
CLEANER: Isopods that have a voracious appetite for rotting foods, leaf litter, and your pet’s waste.
MICRO-PET ONLY: Virtually any isopod can make an ideal low-maintenance pet! This column however, highlights the species that are particularly kept only as pets due to a couple different factors.
- they are more expensive
- they breed at much slower rates, making them unfit as a clean up crew in your bioactive
- they’re just too damned cute to not be pampered with their own little vivarium as a home
PLAY DEAD: This one is pretty self-explanatory, but in case you weren’t aware, some isopods are impressive at playing possum when they don’t want to be disturbed or get spooked.
AGGRESSIVE TO SOFT-BODIED PETS: These isopods have a very protein heavy diet, and will go after your pet if they are not being fed enough on their own. This also means they are the most ideal species to have as a clean up crew in your enclosure for how fast they work, and how much they are willing to consume.
Whether they work for your pet or not will entirely depend on the nature of said pet.
For example, a Crested Gecko is considered a soft-bodied pet, but if your Crested Gecko spends virtually zero time on the floor of the enclosure, you can easily have Dairy Cows as a clean up crew. Isopods typically will not care to go anywhere in the enclosure aside from surface. So if you just picked up a Crested Gecko and are unsure of it’s behaviors just yet, steer clear from this species unless you have confirmed they’ll be a good fit.