Amblyopia enclosure size

[ShyDragoness]

So I've dug around and I can't really find any specific or general measurements of what size enclosure is best for a typical ambly, I'm keeping Damon medius in a 10 litre 23x23cm wide and deep 26cm tall tub. I'm fairly sure this is large enough, I have 2 females each in their own and a male which I alternate enclosures with however I am still fairly new on keeping them and am struggling to find useful information on them other than basic care requirements.

I'm fairly sure this enclosure size is appropriate for an adult or two however if I am mistaken please advise me otherwise.
Cheers and thanks for reading.

 

[chanda]

Autocorrect fail?

I assume you mean "Amblypygi"? Amblyopia is a medical condition known as "lazy eye" where the eye and brain do not coordinate properly.

But yeah, your enclosure size is ok for a single amblypygid - though I might go a bit bigger for two, since you said you're alternating your male. (Then again, I keep mine in unneccessarily large enclosures.)

The one concern I'd have with keeping two together is the possibility of one disturbing the other while it is molting. While I can't be certain that's what happened, there have been a few times where I've had two amblypygi sharing an enclosure - and come in to find a freshly-molted and intact amblygygid dead or dying on the substrate, below a perfectly intact molt. The only thing I can think of is that the other amblypygid might have skittered by and disturbed the molting one while it was still soft and vulnerable, causing it to fall and suffer internal injuries. In all cases, the dead one was not yet fully sclerotized but still had the pale coloration of one that's newly emerged - but was otherwise unharmed, with no damage to suggest cannibalism or fighting.

There's also the risk of untimely mating, which could lead to the female molting while carrying eggs. I lost one of my girls recently when she suffered a bad molt, losing both the eggs and the use of several limbs, including one of her pedipalps. I'm not sure if the fact that she was carrying eggs contributed to the bad molt or not, but either way, she ended up with several weak/crooked legs and a "frozen" pedipalp that was locked open. I tried tong feeding her and offering her prekilled, but she eventually died anyway. Bad timing on my part - I think I waited too long after her previous molt before introducing the male.

I try to keep my males and females separate, and only introduce the male to the female's cage shortly after a molt, to maximize the chance of a successful breeding and live offspring, then remove him after I see 5-6 "empty" spermatophores - but I still need to work on my timing a bit. I'm currently waiting for my females to molt so I can try again.

 

[ShyDragoness]

Autocorrect fail?

I assume you mean "Amblypygi"? Amblyopia is a medical condition known as "lazy eye" where the eye and brain do not coordinate properly.

But yeah, your enclosure size is ok for a single amblypygid - though I might go a bit bigger for two, since you said you're alternating your male. (Then again, I keep mine in unneccessarily large enclosures.)

Yeah my phone forces autocorrect even when I try to change it afterwards so I gave in.
Thanks so much for the advice!