Dairy cow isopods (Porcellio laevis) 

 

Quick Guide;

 

Dairy cows are a staple requirement for any serious bio-active enclosure. As well as being an attractive animal they're also very robust, hardy, and prolific, and will live quite happily along with springtails to create the ultimate clean-up crew for your living enclosure.

 

These isopods will do well in any medium to high humidity environments (60-80%), and like most arthropods they are more prolific in higher temperatures.

 

As with all isopods they breath using pleopodal lungs that require humidity to function - They are self regulating and will migrate to alternative areas within their enclosure to find the right levels for them. With this in mind it is a good idea to have a drier area so that they can seek out the desired level, and, of course, somewhere they can hide when they don't feel like hogging the limelight!

 

In their natural environment they consume a large variety of foods including dead and rotting wood and plant matter, as well as fallen fruits, dead insects and animals. In captivity they will take small amounts of fresh veg, fish flakes and fish pellets as part of their diet, and they also require some form of calcium intake, usually supplied in the form of cuttlefish bone or crushed egg shells.