Phoneutria fera cf Oyapok

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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May 7, 2005
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Hi guys,

i was finally able to get hold of Phoneutria fera, again. :D

Got me two slings from a suspected "sub-species", which is from the general region around Oyapok, Brazil. They differ some from the P. fera from french-guyane, i kept some years back.

Much thanks to Thomas Vinmann for supplying me with this hard-seeked species! :worship:

Should be quite interesting how they´ll develop. As much as i know about Phoneutria, these particular species seems quite uncommon to me.

However, here we go... :drool:





Greetings,

Stefan
 

Sheri

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Very nice!

How many did you get and how much fun were they to unpack? ;)
 

Aviculariinae

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Hi,

Have you ever had any problems raising Phoneutria slings?I think Lelle said that they were quite difficult to raise and he had numerous problems getting past 3/4 molts.
 

Stefan2209

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Hi Sheri,

got two of´em, mainly to comparison and study purposes as much as to see, if there are any special needs that are to be fullfilled to keep them alive.

Fun with unpacking? Yeah, indeed, as they were quite easy going. They had both been clinging to the caps of their transport cases, so i just took them off with the spiders still attached to them. No big deal.

As you can see through the pics, i shot them with no plastic or any other material between me and the spiders. I wouldn´t do this for any cash on the world with my P. nigriventer...

Don´t know if this is cause they´re still youngsters, or if it is just a calmer species. Once again, time will tell...

Send greetings to Lelle from me, the sac we´ve been talking about is still there and i´ll get back to him, when he settled in a bit.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Crotalus

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Congrats! Now send them to me! ;)

Ahh nice news about the sack! I think I mailed you my new email address right?
 

Crotalus

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Aviculariinae said:
Hi,

Have you ever had any problems raising Phoneutria slings?I think Lelle said that they were quite difficult to raise and he had numerous problems getting past 3/4 molts.
When they are that big I think they worst period is over. But yes I had big trouble with my slings.
 

bistrobob85

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May 21, 2005
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Hurray, Phoneutrias again :). I remember a post that was neverending on phoneutria nigriventer, really constructive... I like those little things, go on posting!!!! :)
 

spinnekop

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Nov 2, 2005
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Stefan, you are so lucky having Vinmann closeby... I am jealous :)
The specimen you show looks very beautiful. Is it adult yet?
I sincerely hope you get the change to breed them. It's so hard to find Phoneutria sp. in the hobby. ;)
 
Last edited:

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Thanks!

Hi,

thanks everybody, for the warm appreciation.

@ Aviculariinae

Yeah, there are indeed some kind of problems with the raising of Phoneutria slings. However, to my very best knowledge, those problems (mortality up to 99%) are most common with Phoneutria nigriventer.
Some breeding experiences of some other P. keepers here around (back in the late 90´s), yielded a mortality of something like 50% for P. fera, which is a fairly decent rate in my opinion. Let´s hope that these will make it.

@ Crotalus

Hey, already online again, thought you´d be busy with some other kind of business right now. Sure, got your mail, thought to give you some time, till i get back to you. As i mentioned, the sac´s still there, fingers crossed. If it´ll proof to be a successfull deal, i´ll definitely stick to my word and send some across the pond.

@ spinnekop

No, these aren´t adult by now. As i want to document their development by pictures and notes i asked explicitely for the smallest specimen available. They have something like 3-4cm legspan now. Phoneutria hard to find in the (european) hobby? Sorry, i don´t think so. When i started to inquire for this genus again sometime around the beginning of last year, nearly anybody in europe told me they´d be impossible to get. Took me some 4 months, till i had my first specimen.
Since then, they became quite regular available to my opinion. They had been open advertised at one of the biggest european boards, so where´s the problem? Only hard to find specimen are of certain species, P. boliviensis for example. Guess it´s only a matter of time, till even those will be offered, just get yourself a cup of tea (or whatever suits you) and take some time.

Update as usual after the molts.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Banshee05

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Aug 16, 2005
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hello!
i must agree stefan. i have now 3-4 "different species" of phoneutria. a lot sub adult nigriventer, 2 adult female fera and 1 or 2 species species i cannot determine, maybe they are just a colour morph of fera i don't know, when i get my new digi cam *fingercorss* (i wait till 2months for her) then i will show a few pix of them.
i have the luck that i get subadult wc from brazil, so the mortality isn't 99% ;) bur stefan is right, if you have slings (and i have one fera eggsac for 2months) the mortality is very high, now i just have 4slings... i think first they were 60pcs. so, it is hard,but i try my best. i will inform you later.
 

Stefan2209

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Hi,

the lil fellas are really nice specimen to deal with, they eat ok, molt ok and are far more easy to get along with, than the P. nigriventers.

Both specimen have done their first molt since they´re in my hands, both without any problems. I was a little surprised, as they have nearly doubled their size with this molt. Now i´m really wondering, how big this particular species wants to get....?

However, enjoy: :D





Update as usual....

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Sheri

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I like the red coloration...

I hope they produce many, many cute little babies. ;)
 

Stefan2209

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Sheri said:
I like the red coloration...

I hope they produce many, many cute little babies. ;)
Hi Sheri,

thanks for the appreciation!

Yeah, i like the colour,too, and hope they´ll keep this colouration till adulthood.

Babies? I´ll first of all be a quite happy guy if i manage to raise them to adults, then i´ll more than glad try a mating.... :rolleyes:

Greetings from germany,

Stefan
 

Crotalus

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Nice ones there! Does the dealer have any left?
How does the eggsack doing?

/Lelle
 

Stefan2209

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Crotalus said:
Nice ones there! Does the dealer have any left?
How does the eggsack doing?

/Lelle
Hej Lelle,

yeah, Thomas still has got the bulk of them, but i don´t think, he´s gonna give them away now. First they have to make it to adulthood, than comes breeding and the resulting offspring will hit the market.

The nigriventer eggsac is apparently doing ok, the next weeks should get a lil bit exciting....

Well, the first of the P. fera´s molted again. Even if i already mentioned this, but i´m once more surprised, if not shocked, how much it gained in size. Once more, it just doubled it´s size, legspan and body as well.

Another interesting fact are the legs, with this molt the legs really bulked up. Guess this guys really are going to grow big...

Enjoy:





See you soon.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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Hi all,

to my deepest pleasure both of my specimen molted again without any problems.

The growth is quite unusual, they have tripled their bodysize in just three months and there´s apparently still no end in sight. The legs got still thicker, too.

The next strange thing about this particular species is their temper, they´re quite calm for a Phoneutria. Even if you poke them (NOT with the fingers or hands of course!) they don´t get aggressive!:eek:
They just use to investigate what´s poking them and then they just turn slowly around and walk away.... :confused:

Quite interesting, in my opinion. My P. nigriventer slings for comparison have just half the size of the P. fera´s and give me already a thread display when i just step next to their enclosures...

Fortunately my specimen kept their pinkish-colour, which i like. If you could see them under normal daylight, they appear more brown, but the flash of the cam still discovers the red-pink.

Enjoy:





Update after the next molt. They´ll hopefully make it...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

TVspiderman

TV's own Martin Nicholas
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May 3, 2005
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20
Firstly could I say how refreshing it is talking about Phoneutria in the context of their husbandry not just their venom (yes I know I'm as guilty if not more so than everyone else)

Secondly these are some of the best images of this species I think I have ever seen.

As some of you know, in the UK we are severely restricted on the keeping of (what has been asigned as) Dangerous Wild animals, and is illegal unless one obtains a DWA licence which can cost up to £1000.00 per year ($1700.00 US) So it is almost unheard of for them to be kept and studied in Britain and a thread like this is just pure gold for us deprived Brits.

What I can add to the party is that Adult P.fera does still keeps that pinkish tinge as the attached photo shows, because this was a very big specimen I found in F. Guyana.
 

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