Invertebrate shows are a great day out for the family — or just for yourself. They're a space for invertebrate enthusiasts to gather and enjoy the hobby by speaking with breeders, learning about inverts, and getting up close to species you're interested in. If you're keen, you can also buy invertebrates and supplies.
The Mildenhall Halloween Invert Show is a well-run, well-attended show that's a credit to the organisers. The annual fancy dress competition meant that we got to have some laughs, and some people managed to take a prize home for their efforts.
Buying Isopods Near to You
Buying isopods online is a great way to do things, but in person you may get to see something you might not have considered but instantly fall in love with. Some breeders have special offers exclusively for the show, and you don't have to pay postage costs.
Getting isopods locally also means you can reduce the time they're in transit — although that's not really something to be concerned about with our shipping. We spend a lot of time carefully packaging all orders to ensure the isopods arrive with you safe and well, plus we have a live arrival guarantee and a 20% over-count to be doubly sure all isopods arrive safe and well.
What Might You See at an Invert Show
There were a lot of excellent breeders and sellers at the show that we're personal fans and friends of. I had some great chats with Scott's Inverts, Kris Zoo on Wheels, Rebel Regius, Phil's Incredible Inverts, and Jeremy's Wild World — that's just a small selection of the people there on the day and at the after-show social.
Yes, there was a small entry cost to get in but that's nominal compared to the bargains you can come away with, and this show had plenty of free parking.
Giving Back to the Community
There's a fantastic community of exotic pet keepers, and this show is a great example. The raffle raised almost £300 for the National Centre for Reptile Welfare — a place that's been a massive helping hand for struggling keepers needing a home for their beloved pets, both temporary and permanent, and also for the hundreds of stowaway inverts, amphibians and reptiles that make their way into the UK in bananas, suitcases and boxes.
Our contribution to the raffle was a group of Cubaris sp. Pink Panda Kings. There was a reason they were the best-selling isopod of the day. Rather than the black and white you see with standard Panda Kings, they're a vibrant pink and white. One of the best isopods for a humid bioactive vivarium, and amazingly low maintenance. If you're looking for a statement isopod, properly consider these.
A Day Out for the Family
I love to see the next generation of keepers arriving at a show, wide-eyed in wonder at the things on the table. It's easy to forget that feeling of seeing something new, but you can get some of that feeling second-hand when you see children falling into the hobby of exotic pets one tiny invertebrate at a time. Most breeders are more than happy to provide lots of information and do a mini show-and-tell for children. I'm firmly of the opinion that isopods make a fantastic first pet.
Invertebrate shows are a great day out for the family or just for yourself — a space to gather and chat to fellow invert keepers, share ideas, buy new stock, and (for breeders and suppliers) sell some of our own wares.
A Day Out for PostPods
I tend to make shows part of a weekend away. We travelled approximately 3.5 hours' drive to attend the show and it was well worth it. On our trip home we visited Ely Exotics where I stocked up on a range of foods for the isopod cultures. It's important to me to feed the best quality food I can, so that you get as healthy an isopod as possible.
I also keep cherry shrimp — they're not as straightforward to keep as isopods, but there are a lot of similarities. Lately I've noticed my population has been decreasing, so I picked up some new blood for them.
That wasn't all though. We now have G.I. Joe — he's a Pacman frog joining our family. His colouring is a camouflage morph, hence the name.
Pacman frogs need higher humidity and may well snack on isopods, so you need to look at a fast-breeding species that will thrive in the high humidity. I'll keep you up to date with his setup and what I'm adding as his cleanup crew.
Heading to Future Shows
All in all a wonderful weekend, so consider heading to a show near you. Follow us on social media to hear when we're bringing isopods and springtails to a show near you.
If you missed the Mildenhall show this year or have not attended a show previously, keep a look out on the local invert pages on Facebook for the next invertebrate show that might be near you. Scott's Inverts posts a lot of updates so I'd highly recommend giving his page a follow.
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