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    Watching Porcellionides pruinosus eat

    2/23/25

    This weekend I gave my pods a bell pepper and it was interesting seeing what parts the different species seemed to like the most. Dairy cows, titans, and vulgare seemed to enjoy the fruit more but the pruinosus (and some of the young titans) were mostly focused on the seeds. They eat away parts of the outside to open the seed and eat whatever's inside. Pic below has a little guy with his head stuck all the way in the seed like a bag after he managed to open it. They also get territorial over these. Another one about the same age started nibbling on the same seed as this one and he started smacking him with his antenna and chased him away. They also look kinda jumpy when they do this, like how they are with mate guarding. Some kind of mold/fungus started growing on the main part of the fruit that had stalks with little balls on the end (might try to look up the real name and add later) and one of the adult oranges was grazing on that like a cow. He was walking around the stalks and eating specifically the balls off the tops. He would also tuck his antennae back when he was eating and that was pretty cute. These guys really do act almost exactly like my friend's shrimp. Easily the shrimpiest fully terrestrial guys I know


    Goals and dream pods

    Get an oreo crumble and a powder orange pruinosus to breed together
    Cubaris sp. 'soil'

    Pic from rubberduckyisopods

    Clips

    Photo gallery

    ★ for the ones I have as pets

    Armadillidium nasatum

    ★ Armadillidium vulgare

    Cylisticus convexus

    Ligidium elrodii

    Miktoniscus medcofi

    Trichoniscus pygmaeus

    ★Porcellio laevis

    ★Porcellio hoffmannseggii

    ★Porcellionides pruinosus (oreo crumble)

    ★Porcellionides pruinosus (powder orange)

    Trachelipus rathkii

    Porcellio scaber

    ★Trichorhina tomentosa

    Useful links

    Why isopods??

    What's not to like? Simple pet care plus the fun of collecting pokemon irl! They're very Shaped, completely harmless AND so overlooked that there's plenty of new stuff to learn about them. They also poop rectangles for some reason. I got totally invested after waking up one day to see one of my dwarf whites freshly molted and remember showing my geology lab TA (who also thought it was really cool). The community is also super welcoming!

    Books: Isopod Zoology and Isopods in Captivity (both by Orin McMonigle), Pet Isopods: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping and Caring for Your Tiny Crustacean Friends (Dr. Gerard Benjamin Phillips),

    Wait...

    You're not an isopod!!

    Supplies

    Substrate: bugzy's isocare and rolydirt, Container: Large critter tote from petsmart

    Keeping updates

    Had to get the expensive brown cage free eggs bc of the shortage and the pods loved them. Never seen them so happy to eat an eggshell before. Also using the halves as little huts for the Hoffs.

    My photo of the namesake nose on a. Nasatum. Not all isopods have this!

    First species: T. Tomentosa as a cleanup crew for my corked vivarium

    Favorite species: Tie between Porcellio hoffmannseggii and Ligia pallasii

    Least favorite species: Whatever flat aquatic one (genus lirceus) that lives by my house bc I can't identify them or get good pics without hurting them

    Easiest species: The dairy cows w/o question. First to breed and big eaters

    Currently looking for irl: ligidium blueridgense