Immortal_sin
04-03-2004, 01:49 PM
SUCCESSFUL
I used my own mature male, and my own female for this one. The male molted mature on 7-31-03. The female is approx 8" and molted on 7-1-03. The female is in a 10 gallon aquarium with dry peat moss substrate.
I introduced my male on 8-24-03 after power feeding the female. He climbed into her tank, and drummed. She seemed receptive, and he got at least one palp inserted before bolting. This was the only time they mated. On subsquent attempts, she chased him off before he could even enter her tank.
The initial hookup was very short, it only lasted a few seconds.
After mating, I kept feeding the female as much as she could eat. I observed her abdomen getting HUGE. There was no cooling off period.
The female made an eggsac on 2-28-04, in her water dish. I was concerned initially due to the fact that the water dish had water in it (obviously!)
She guarded it continuously, and I pulled the sac on 3-27-04, with the intention of manually incubating it.
When I opened the sac, I saw a few thousand eggs :). However, there was also a whitish 'dust' that rose as I poured the eggs into the incubator. There was no sign of any embryonic development.
I put one of the eggs under the microscope, and could also see no development.
At this point 4-3-04, I am concluding that the eggs are infertile. There are no 'bad eggs' but there is no sign of any development that should definately be there at this point.
EDIT: I may end up revising this completely, but it looks like I was wrong. There is a slight bit of development to some of the eggs today. (4-5-04).
I'll update this when I know more....
EDIT: 4-17-04...I have revised status to successful. I have a sac full of post embryos at this point.
I used my own mature male, and my own female for this one. The male molted mature on 7-31-03. The female is approx 8" and molted on 7-1-03. The female is in a 10 gallon aquarium with dry peat moss substrate.
I introduced my male on 8-24-03 after power feeding the female. He climbed into her tank, and drummed. She seemed receptive, and he got at least one palp inserted before bolting. This was the only time they mated. On subsquent attempts, she chased him off before he could even enter her tank.
The initial hookup was very short, it only lasted a few seconds.
After mating, I kept feeding the female as much as she could eat. I observed her abdomen getting HUGE. There was no cooling off period.
The female made an eggsac on 2-28-04, in her water dish. I was concerned initially due to the fact that the water dish had water in it (obviously!)
She guarded it continuously, and I pulled the sac on 3-27-04, with the intention of manually incubating it.
When I opened the sac, I saw a few thousand eggs :). However, there was also a whitish 'dust' that rose as I poured the eggs into the incubator. There was no sign of any embryonic development.
I put one of the eggs under the microscope, and could also see no development.
At this point 4-3-04, I am concluding that the eggs are infertile. There are no 'bad eggs' but there is no sign of any development that should definately be there at this point.
EDIT: I may end up revising this completely, but it looks like I was wrong. There is a slight bit of development to some of the eggs today. (4-5-04).
I'll update this when I know more....
EDIT: 4-17-04...I have revised status to successful. I have a sac full of post embryos at this point.