Adventures with a haplo

[Bonedog]

Yesterday I got 3 new Ts for a store about 60 miles from me so the haplopelma lividum was not happy to be moved and was exhibiting stress signs. The 2 Lasiodora parahybana are spiderlings in pill bottles so they were fine. Because the haplopelma lividum was in a deli cup I wanted to move it into temporary living space for comfort. I got my critter keeper with some substrate out and tried to do a simple transfer but the blue had other ideas. As I opened the lid to the deli cup the T. does this neat little thump with its legs and knocks open the opposite end of the cup and runs out into the bathtub (yeah I thought it would be safe in the tub) and straight up the wall to the corner of the ceiling. The next 5 minutes was me trying to slip the deli cup over it and sometimes running at high speed the other direction it decided the it just might win. What an adrenaline rush. I managed to get a few pics with the blue showing.

 

[desertdweller]

I was just thinking how incredibly fast the H livids are. I can imagine your chase given that their speed is way faster than anyone's reaction time! You're lucky it was only five minutes!

 

[Bonedog]

Deli cups

I' m just glad I had my deli cup handy and always unpack in the bathroom. Its a small room so there are less hiding spots.

 

[c'est ma]

All's well that ends well. Still, wish we had a vid of the action!

Years ago our GBB sling unexpectedly shot up the side of the tub we were changing her in, down the outside of it, across the surface of the counter and right under a paper towel that was lying there...where she stopped. The whole dash was over while we were still processing "oh, look, she's escaping..."

Anyway, she was easy to recover from under the towel.

Since then, I have tried to remember to have various "hides" scattered around the surface surrounding any area in which I'm changing a T. (Anything I have on hand--film cannisters, small boxes, etc...) Don't know if it matters as none have dashed since, but it makes sense that an escaping T might be liable to hightail it into the first "hidey hole" it encounters...

--Diane

 

[Trav]

nice halpo she needs at least 6 inches of substrate to burrow.