Venezillo parvus Care & Info

Hi everyone. Welcome to another post.

In this post I want to share how I keep my Venezillo parvus isopods, also known as Little Pillbugs.

Range

So where is this species from? V. parvus range from the USA, to Europe and possibly Asia. It isn't confirmed if the ones in Asia are really V. parvus though, and I collected mine here in my hometown in Indonesia so I'll just call them Venezillo cf. parvus.

But they usually thrive in warm and humid environments. 

Description

Venezillo parvus is a rather small species of isopod. They are about 5mm at their largest, and are able to conglobate.

I have the wildtype variant, but there are some morphs out there that possess striking patterns, such as Dalmatian where it's something like a dairy cow, white with black blotches.

But in my opinion, the wildtype are also quite beautiful. They come in two colors. One is like the one shown above, which is a much apply a more dull-colored and greyish body, while I've seen some with more vibrant colors like a tan head.

I am aware that the image is terrible, I have a better picture somewhere but I could not find it.

But this is a good enough picture to show the coloration.

Setup

I keep my Little Pillbugs in a small 32oz horizontal plastic containers, because my colony is fairly small. I got these guys to breed multiple times over the time I've kept these guys and I've had a few generations, although the colony is quite small still.

For a larger colony, you can use a regular shoebox-size Sterlite tub. 

The components of the enclosure should include:

- Some bark to hide under 

- Leaf litter

- Substrate 

The substrate mix I usually use consists of flake soil, topsoil, peatmoss, cocofiber, and rotting wood.

Make sure to also add damp sphagnum moss on one side, to maintain a moisture gradient like shown below.

Venezillo cf. parvus enclosure (leaf litter will be replenished)

I keep mine at 23-25°C (73-77°F), and they do well.

Feeding

I feed my little pillbugs like any other isopod, dog/cat/fish food or fish flakes, zucchini, apples, and they will also munch on the leaf litter. I feed them every few or every other week.

Breeding

In my experience, these guys have been slow breeders for me. But I just got them to breed by leaving them alone for longer periods of time, maybe a couple of weeks to a month. But of course I hydrate and feed them every few weeks like previously said.

And that's basically how I care for these little guys, just a short little guide but I hope this helped.

Thanks for reading! 👋