Porcellionides pruinosus Care Guide

Porcellionides pruinosus, commonly known as powder isopods, are a species in the family Porcellionidae, and are native to Europe. These get their name from the powdery texture of their carapace and it is pretty visible and makes them quite unique in my opinion.

This species is commonly used to be cleanup crew and feeders aswell for other reptiles, amphibians, and other invertebrates. 

In the hobby, many keepers and breeders have cultivated a lot of morphs, such as oreo crumble, white out, red koi, etc.

They are a pretty widespread species, both in the invertebrate hobby and in the world.

This species is pretty widespread, going all the way from North America, to Southeast Asia and even in New Zealand.

Photo credit: TC Insects

These guys are a pretty easy species to keep. So let's dive into how I keep this species.

Housing

I house my P. pruinosus in a small storage container, about 25x15cm or something like that, but going larger would work aswell.

Enclosure is pretty self explanatory, I keep mine pretty much like the "regular" isopod enclosure. One side with some moss and basically a humid side, and a dry side on the other side.

I add some bark for them to hide aswell, and from what I've seen they love hiding in the lotus pods aswell.

My colony consists of both P. pruinosus "powder blue" and "powder orange". Both seem to be coexisting normally and both breeding pretty well and consistently.

Of course leaf litter will also be a staple addition to isopods, although they actually have seemed to over time consume it, definitely should add more.

They enjoy a more humid environment, but a dryer environment can be tolerated.

I keep these at my bug room temperature, but ranging from about 25-29°C (77-84°F).

I keep these with a substrate mix of cocofiber, topsoil, rotting wood, and peatmoss, and that has seemed to do well with them.

Feeding

I feed these dry food such as pellets and fish flakes. They are absolutely ferocious at consuming food.

Of course I also feed them fresh foods, mainly tomato or apple. But I think other things such as cucumber or zucchini has worked for me as well.

Growth/Life Cycle

From my experience, Porcellionides pruinosus take about 2-3, sometimes 4 months to mature of cared for properly. Im not entirely sure how long each specimens lifespan is, but on average mine live about maybe around a year.

Breeding

This species is pretty easy to breed. These take about a few weeks after maturing to breed. I got mine to breed pretty quickly, maybe about 2-3 weeks after I got them. 

Like I said previously these guys take quite fast to mature aswell and are really prolific.

These are a pretty low maintenance species, and like some other isopods these guys can breed quite well when left alone in a tolerable environment.

These are a pretty active species aswell, everytime I open the enclosure they're all always roaming around and foraging for food.

Super fun to watch, they have pretty interesting personalities in my opinion.

So yeah, overall a pretty easy but fun species to keep.

Thanks for taking your time to read 🙏

See you in the next post