Woodice culture

I'm thinking of starting a woodlice culture for my salamander, how should i get started? What size tub should i keep them in, i have a 5 gallon plastic critter tank, is that big enough to get started? Is it too late in the year to start, i read somewhere they only will make offspring during certain months.I know it takes a couple of months for there to be enough there for a stable food source.

It's good to get started by finding some decaying hardwoods that hold moisture in the wood. If there is moss and/or algae growing on it, they'll like it more. They don't want anything too wet, but just damp enough to the touch. Mulched, decaying leaves, pine needles, forest soils and wood with benign fungi like Green Stain, Dry Rot (or Wet Rot) or polyphores would be fine, since they like to eat them and it's not toxic.

Keeping a good population in the terrarium can be helpful as well, since they are good at keeping mold and fungus issues down, as well as cleaning up the droppings of the salamander.

Just as long as everything is gathered without having chemicals on it, you'll be fine. 5 gallons should be fine until you see crowding problems. Then you can upgrade to a bigger tote. A plastic tote bin is fine for a habitat, as long as there are a few small holes for some ventilation.

How often do wood lice breed? I put several smaller ones in my terrarium with the my juvenile A. Macrodactlyum but I think they only ate two of them. However, about a week after I added them I saw almost microscopic little white ones crawling around and on one night while I was shining a red light into the cage one of the salamanders emerged from his hide spot and grabbed on of the tiny babies. After that I put a bigger female in that had previously had eggs on her and another larger one in hopes of them having more babies.

Do wood lice breed more than once in their life? How long might it take for a female wood louse to get gravid again and hatch more eggs?

Like wise what kind of nutritional value do they have? I've heard that they aren't good as a primary food source because they have to much calcium carbonate, but what about the tiniest newborns? They don't seem to have any real hard parts on them. Are they better?

well i am getting an early start this year on my woodlice culture, i'm going to a wooded area nearby that i know isn't sprayed with pesticides to get a jump on my starter colony. But someone from a frog forum showed me a link to a woodlice culture website that sends you woodlice so that is a possibility if i don't get a very good start.

noneofmany said:

How often do wood lice breed? I put several smaller ones in my terrarium with the my juvenile A. Macrodactlyum but I think they only ate two of them. However, about a week after I added them I saw almost microscopic little white ones crawling around and on one night while I was shining a red light into the cage one of the salamanders emerged from his hide spot and grabbed on of the tiny babies. After that I put a bigger female in that had previously had eggs on her and another larger one in hopes of them having more babies.

Do wood lice breed more than once in their life? How long might it take for a female wood louse to get gravid again and hatch more eggs?

Like wise what kind of nutritional value do they have? I've heard that they aren't good as a primary food source because they have to much calcium carbonate, but what about the tiniest newborns? They don't seem to have any real hard parts on them. Are they better?

Click to expand...

They reproduce fairly fast and frequently. The newborns do make good feeders. I've never heard of them having too much calcium to be good feeders. You should always vary your animals diets though.

noneofmany said:

How often do wood lice breed?

Click to expand...

It depends on what kind of wood lice. Some of the larger one take nearly a year to reach sexual maturity and are slow going. Some of the small ones are pretty prolific. The dwarf white ones are all females and produce offspring rapidly. I keep about 10 kinds of isopods and use them for food for both aquatic and terrestrial salamanders.

What are you going to be feeding aquatic animals or land animals? Some isopods are better for aquatic newts. Porcellionides sp. are great culture animals Woodlice - Porcellionides pruinosus - BugGuide.Net These closely related species in general are very good. A medium sized isopod it crawls fast on land and actually crawls just as fast on plants underwater where my newts just pick them off. They reproduce very well for me. I also like them because their exoskeloton is very soft for an isopod and easily digestible compared to other types. I started with just around 10 and after about 7-8 months had about 400. I kept them in a 30 gallon plastic container with 2 inches of dirt which was covered with bark and mixed tree leaves. I feed my isopods a large pinch of fish flakes once a week. Container width is more important than hieight. It's the ground space that is important. I have found that most comman species are just to slow at reproducing. Example being P.Scaber reproduce to slow and I find just collecting them when needed to be easier. I save my culture all year, letting it grow for months and then use them in the winter when collecting worms and other food items isn't possible. When I get down to about 200 I stop using them as food and start waiting for the spring explosion of babies. I always say I'm going to start a second and third culture so I can rotate through the but I never do even though I should. Free food is the best!!!