Help with my Singapore Blue Female...

[Photobret]

Hey Spiderfolks,

I have a large female Singapore Blue W/C she is probably about 6-7" maybe more. For the last 3 months she has been behaving really strangely, she doesnt use her burrow anymore and sits all scruntched up along side the glass. She doesnt eat but drinks alot of water, humidity hasnt changed and she has a heating pad for the colder days. I have had her about a year now and she has molted once in that time. Her abdomen is large and healthy too. She seems a little slower than normal and not as agressive as she normally is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bret

 

[thedude]

premolt maybe?.. whens the last time she molted?

 

[von_z]

adult blues are arboreal, so not using it's burrow is normal.

 

[deathfingers66]

Singapore blues like it cool, low 70's during the days prefered (they don't do as well in warmer temps) 60's or 50's at night is fine so scrap the heat pad unless your night temps are in the 40's. I keep my Singapore blues closer to the ground so they stay cooler then my T's up high.In the wild Singapore blues usually burrow near a tree stump, and at night they come out to hunt up in the trees.

 

[phormingochilus]

Well - since I have been collecting these personally in the wild I can tell you that this is not true.

Singapore Blues are strictly arboreal. They are exclusively found in large live trees with a diameter of no less than 1 m. and with a hollow interior. They are never found below 4-5 m. They will stay in the hollow interior during day and only venture out at night on moonless nights, typically clouded nights after a rain shower.

Since their habitat is strictly lowland - from the mangrove to the foothills - the temperatures you quote are ridiculous. The 70 (21 C) figure you mention for the daytime is lower than the mean night temperature in their habitat! In reality the night temperature is 75 (24 C). In the day time the temperature inside the tree will of course stay cooler than on the outside, just like a burrow works as a temperature regulator for fossorial species. But in the daytime the temperature will still be higher than in the night time and will reach the 80 (26 C).

You can get a bit wiser on this species and other asian arboreal species at this site:

http://asianarboreals.googlepages.com/lampropelmaviolaceopes

and this site (unfortunately in danish):

http://fugleedderkopper.blogspot.com/

Regards
Søren

Singapore blues like it cool, low 70's during the days prefered (they don't do as well in warmer temps) 60's or 50's at night is fine so scrap the heat pad unless your night temps are in the 40's. I keep my Singapore blues closer to the ground so they stay cooler then my T's up high.In the wild Singapore blues usually burrow near a tree stump, and at night they come out to hunt up in the trees.

 

[David Burns]

It is going to be upwards of 32c (89f) in Singapore today. It is the rainy season there. It will get warmer in the summer.

 

[phormingochilus]

Yes I know ;-) But try and take the temperature inside a hollow tree in the rain forest and you will get a lower reading ;-) There is a good bit of evapotranspiration from a tree, that helps to keep it cooler than the surroundings. This is what the spider takes advantage from in order to regulate the optimal body temperature ;-) Add to this that the lowest part of the interior of the hollow tree is usually water logged and there is often a pool of water that add to the evaporation and thus to the cooling of the interior.

There is a big difference in the mean annual climate chart and the actual readings in different microhabitats ;-)

Regards
Søren

It is going to be upwards of 32c (89f) in Singapore today. It is the rainy season there. It will get warmer in the summer.

 

[David Burns]

My post was being made while your post came up, so I didn;t read it, before I posted.

All living things can/will find microclimates. Whether in a tree or a burrow, it could find shade or an area cooled by evaporation. I was just trying to show that it is easy to check the weather in the area that a species originates from.

Yes I know ;-) But try and take the temperature inside a hollow tree in the rain forest and you will get a lower reading ;-) There is a good bit of evapotranspiration from a tree, that helps to keep it cooler than the surroundings. This is what the spider takes advantage from in order to regulate the optimal body temperature ;-) Add to this that the lowest part of the interior of the hollow tree is usually water logged and there is often a pool of water that add to the evaporation and thus to the cooling of the interior.

There is a big difference in the mean annual climate chart and the actual readings in different microhabitats ;-)

Regards
Søren

 

[Snipes]

Singapore Blues are strictly arboreal.

They seem to make a switch from terrestrial as slings to arboreal as adults. Don't forget that. They can't be completely arboreal.

 

[Merfolk]

Since females live high in the trees, they probably breed there too, and I doubt that tiny slings would go down the trunk to burrow. Yes they do, but probably
into crannies of the trunk where moss accumulate. The substrate of a KK is just a default material.

 

[mattnsariah]

huh?

you cant say STRICTLY arboreal since yea my juvenile blue has a upwards pointed burrow made of web and substrate under the tree we have for him!! So thats not Strictly correct!:razz:

 

[phormingochilus]

That's because strictly speaking artificial conditions as for instance captive conditions doesn't count. So whatever behavior you are observing in captivity might just be an artifact of captivity. That correlates nicely with the observations from strictly wild specimens in strictly wild and strictly natural habitats - because here even slings are strictly arboreal and are never found in burrows but strictly in tube webs behind loose bark or in hollow tree trunks ;-)

What you may interpret as a "burrow" might just be the behavior also seen with adults in hollow trees; they dig out the loose rotten wood and incorporates it in their tube web inside the hollow tree. In your cage, there is no hollow tree interior nor any loose rotten wood, so the loose substrate has to suffice. And thus you will see an arboreal spider "burrow". But as underlined above it's a combination of interpretation and artifacts of captivity, which strictly speaking doesn't count ;-)

Strict regards
Søren

you cant say STRICTLY arboreal since yea my juvenile blue has a upwards pointed burrow made of web and substrate under the tree we have for him!! So thats not Strictly correct!:razz:

 

[mattnsariah]

oh yea?

Dude!!!So how do you know whats in my blues "cage"?..i do have loose wood?(Cypress mulch) and a small hollowed out tree in his terrarium!!yet he still borrows....All im stating is your can't apply strictly with ANY wild or Captive Invert!! Your speculating what captive conditions i have "floyd"(our S.blue) under?

 

[dtknow]

Again, tarantula is in captivity. I don't think Cypress mulch is quite the loose wood phormigolous is talking about. Certainly in the nooks and crannies of rainforest trees substrate similar to coco fiber builds up.

But then again, I don't see why slings would not journey to the base of the tree. Its not too far down...just a hop skip and jump(literally).

 

[phormingochilus]

You're missing the point. There is no way you can see any natural behavior in your animal as long as you are keeping it in such artificial and restricted conditions that captivity is compared to the natural habitat. Thus all you see is your own interpretation of an artifact of captivity, which you cannot use to base a general statement about the species in nature.

Besides - cypress mulch is in no way close to natural as the tree flora is lowland dipterocarp (broad leaf) in the natural habitat of this species ;-)

It's pretty easy to apply strictly with wild inverts, as the application of the term is based on the general behavior in the majority of specimens. Since inverts in captivity are restricted by the conditions present in their cage with no possibility to move to the desired habitat you will by default see more atypical behavior, which is artifacts of captivity. Therefor you are right that it is difficult to apply the term based on the behavior of captive animals => which is why I refer to the animals in the wild, as this is the only standard of default we can use.

Regards
Søren

Dude!!!So how do you know whats in my blues "cage"?..i do have loose wood?(Cypress mulch) and a small hollowed out tree in his terrarium!!yet he still borrows....All im stating is your can't apply strictly with ANY wild or Captive Invert!! Your speculating what captive conditions i have "floyd"(our S.blue) under?

 

[phormingochilus]

Again, tarantula is in captivity. I don't think Cypress mulch is quite the loose wood phormigolous is talking about. Certainly in the nooks and crannies of rainforest trees substrate similar to coco fiber builds up.

Well the texture of the cypress mulch is not too far off what you find in nature, but the chemical composition is - as cypress do contain a lot of harmful terpenes, that are not found in the dipterocarp wood mulch.

The behavior interpreted as "burrowing" is only perceived as such, because most fail to understand that in nature the spider will get away from day light by creating the tube web inside a hollow tree, but in captivity the only way to get away from daylight is to dig under the substrate. This behavior is not far from the behavior of digging in rotten wood and incorporating the wood chips in the tube web, but is not the same behavior.

But then again, I don't see why slings would not journey to the base of the tree. Its not too far down...just a hop skip and jump(literally).

I don't see why this couldn't happen neither. But that would be an exception to the general behavior in the majority of the specimens in the species and not a reason to state that the spider were neither fossorial nor opportunistic. And fact is that though we have collected intensely and are working with professional collectors neither we nor them have ever encountered neither adults below 4 m. nor slings nor juveniles lower than 1 m. above the forest floor. That is a pretty consistent pattern and amount of reliable observations of wild animals to base the term arboreal to this group of animals. Nonregarding how they behave in captivity.

Regards
Søren

 

[dianedfisher]

Eddy (Metallica) recommended a set-up for my 6-7" female and I haven't seen her since. LOL I have a 8" cork bark tube positioned into 2 inch of moss covered eco-earth. Her food disappears and she has moved some of the eco-earth and cover moss into the exposed opening of the cork bark tube. She is a very private spidey. I periodically wet the moss covering the substrate and keep her water dish full. I think you'd best listen to Soren until you make your own pilgrammage to their place of origin. Just my opinion. Di

 

[Rochelle]

Dude!!!So how do you know whats in my blues "cage"?..i do have loose wood?(Cypress mulch) and a small hollowed out tree in his terrarium!!yet he still borrows....All im stating is your can't apply strictly with ANY wild or Captive Invert!! Your speculating what captive conditions i have "floyd"(our S.blue) under?

I second everything Diane just said........Dude.
When you go collecting in Singapore; you'll earn the right to argue with a professional.

P.s....I'd NEVER put cypress in my T cages...OMG!

 

[mattnsariah]

Hey you guys........sorry for the missunderstanding here.........

this is the wife not the one you all are arguing with.

I love my blue and He loves to climb and dig go figure.......i have read up on him and where he lives in the wild....but he was just stating here in our home in our cage........that floyd does both. He is equiped with his favorite tree (fake) and wood to climb up.........and plunty of grounding to dig himself into. Maybe we have a wierdo for a T, but at any rate......there wasn't suppose to be some big argument over this....he was just asking about why he knows or thinks he is strickly a climber. that is all. He got his answers for the questions he asked! thank you.

 

[von_z]

What happened to this thread? The guy just wanted a little advice/info.....