Dwarf White Isopod

The default clean-up crew of the hobby and the easiest isopod to keep. Tiny, blind-white, and entirely harmless. They are PARTHENOGENETIC — populations are all-female and reproduce without males, so a culture started from a dozen animals will establish on its own. Unlike most isopods they want the substrate damp throughout rather than a wet-to-dry gradient, and they tolerate less ventilation. Feed decaying leaf litter and rotting hardwood continuously, with a calcium source (cuttlebone or eggshell) and an occasional protein supplement such as fish flake. DETRITIVORE: no live prey, and they should never be offered any. They also live inside other animals' bioactive enclosures, where they eat mold and waste — keeping them as their own colony simply means tracking a population you feed deliberately.