Murina Glacier Isopods (Cubaris murina)

Almost every white isopod you meet in the hobby is a dwarf white. This one is not. The Glacier is a genuine Cubaris, ten times the bulk of a dwarf white, and it comes out ghost-white from end to end: a rounded, pale, slow-moving animal that shows up beautifully against dark leaf litter and rolls into a neat bead the moment you disturb it.

Introduction

The Glacier is the whiteout morph of Cubaris murina, sold variously as the Murina Glacier, the Glacier Isopod or Cubaris murina 'Glacier'. Where the wild-type murina is a muted grey animal with faint orange marking toward the rear, the Glacier expresses no pigment at all, so what you get is uniform white throughout. It belongs to the easy, adaptable end of the genus rather than the demanding cave species, alongside its pink sibling the Marina Papaya, and it is among the few Cubaris a first-time keeper can take on with real confidence.

Appearance

Adults sit at around a centimetre, with the smooth, domed, faintly glossy shell typical of the genus. The colour, or rather the absence of it, is the whole point: legs, antennae and body are all the same clean white, and by every account the eyes are unpigmented too, which is what separates a true Glacier from an isopod that has simply moulted pale. Touch one and it folds shut into a pale bead, unrolling again in its own time. In a planted enclosure the effect is striking, because there is very little else that colour moving through the litter.

Care

This is one of the most tolerant Cubaris you can keep. Cubaris murina has spread across warm regions worldwide, and that adaptability shows in captivity: it copes with a wide band of temperature and humidity where a cave species would sulk, and a normal heated UK room suits it for most of the year. Keep the enclosure moist rather than wet, with proper airflow, and let one end run damper than the other so the colony can pick its spot. Give them depth to burrow and a substrate that feeds them, built on flake soil, white-rotted hardwood and organic topsoil with leaf litter packed over the top. Coco coir will not do the job as a base: it is good at staying damp and useless as food, and an isopod grazes its own floor. Keep cuttlebone or crushed limestone in there permanently for moulting. Our substrate guide and calcium guide cover the setup, and if this is your first colony the beginner's guide takes you through the rest.

Diet

Leaf litter and decaying hardwood do most of the feeding, and these are hungrier animals than their size suggests, so keep both topped up rather than letting the enclosure run bare. Add vegetables such as carrot or courgette in small amounts, a little protein like fish flake or dried shrimp once or twice a week, and lift anything left over before it turns. A springtail culture underneath them mops up what the isopods miss.

Breeding

Glaciers breed quickly and without fuss, which is unusual for the genus and a large part of their appeal. Set a group up well, leave them alone for a few weeks, and the numbers climb steadily from there with no intervention needed. For anyone who fancies the premium Cubaris but is wary of paying a lot for a colony that might stall, this is the species to learn the husbandry on first.

Who is this for?

Two keepers in particular. The first is anyone wanting an easy way into Cubaris, since the Glacier teaches you how the genus behaves without the cost or the sulking, and makes the step up to something like our best-selling Rubber Ducky far less daunting. The second is the bioactive keeper after a hard-working, quick-breeding clean-up crew that happens to look like nothing else in the tank. One honest note: their shell is harder than a dwarf white's, so if you want a feeder culture for frogs or small geckos, dwarf whites remain the better buy, and the Glacier is the one you keep for its own sake. The rest of the genus is in our Cubaris collection.

Stock is captive-bred here in the UK. Orders travel in a ventilated deli tub with sphagnum moss, boxed inside a double wall, and are covered by our live arrival guarantee. Posting runs Monday to Thursday only, so nothing sits in a depot over the weekend.