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  • Trichorhina tomentosa

    Phylum: Arthropoda
    Subphylum: Crustacea
    Class: Malacostraca
    Order: Isopoda
    Suborder: Oniscidea
    Family: Platyarthridae
    Genus: Trichorhina
    Species: T. tomentosa

    There are only females of this species! They're parthenogenetic, birth asexually, and are native to tropical regions in North and South america. They like high humidity and are some of the smallest pods out there, only 2-3 mm when fully grown. Because of how small they are, they are pretty shy and will burrow and play dead when provoked. They'll eat detritus from tankmates, protein, and veggie scraps. Mine really seem to like peas and cucumbers. Since they're tiny, they aren't the most interesting to watch, but they're ridiculously useful. They aerate soil, eat poop, reproduce easily, work well with springtails, and don't require much effort to care for. They're so small, that sometimes you can see the color of what they recently ate (especially stuff like carrots) through their body.

    Pic from dubia. Unsurprisingly, there aren't any popular color morphs. These are just janitors.

    My experience

    They've been doing a great job of maintaining my large corked jar terrarium and were my first isopods. I have to watch them through the zoom or macrolense on my phone with the flashlight on, which gets a little annoying, but sometimes I'll catch them stacking their own poop or having little meetings