Survival rate of G. rosea s'lings

Windchaser

Arachnoking
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What is the survival rate of G. rosea s'lings? This summer I rescued a G. rosea from a local Petco and was quite surprised to see her lay an egg sac a few weeks later. Anyway, the egg sac hatched out on 12-12 and I now have 206 little s'lings. I was checking up on them this weekend and discovered a few that had bad molts. One other looks as if it has died during the molting process. I was able to free all of them who were stuck in their molts, though two did loose a limb (one leg, one pedipalp) in the process. This made me wonder what the normal survival rate for a brood is?

Just to note, I gave all s'lings that were stuck a little extra moisture and time to free themselves. I only intervened when it was evident they were not going to get out on their own. I waited at least 24 hours before intervening. As of this morning, they all appear to be doing fine. Talk about delicate procedures.

Also, a related question. When will the s'lings start eating? I have flightless fruit files ready. I offered a couple of the s'lings a fly, but none of them appear interested yet. I don't want to place the flies in all the containers if they are not eating yet.
 

Windchaser

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This is a bump since no one has responded. While doing my regular round of feeding last night, I found my third dead s'ling. I have had them for a month now and out of the 206, I have had three die. I don't think this is an alarming rate and I imagine that out of a single egg sac, there are bound to be a few deaths. I am still wondering what is considered a normal or expected death rate with new s'lings.

FYI, I am very careful about mold and fungus. I regularly check their vials and change them out at the first sign of anything unusual.
 

strat321

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my semi-educated guess is that 3 out of 206 is very good. In nature I'd experct a mass fleeing with mass feeding by other animals on the sling snacks. from there, maybe 10 make it to adult?

this is based loosely on survival rates of birds, turtles and fish.
 

metralias

Arachnopeon
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Dec 8, 2004
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for captive bred sacs you can usually get well over 50% survival rate. Anything below 25% is considered a complete failure.

sounds like your care technique is right on. I would expect the s'lings to start eating very soon.
 

Washout

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I would put the food in and leave it. Even if it dies, slings will scavange dead stuff. So I'd just toss in the fruit flys and leave it in there personally. I check a few days later to see whats dead and what is starting to rot and mold and remove it when that starts to happen.
 

Windchaser

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Washout said:
I would put the food in and leave it. Even if it dies, slings will scavange dead stuff. So I'd just toss in the fruit flys and leave it in there personally. I check a few days later to see whats dead and what is starting to rot and mold and remove it when that starts to happen.
Actually, at this point I have been giving them crickets. If they are small enough, I throw it in live. If the cricket is a little bigger, I kill it and throw it in. They have all seemed to be eating fairly well at this point.

A question about scavanging though. Is there an upper limit to the size of the dead prey they will scavange? Some of the crickets I have killed and thrown in are larger than the s'lings body. Do they avoid larger items, or will they happily start munching?
 

Mike H.

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IME the slings will eat dead prey there own size....I have some A.brocklehursti slings as well as A.geniculata slings that will eat prey "live" that is larger than they are...


Regards, Mike :rolleyes:
 
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