Quick answer
The Orange Freezy is a Thai Cubaris with a bright yellow-orange body wrapped in translucent, glassy edges, and it is one of the easier premium Cubaris to succeed with. Keep it at 22 to 26°C held steady, build a humidity gradient within 75 to 85 per cent, wettest at the damp end with a drier far side, feed it on leaf litter, rotting wood and a little veg and protein, and be generous with calcium. Do that and it repays you faster than most of its relatives: this is a quicker breeder and a more visible animal than the Rubber Ducky it so resembles.
What exactly is an Orange Freezy?
It is an undescribed Cubaris species that sellers place in Thailand's limestone country, sold under the hobby name 'Orange Freezy', and you will sometimes see the same animal written up as "Orange Frenzy", which is nothing more than a misspelling that stuck. As with the rest of the premium Cubaris, I have found no published scientific work on this species: no formal description, no measured thermal preferences, nothing. Every care figure in the hobby, this site's included, comes from keepers' results and from what is known of woodlice as a group: animals that lose water easily, avoid light and want their conditions held steady. I have written more about what the trade says about the genus in the piece on Cubaris in the wild, and it is worth a read, because almost everything about keeping these animals well follows from what sort of animal a woodlouse is.
In the hand, or rather under the bark, it reads as a brighter, busier relative of the Rubber Ducky, close to the blonde phase in colour but noticeably faster on its feet and quicker to build a colony. Having kept isopods since 2021, I have found that combination is what wins people over: the warm translucent look of a collector's Cubaris, with more of the animal actually on show.
Appearance
Adults reach around 20 mm, chunky, flat and faintly cuboid in the way of the genus. The colour is the point: a saturated yellow-orange body rimmed by semi-transparent skirts along the sides and rear, so the pigment looks suspended inside glass, frozen in place, which is where the name comes from. The effect lands best under a little light against a dark substrate. Like all Cubaris they conglobate, rolling into a ball when disturbed, and the glassy rim stays visible even curled.
Conditions: warmth held steady, moisture on a gradient
Aim for 22 to 26°C, and value steadiness over any exact number, because Cubaris dislike swings far more than they dislike being a degree off. A British home sits below that range through the colder months and at best near the bottom of it in summer, so a low-wattage heat mat or cable on a thermostat against one side of the tub, never underneath it, closes the gap through the colder months at least. Heat is there to reach the low-to-mid twenties, not to exceed them.
For moisture, build a gradient rather than a wet box. Keep one end damp, around 85 per cent under sphagnum with regular light misting, and let the far side run drier, down towards 75 per cent, so the colony can choose its spot. Do not let the tub go uniformly soaked: the phrase to keep coming back to is moist, not wet. Give the tub cross-ventilation, vents on opposing sides, so the air keeps turning over and the two ends stay distinct; without airflow a gradient flattens into one damp condition within hours.
Substrate and calcium
Give them depth to burrow, at least 5 to 8 cm, built on organic topsoil with flake soil and white-rotted hardwood worked through, so the substrate itself is food. Leave plain coco coir out of the base: it holds water but feeds nothing. Woodlice build a calcium carbonate cuticle, so be generous with crushed limestone, cuttlebone or oyster shell throughout, and treat it as permanent furniture rather than an occasional supplement. Our substrate guide covers the full mix. Top the surface with a thick layer of magnolia and oak leaf litter and a piece of cork bark for the dark, humid cover these animals seek out.
Feeding
Leaf litter and rotting wood always available, that is the diet's foundation and most of its calories. Add soft vegetables such as courgette, squash or sweet potato a couple of times a week, lifting leftovers within a day or two before they turn in the warmth, and a little protein now and then for a breeding colony. Cubaris are also enthusiastic grazers of fungal growth, and a little mushroom is readily taken; our note on feeding isopods mushrooms covers how to offer it safely. A springtail culture in the same tub feeds on the soft mould in the damp corners.
Breeding and colony growth
Here is where the Orange Freezy earns its keep. Given steady warmth, a good moisture gradient and constant calcium, females carry young in a brood pouch and release live miniatures, still short of their last pair of legs, and the colony builds quicker than most of the premium tier. Where a Rubber Ducky colony asks for real patience, a settled Freezy group shows visible growth on a timescale that keeps new keepers interested. Start with a group rather than a pair, I start colonies at twenty or more animals whenever I can, because more starters means faster establishment and more resilience to early losses. Then leave them alone: constant checking and rearranging unsettles new Cubaris colonies.
Common mistakes
Three are worth knowing about. Soaking the whole tub, because "tropical" gets misread as wet, when the aim is stable and humid with real variation across the floor. Chasing heat, when these animals want the low-to-mid twenties held steady rather than anything hot. And forgetting calcium: woodlice build a calcium carbonate cuticle. If something looks wrong, check those three.
Who is it for, and what sits alongside it
The Orange Freezy suits the keeper stepping up from the hardy beginner species into the premium Cubaris, and the collector who wants the glassy warm-toned look without the Rubber Ducky's reclusiveness or pace. It sits naturally alongside the other warm-toned Cubaris, the red-eyed Giant Mandarin and the translucent-edged Red Edge Orange, and if you enjoy the stranger end of the genus, the Blind Saturn is a harder animal that wants its humidity kept high and steady. The wider family is in our Cubaris collection, and the complete Cubaris care guide covers the genus-wide detail behind everything here.
Frequently asked questions
Are Orange Freezy isopods hard to keep?
They are standard premium-Cubaris care, a step up from a Dairy Cow or a Zebra but among the more forgiving of the collector species. If you can hold a tub at 22 to 26°C with a damp end and a drier end, you can keep this species.
How fast do they breed compared with a Rubber Ducky?
Noticeably faster. Both are slow beside a Porcellio, but a settled Freezy colony produces broods reliably enough that you see growth within months rather than wondering all year whether anything is happening.
Do they need a heat mat?
Yes, through the colder months at least, when a British home sits below 22°C. A small mat or cable on a thermostat against one side keeps the tub in range. The target is a steady low-to-mid twenties, never a hot spot, and never heat from below, which drives moisture out of the substrate where the animals live.
Is it "Orange Freezy" or "Orange Frenzy"?
Freezy. The name describes the frozen-in-glass look of the translucent edges. "Frenzy" is a widespread misspelling of the same Thai species, so if you have seen both names, you have seen one animal.
Ready to start a colony? Our Orange Freezy isopods are captive-bred here in the UK and ship under our live arrival guarantee, with a 20 per cent overcount in every order.
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