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Porcellio hoffmannseggi Dying . . . HELP!


Acro

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I have a small breeding group of Porcellio hoffmannseggi, maybe about 50 in all. 

They have been doing fine for several months, but now, about once a week I find one or two dead on their backs.  I recently found one dying, kept flipping over.  The dead (or dying ones) are a little discolored (cream instead of white edges).  This happens to large adults and medium sized juveniles, I haven't seen it with smaller ones.  

They have a screen lid, substrate is Coco Coir, about 25% of the sweater box size container is kept moist.  I feed them something moist (beetle jelly, or veggies), fish food, reptile calcium powder.  They have dead hardwood leaves and dead sphagnum moss.  There is cork bark and a few other wood pieces in there.

What do you think needs fixing?  My current guess, is maybe drier substrate and/or more food (I often find they have eaten all their food, while my other isopod species have a little left over).

I don't want to slowly lose my whole Porcellio hoffmannseggi colony!  Please help!

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It's summer now, have your temps in that room been on the rise? My Spanish Porcellio always did the worst in summer, when I moved them to cooler rooms they seemed to do much better. Larger individuals are often more affected by warmer temps than juveniles. 

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On 6/24/2020 at 11:56 PM, Hisserdude said:

It's summer now, have your temps in that room been on the rise? My Spanish Porcellio always did the worst in summer, when I moved them to cooler rooms they seemed to do much better. Larger individuals are often more affected by warmer temps than juveniles. 

You know . . . that's something I wouldn't have thought of!  Thanks for that Hisserdude!

What is their natural habitat anyway?  Are they cave dwellers?

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4 hours ago, Acro said:

You know . . . that's something I wouldn't have thought of!  Thanks for that Hisserdude!

What is their natural habitat anyway?  Are they cave dwellers?

No problem, hope cooling them down a bit helps with the mortality! 

I think dry forests in Spain, but don't quote me on that... Probably not cave dwellers.

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  • 5 months later...
On 6/24/2020 at 10:16 PM, Acro said:

I have a small breeding group of Porcellio hoffmannseggi, maybe about 50 in all. 

They have been doing fine for several months, but now, about once a week I find one or two dead on their backs.  I recently found one dying, kept flipping over.  The dead (or dying ones) are a little discolored (cream instead of white edges).  This happens to large adults and medium sized juveniles, I haven't seen it with smaller ones.  

They have a screen lid, substrate is Coco Coir, about 25% of the sweater box size container is kept moist.  I feed them something moist (beetle jelly, or veggies), fish food, reptile calcium powder.  They have dead hardwood leaves and dead sphagnum moss.  There is cork bark and a few other wood pieces in there.

What do you think needs fixing?  My current guess, is maybe drier substrate and/or more food (I often find they have eaten all their food, while my other isopod species have a little left over).

I don't want to slowly lose my whole Porcellio hoffmannseggi colony!  Please help!

I have porcelio and I have a colony of about 80, try not to let mold grow because the spores can cause harm and mainly mine die of old age they could have been bought older.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/5/2021 at 7:42 PM, Allpet Roaches said:

Did they recover okay?

They kept slowly dying under my care, so before they all died out, I sent them off to a friend.  Haven't talked to him in a while so I'm not sure how they are doing.  I did get your big isopod book for Christmas, so I'm better armed for next time. 

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