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I’m going to adopt this method on all my rehoused from now on.
Today in the Spider Room?
- Thread starter Dovey
- Start date
Shoot, I've been waiting for my female to molt tooThat's no molt mat...
On a similar, but more frustrating, topic: I got a male for my C. versicolor female from @fcat at the end of January. I held off pairing because my girl was well into her molt cycle and I figured the male would be good until she molted. About 3 months later and my female had finally webbed herself away so I assumed a molt was imminent. Webbing continued to thicken and last night seemed to be the night for a molt. I excitedly looked in on her this morning to find this:
View attachment 472626
Dammit! I wanted to bang my head against the wall.Seems like I made a bad decision to wait to pair them. Anyway, I'll pull the sac, feed her up and hopefully get a molt in the next couple months, then try pairing. The male is still in great shape, so I think I've got time.
On a more positive breeding note, my paired Phormingochilus everetti female is eating like a horse - she's greedily taken down 8 adult male Dubia and one adult female Dubia in the last 3.5 weeks, and hasn't shown any signs of letting up. I'm optimistic that things will work out there.
I rehoused my confirmed male Phormingochilus sp. Sabah red yesterday, and he behaved more like I'd expected - lots of bolting, threat posing, and biting the paint brush. He's still gorgeous, though...
View attachment 472629
He offered to give me a hug for providing his nice, new home:
View attachment 472630
I put a chunk of webbing from his old enclosure in the new one, and as soon as he found it he clinged on and settled down - he stayed like this for several hours:
View attachment 472631
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I think your surprise eggsack is better than my surprise eggsack... Not that it's a contest or anything, lol. It's OK, we'll get there - your little guy is eating well and hasn't been roaming like crazy, so he's done a good job of conserving his energy!Shoot, I've been waiting for my female to molt too
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It was a crappy tarantula day all around.
First my versi female that I was waiting to get a molt from so I could pair her decided to lay a phantom sac instead...
Then I all but confirmed that another one of my P. sp. Sabah reds is male. Rehoused him and he sure looks male ventrally:
That leaves me with 2.1(hopefully, suspect).3, so the youngsters are going to have to come through for me as female. Then he was mad at me for giving him a nice new enclosure:
Finally, I noticed my subadult Aphonopelma moderatum was out of his burrow acting strange earlier in the day. I gave him some more water and a prekilled roach to see if he'd eat. Next time I checked him he was in full on death curl, so I flipped him to try to give some drops of water, only to discover something gruesome on the underside of his abdomen.
- grossness below:
I acquired him this size back in October and he's never molted with me. I didn't notice the injury on his abdomen before, so I don't know how long it's been there - I'm guessing it was there when I got him. He wasn't ever really unhealthy, but he also wasn't real active or a good eater. I am fairly confident he was WC, so I attributed his behavior to that, but now I know better. There's no telling what that is - maybe some kind of internal parasite trying to become an external parasite? Anyway, he didn't survive.
Tomorrow will be a better day.
First my versi female that I was waiting to get a molt from so I could pair her decided to lay a phantom sac instead...
Then I all but confirmed that another one of my P. sp. Sabah reds is male. Rehoused him and he sure looks male ventrally:
That leaves me with 2.1(hopefully, suspect).3, so the youngsters are going to have to come through for me as female. Then he was mad at me for giving him a nice new enclosure:
1.0 Phormingochilus sp. Sabah Red - 3" DLS
Angry young man. Maybe they're red from being mad all the time, 
.
.
Finally, I noticed my subadult Aphonopelma moderatum was out of his burrow acting strange earlier in the day. I gave him some more water and a prekilled roach to see if he'd eat. Next time I checked him he was in full on death curl, so I flipped him to try to give some drops of water, only to discover something gruesome on the underside of his abdomen.
- grossness below:
I acquired him this size back in October and he's never molted with me. I didn't notice the injury on his abdomen before, so I don't know how long it's been there - I'm guessing it was there when I got him. He wasn't ever really unhealthy, but he also wasn't real active or a good eater. I am fairly confident he was WC, so I attributed his behavior to that, but now I know better. There's no telling what that is - maybe some kind of internal parasite trying to become an external parasite? Anyway, he didn't survive.
Tomorrow will be a better day.
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80 slings packed up and shipped out today, second largest shipment I've done. It'll probably be the third largest after next week though....... Busy, busy, busy....
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Apart from managing the new additions, I've rehoused my Cyriocosmus ritae female from a 6x6 cm into a 12x12 cm enclosure which might be her permanent one.
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I rehoused one of my trio of Ornithoctoninae sp. Hana today. They're only a bit larger than 2" DLS, so not showing much blue on the abdomen yet, but pretty nonetheless...
My timing is either very good or very bad, but she (I think) didn't even bother finding the starter burrow I made and put a molt mat right in the open of the new enclosure and is molting now, less than 3 hours after rehousing (and upright to boot):
One of my gripes with these is never recovering a molt to sex, so I guess this solved that problem. Hope things go well!
Edit: she finished her molt and confirmed as female...
As for things going well, not so much. She lost leg 1 on the right side and leg 2 seems deformed. I thought she was having problems with those legs during the rehouse, but figured I was imagining things. Guess not. The way my luck has been going this week, I'm expecting the worst when I check on her in the morning. Here's hoping...
Edit # 2: Checked on her this morning and she was frantically grooming herself. She ultimately dropped leg 2 on the right side, as well, but otherwise seems to be doing fine. She's in a new enclosure with fresh, moist sub and a full water dish, and good places to hide, so not much else I can do at this point. I think the difficult molt was due to the trouble I had keeping her old enclosure moist enough, which is why I rehoused her in the first place. I think I had a bad batch of substrate because I would wet it down, and it would be almost completely dry again the next day. I'm having the same issue with all 3 of these, which were all rehoused at the same time. The vials don't have any more ventilation than all the other vials I use and don't have issues with... Anyway, I'm glad it looks like she's going to pull through and she should be happy in the new setup. The other 2 will be rehoused today, and they're far enough from their next molts that they should have plenty of time in the new enclosures to be well hydrated by molt time.
My timing is either very good or very bad, but she (I think) didn't even bother finding the starter burrow I made and put a molt mat right in the open of the new enclosure and is molting now, less than 3 hours after rehousing (and upright to boot):
One of my gripes with these is never recovering a molt to sex, so I guess this solved that problem. Hope things go well!
Edit: she finished her molt and confirmed as female...
As for things going well, not so much. She lost leg 1 on the right side and leg 2 seems deformed. I thought she was having problems with those legs during the rehouse, but figured I was imagining things. Guess not. The way my luck has been going this week, I'm expecting the worst when I check on her in the morning. Here's hoping...
Edit # 2: Checked on her this morning and she was frantically grooming herself. She ultimately dropped leg 2 on the right side, as well, but otherwise seems to be doing fine. She's in a new enclosure with fresh, moist sub and a full water dish, and good places to hide, so not much else I can do at this point. I think the difficult molt was due to the trouble I had keeping her old enclosure moist enough, which is why I rehoused her in the first place. I think I had a bad batch of substrate because I would wet it down, and it would be almost completely dry again the next day. I'm having the same issue with all 3 of these, which were all rehoused at the same time. The vials don't have any more ventilation than all the other vials I use and don't have issues with... Anyway, I'm glad it looks like she's going to pull through and she should be happy in the new setup. The other 2 will be rehoused today, and they're far enough from their next molts that they should have plenty of time in the new enclosures to be well hydrated by molt time.
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- Apr 2, 2018
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Freshly molted pulchripes looking stellar!
Zero filters on this pic. It's ALL her
Easily confirmed that she's a lady. Didn't even need a magnifying glass
Zero filters on this pic. It's ALL her
Easily confirmed that she's a lady. Didn't even need a magnifying glass
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Saw my iheringi curl her fang through a top vent hole tonight. Gladly her legs are so long that her foot was less than 1” off the ground. Was terrified she’d get startled or fall and break it. I lightly blew across the hole and she retracted it. I gave her a cricket to occupy her fangs instead. Is this rewarding bad behavior? ;-)
I’m about to witness a molt for the first time! I got my juvenile Brachypelma hamorii (named Sybil) back at the end of September. It promptly burrowed for several months and emerged in February. Over the last several weeks, their abdomen swelled and got shiny, and overnight, it has started blackening a lot, so I believe a molt is imminent and am very excited! They’re in the burrow, so no photos, but with any luck, I’ll get the molt intact enough to see if I can determine if they’re male or female. Whatever happens, I can’t wait to see their new colours!
I caught Quasar out this morning. I have been feeding her 1-2 crickets a week for the last few weeks to get her to refuse food...as of yesterday she still wasn't.
Having @NMTs uncanny luck in mind, I gave her booty a good gander, considered sending him a message for his input (because of course he would be up at the crack of dawn to answer questions like this)
but she just ate yesterday... While my boy was making a sperm web.
Pardon my dust
Okay I dusted, are you happy, was it worth it?? I won't see her for months
Alpha Centauri, my first born, just so happened to be actively looking for love, so I decided if he came out voluntarily I'd make an attempt. I opened the door and he walked right into the catch cup with no coaxing whatsoever. I placed the catch cup in her enclosure and after an hour of not moving, I thought he would take a gander to learn his surroundings (and have an exit plan). This was when I realized I never got a picture of him before he potentially got eaten and look how blurry the last picture I got of my first T it is This red light is great for the Ts but sucks for focusing
Instead he was thinking with his emboli and went right for her old hammock. Then suddenly, her foot appeared at the top of her hide (she was booty up before I put him in, as I scared her into her hide dusting the top of her enclosure for a picture lol) We have interest...
I kept the door mostly closed to minimize air flow since I have a ceiling fan and a table fan on the floor pointed to the ceiling. They are in a 12x12x18 but due to her moving hides last molt, she picked the only one I can't referee... so I was standing by with my tools in hand and missed my absolute favorite part of pairing tarantulas, the females excited drumming. Just melts my heart. Anyway, I missed documenting it initially but since she was obviously receptive I took a moment to catch what I could. Look at my big champion go
(Sorry about the shaking, I have to constantly tap the screen to get the camera to focus under red lighting)
View attachment PXL_20240509_133058434.TS.mp4
I couldn't confirm he made it in, she was very placid the whole time but maintained a slow swimming motion with L1. When she started getting a little squirmy I opened the door ready to separate. But they maintained contact as they both repositioned. Alpha pushed her back to the top of her hide and had another go
That's the last picture I have because I freed up both hands to grab my tools. He definitely made it in. It was still amicable after he pulled out, there was still a lot of leg contact but then Alpha started to attempt to get underneath her, maybe to enter her hide? A casual stroll, not looking for her or trying to flee... Her flared fangs now positioned over his abdomen, I decided to intervene. Surprisingly she did not react at all to my paintbrush lifting her legs up. Alpha backed out and walked away towards the door/me with the same casual pace and started cleaning his pedipalps. Was he trying to do this in her hide??
He's back in his home now. He's officially had a full life. That's the most important part. I won't do any more attempts until she molts
Big boy compared to the micro males I've been growing, I've always suspected it's because we had some cold winters together
Having @NMTs uncanny luck in mind, I gave her booty a good gander, considered sending him a message for his input (because of course he would be up at the crack of dawn to answer questions like this)
but she just ate yesterday... While my boy was making a sperm web.Pardon my dust
Okay I dusted, are you happy, was it worth it?? I won't see her for months
Alpha Centauri, my first born, just so happened to be actively looking for love, so I decided if he came out voluntarily I'd make an attempt. I opened the door and he walked right into the catch cup with no coaxing whatsoever. I placed the catch cup in her enclosure and after an hour of not moving, I thought he would take a gander to learn his surroundings (and have an exit plan). This was when I realized I never got a picture of him before he potentially got eaten and look how blurry the last picture I got of my first T it is
This red light is great for the Ts but sucks for focusing
Instead he was thinking with his emboli and went right for her old hammock. Then suddenly, her foot appeared at the top of her hide (she was booty up before I put him in, as I scared her into her hide dusting the top of her enclosure for a picture lol) We have interest...
I kept the door mostly closed to minimize air flow since I have a ceiling fan and a table fan on the floor pointed to the ceiling. They are in a 12x12x18 but due to her moving hides last molt, she picked the only one I can't referee... so I was standing by with my tools in hand and missed my absolute favorite part of pairing tarantulas, the females excited drumming. Just melts my heart. Anyway, I missed documenting it initially but since she was obviously receptive I took a moment to catch what I could. Look at my big champion go
(Sorry about the shaking, I have to constantly tap the screen to get the camera to focus under red lighting)
View attachment PXL_20240509_133058434.TS.mp4
I couldn't confirm he made it in, she was very placid the whole time but maintained a slow swimming motion with L1. When she started getting a little squirmy I opened the door ready to separate. But they maintained contact as they both repositioned. Alpha pushed her back to the top of her hide and had another go
That's the last picture I have because I freed up both hands to grab my tools. He definitely made it in. It was still amicable after he pulled out, there was still a lot of leg contact but then Alpha started to attempt to get underneath her, maybe to enter her hide? A casual stroll, not looking for her or trying to flee... Her flared fangs now positioned over his abdomen, I decided to intervene. Surprisingly she did not react at all to my paintbrush lifting her legs up. Alpha backed out and walked away towards the door/me with the same casual pace and started cleaning his pedipalps. Was he trying to do this in her hide??
He's back in his home now. He's officially had a full life. That's the most important part. I won't do any more attempts until she molts
Big boy compared to the micro males I've been growing, I've always suspected it's because we had some cold winters together
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Got to watch mastery in motion
View attachment 1000007197.mp4
View attachment 1000007197.mp4
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Huddled mass of 2i Phormingochilus pennellhewlettorum in the incubator, prior to separation.
The nightmare fuel of legs and fangs about halfway through. Note, the lid is only resting on top and the little one in the bottom of the picture is able to get under the rim to hide, it's not harmed.
In the end, there were 172 living 2i slings separated. Add in the 10 unfertilized eggs, one dead 1i, and one dead 2i, that would put the eggsack at 184, an absolutely massive eggsack for the genus.
This puts me at 430 slings produced this year across three species with a fourth eggsack 18 days from being pulled. Busy, busy, busy....
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All hail the excavator!
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Double
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Yesterday I rehoused my other 2 Ornithoctoninae sp. Hana juveniles - here are a couple pics (both are unsexed and about 2.25" DLS):
Today, I pulled the phantom sac from my C. versi that she made a week ago. She fought hard to keep it, but ultimately my skill and cunning prevailed, lol.
There were 70 eggs all together, with 3 or 4 more that were raisins. That seems like a good amount to me, hopefully she'll replicate it in a few months after she molts. She seems a little defeated at the moment, but I'll give her a big meal tonight and she'll perk up.
Today, I pulled the phantom sac from my C. versi that she made a week ago. She fought hard to keep it, but ultimately my skill and cunning prevailed, lol.
There were 70 eggs all together, with 3 or 4 more that were raisins. That seems like a good amount to me, hopefully she'll replicate it in a few months after she molts. She seems a little defeated at the moment, but I'll give her a big meal tonight and she'll perk up.
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My ihrengi was throwing a right proper fit tonight. Came home to her water dish flipped, and her with fully extended and spread fangs, trying to rip a fake leaf off. She failed, but gnashed at it multiple times before giving up. She’s also been up in the corners a lot lately. She just recently stuck her fang through a ceiling vent hole. Not sure what’s up with her. Maybe time to move her up a little earlier than planned.
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0.1 Avic. juruensis M2 reaching for a drink...
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Got a great deal on an Exo 12 square yesterday. Punk rock ihrengi will have her new home. Also did 5 Hail genics last night before bed.