Isopod Supplies and Accessories

Everything we sell for keeping invertebrates, apart from the animals and the enclosures themselves, is on this page: substrate and leaf litter, food and calcium, vents, cork bark and hides, and the few tools that make the job easier. It covers isopods, millipedes, springtails, roaches, beetles and snails, and most of it costs very little to get right.

If you are buying isopod supplies for the first time, keep it simple: leaf litter, shredded rotten wood, cuttlebone and a screw-in vent or two in a tub. That is the foundation everything else builds on.

Substrate and food

For an animal that eats its substrate, the substrate is the diet. Leaf litter and white-rotted wood are what isopods and millipedes evolved to eat, the core of their diet rather than optional extras. Our leaf litter is dried British hardwood leaves gathered from woodland in Southern England, and the mix of species varies with what we gather at the time. Flake soil, fermented hardwood first developed for beetle larvae, is the richest part of a substrate. Stag beetle larvae are reared in it neat, flower beetle grubs in a bed of it with leaf litter and rotten wood worked through, and for isopods and millipedes it is mixed through the base: it holds moisture like coir, but unlike coir it feeds the colony. Our flake soil guide explains why, and our substrate guide gives the full recipe.

Protein, pollen, the specialist foods and the rest of the diet live in invertebrate food and supplements.

Calcium

Calcium isn't optional for isopods, millipedes or snails: it goes into every new exoskeleton and shell. Cuttlebone is the easy option, a piece left on the surface for the animals to graze as they need it. Crushed oyster shell is a slower alternative that works well mixed into the substrate for millipedes and burrowing isopods.

Enclosures and ventilation

Good ventilation makes the difference between thriving colonies and struggling ones. The screw-in air vents fit a single hole cut with a hole saw and give a tub steady airflow without organza or a scatter of drilled holes, and they are what we use ourselves. For display, the top-opening acrylic enclosures come in Medium and Large with magnetic sliding lids, and the enclosures page has the tubs, bark, moss and setup kit that go with them.

Cork bark and hides

Cork bark is the single most useful piece of décor you can add to an enclosure: shelter above, and a humid microclimate underneath. Lotus pods make natural hides that isopods cluster in and eventually break down.

Shipping in cold weather

In the colder months an invert heat pack keeps an order warm in transit. Each gives 40 hours or more of heat, and we recommend one whenever overnight temperatures fall below 5°C.

Frequently asked questions

What substrate do isopods need?
A nutritious base of flake soil, white-rotted hardwood and organic topsoil, topped with a generous layer of leaf litter, plus a calcium source. The substrate is a primary food source, not just a floor, so it needs to feed the colony as well as house it.

What is flake soil?
Fermented hardwood: a head start on the natural breakdown that takes months on a forest floor. It holds moisture and gives real nutrition at the same time. Stag beetle larvae are reared in it neat, flower beetle grubs in a bed of it with leaf litter and rotten wood, and for isopods and millipedes it is mixed through the base.

Can you use flake soil for beetles and millipedes?
Yes. Flake soil was first developed for beetle larvae, and it works just as well for millipedes as it does for isopods. Any invertebrate that eats its substrate does better on a nutritious base than an inert one.

Do isopods need cuttlebone?
Yes, or another calcium source. Isopods need calcium to moult and to breed, and without it you see failed moults and falling numbers. Leave a piece of cuttlebone on the surface and let them graze it.

What do you feed isopods?
Most of their diet comes from the substrate itself, leaf litter and white-rotted hardwood. On top of that, offer fresh vegetables once or twice a week and a small amount of protein, such as fish flakes or dried shrimp, weekly, with calcium always available. Take out uneaten fresh food within a day or so, before it moulds.