D. diadema with babies

[Goliath]

One of my females had these hatch out yesterday(25 December). I manged to snap some pictures.
Mike

[Scolopendra55]

Man I wish I could have that as an Christmas gift ;)

[bistrobob85]

Wow, thats a nice amount of babies you have there!!!! Good luck :)

[Goliath]

Thanks everyone!:D Well the babies started to molt today, so here is a picture.
Mike

[emperor]

what beautiful animals!
bad luck, though... they'll get only one set of presents a year their whole lives now...:)

[Nike]

Wow,sorry my ignorance,but is it easy to get these to breed? They`ve been popping up everywhere in my life recently; TV,books,movies (newest Harry Potter ;) ) Maybe I should get one?
Good luck to you all!

[Goliath]

Thanks emperor! That would be a lot of gifts though.

Nike,
Thanks, I guess I am biased, I think everyone should get one or two or three. They are easy to breed, it is harder to get the females to carry the eggs to completion. A number of factors can affect the health of the mother as she carries the eggs and that can lead to her death. She feeds the eggs while she is carrying them with energy from her body, so if the female dies the eggs will not obtain nourishement and therfore die also. Set them up cool, temps not above 80 and good humidity 70% and you should be fine. They also like big prey so give them the largest crickets you can find, they like roaches too.
Mike

[Goliath]

Finally got a rough count of the babies, looks to be about 40. All moulted out fine.
Mike

[Nike]

How long do they live?

[Bungholio]

Very nice pics! Thanks for sharing.

How bis is mother D.diadema?

[Goliath]

Nike,
They live about 5-7, with 5 much more typical.

Bungholio,
Thanks!:D The mother is about 4.5" sideways legspan. Around typical size for a female.
Mike

[Bungholio]

Bungholio,
Thanks!:D The mother is about 4.5" sideways legspan. Around typical size for a female.
Mike

Wow a big thing! :}
Very interesting animal indeed.
I searching for a new arachnopet maybe this could be interesting.

[Goliath]

If you get one you will not regret it, they are awesome creatures.
Mike

[Elytra and Antenna]

If you get one you will not regret it, they are awesome creatures.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Glad to see they're doing well! I know you had some difficulties on previous attempts. Did that article in Invertebrates-Magazine help out?

[psionix]

if you are going to have any for sale eventually PM me, the D. variegatus i ordered a while back died during shipping. :(

[Goliath]

Hi Orin,
Thanks and I am glad too, hope all is well there. The article did help out, it gave me a much more definite timeline on the whole developing process and what to look for during the final days of development. The other big change I made was putting running water in their tank. Now during the whole development process their is water at their disposal. I think that has helped a lot, the females seem more willing to take food while the eggs are developing. The big problem I had before was females refusing to eat while carrying eggs and I think the new tank helped.

psionix,
I will keep you in mind, if I do end up selling any.

Mike

[Bungholio]

If you get one you will not regret it, they are awesome creatures.
Mike

Yes maybe I will keep this in mind. ;)
Have you photos of your terrariums? I´m interested on how you care them.
They looking like small aliens from somewhere but not from our planet. :D

[Goliath]

Bungholio,
Here is the terrarium where I keep 3 females and one male. If you look close you can see the male in the middle near the top.
Mike

[Bungholio]

Goliath what a nice terrarium you have there!:eek: :clap: How big is it?
Thanks for the photo!
And they don´t kill each other like spiders? :?
I don´t know much about this species.

[danread]

:worship: :worship:

Thats an amazing setup you've put together Mike. It really puts my terrariums to shame!

[Goliath]

Bungholio,
It is a 56 gallon column tank. If there are two males of breeding size in the tank together one of them will kill the other. One male and a bunch of females get along just fine.

Thanks Dan, I have seen pictures of your setups and they very nice too.

Mike

[Bungholio]

56 gallon? This is quite big! :eek:

[Goliath]

Yah it is big, but I like to give them as much space as I can. It also gives me more room to work with when making the tanks.
Mike