Your Isopods Have Arrived: Unboxing and Settling In

By Kernow Isopods · Truro, Cornwall

Your isopods have travelled overnight, so the first hour matters. Here's how to unbox them, settle them in and give the colony the best start.

1. Open the parcel straight away

Don't leave the box on the doorstep or in a cold porch. Open it indoors as soon as it arrives and take the culture pots out. If there's a heat pack, it may still be warm: that's normal.

2. Check them and take a photo

Open each pot and look through the moss and substrate: isopods often hide or curl up after a journey, so give them a few minutes to start moving. If any have arrived dead, take a clear photo within 2 hours of delivery and email it to hello@kernowisopods.com. Our Live Arrival Guarantee covers you.

3. Have the tub ready

Ideally set the new tub up a day or two before delivery so it's settled. You'll need:

A plastic tub with small vents on two sides.
5–8 cm of organic substrate (topsoil and coco fibre), damp at one end and drier at the other.
Moss on the damp end, a thick layer of baked leaf litter, and cork bark or rotten wood to hide under.
Cuttlebone for calcium.

4. Move them in gently

Tip the whole culture pot, substrate and moss included, onto the damp end of the new tub. Babies hide in the substrate, so don't pick through it or throw any away. Lay a piece of bark over them so they have instant cover.

5. Leave them alone for a week

Resist checking every day. Put a little food in (leaf litter is already there; add a pinch of protein after a few days) and keep the damp end damp. Disturbing them constantly is stressful, especially for Cubaris.

6. What's normal in the first few weeks

They'll mostly hide. That's a good sign: they feel safe.
Some will moult (shed in two halves). Leave the moult: they eat it for calcium.
Breeding can take a few weeks to a few months depending on the species, so patience pays off.

Next: read what to feed isopods, and if anything goes wrong, see why isopods die.

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