this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
51 points (93.2% liked)

Asklemmy

43916 readers
1264 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I want to hear from the people with pets like centipedes, prarie dogs, alligators, scorpions, vultures, octupus... What is taking care of your pet like?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Rather small compared to the deep sea ones you are probably thinking of. They’re terrestrial so many people will call them rolly polys or something like that.

The largest species I currently have are Porcellio hoffmannseggi, as far as I know the largest terrestrial ones and they get to about 5 cm total length and maybe 3 cm body length.
I once tried to breed amphibious Ligia oceanica ones that I collected, commonly referred to as sea slaters. They were a bit bigger in terms of body length but needed saltwater and also didn’t fare well with room temperature I am afraid.

However the P. hofmannseggi are fairly easy to keep and inexpensive. They just need a small container with a bit of soil, leaf litter and some dead or rotting hardwood to hide under, I spray them about once per week. It’s a great hobby.

There are also small freshwater species that can be kept in aquarium but they are not sold anywhere and you can usually collect them yourself.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeeeaaahh... I think I knew that pillbugs were isopods; I first learned the term via the deep sea ones, and I just never connect the two.

I've only ever seen the black kind of terrestrial isopods; I didn't even know they came so colorful!

Thanks!

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the tropical species can be really wild, but also the Mediterranean ones can be quite colourful.

You’re welcome!

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

Yeeeaaahh... I think I knew that pillbugs were isopods; I first learned the term via the deep sea ones, and I just never connect the two.

I've only ever seen the black kind of terrestrial isopods; I didn't even know they came so colorful!

Thanks!