Quarantine protects both the new colony and the rest of your collection. It gives you time to learn how the animals respond to your room conditions while watching for hitchhikers and unexplained losses.
Use a complete but inspectable setup
Provide proper substrate, leaf litter, bark, calcium, and a moisture gradient. Keep the layout simple enough that you can check feeding areas and walls without dismantling the habitat.
Separate equipment and workflow
- Place quarantine cultures away from established bins.
- Use dedicated tweezers and feeding dishes, or clean tools between groups.
- Work with established healthy colonies first and quarantine colonies last.
- Do not move leaves, moss, or substrate between them.
Record what you see
Note arrival date, source, deaths, feeding response, molts, pests, and first young. A written timeline distinguishes shipping stress from a continuing enclosure problem.
Transfer deliberately
When the colony has remained stable through an adequate observation period, move animals and only clean, inspected habitat material. Never combine colonies merely because they share a label unless preserving the line is not important.
Quick checklist
- Separate location
- Dedicated or cleaned tools
- Arrival observations recorded
- No unexplained losses or pest increase
Prepare quarantine before ordering from the live isopod collection.
