Cubaris sp. 'Platinum' Isopods

Lime the substrate when you mix it, then keep liming it, and stand a dish of shell grit or a piece of cuttlebone in the enclosure as a permanent fixture. That is the one distinctive demand Cubaris sp. 'Platinum' makes of a keeper, and it is a mineral demand, not a fiddly one. The species does want steady warmth and a controlled humidity range, both set out below, so this is not an isopod with no requirements at all. What it does not want is constant fussing. Get the warmth and the calcium in place and it largely gets on with things by itself.

Doing that well means working crushed limestone right through the substrate as you mix it, not scattering a little across the surface, and refreshing it as the mix ages and acidifies, since an acid substrate locks calcium away at the point a colony most needs it. Moulting is more or less continuous in a growing group and every moult draws on that supply. The standing source is the other half of the arrangement, something the animals can graze at whenever they want it, which is why the grit or cuttlebone sits in the tub permanently and is not handed out occasionally as a treat.

What it looks like, and what I will not claim

I am keeping this part short, because no published description of the animal exists anywhere I can find. Our own stock carries a soft silvery cast on the usual rounded, domed Cubaris body, and I will leave the description at that. Dressing it up with detail nobody has recorded would only be guesswork. Adults stay under about 13mm, which makes this a small isopod, and the sheen is a close-up detail, not something that reads across a room.

Warmth, moisture and depth

This one is Thai, and the care follows the pattern for the region. Hold 23 to 27°C, which is warmer than most UK rooms manage unaided for much of the year, so a thermostatically controlled heat mat is usually needed, set against one side of the enclosure and not underneath it. Humidity sits between 70 and 85 per cent, shaped into a slope running from a wet end to a drier one so the colony can move between the two instead of being pinned at one reading. The substrate runs 5 to 8cm deep with a thick leaf layer over it, and that leaf layer does most of the work of holding moisture in, which is steadier than misting a bare surface twice a day. Litter and rotten hardwood are the diet underneath everything else, with soft vegetable and a small protein feed as occasional additions.

It balls up when disturbed, as its relatives do, and it works at night, so most of what happens in the tub happens with the lid shut. The surprising part is the rating. Once the warmth and the calcium are in place, keeping and breeding are both classed as straightforward, which is unusual at this end of the hobby, where good-looking Cubaris normally arrive with a difficult reputation attached. Ours are captive-bred, which helps a group settle. As a first step into the calmer premium end of the genus it is a reasonable one for anyone who has already managed a humid tub. The wider Cubaris range is where to look for everything else. Within it, Cappuccino is the other unhurried one. Ice Flower puts a white bloom over brown. Amber Firefly takes the warm end of the colour range.

We guarantee live arrival on every order. Colonies leave in a ventilated deli tub, damp sphagnum underneath, behind a double wall of card, on a Royal Mail next-day service, tracked, timed for before 1pm. Posting is Monday to Thursday only, which is what keeps a parcel of ours out of a depot at the weekend, and every group goes out holding more animals than were ordered.