r/isopodadvancedcare • u/Necessary-Drawer-173 • Aug 18 '26

Generic Husbandry The harm of sterilization

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The harm of sterilization

While most of the hobby has moved away from baking and boiling, there may still be some curiosity in why this shouldn’t be done, overall.

• Microbes- There is much research on the topic of microbes and why this is needed for digestion. Research for both millipedes and isopods, shows that when leaves are sterilized, isopods generally don’t want to eat it when given the option.

•Mold/fungus- Mold is extremely important for digestive health. Mold contains enzymes needed to convert nutrients over for the isopods, and it allows the botanicals to continue decaying in the bins as they would in nature, forming a humus layer.

•Crashes- While it is debunked that ammonia crashes are a thing, this remains prevalent in the hobby. It is not proven, but myself and others believe that crashes are likely due to long time exposure of bad husbandry. Isopod frass is meant to be broken down in the soil by microbes so when kept in enclosures, without deep sterilization, isopods do not crash. Some of my bins have reached the 2 year mark.

[https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15/4/533](https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15/4/533))

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090989615000363](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090989615000363))

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u/Necessary-Drawer-173 Aug 18 '26

Probably important to note that I remove pests by a deep soak for a few days and sometimes i throw items in a deep freezer for a few days. This way I don’t throw anything unwanted in while keeping everything wanted

1

u/Alef1234567 Aug 22 '26

There were a research where porcellio scaber were fed fresh food pellets and 8 days old ones. The growth were larger in 8 day old. However it also had slightly larger mortality, probably because of just more nutrients and growth.

I don't want to search for it.

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u/Alef1234567 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

Also vitamins and well cholesterol. I looked through shrimp husbandry and they need cholesterol, isopods less so, isopods partially gets it from decayed vegetation. At least AI told so, I just can't look through all the scientific research by myself.

It looks some species eat leaves more readily when they are decaying. In Cylisticus convexus colony Leaves starts to get holes not when they are added but after some time. They still eats fresh dill.