Curly Woodlouse — Fact Sheet

Cylisticus convexus · Curly Woodlouse

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Placement: Indoor, cool and away from direct sun.
• Starter colony: 30 x 20 x 15 cm or larger; at least 0.06 m² floor area.
• Type: Tight lid with fine mesh over cross-vents; escape risk is high.
• Substrate: 6-8 cm of unfertilized topsoil mixed with decomposed hardwood leaves and soft rotten wood.
• Containment: Quarantine additions for 60 days; open over a catch tub and treat discarded substrate as live.
• Avoid: Coir-only bedding, fertilizer, treated timber, pesticide-exposed leaves and resinous conifer litter.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Keep roughly half the lower substrate moist and the opposite surface progressively drier.
• Cover most of the surface with edible leaf litter; place cork or bark across both moisture zones.
• Add a clean springtail culture only if its identity and health are known.
• Keep cuttlebone, limestone or baked crushed eggshell continuously available.
• Expand the enclosure when animals form several layers beneath every hide.

💡 Lighting

• UVB: Not required or recommended.
• Source: Ordinary indirect room or plant light.
• Photoperiod: 10-12 hours daily.
• Shade: Supply extensive opaque cover under leaves and bark.
• Avoid: Direct sun and strong lamps, which overheat and desiccate the box.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 20-23 °C profile value; do not create a focused basking site

• Warm zone: 16-23 °C

• Cool zone: 16-20 °C

• Night: 14-19 °C

• Established colonies may slow during seasonal cool periods; routine heating is usually unnecessary.

• Avoid sustained temperatures above 25 °C and measure at substrate level.

• If heat is required, thermostat one outside wall; never heat under the moist end.

💧 Humidity & water

• Working range: 55-80%; 75-90% within the shedding refuge.
• Keep about half of the lower substrate moist with a gradual transition to the ventilated dry surface.
• Water the moist end when the deeper layer begins to lighten; do not mist the whole box daily.
• No open water dish or soaking area is required.
• Complete drying = juvenile/molting risk; condensation and sour litter = waterlogging or weak airflow.

🍂 Diet

Feed freely:

• Dead deciduous leaves and soft rotten hardwood, always available.

In moderation:

• Small vegetables 2-3 times weekly.
• A modest pinch of fish food, dried shrimp or similar protein once weekly.

Avoid:

• Moldy leftovers, protein-heavy feeding, treated wood and pesticide-exposed plant material.

Supplements:

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

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Drying losses or animals packed under the wettest hide → restore moisture at one end gradually and inspect below the surface.
• Mites, gnats or odor → remove protein and spoiled vegetables and improve airflow.
• Escapes → inspect lid corners, mesh and carried-out leaves; contain and heat/freeze spent substrate as local rules allow.
• Colony stalls → verify 16-23 °C, deep moisture and continuous leaf food before adding richer feed.
• Incomplete molts → review moisture and the permanent calcium source together.
• Ukraine Pied pattern becomes inconsistent → prevent mixing and label variable offspring honestly as C. convexus.