Cubaris sp. 'Giant Mandarin' Isopods

Plenty of Cubaris come in orange; the Giant Mandarin adds a detail almost none of them have, a pair of clear red eyes that stand out sharply against the tangerine body. It is the feature keepers notice first and the easiest way to tell the species at a glance. The rest of the animal lives up to the "Giant" in the name: at around 17 mm it is roughly three times the bulk of the popular Cubaris murina 'Mandarin' it is often compared to, so it brings the familiar duck-faced Cubaris look in a much more substantial package. The orange itself ranges from lighter tangerine to a deeper hue and tends to intensify with age as the colony moults through.

It is sold as a Thai species, one of the larger warm-orange Cubaris in the hobby, and it makes a bold, visible colony rather than a shy one. For a keeper who likes the Cubaris aesthetic but wants an animal with real presence, the size and the red eyes together make it stand out on a shelf of premium isopods. It sits comfortably alongside the classic Cubaris such as the Rubber Ducky and the gateway Panda King.

Care follows the Cubaris pattern, which is a touch more involved than the hardy Mediterranean species but well within reach. These are premium Cubaris that want warmth and steady humidity with a gradient, not a wet box: keep a damp end and a drier end, mist to maintain moisture rather than soaking, and run cross-ventilation to keep the air fresh. Aim for warmth and hold the humidity up without letting the enclosure go stagnant. In practice that means somewhere around 21 to 26°C. An English home averages about 19°C over the heating season, under that band, and about 21.5°C in July and August, at the bottom of it. They tolerate a cooler room, though they breed better with some additional heat from autumn to spring: a heat mat or heat cable on a thermostat, on the side of the tub, never underneath. Keep humidity high at the damp end, roughly 75 to 85 per cent, tapering to a drier zone at the other side so the colony can choose.

Give a starter colony a five to ten litre tub with a clip-lock lid and cross-vented sides. For substrate use a living base of flake soil, well-rotted hardwood and organic topsoil, deep enough to burrow, and work plenty of calcium through it, crushed limestone, cuttlebone or oyster shell, since woodlice build a calcium carbonate cuticle. Coco coir on its own is best avoided as a base; it holds damp but feeds nothing as it breaks down.

Top the substrate with a thick layer of magnolia and oak leaf litter and add cork bark and a few pieces of rotting wood for cover, the kind of dark, humid hiding places these animals favour. Feeding is simple: leaf litter and decaying wood as the always-available base, soft veg like courgette, squash and sweet potato a couple of times a week with leftovers lifted promptly, and an occasional little protein.

Like most premium Cubaris the Giant Mandarin breeds at a steady rather than explosive pace, the female carrying young in a brood pouch and releasing live miniatures a few at a time; given warmth, humidity and calcium a colony builds reliably over time. Juveniles arrive paler, with the deep orange and the red-eye contrast filling in over successive moults, so give a young group a few months before judging its colour. Our Giant Mandarin care guide has the full setup and the difference from the murina Mandarin. Pair them with a springtail culture to graze the soft mould in the humid corners. Every order is captive-bred, boxed double-walled around a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum and posted Monday to Thursday by Royal Mail Tracked 24, or Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm if you choose Next Day at checkout, with a live-arrival guarantee and a 20% overcount as standard.