Two setups were used to examine the behavior.  In both setups the activity of the isopods was recorded for 5 minutes without chemical cues and then for 5 minutes with either cues from damselfly larvae or perch.

The bottom of the arena where the isopod were placed was covered with a grid of 2x2 cm squares. The activity was measured as the number of lines the isopod had passed fully were counted. When the isopod passed several lines at the same time (e.g. passing over a corner) only one line was counted.

This setup consisted of a 14x7.5x5 cm arena with 2 dl of water in it. The isopods was placed individually in the arena.

The isopods' arena was part of a larger (50x39 cm) container (see figure) and was divided from the rest of the container with a fine-mesh net. As the predator cues were added in the largest part of the container, the fine-mesh net helped to create a gradient with cues into the arena. Three to five isopods were placed together, creating one replicate. The activity for each replicate was the mean of all the isopods in each.