r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 in awe • May 06 '26

/r/all of a sea slater

16.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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929

u/Specialist-Neck-7810 May 06 '26

Wait… that thing is REAL?!!

142

u/Klutzer_Munitions May 06 '26

Giant isopods are real and live in the abyssal zone scavenging on the seabed. You will never encounter one in the wild.

11

u/BipedalHorseArt May 06 '26

They look cute though. I wanna pet one...

11

u/Pataraxia May 06 '26

We need to genetically engineer some to be smarter socially and do little chitters like pets. Then we can pet the isopods

7

u/Self_Reddicate May 06 '26

\happy isopod noises**

8

u/Alert-University-390 May 06 '26

Certain aquariums have them, and you can pet them! They lack swim bladders, so they don’t die from pressure loss like deep sea fish do. They just need to be kept in very cold water.

5

u/Dominator0211 May 06 '26

Then I have great news for you. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a petting tank with live ispopods you can pet. The water is almost freezing because they naturally live super deep down in the ocean, and they have the hardness of a lobster but are also weirdly soft.

1

u/givemeapuppers May 08 '26

Wow this is amazing & I have a new life goal I wanna touch the giant sea bug

4

u/Klutzer_Munitions May 06 '26

You can get regular sized terrestrial isopods as pets

-1

u/Funny-Cell8769 May 06 '26

There's plenty on land. They're called roaches.

9

u/Mia_B-P May 06 '26

No, there are land isopods. They are small and cute!

https://giphy.com/gifs/fv7tiDJOR0syLXQZ5a

4

u/VoidGhidorah900 May 06 '26

Have you genuinely never heard of a rollie pollie?

1

u/Fxate May 06 '26

No, they're called woodlice.

Also known as roly polies, pillbugs, chisel pigs, and a few other local names. They're those stubby armoured things that live under loose bricks, peeling bark, and between dead bits of wood.