T blondi molting upright

Hedrus

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
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47
I hate to start another thread about a T blondi molting but I ran a search and couldn't find anything. I was just about to go to bed and noticed my T blondi is starting to molt. That sounds great BUT it is molting in a standing position! Is that bad? The carapace cap is poped and flipped back over the abdomen and it looks clean so far. The chilicerae are almost completely free but because of the way it is molting the legs look like they will be hard to do. Its right on the edge of the tank to. I don't want to disturb it but I also have the urge to flip it over. I won't unless I find a thread in a search that says to. I hope it turns out ok. Its about 5-7" in length.
 

Hedrus

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
47
Well, its an hour later and I've been watching the molt progress. Its looking pretty good. There is only a joint or 2 left of the rear most legs (4 I believe). I hope the one that is on the bottom can get out good. But the molt is looking really good. I should be able to sex it this time. The molt is looking perfect. So things are looking up. I'm going to post pics of the progress soon.


Kenzie
 

Mushroom Spore

Arachnoemperor
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Oct 14, 2005
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Yup. As you've seen, they know what they're doing. :) Never ever touch or try to move one that's molting, there's no telling what you might do to it by accident when they're that fragile.
 

Hedrus

Arachnopeon
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Dec 12, 2006
Messages
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I know they know what they are doing but I also know that they can have problems molting. I am not afraid of "helping" them in a tight situation rather than just watching and let them die/lose legs. Once I had seen the main part of the body and chelicerae come through the molt I actually did help. I lifted the whole spider and moved it about an inch away from the edge of the tank. After that the spider seemed to have a much easier time getting its legs out. The position it was in made its legs all bent in the wrong direction. I've seen pictures of spiders whose legs were all mis shaped after a molt so I moved the legs into a better position. I was very very gentile. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this to anyone. Even if the spider would have been fine without my help I needed to do it for my mental health. :) I've had spiderlings molt "standing up" but this is the largest spider I've seen do this. I know spiders in burrows have very tight quarters to shed so I figured it would probably be ok. All the threads about T blondi's having trouble moulting just made me paranoid. If it had been my poecilotheria regalis(or something similar) I wouldn't have been worried at all.

Anyway, the spider is doing great! I think it was a wild caught that looked kind of beat up when I got it. Now it looks brand new. Very pretty spider. Looks like it grew another couple of inches. Here are some pics of the moult. Sorry for the blurry pics. I used my roomates camera and I didn't know how to use it at first. I kept messing with the settings until I got better pics.














And here it is this morning. Looks very pretty. Theres a bit of reflection.




Here is the exuvium. I don't really know what I am looking to sex this T but it looks like a male to my untrained eyes. The camera couldn't get that close to it without getting out of focus. I took a couple of pics to get different lighting to see it better.






Let me know what you all think. Male/female? Can't tell? Thanks!
 

thunderthief

Arachnoknight
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Dec 27, 2006
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150
Those are some incredible pics of the molt. Im still VERY new to the hobby and as of yet have never had a T molt, and tbh Im dreading my first molt for either my G. Rosea or the B. Smithi. I sor tof hope it all happens when Im at work, although looking at your pics I sort of hope Im at home to I can record the whole event.
 

Heather

Arachnoknight
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Jan 6, 2007
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Yay! So glad that everything worked out well for you and your spidey! Congrats on the successful molt!
 

kitty_b

Arachnoprince
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definite male. and very handsome.

congrats on the successful molt! blondis must know they're famous for "bad molts" and so they love to scare the pants off of us! i stayed up to 3 am watching mine because i was worried about potential complications. {D
 

mr_jacob7

Arachnoknight
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Jan 20, 2007
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Those are some incredible pics of the molt. Im still VERY new to the hobby and as of yet have never had a T molt, and tbh Im dreading my first molt for either my G. Rosea or the B. Smithi. I sor tof hope it all happens when Im at work, although looking at your pics I sort of hope Im at home to I can record the whole event.
I'm bran new, too, and have never seen one before. I'm glad i saw pics, so i know what a good molt looks like... I'd feel queasey seeing that in real life for the first time! lol
 

Hedrus

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
47
Thanks for the compliments on the pics. I used my roommates camera and I didn't know how to use it. Digital cameras have the worst menu settings. I had to change so much just to get it to take a decent photo. Plus, the tarantulas terrarium is on the top shelf in my room. I had to put the tripod on a chair to get high enough to take pics. LOL. Well, here is a T that I thought was a male right away when I bough it. The legs just looked like a male. I have the worst luck buying larger Ts that are "unsexed". Almost every one of them has been male. It was large enough to be sexed at least a couple of sheds ago. The ethics of this make me more than a bit cynical.

I'm not super knowledgeable in this hobby yet but I have been in and out of it for about 10 years(9 actually). So I've been around enough to start seeing patterns. Oh well. I'm not going to start a fire. I'll look at this one as a blessing in disguise. I've been wanting to get into breeding Tarantulas so if I can find a sexually mature female soon then I can try to breed them. He is very pretty. I hope to find him a girlfriend. I've been wanting to make a mechanical mom now for a while. Here is a good excuse. :D If you read this and have a newly matured female for sale PM me. {D I'll post in the sale/trade section to. I'm glad the shed went ok and the T is safe. I had been spraying him because I thought a molt was coming. I have 2 other blondi spiderlings. Hopefully at least 1 of them will be female.
 

Aurelia

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Jan 4, 2007
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beautiful spider! that's an awesome set of fangs too!
 

Arachnophilist

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Sep 12, 2006
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wow thats quite the visible increase in size! thats awesome. I look forward to my little blondi growing into sucha nice large spider.Congrats on the successful molt!
 

Mina

Arachnoking
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Oct 4, 2005
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I agree, he looks like a young gentleman to me as well. Very handsome. They do moult upright on occasions. I nearly had a heart attack when my little G. pulchra sling moulted upright. It went well though. For the most part, they know what they are doing.
 

Ando55

Arachnobaron
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Sep 15, 2006
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OMG! Amazing pics of your Blondi molting, he looks like a well built gentlemen also, let him go on a few dates.;)
 

Tony92

Arachnosquire
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Aug 9, 2006
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Excellent pics, & blondi's do have a habit of making us worry every time they moult, I've had 3 of my 9 blondi's moult this week, with one moulting last night, made me panic a bit as when I looked into the tank it was flipped over on its back getting ready to start, I then accidently knocked the shelf holding the tank & it shocked the blondi so much it jumped up & resumed a normal standing position, luckily an hour later it was back over on its back & moulted no problem, turned out to be male, so thats my first male, I've sexed 4 others & they all turned out to be female, with the largest one pushing on a good 9 - 10 " now, glad yours turned out to be a successful moult...................Tony
 

Mr.Extreme

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Dec 13, 2006
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Well i do not have a T.Blondie, I have a Rose Hair and the night befor my Lita molted she was on her favorite rock and she was upright and she had webs around her so i new she was going to molt but next morning i saw her and her old skin her old skin was in upright position and she was next to it fine, so i dont think it really Matters What postion its in maybe its foot or something else is wrong because how it molted.
 
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