avicularia versicolor question.. help appreciated

da_illest

Arachnoprince
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ok, i know versicolors are medium speed growers, right? well i have a versicolor sling that was at .5" to .75" and today it molted and it's grown DOUBLE it's SIZE!!!!! it's now at around 1" to 1.25"..

now what i need to now is, just how often do they molt at this size? i know temp and feeding come into play but i feed it all the time and temps are always at around 70 (night) to 80-85 (day)...

i ask because i can't wait untill it's a bit bigger...
 

Botar

Arachnoprince
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Not a dumb question, just not one that is easily answered. Since there are so many variables invovled, it would be hard to pin that down. I will tell you this much though, I've always considered them to be fast growers... they just don't get very big.

To support this, I just had my last "club day" at a local elementary school. There were 23 kids in my club. On the first club day in September, I took in 23 slings and assigned each kid a sling. In the group of slings were A. versicolor, A. geniculata, E. campestratus, C. fasciatum, L. cristata, N. coloratovillosus and T. blondi. Each month I'd take the slings in and the kids would record their observations on their sling and then we'd do some other stuff. Obviously the T. blondi ended up being the biggest in the end, but the A. versicolor actually gained the most size in comparison to the starting size. Not that it was much of a surprise, but the A. versicolor were everyone's favorite too.

Botar
 

da_illest

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Botar said:
Not a dumb question, just not one that is easily answered. Since there are so many variables invovled, it would be hard to pin that down. I will tell you this much though, I've always considered them to be fast growers... they just don't get very big.

To support this, I just had my last "club day" at a local elementary school. There were 23 kids in my club. On the first club day in September, I took in 23 slings and assigned each kid a sling. In the group of slings were A. versicolor, A. geniculata, E. campestratus, C. fasciatum, L. cristata, N. coloratovillosus and T. blondi. Each month I'd take the slings in and the kids would record their observations on their sling and then we'd do some other stuff. Obviously the T. blondi ended up being the biggest in the end, but the A. versicolor actually gained the most size in comparison to the starting size. Not that it was much of a surprise, but the A. versicolor were everyone's favorite too.

Botar
thanks botar. this is the first of my avicularia sp to molt in my care and i can guess on an a. seemani because i've had nemerous molts in my care from them as well as b. vagans who molted twice.. i'm just wondering if it'll be in one month, 2 or 3, or even more.. i've had it since feb. 22 and it wasn't post molt when i got it on that day because now that i've seen it first hand in post molt it's BRIGHT blue.. it's amazing! when i got it, it was in the intermolt stage but my. a seemani's who where 1 inch when i got them molted once every month and a half or so since i've had them..

one question that should be able to be answered is, do they always grow double in size?
 

DnKslr

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Hi alex!
My versicolor was about .5" when I got it and is has molted about every 31-35 days. It is now about 1.5" or a bit more. It does get quite a bit larger than before the molt but I think the fat toes make it look bigger than it is.
I also have another .5" sling I got for free from the pet store and it just molted a couple of days ago. I'm keeping a record of molts on all my T's just to see how often they do.
 

da_illest

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Diane S said:
Hi alex!
My versicolor was about .5" when I got it and is has molted about every 31-35 days. It is now about 1.5" or a bit more. It does get quite a bit larger than before the molt but I think the fat toes make it look bigger than it is.
I also have another .5" sling I got for free from the pet store and it just molted a couple of days ago. I'm keeping a record of molts on all my T's just to see how often they do.
hey diane! maybe it was just the feet but man do it's legs look long now.. before the molt it was this tiny thing in the vial and now it's taking up quite a bit of space... i want it to harden fast so i can start feeding it that way i can see it all plump!
thanks
 

cricket54

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A. versicolor

My little A. versicolor molted last week and went from 1/2" to 3/4" or slightly larger. It is still a dark blue and very pretty. She started eating again after a
few days. Eats practically every day, sometimes 2 small crickets, but I don't feed it that many that often. I've had it around a month and this is the first time it has molted. It didn't jump in size really that much the way it looks. It was slightly bigger then 1/2" to begin with. Now my Sun Tiger doubled in size when it molted, its so big now!

Sharon
 

Botar

Arachnoprince
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da_illest said:
i'm just wondering if it'll be in one month, 2 or 3, or even more..
one question that should be able to be answered is, do they always grow double in size?
They molt more frequently when they are smaller. Seems like they run for a while with a molt every thirty days or so until they are larger. Then the molts are less frequent and the changes in size are less dramatic. The larger they get, the slower they'll grow.

Botar
 

da_illest

Arachnoprince
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ok.. it didn't grow double it's size.. i think it's legs looked way stretched out after the molt.. they seem to have shrunk a bit :confused: it's still grew at least 35-40%!
 

Code Monkey

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Botar said:
They molt more frequently when they are smaller. Seems like they run for a while with a molt every thirty days or so until they are larger. Then the molts are less frequent and the changes in size are less dramatic. The larger they get, the slower they'll grow.
And as always, trends are just that: trends. I've got one sling that's I think is about the 3rd or 4th instar, it's been that instar for at least 6 months and still no sign of moulting. It's fat, it's healthy, but it's not growing.
 
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