Good evening,
I am looking into starting a bioactive enclosure for a mourning Gecko colony and wanted to know what would be some good isopods for this?
Thank you so much for your time.
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Here are some great beginner ones off the top of my head! These all do well in high humidity but otherwise are super versatile. 
- Porcellio scaber (Any variation)
- Dwarf White
- Dwarf Grey
- Dwarf Purple
- P. pruinosus (Any variation)
- Springtails
Hope this helps!
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Dairy cows 
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Personally I wouldn’t use dairy cows for mourning geckos. just because of their size and their tendency to be protein hungry. But for crestie enclosures and as pets they’re great! I would use dwarf whites or P. pruinosus with springtails.
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I know many people using them, and all fine 
Infact I’m adding them to mine, added whites today and springtails. But the frogs 100% I’m sure are going to devour them… As would the mournings. They eat anything 
I have the tumacs and mournings together, the cow babies will most likely get eaten off anyway 
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Yes, I did not recommend the dairy cows for exactly this reason. While mourning geckos are arboreal, it is still not worth the risk for me, especially giving someone else that information. While I have never had problems relating to predation, I still use caution when telling others that dairy cows work, because they simply are not the best option.
If the safety of them in a bioactive viv is controversial or subject to opinion, than I think it would be best to keep them off the list for the species
Of course it is always your choice, because there is people who have had success, but there are legitimate risks to know about.
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I’ve heard of them eating the mourning gecko eggs, so it’s not something I’d risk.
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Forgive the ignorance as I am learning about all these different species as I go but can you mix and match species of isopods? For clarification, can I mix one or two species of isopods and springtails in the same enclosure?
Thank you all for your help.
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You technically could mix species of isopod but you’d probably want to stay with same species types, like power orange and powder blues, because species with significant size differences, like powder orange vs dwarf purples, will eventually eradicate the smaller of the two. Springtails come in many species and will do about the same thing, but live alongside the isopods and your geckos just fine. I’d recommend powder orange isopods, based on personal experience with both, they’re a very easy starter species and won’t predate on your geckos or eggs.
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I’ve mixed many times, oranges/cows and even dwarf whites with them.
Tropical greys and dwarf white.
Cows and greys (accidentally)
In the fat tail viv now there’s cows, greys and dwarf whites.
All fine too, I was worried one type would kill the other but somehow the whites are doing great and not been killed off
Maybe because I do put food in for them so well fed…
Though in the Crestie vivs I’m sticking to only cows as the fav I own.
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I kept them fed pretty well, or I thought that I did, anyway. Eventually, though, I just never saw anymore dwarfs. I had whites and purples originally in with the powder oranges before I made the decision to keep them separated, based on never finding more dwarfs after about a month.
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Oh damn!
I’d try scoop them all out but there’s a lot of isopods now… I’m surprised the fatties haven’t eaten them…
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I don’t mix species. I’ve heard of the dwarfs eating the mancae of the larger species and even eating through the brood pouch of the larger species. so it may not initially cause problems, it may even take a few years but eventually one species will out compete the other. I just think there’s more cons than pros
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Got it, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you guys.
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Looks like I am a little late to the rest of the party. Springtails + Isopods do extremely well with each other as they both compliment each other as a clean up crew, but generally stay away from cohabing multiple isopod species together unless they you know that they have different food preferences and nutrient needs. For example, I keep my zebras and P. pruinosus together in my Leopard gecko vivarium, and it works wonderfully because the competition between them is very little.
If you are looking to make a bioactive with lots of variation, there are many morphs of P. pruinosus and P. scaber that are the same species and pose little risks to each other. Hope this helped
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My recommendation is P. pruinosus. There are lots of color patterns, they are prolific, and they are good for the tank conditions. I wouldn’t recommend dairy cows just because there’s a risk to the geckos. I would also avoid dwarf whites with the P. pruinosus because the dwarf whites will outcompete the other isopods. You can still keep dwarf whites by themself but they are invasive so if you have isopod colonies it could be a problem. You can add springtails because they will also help with the cleaning.
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I have decided to get a couple of cultures of Porcellio scaber as a personal pet project and a couple of cultures of P. pruinosus for my Mourning Gecko terrarium. I am also going to add in some springtails as well. I want to thank all of you for your suggestions and your help and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
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Nice! Thank you! Hope you have a nice day