Reproduction

During reproduction, the male isopod carries the female for a short period known as pre-copula which lasts until the moult at which copulation occurs. The sperm are transferred from the male to the female genital duct. In most species , the female releases the eggs into a ventral brood chamber where they are incubated until after hatching. Some species incubate their eggs and juveniles in pockets of the body which open from the brood chamber, while others incubate them internally. Un like crabs and shrimps isopods are not released as free-swimming zoea larva. Instead, when hatched they look very much like adults but have 6 rather than 7 pereonal segments. Some species care for their young after leaving the chamber but most species d o not.

Feeding

As a group the isopods demonstrate nearly all of the possible feeding habits used by crustaceans. Some are scavengers feeding on dead fish by stripping the carcass of its flesh within hours. Others are permanently parasitic on live fish by burrowing into the flesh, attaching to the gills or living inside the mouth. Burrowers with strong jaws chew through wood and are able to digest cellulose using the microflora in their gut. Herbivores graze on seaweed remaining camouflaged to the colour of the algae in which they hide. Some isopods are predators capturing their prey with their first legs.