Dr Acula's Photos

[Dr Acula]

Love your pics, awesome spiders. And so much luck with their personalities, they all seem chilled and relaxed.
This makes me wonder if its because you handle them and interact with them or if they 'came out of the factory' that way? Do you think spiders can get used to your contact?
A lot of people here are quick to scream NO! but I'm not so sure. They seem to have capacity for learning. Maybe they learn to accept you?

like any animal, I think they know when you are afraid or stressed out. if you're relaxed and confident and able to kind of see things from the spider's POV, its gonna seem that you have a whole bunch of calm spiders. when really they just dont see you as a threat, because you're basically a tree. or some other surface..that is not scary, or scared of them.

ive seen a couple folks be that kind of relaxed, and can handle all sorts of species without any sort of defensive behavior on their part. those kind of people are entirely too rare, and I am not one of them, which is why i don't put Poecis and OBTs on my hand. But, if I was, I would.

I would have to agree that I am always confident and relaxed (as much as I can be) whenever dealing with my Ts, especially the tempermental ones. If your nervous, there's more of a chance for something to go wrong, the T bolts and spooks you (not you in particular ), the container falls over, the T runs out and then you and your Ts get kicked out of the house.

I don't wanna burst your bubble or anything, but I'm unfortunately one of those people who believe they are not able to get "used" to handling. Whenever I handle my Ts, I never go straight in. That's to say, if my B smithi kicks hairs, I'll leave him for another day because I don't want to risk him being even MORE aggitated once I have him in my hand. I enjoy the contact. If the tarantula is 'tense' (doesn't wanna put its feet down, abdomen raised, chelicerae spread, etc.), I put it back into the enclosure because it just feels wrong keeping it in such a nervous state. With the OBT, he was obviously not stressed at all since he felt comfortable enough to groom himself. When I was taking him out initially, he didn't throw up any threat postures or sprint around. If he had, I would've surely let him be. I do have my limits though! I had my H lividum run up my arm so I never took her back out again lol. Ts can be very unpredictable and I take a chance everytime I handle one.

TL;DR

When you're calm, they're calm (sometimes). Don't handle Ts when they're showing defensive signs. &Always be prepared for the worst.

 

[Dr Acula]

Happy (early) Father's Day!

Happy (early) Father's Day to all the fathers & MMs out there!

I'd like to dedicate this post to my Dad! The dedication and drive he puts into our family and his work, inspires me to do the same with everything I do in life.

The P fasciata I just got molted so I figured I'd make use of it I'd been stressing all week as to what to get my dad for father's day and the idea immediately came to me as soon as I found the fasciata's exuvium. I posed/dried the exuvium into a nice threat posture, glued it to a slab of rock, bought a display case, put it all together, and made an appropriate label to go along with it. Although seemingly minuscule, the venom drops were the absolute hardest thing to make, hot glue is now my worst enemy.. All in all, it's pretty much the coolest Father's Day gift I've ever made. Enjoy!

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

Here's the real T after her change of clothes. I've decided to name her "Houdini" since she flipped species on me.

P fasciata by srhoa001, on Flickr

 

[papilio]

WOW!! Pretty cool!

 

[Storm76]

Nicely done, indeed!

 

[Dr Acula]

WOW!! Pretty cool!

Nicely done, indeed!

Thank you
It would've been a lot harder had it been a molt from my T stirmi, I would've needed a hazmat suit

 

[Dr Acula]

Gunnu post a small teaser for my next post, it's a pretty important one

Full size photo will be posted in a week or so once all has been done

 

[freedumbdclxvi]

Sweet! Looks like they are playing nice!

 

[papilio]

VERY sweet!
MM cambridgeis are among the most beautiful Ts IMO.

 

[Dr Acula]

Sweet! Looks like they are playing nice!

Alittle too nice
I meant to tell ya, he made another sperm web so I paired em up again last night & he made even more insertions than before one more pairing should do the trick, she's still super receptive

VERY sweet!
MM cambridgeis are among the most beautiful Ts IMO.

I agree, their green is really outstanding &their legs are so fluffy, they look like pipe cleaners

 

[Dr Acula]

Woooooo!

WARNING: This is gunnu be a very long post... :coffee:

I'll start off with new molts

At ~2" DLS, Nemo is as teal and red as can be!

srhoa001, on Flickr

srhoa001, on Flickr

H maculata "Mac". I had to take the pic from outside the plastic since she bolts into her corkround with the slightest disturbance. ~4" DLS

srhoa001, on Flickr

H lividum "dig dug" and her usual display of blue feet. Second picture isn't too great, but it shows her blue really well. ~4" DLS

srhoa001, on Flickr

srhoa001, on Flickr

G pulchripes "thor-ette". FINALLY. She's grown a whopping .25" :wall: (at least that's what it feels like). ~3" DLS

srhoa001, on Flickr


And now..

..the moment has come..

..for the great unveiling!

B albopilosum Pairing! Unfortunately, the MM passed away due to nematodes. However, they never spread to my female so I'm fortunate about that.

[YOUTUBE]qE49ToukB64[/YOUTUBE]

P fasciata Pairing!
The night that the insertions had been made, I turned my camera off right when the male had started confronting her, so no video but I was able to get a pic from when I paired them the second time.

srhoa001, on Flickr

A few weeks after pairing:

srhoa001, on Flickr

P cambridgei pairing!

[YOUTUBE]YPnRtyxlxNI[/YOUTUBE]

Courting

srhoa001, on Flickr

srhoa001, on Flickr

Money shot! (Shot it right when he made the insertions)

srhoa001, on Flickr

------2 months later-------

srhoa001, on Flickr

Just another photo of a burrow...wait..what's this??!?!!?!

srhoa001, on Flickr

First pairing. No casualties. Eggsac. SO FAR SO GREAT!

Another fantastic thing has also happened! I got a major boost in my collection all for the price of $150. $150 (which is INCLUDING shipping) got me:
5 P subfusca Highland slings (SUPER STOKED ABOUT THESE)

srhoa001, on Flickr

srhoa001, on Flickr

an AF P irminia for my male

srhoa001, on Flickr

& a juvi OBT! I've been missing this species, haven't had one of these guys in a while.

srhoa001, on Flickr

Aside from the $150 group, I received 13 free slings from a buddy of mine who was reimbursing me for a couple of my MM loans;

6 OBTs (you can never have enough fireballs ). 2 are a few molts ahead while the others are 4i/5i

srhoa001, on Flickr

srhoa001, on Flickr

3 A versis. The sling in the photo was named Colombus, due to the fact that it escaped from its straw and I later found it on my ceiling. Sly little bugger.

srhoa001, on Flickr

1 A diversipes. So colorful!

srhoa001, on Flickr

1 G pulchripes. Hopefully it'll mature before I finish college. Gotta love their walk though!

srhoa001, on Flickr

1 G rosea. Never had a sling of one of these, oh well

srhoa001, on Flickr

And an L parahybana! This thing is almost microscopic so forgive the distant photo. First LP!

srhoa001, on Flickr

And that's it! I really feel like I've gained an enormous amount of experience these past couple of months and I can't wait to see what happens in the months to come! Incubators, Slings, and Vials, OH MY!

 

[Grin]

That dark P. fasciata female photo is possibly one of the best photos i have seen.
It's has a Tim Burton feeling!

Always love when this thread is updated, great job

 

[freedumbdclxvi]

Sweet pics!

 

[papilio]

Great photos, love the pairing pics!! :biggrin:

 

[BobGrill]

Happy (early) Father's Day to all the fathers & MMs out there!

I'd like to dedicate this post to my Dad! The dedication and drive he puts into our family and his work, inspires me to do the same with everything I do in life.

The P fasciata I just got molted so I figured I'd make use of it I'd been stressing all week as to what to get my dad for father's day and the idea immediately came to me as soon as I found the fasciata's exuvium. I posed/dried the exuvium into a nice threat posture, glued it to a slab of rock, bought a display case, put it all together, and made an appropriate label to go along with it. Although seemingly minuscule, the venom drops were the absolute hardest thing to make, hot glue is now my worst enemy.. All in all, it's pretty much the coolest Father's Day gift I've ever made. Enjoy!

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

P fasciata molt display by srhoa001, on Flickr

Here's the real T after her change of clothes. I've decided to name her "Houdini" since she flipped species on me.

P fasciata by srhoa001, on Flickr

How exactly did you accomplish this? I'm really curious.

 

[Alltheworld601]

great stuff, as usual.

 

[Dr Acula]

That dark P. fasciata female photo is possibly one of the best photos i have seen.
It's has a Tim Burton feeling!

Always love when this thread is updated, great job

Thanks so much! That's exactly what I was going for, like an eerie, graveyard lighting makes me think of corpse bride

How exactly did you accomplish this? I'm really curious.

I move the legs into place and superglue the major joints that matter. Once the glue dries, the legs stay in the same position I left them in since the joints are hardened up. To keep the body off the ground however, I placed it on a deck off cards to keep the body elavated while the legs dried standing up. The venom droplets were made with hot glue

Great photos, love the pairing pics!! :biggrin:

Thank you! Really glad she didn't go after him, I would've had to drop the camera

Sweet pics!

great stuff, as usual.

Thank you!

 

[BobGrill]

I move the legs into place and superglue the major joints that matter. Once the glue dries, the legs stay in the same position I left them in since the joints are hardened up. To keep the body off the ground however, I placed it on a deck off cards to keep the body elavated while the legs dried standing up. The venom droplets were made with hot glue

But how do you accomplish this without the legs breaking off? Do you preserve them in something? I imagine they would snap right off if you tried bending them.

 

[Dr Acula]

But how do you accomplish this without the legs breaking off? Do you preserve them in something? I imagine they would snap right off if you tried bending them.

The exuvium was still pretty wet when I worked with it, &was around 6" DLS so it took a couple days for it to dry out completely. If it was already dried out, you might be able to use a q-tip soaked in soapy water to moisten it back up.