Hisserdude's Isopods

Nathant wrote:I see that there are different colors of the same species. Is that some sort of gene experiment? I've never seen bright orange isopods in the wild, that's for sure!

Most of the cool color morphs just showed up randomly in my normal colonies, interesting how I started my colonies with normal looking individuals, and now, years later, these beautiful color morphs just start popping up! Whenever I find a new color morph I take the individuals and move them to their own containers in the hopes that I can isolate the morph and keep it in culture.

Funnily enough though, I did start my Porcellio scaber "Orange" culture with bright orange individuals I found outside! Couple years ago I was camping in the Boise national forest, and while looking for some bugs under rocks, I found three bright orange individuals amongst dozens of normal looking ones. Such brightly colored individuals are rare in the wild since they are more eye-catching and get eaten faster, so it was quite a lucky find!

pannaking22 wrote:You can find rather variable individuals in the wild, but to get vibrant colors like that takes some selective breeding. For instance, I just found two peach colored Armadillidium vulgare in my colony, so I separated them and am hoping to isolate that color over time.

Indeed, though the orange Porcellio scaber I found in the forest were very bright colored, just like their offspring. To isolate the morph definitely takes some selective breeding though, gotta be sure to cull out any normal or dull looking individuals to make sure only the most vibrant looking individuals are breeding.

Hisserdude wrote:

Nathant wrote:I see that there are different colors of the same species. Is that some sort of gene experiment? I've never seen bright orange isopods in the wild, that's for sure!

Most of the cool color morphs just showed up randomly in my normal colonies, interesting how I started my colonies with normal looking individuals, and now, years later, these beautiful color morphs just start popping up! Whenever I find a new color morph I take the individuals and move them to their own containers in the hopes that I can isolate the morph and keep it in culture.

Funnily enough though, I did start my Porcellio scaber "Orange" culture with bright orange individuals I found outside! Couple years ago I was camping in the Boise national forest, and while looking for some bugs under rocks, I found three bright orange individuals amongst dozens of normal looking ones. Such brightly colored individuals are rare in the wild since they are more eye-catching and get eaten faster, so it was quite a lucky find!

pannaking22 wrote:You can find rather variable individuals in the wild, but to get vibrant colors like that takes some selective breeding. For instance, I just found two peach colored Armadillidium vulgare in my colony, so I separated them and am hoping to isolate that color over time.

Indeed, though the orange Porcellio scaber I found in the forest were very bright colored, just like their offspring. To isolate the morph definitely takes some selective breeding though, gotta be sure to cull out any normal or dull looking individuals to make sure only the most vibrant looking individuals are breeding.

That is really neat. I'm going to try that as soon as I see some color morphs in my colony.