#ispods

Recently I added a few isopods from the back yard to my vivarium. Their home was being destroyed by yard work, I happened to be there, I scooped up a few.

Unlike my spoiled third-generation tank-raised babies that lounge around sunbathing all day and ignore me when I add tasty snacks, these new ones are wild animals who have known a life of danger.

And, unfortunately, a life devoid of tasty snacks. They shun the carrots, cabbage, and gut load blocks, and eat almost exclusively fern fronds. The fern is now in danger of being eaten away to nothing.

I have, in an attempt to protect my vivarium fern, harvested some of the terrarium fern's fronds and placed them in the eating area. I hope the isopods will eat those and leave their environmental enrichment alone.

As I put the fronds into the vivarium, I thought to myself, "These were once the same plant. This dying leaf could communicate with the living one and catch up on what they've been doing in their time apart. Or perhaps they have no memory or knowledge of their connection. I don't know if they're still the same plant or completely different ones now."