Clown isopod

Armadillidium klugii is a Balkan pill isopod. Trade morph names and changing spot colours do not by themselves prove locality.

Confirm line identity.

Provide a complete separate culture before considering use in another animal’s habitat.

Arrange dependable holiday care and keep money available for food, replacement equipment and appropriate veterinary help. Test the habitat before the animal arrives.

Wildform proposes a secure ventilated 40 × 30 cm footprint for a starter colony, with generous leaf litter, bark and a genuinely moist refuge alongside a drier end.

Measure usable internal space after substrate, guards and furnishings. Check ventilation, cable holes and access against the smallest occupant. Fix heavy furnishings independently of loose substrate.

Do not assume compatibility as a cleanup crew in another animal’s enclosure.

The keeper uses 22–26°C. Monitor the moist refuge and summer peaks; do not add an unregulated mat underneath.

Record the warm and cool locations, overnight minimum and daytime maximum. Air, surface and substrate readings are different measurements. Any added heater needs compatible thermostatic control and safe separation from the animal; assess summer cooling as well as winter heating.

Use a normal day/night rhythm with opaque shelter; no mandatory UVB target was established.

Keep the night dark and provide retreat from daytime light. Lamp percentage, electrical wattage and a product name cannot establish the exposure reaching an animal. Check the finished installation after changes to mesh, branches or lamp position.

Maintain the wet-to-dry substrate choice rather than a sealed uniformly humid tub. Ventilation must not dry the refuge completely.

Inspect the occupied refuge and substrate as well as the air reading. Adjust water provision and ventilation together, and clean contaminated drinking surfaces. A single humidity number cannot describe every microclimate.

Adjust moisture and ventilation to the actual culture.

Keep decayed hardwood leaves and suitable rotten wood continuously available, plus plain calcium and small assessed supplements.

Record what is actually eaten and follow changes in growth and body condition. Food size, life stage and the full diet matter. Supplement products require an individual plan; do not combine calcium, vitamin D and multivitamins by guesswork.

Avoid repeatedly rolling or exposing animals for viewing. Check population and young beneath a limited piece of cover.

Make necessary maintenance predictable and allow voluntary retreat. Prepare a secure transfer container before essential moves. Observation should not repeatedly interrupt feeding, rest or moulting.

Repeated surface clustering or losses call for a review of moisture, ventilation, food and contamination.

Keep dated observations of appetite, activity and condition. A sudden decline, injury, abnormal breathing or repeated failed moults needs appropriate professional assessment. This guide does not provide a diagnosis or medicine dose.

Keep morph and source records without presenting a trade name as geographic certification.

Ask for a dated source record, scientific identity, life stage and established care history. Keep new arrivals and their equipment separate while an appropriate quarantine plan is agreed. Check current official rules for the exact animal, route and transaction before importing or buying; this page does not establish legal clearance. Never release animals or viable eggs outdoors.

Check the moist refuge and remove spoiled supplements. Replenish leaves/calcium and review colony density. Keep a dated record of measurements and observations, and revisit the full advice when conditions or life stage change.