Mediterranean Hissing Isopod — Fact Sheet

Armadillo officinalis · Mediterranean Hissing Isopod

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Placement: Indoor or in a legally appropriate protected seasonal setup; prevent direct sun and rain flooding.
• Starter colony: 35 x 25 x 20 cm or larger; at least 0.0875 m² floor area.
• Type: Tight, fine cross-ventilated container with several broad hides.
• Substrate: 7-10 cm of unfertilized topsoil, crushed deciduous leaves and rotten hardwood; add sand/mineral material only on the drier side.
• Containment: Quarantine additions for 60-90 days; service over a catch tub.
• Avoid: Fine sand alone, fertilized soil, sprayed leaves, resinous wood and heavy stones on loose substrate.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Maintain a small, deep moist refuge over roughly one-quarter to one-third of the floor and a broad ventilated dry zone.
• Use moss in the refuge; place bark slabs across the moisture boundary.
• Keep a deep layer of edible leaves and stable hides that cannot collapse.
• Supply cuttlebone, limestone or baked crushed eggshell continuously.
• Keep Brown/orange, Pink Mix and unlabelled colonies separate when preserving line identity.

💡 Lighting

• UVB: Not required or recommended.
• Source: Indirect room light; never an unshielded hot lamp.
• Photoperiod: 10-13 hours, with the longer day in summer if using a seasonal cycle.
• Shade: Darkness beneath leaves and bark must always be available.
• Avoid: Direct sun, which can heat a closed colony in minutes.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 24-26 °C profile value; do not create a focused basking site

• Warm zone: 20-26 °C

• Cool zone: 18-22 °C

• Night: 16-21 °C

• Do not keep the entire colony at 26 °C; gravid females and mancae need a cooler moist retreat.

• Measure inside the box at substrate level, not only at room level.

• If heat is necessary, thermostat one outside wall; never heat from below.

💧 Humidity & water

• Working range: 45-70%; 70-85% within the shedding refuge.
• Keep one-quarter to one-third of the substrate deeply moist beneath moss and bark; allow most of the surface to dry between waterings.
• Check the lower layer with a clean finger or wooden skewer; room humidity does not prove the refuge is moist.
• No open water dish or soaking area is required.
• Whole-box condensation/sour soil = too wet; failed molts or juvenile losses with dry lower layers = restore one refuge gradually.

🍂 Diet

Feed freely:

• Dry and decayed hardwood leaves plus soft rotten wood, always available.

In moderation:

• Squash, carrot, sweet potato or a few oats in small portions.
• Dried shrimp or fish food once weekly; remove leftovers promptly.

Avoid:

• Rich pet food as a staple, large wet portions, moldy feed and chemically treated leaves or wood.

Supplements:

• Cuttlebone, limestone or baked crushed eggshell continuously available; no routine vitamin powder.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Colony crash in warm, dry weather → cool the enclosure and restore only the protected moist refuge gradually.
• Incomplete molts → check deep moisture and calcium without soaking the entire box.
• Slow breeding → verify mature animals, seasonal temperature and an undisturbed damp refuge.
• Mites or foul odor → remove rich food, clear spoiled patches and improve ventilation.
• Animals remain tightly rolled or hide unusually long → measure substrate heat and refuge moisture.
• Brown/orange or Pink Mix appearance becomes inconsistent → prevent mixing and label offspring honestly as A. officinalis.