Many Isopod hobbyists now experience fulfilment in the sale of isopod species as there is currently a growing demand for organisms that consume dead or rotting organic materials. Scientifically known as a kind of detritivore, isopods are generally responsible for recycling and reintroducing vital elements like carbon, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen back into the soil to improve its fertility.
As a detritivore organism, isopods help keep the energy flow circulating in an ecosystem by chewing and digesting decomposed dead and rotten organic materials, which they subsequently reintroduce to the soil through their litter trails.
Breeding Isopods as a Hobby
Many isopod enthusiasts find it easy and economical to engage in isopod breeding as a hobby since it’s a massive order of terrestrial crustaceans with over 10,000 known varying species. Most hobbyists collect isopods in different shapes and sizes that exist and thrive in various types of habitats.
Enthusiasts who keep isopods as pets place them in enclosures where they are the primary inhabitants. They are low cost and low maintenance pets since they can exist in various settings. However, expert isopod breeders give advice not to place a variety of isopods in a single enclosure as these terrestrial crustaceans have a tendency to act competitively and aggressively toward other specoes as a means for survival.
It’s a different condition altogether when isopods are introduced as secondary inhabitants in a live vivarium designed for other animals. As secondary inhabitants, they take on the role of being the cleanup crew and in some cases, also feed in an enclosed area for keeping specific types of animals underbusiness observation, like reptiles, arachnids, amphibians and the likes. Isopods are also food for a variety of small predators such as spiders, beetles, centipedes and small mammals.
Although hobbyists typically collect species found mostly in terrestrial environments, many isopod enthusiasts also take interest in ocean-dwelling varieties. These are isopods equipped with pleopods, which are limbs used for swimming and respiration. While terrestrial isopods are usually small and tiny, measuring only a few millimetres long, the deep sea species can grow much larger in sizes measuring 16 inches up to 20 inches long. Actually, it’s a characteristic observed as common to deep sea animals because of the so called abyssal or deep-sea gigantism phenomenon.
Hobbyists transitioning into selling isopod species as a business have to commit to maintaining high quality care of the isopods from feeding up to the shipping of the terrestrial crustaceans.
Engaging in Isopod Breeding as Hobbyist and Entrepreneur
Hobbyists transitioning into selling isopod species as a business have to commit to maintaining high quality care of the isopods from feeding up to the shipping of the terrestrial crustaceans.
Quality care denotes providing them with food that offers beneficial nutrients. As primary inhabitants of an enclosure, the practical diet for most isopods are dead leaf litter. Quality feeding of isopods involves boiling of all dead leaves introduced as isopod feeds inside an enclosure. Doing so is a means of preventing contamination by any external pathogens
Occasionally, some isopod hobbyists give treats in the form of fish flakes, overripe fruits and even dog biscuits as a source of protein. However, these types of food are strongly contested by other isopod breeders since they tend to attract flies, bugs and detritivorous mites. Their proliferation inside an enclosure or vivarium can adversely affect the balanced ecosystem in the enclosed environment.
When shipping isopods to online customers, conscientious isopod entrepreneurs increase individual shipments with a 20% overcount to cover for potential losses that might occur while in transit.