Intro to Aquatic Isopods (in your aquarium)

Have you ever wished that your dairy cows could swim with the fishes? (not in a murderous walk-the-plank way, more of a cute-and-they-know-it detritivore way).

Well you're in luck! Because isopods are coming to aquariums near you and they can't be stopped! #theisopod agenda is here, so BEWARE... or be digested into usable nutrients for your local ecosystem :)

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I want to thank everyone who convinced me to try and make a video about these guys. You may not know it yet, but I'm probably top 10 biggest asellidae fans on the east coat. I've been keeping and breeding these guys for about a year now and I've been pretty obsessed. I wanted to make a video to answer some basic questions / give a simple intro to those who may not familiar. But I would like to get more into the details in the future and dive into the taxonomy with latin names and all that good stuff I can barely read!

So if you're interested in that, or anything else involving freshwater aquatic isopods, cleanup crews, detritivore, meme edits, or debating star wars theology, let me know! Definitely want to make videos on other topics so keep an eye out.

Below I'll list some of the sources that informed this video and supplemented my relatively minimal experience. To the real experts; I did my best, but feel free to correct anything in the comments. It's all about learning so I won't take it personally!

Anyways this was a little bit about what's been going on in my tanks, let me know what's been going on in yours!

Okay okay, enough yapping.

Sources (I will keep updating this over time give me a lil bit):

- General info: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecolo...

- Reproduction: https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/articl...

- Studies on the endocrinology of isopod crustaceans. Moulting in Ligia oceanica (L.): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/jo...
ia-oceanica-l/36ED6511D9C22F5984B4E1A0B88CF902

- Effects of submersed macrophytes on ecosystem processes: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

- Freshwater Isopods (Asellidae) of North America: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/9100HC...


p.s., a lot of studies are on asellus aquaticus, which is a UK species. I believe mine is Caecidotea sp., but so far I find the information on asellus to be applicable.


Song is Aquaria Ost by the great Alec Howler, who composed the music for the game Aquaria which has one of my favorite video game soundtracks.