‘Magic Potion’ Isopods (Armadillidium vulgare) - Woodlouse Culture
An insanely popular morph of Armadillidium vulgare that’s a firm favourite in the hobby!
‘Magic Potion’ is the expression of the Dalmatian gene, which causes the milky-white body colouration with black dots. This species has naturally occurring yellow spots which mix with the morph, creating a beautiful looking isopod. Their classic appearance develops with age, with mancae being white and gaining more colouration after each molt.
These can fully conglobate (roll up) making them a classic roly-poly, and tend to be on display quite often and are a lot bolder than other species. A great choice for both beginner and experienced hobbyists that enjoy a pretty and prolific isopod!
Please note, there are two lines of Magic Potions, American and Japanese, which have mixed within the hobby so we can’t say for sure which line these are.
Adult size: 1-2cm
Lifespan: 2-3 years
Status: captive bred
Temperature: 15-27˚C
Humidity: 70-80%
Diet: Hardwood leaf litter (oak, beech, hazel etc), rotten hardwood, flake soil, organic waste/ faeces, sphagnum moss, mushrooms, variety of fruit and vegetables (favourites include cucumber, carrot, and sweet potato), sepia/ calcium supplement, protein source (fish flake, shrimp pellets, nutritional yeast, dried mealworms)
The EntoScapes Way
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Return & Refund Policy - Live Inverts
- We suggest keeping A. vulgare between 21-22˚C and 70-80% humidity for best results. We keep a large colony of isopods in a 40x20x20cm critter keeper with vent holes across the lid. A smaller colony will do just fine in a 20x15x15cm enclosure.
- Like other isopods, these need a humidity gradient which can be achieved by making sure there are dry and damp areas in their environment. The best way is to provide sphagnum moss or live moss in one third of the enclosure as a 'hydration station' and keep this constantly moist. We suggest keeping the substrate moist (not soaking!) and provide plenty of bark pieces and leaf litter to allow them to seek out dryer spots.
- Make sure you use a high-quality substrate (no coco coir!) such as our Premium Millipede Edible Substrate as this will be the main food component for your isopods, and provide crushed cuttlebone or eggshells for calcium, as well as a good quality protein source once a week for optimal health. We prefer to feed vegetables to our isopods to help deter fruit fly and fungus gnat infestations, but that’s just our choice! Like many invertebrates one of their favourites is cucumber which we provide in slices and replace once completely eaten, which is around once a week.
- We recommend not keeping any protein-hungry isopods with millipedes as they can sometimes nibble on them whilst molting!
