Rubber Ducky — Fact Sheet

Cubaris sp. “Rubber Ducky” · Undescribed captive culture

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Starter colony: 30 × 20 × 20 cm with fine cross-ventilation.
• Minimum 8 cm of deep, edible substrate.
• Broad moist zone plus a smaller, less-wet zone; neither may become bone-dry below the surface.
• Leave new arrivals largely undisturbed for several weeks.
• Quarantine for 90 days and preserve the complete culture label.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Thick hardwood leaf layer and partly buried decayed wood.
• Several cork flats so one can be checked without excavating the colony.
• Sphagnum concentrated at the moist end.
• Limestone and/or plain cuttlebone available permanently.
• Support stone from the container floor; never rest it on burrows.

💡 Lighting

• UVB: not required.
• Dim ambient cycle: 10-12 hours.
• Provide complete darkness under bark and within the substrate.
• Avoid direct sun and heat-producing display lamps.

🌡️ Temperature

• Warm zone: 22-26 °C

• General air: 22-26 °C

• Cool zone: 20-23 °C

• Night: 20-23 °C

• Warm one wall through a thermostat only when necessary.

• Avoid bottom heat, abrupt chilling and sustained temperatures above 27-28 °C.

💧 Humidity & water

• Monitoring range: 75-90%.
• Keep the deep moist zone damp and aerated; retain a smaller less-wet surface refuge.
• Add water to moss and lower substrate, not to an open dish.
• Never flood the substrate or seal the container.
• Persistent condensation, sour odour or a mite bloom signals poor balance.

🥬 Diet

Feed freely:

• Hardwood leaves
• Soft rotten hardwood

In moderation:

• Tiny pieces of squash, carrot, mushroom or dried greens once or twice weekly
• Dried shrimp or fish food every 7-10 days

Avoid:

• Large portions, seasoned food, aromatic wood and pesticide-exposed material
• Mixing with faster isopods that compete for food

Supplements:

• Keep limestone, cuttlebone or plain calcium carbonate continuously available.
• Remove rich leftovers promptly if mites gather.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Founders remain hidden → inspect sparingly and allow a long settling period.
• Failed molts → verify deep moisture and calcium before wetting the whole box.
• Mold or mites → reduce supplemental food and increase cross-flow.
• No reproduction → review maturity, sex mix and several months of stable conditions.
• Label drift → never merge cultures because another line has a similar “ducky” name.