Porcellio hoffmannseggii — Fact Sheet

Porcellio hoffmannseggii · Porcellio hoffmannseggii

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Minimum practical culture: 40 × 30 × 20 cm for roughly 15-20 animals.
• Substrate depth: At least 7 cm of mineral-rich edible substrate.
• Moisture layout: Keep one compact deep, damp moss refuge while most of the surface remains dry; provide generous low and high cross-ventilation.
• Orange is a captive colour line, not a separate species. Keep provenance labels and culture it under the same dry-Mediterranean regime.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Base: Pesticide-free mineral soil mixed with decayed hardwood and crushed leaves; do not use plain coconut fibre as the diet.
• Cover: Deep hardwood leaf litter plus broad cork flats and bark crevices. Keep heavy stones supported from the base, not balanced on loose substrate.
• Calcium: Maintain cuttlebone, limestone, oyster shell, or plain calcium carbonate continuously.

💡 Lighting

• Cycle: Normal indirect room light and a regular day-night rhythm are sufficient; UVB is not required.
• Heat safety: Keep the tub out of direct sun and away from radiators.

🌡️ Temperature

• Culture: 18-25 °C; breed around 20-24 °C and avoid sustained heat above 27 °C
• Heating: If needed, heat only one side wall under thermostat control; never heat the entire base.

💧 Humidity & water

• Supporting range: Roughly 45-65% RH; the sharp substrate gradient matters more than the room hygrometer.
• Method: Add water only to the deep refuge and allow most surface to dry. No water bowl is needed.
• Correction: Condensation or a uniformly dark, wet surface means ventilation is too weak or the refuge is too large.

🪳 Diet

• Keep hardwood leaves and decayed wood available continuously. Supply permanent calcium and a small animal-protein portion weekly; use vegetables sparingly and remove leftovers within 24 hours.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Condensation, sour substrate, or animals avoiding the wet end indicate excess moisture. Failed molts or crowding tightly inside the damp refuge indicate too little accessible moisture; isolate sudden deaths.
• Quarantine new stock for 60-90 days with separate tools; investigate mites, mixed species, and unexplained mortality before moving leaves or substrate between cultures.