6/8/2022: Merulanella sp. “Tricolor” in hand

I have bemoaning the lack of readily available CB Merulanella sp. for the last year now, but Invertebrate Dude TJ was able to claim a bounty on a CB source for my most coveted species, sp. “Tricolor”.

I received a lovely group of smalls a week or so ago and was eager to put them into richly fermenting set-up I had devised to optimize my chances of a vigorous colony forming. I had excellent success doing this with first wave imports of Cubaris sp. “Rubber Ducky” back in 2017 and figured the half decade of experience with new isopods in the interim would help me hone the technique further.

A few folks who’ve had patchy success say I will hopefully have babies in 4-6 months, though with the temperature and quality of the set-up I’m hoping for half that. Time will tell, but for now I’m just happy to finally get a group and at a price I didn’t need to sell all of my blood plasma, kidneys, and a testicle for.

-Kyle