My slings like fishfood...

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

I discovered that my Nhandu slings will eat fishflake! I ran out of baby crickets and mealworms yesterday and my Nhandu slings needed to eat, so I thought I'd try something. I took some beta flakes and added a drop of water and formed them into a little ball, then I but this ball in front of their burrows. I checked on them an hour later an found them eating the food I left for them. I think I may start feeding them this once in a while since it is very high in protien and is completely digestable. (There was no bolus)

I've never heard of anybody doing this before so I figured I'd share this with everybody here.

xhexdx · Jan 31, 2010

I think they should successfully molt at least once before we deem this acceptable.

Ariel · Jan 31, 2010

xhexdx said:
I think they should successfully molt at least once before we deem this acceptable.

I agree. but it doesn't suprise me to terribly much. betta fishfood is usually just dried up blood worms.

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

xhexdx said:
I think they should successfully molt at least once before we deem this acceptable.

I suppose, one of them should molt soon anyway.

But the thing is that many people feed their feeder insects fishflake anyway,(Myself included) so their tarantulas eat it indirectly.

xhexdx · Jan 31, 2010

True.

Well, let us know how it goes.

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

xhexdx said:
True.

Well, let us know how it goes.

Sure, keep in mind that I only plan to supplement their diet with it, I'm still going to feed them mostly bugs. I think of it as giving my growing slings "vitamins".

xhexdx · Jan 31, 2010

It'd be interesting to know if they actually benefit from these 'supplements'...do you have any slings you could experiment with? Keep a control group that you only feed insects, and a group you supplement with the beta food? Might be interesting.

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

xhexdx said:
It'd be interesting to know if they actually benefit from these 'supplements'...do you have any slings you could experiment with? Keep a control group that you only feed insects, and a group you supplement with the beta food? Might be interesting.

Well, I have 3 B.vagans slings (2 were freebies), I suppose I could feed one of them only fishfood for a month or two and keep the others on just bugs.

shanebp · Jan 31, 2010

This sounds like a great experiment, i'm also interested to know how this will turn out!

Ariel · Jan 31, 2010

what if you did one with straight insects, one with straight fishfood and one with a combination of the two? Just a thought. I'm really interested to see where this goes.

PrimalTaunt · Jan 31, 2010

Ariel said:
what if you did one with straight insects, one with straight fishfood and one with a combination of the two? Just a thought. I'm really interested to see where this goes.

Winner. :clap:

splangy · Jan 31, 2010

Wow... what a great science fair project for a kid... almost makes me want to go out and buy a bunch of Ts so my niece and nephew have something really cool to research!

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

Ariel said:
what if you did one with straight insects, one with straight fishfood and one with a combination of the two? Just a thought. I'm really interested to see where this goes.

I think I might just try that.

On an interesting side note, since the flakes are bright red it would appear that they have made my Nhandu cromatus's abdomen turn pink. This is similar to how you can see through pinhead crickets and tell what they have been eating. So if anything, I've figured out how to make a sling change colors!

nhdjoseywales · Jan 31, 2010

the problem i see with this experiment is that the groups are made up of single specimens. it will be difficult if not impossible to determine what effects are a result of diet and what are just particular to that individual spider. you really need more than one subject in a group to get an idea of what is going on.

PrimalTaunt · Jan 31, 2010

Exo said:
I think I might just try that.

On an interesting side note, since the flakes are bright red it would appear that they have made my Nhandu cromatus's abdomen turn pink.

Pics please!

gumby · Jan 31, 2010

I think the whole thing would be better if you used 9 slings 3 for each of the above mentioned groups. You should also use a subject that molts more often like an LP. Something like like a brachy mitght not molt for a long time and it seems as though the more often they molt the better the data collected would be. Id also increase the time to at least 6 months to a year.

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

nhdjoseywales said:
the problem i see with this experiment is that the groups are made up of single specimens. it will be difficult if not impossible to determine what effects are a result of diet and what are just particular to that individual spider. you really need more than one subject in a group to get an idea of what is going on.

Sorry, I just dont have enough slings of the same species for that.

Anybody else want to try it?

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

PrimalTaunt said:
Pics please!

I tried that, he runs in his burrow when I take the lid off and I can't get a decent pic through the container, too dark or too much glare. :wall:

PrimalTaunt · Jan 31, 2010

Exo said:
I tried that, he runs in his burrow when I take the lid off and I can't get a decent pic through the container, too dark or too much glare. :wall:

That's a little disappointing but seems to be pretty much par for the course when somebody has something interesting to show.

Exo · Jan 31, 2010

PrimalTaunt said:
That's a little disappointing but seems to be pretty much par for the course when somebody has something interesting to show.

Well, if my butt turned pink I wouldn't want people posting pics of it either!

My slings like fishfood...

Arachnoprince

ArachnoGod

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

ArachnoGod

Arachnoprince

ArachnoGod

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnosquire

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince