r/InvertPets • u/TheStroboCop • 5d ago
Does anyone have experiences with keeping Pseudoscorpions?
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u/Velcraft Isopods are for me! 5d ago
They need prey, preferrably springtails or dust/grain mites. Otherwise very simple to care for, although I haven't deliberately added them to anything. I mostly find them in cork bark hunting for something or hiding.
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u/TheStroboCop 5d ago
I've never seen one. Sadly and to buy they're freaking expensive. Doesn't matter what kind of springtail? I got some slow yuukis.
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u/Velcraft Isopods are for me! 5d ago
The type shouldn't matter to a micro predator. If you want to source springtails locally, collect some mushroom caps, they'll be hiding within the gills. You'll inevitably collect some rove beetles too, and those are springtail hunters as well so you might want to get rid of them if you want to introduce pseudoscorpions into the mix.
As for the scorpions themselves, they like to hide between pages of old books. Storing one outside exposed to the elements (obviously something with no value, don't toss valuable books you still want to read outside!) should see all sorts of creepy crawlies migrate to it.
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u/TheStroboCop 5d ago
Would that work in an Enclosure with isopods as well (porcellio laevis "dairy cow")?
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u/Velcraft Isopods are for me! 5d ago
It would, but I'd urge you to make a colony of just springtails as a backup - they'll eat mold and everything organic so you don't have to keep their bin tidy.
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u/aster_etc 5d ago
Go check the lower loose bark of trees such as pecan, walnut, sycamore, cypress, etc
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u/aster_etc 5d ago
They don't need just live prey, I've kept them for years. I see them in the wild scavenging dead beetles (such as may and june bugs) that were dead holding onto the bark of trees (specifically pecan for my area). I'll feed them a mix of whatever feeder that has freshly died, they love dead mealworm beetles. The tank also has a ton of springtails in it, which they will eat.
I layer the bark standing up kinda like salami but each one is kinda different in size/lumpy so there are tiny gaps inbetween.
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u/TheStroboCop 5d ago
Oh, so they'd help with dead isopods?
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u/aster_etc 5d ago
Do you mean where you feed them one later? Sure. I wouldn’t house them together. Give them each their own tank.
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u/Flasky-Desk 5d ago
I have no direct experience but a very experienced keeper I met has a large colony in a huge tank - I think something like 40x50x60 or more - where they are thriving. I imagine a large bioactive tank is benificial so they can hunt diverse microorganisms and chose their own humidity. Funny enough she didn't put them there, they just showed up in a mantis tank lol.