The horror!

[ManAlive85]

I’ve introduced colonies of isopods into two of my stars’ enclosures today to act as cleanup crew, since they make so much mess. I’ve just glanced in, only to be met with scenes of utter chaos. One of the lads is endlessly tearing around his viv in circles, as if possessed by the restless spirit of Stirling Moss and the other is stalking about the place, actively hunting the creepy crawlers like a seasoned predator. There are corpses of half chewed woodlice littering the bottom of the viv. It’s an absolute bloodbath!

Has anyone else tried isopods in their enclosures and, if so, is this mayhem to be expected? Will they settle down or am I going to have to dump the substrate?

 

[Maro2Bear]

I’ve introduced colonies of isopods into two of my stars’ enclosures today to act as cleanup crew, since they make so much mess. I’ve just glanced in, only to be met with scenes of utter chaos. One of the lads is endlessly tearing around his viv in circles, as if possessed by the restless spirit of Stirling Moss and the other is stalking about the place, actively hunting the creepy crawlers like a seasoned predator. There are corpses of half chewed woodlice littering the bottom of the viv. It’s an absolute bloodbath!

Has anyone else tried isopods in their enclosures and, if so, is this mayhem to be expected? Will they settle down or am I going to have to dump the substrate?

Just wondering how large & what kind of enclosure you have that is housing two Stars? id think you would want/use a very large one & your isopods would have quickly disappeared down into the substrate once you introduced them.

 

[wellington]

Post a pic of the enclosure and the torts. Is the substrate deep enough for the bugs to dig in?
Maybe put fresh substrate down on top of the bugs so they can hide away and torts settle
Lots of members use them and never reported any problems.

 

[ManAlive85]

Just wondering how large & what kind of enclosure you have that is housing two Stars? id think you would want/use a very large one & your isopods would have quickly disappeared down into the substrate once you introduced them.

They’ve got separate quarters in a big, double decker viv I built a year or so ago. They can’t be together due to the fact one of them is a notorious punk with violent anti-social tendencies.

I expected them to disappear and even put some big flat stones down for them to hide under. What I didn’t expect to see was a sea of mangled cadavers.

 

[ManAlive85]

Post a pic of the enclosure and the torts. Is the substrate deep enough for the bugs to dig in?
Maybe put fresh substrate down on top of the bugs so they can hide away and torts settle
Lots of members use them and never reported any problems.

I’ve gone out for the evening so I don’t have any live pictures from the scene but there’s about 3-4 inches of substrate at the bottom of each viv.

The bugs have burrowed and most of them have disappeared but any that surface in the top viv, are being picked off.

It’s not the isopod behaviour that I’m finding unusual, it’s the tortoises.

 

[wellington]

I’ve gone out for the evening so I don’t have any live pictures from the scene but there’s about 3-4 inches of substrate at the bottom of each viv.

The bugs have burrowed and most of them have disappeared but any that surface in the top viv, are being picked off.

It’s not the isopod behaviour that I’m finding unusual, it’s the tortoises.

Yeah if they were box turtles or Red Foot I would understand it and would be normal.
Well, tortoises are opportunists, I guess they thought they had a windfall and took advantage lol.

 

[wellington]

It won't hurt them, tortoises eat bugs all the time when they are grazing. We just don't usually see it or see them go after a bug. I guess if we dropped a load in front of them we probably would see them hunt them down.

 

[sue white]

I have no advice but I sure got a good laugh from your description.