First pet T, surprise eggsac!

[Jake94]

Hello.

My dad was in Arkansas on a fishing trip a few weeks ago, and while there he found what we believe to be a Texas brown tarantula. He sent some pictures and due to the size of the abdomen and the lack of hooks on the pedipalps we assumed it was a female, or at least that there was a possibility. I asked him to bring her to me to keep as a pet and he didn't mind, lucky me!

To my delight, about a week after getting her moved in to the terrarium I set up, I caught her laying eggs onto the web she had built at the bottom of her burrow! I'm so excited. I've been trying to read as much as I can, but I still feel like my knowledge on raising these little guys is painfully lacking. In two days, it will be 2 weeks since she made the eggsac, which she's been guarding constantly.

I know that I'll need to take the eggsac from her before they hatch, which I plan to do at the 4 week mark. I know I'll need to house the nymphs separately in small containers 2-3 inches in diameter at first, and to allow ventilation, 60-70% humidity, proper substrate, pinhead crickets, or pieces of small dead crickets for food, and to increase container size as they grow.

I'm wondering if anyone can share tips on where to buy containers at a reasonable price, how many I'll need, if there's a good place to buy pinhead crickets (I haven't inquired with the petco near me yet, but I think they can be gotten from Amazon). Really I just want to fill in some gaps in my knowledge so I can start making a real plan.

If anyone has any experience raising a tarantula egg sac, I'd love to hear your stories! I'm so excited!

 

[Venom1080]

if it has eggs, then yes its a girl. size of abdomen means nothing. hooks are only on mature males so it could of been a immature male and they are on the first pair of legs. common names mean nothing, post a pic of the spider if(dont stress her) you have one, dont take her out or anything, just leave her alone. also, post a pic of the terrarium.

 

[louise f]

I know I'll need to house the nymphs separately in small containers

No need to separate them before 1st molt..No rush.. And pics would be great as @Venom1080 says

Here is some of my vids you might find useful..

I wish you the best of luck with the sac..

 

[Jake94]

if it has eggs, then yes its a girl. size of abdomen means nothing. hooks are only on mature males so it could of been a immature male and they are on the first pair of legs. common names mean nothing, post a pic of the spider if(dont stress her) you have one, dont take her out or anything, just leave her alone. also, post a pic of the terrarium.

Yeah I meant to say we suspected her of being a female because of those characteristics. I knew that the only way to be sure was with a microscope. Or if it lays eggs haha! But yes you are right.

http://imgur.com/a/vOPMt Here are a few images I took of her in the first week, pre-sac.

 

[Jake94]

No need to separate them before 1st molt..No rush.. And pics would be great as @Venom1080 says

Here is some of my vids you might find useful..

I wish you the best of luck with the sac..

Hey thanks so much for the videos! Here's a few pictures of her: http://imgur.com/a/vOPMt

 

[louise f]

You are welcome. I would believe it is Aphonopelma hentzi. Pretty fat, so could be full of eggs.

 

[cold blood]

Hello.

My dad was in Arkansas on a fishing trip a few weeks ago, and while there he found what we believe to be a Texas brown tarantula. He sent some pictures and due to the size of the abdomen and the lack of hooks on the pedipalps we assumed it was a female, or at least that there was a possibility. I asked him to bring her to me to keep as a pet and he didn't mind, lucky me!

To my delight, about a week after getting her moved in to the terrarium I set up, I caught her laying eggs onto the web she had built at the bottom of her burrow! I'm so excited. I've been trying to read as much as I can, but I still feel like my knowledge on raising these little guys is painfully lacking. In two days, it will be 2 weeks since she made the eggsac, which she's been guarding constantly.

I know that I'll need to take the eggsac from her before they hatch, which I plan to do at the 4 week mark. I know I'll need to house the nymphs separately in small containers 2-3 inches in diameter at first, and to allow ventilation, 60-70% humidity, proper substrate, pinhead crickets, or pieces of small dead crickets for food, and to increase container size as they grow.

I'm wondering if anyone can share tips on where to buy containers at a reasonable price, how many I'll need, if there's a good place to buy pinhead crickets (I haven't inquired with the petco near me yet, but I think they can be gotten from Amazon). Really I just want to fill in some gaps in my knowledge so I can start making a real plan.

If anyone has any experience raising a tarantula egg sac, I'd love to hear your stories! I'm so excited!

Nice, how did dad's trip turn out? Arkansas is a nice place to fish, especially for bass


That's pretty lucky to have found a gravid female, kinda sad that they won't be re-populating the area, but none-the-less, a wonderful learning experience for you.

Could you please post a pic of the set-up, just want to make sure its a good one, because finding proper info on set ups is a total crapshoot, and frankly, most people miss the first few times.

Most adult ts can actually be sexed ventrally pretty accurately.

The first thing I would suggest doing would be removal of the water dish, you don't want her dunking the sac. Next is to just relax, as louise eluded to, you have time, weeks. You don't need to take it from her, she's fully capable of hatching it, and depending on the set up, it may not be much of an issue and could be a feasible option....although taking them early, incubating and watching them, does ensure that the female doesn't up and abort the mission as well as allowing you to better prepare for the numbers when they start molting into 2i (which is when they will start looking like little ts), until this point you don't need to worry about feeding them, and that's a little longer off.

For the housing, I use condiment cups, if you buy them from a restaurant supply store you can get whole sleeves for just a couple bucks. I've actually had several places (5 guys and culvers) just tell me to take them when I inquired...these are the same cups places give away for putting catsup in. Just pop holes around the sides with a pin, pop a couple in the lid just to prevent condensation, add a tablespoon of your favorite substrate, maybe a pinch of moss and add the spiderlings.

Don't worry about number specific humidity, or humidity really at all, its just as simple as keeping the substrate (or part of the sub) damp....when it dries, add a few drops of water, its that easy...chasing numbers will overcomplicate things and have you scrambling and worrying about what amounts to nothing. Also by minimizing the ventilation in the deli cups, you can easily maintain a little more humidity with just damp sub....too much top venting and they dry out very quickly, leading to more maintenance by you and a less consistent environment for the sling.

When the time comes for feeding, don't worry about pinheads, even places that actually have them (which is rare) also have other, easier options than catching 320pinheads and dropping each to an individual dish (same for the nutritionally deficient fruit fly)....it would take literally, all day. Get what you have available and dice it up into appropriate sized pieces and feed, it will cut your feedings in half, if not more. I prefer diced up mealworms, as they're fatty and by giving slightly larger pieces (which you can do with pre-kill), you can feed less often and still maintain fat slings and good growth rates....but like I said, whatever you get will work, one medium cricket can have both legs removed, its head removed and effectively feed 4-5 slings.

Best of luck with the lucky sac

 

[Jake94]

Nice, how did dad's trip turn out? Arkansas is a nice place to fish, especially for bass


That's pretty lucky to have found a gravid female, kinda sad that they won't be re-populating the area, but none-the-less, a wonderful learning experience for you.

Could you please post a pic of the set-up, just want to make sure its a good one, because finding proper info on set ups is a total crapshoot, and frankly, most people miss the first few times.

Most adult ts can actually be sexed ventrally pretty accurately.

The first thing I would suggest doing would be removal of the water dish, you don't want her dunking the sac. Next is to just relax, as louise eluded to, you have time, weeks. You don't need to take it from her, she's fully capable of hatching it, and depending on the set up, it may not be much of an issue and could be a feasible option....although taking them early, incubating and watching them, does ensure that the female doesn't up and abort the mission as well as allowing you to better prepare for the numbers when they start molting into 2i (which is when they will start looking like little ts), until this point you don't need to worry about feeding them, and that's a little longer off.

For the housing, I use condiment cups, if you buy them from a restaurant supply store you can get whole sleeves for just a couple bucks. I've actually had several places (5 guys and culvers) just tell me to take them when I inquired...these are the same cups places give away for putting catsup in. Just pop holes around the sides with a pin, pop a couple in the lid just to prevent condensation, add a tablespoon of your favorite substrate, maybe a pinch of moss and add the spiderlings.

Don't worry about number specific humidity, or humidity really at all, its just as simple as keeping the substrate (or part of the sub) damp....when it dries, add a few drops of water, its that easy...chasing numbers will overcomplicate things and have you scrambling and worrying about what amounts to nothing. Also by minimizing the ventilation in the deli cups, you can easily maintain a little more humidity with just damp sub....too much top venting and they dry out very quickly, leading to more maintenance by you and a less consistent environment for the sling.

When the time comes for feeding, don't worry about pinheads, even places that actually have them (which is rare) also have other, easier options than catching 320pinheads and dropping each to an individual dish (same for the nutritionally deficient fruit fly)....it would take literally, all day. Get what you have available and dice it up into appropriate sized pieces and feed, it will cut your feedings in half, if not more. I prefer diced up mealworms, as they're fatty and by giving slightly larger pieces (which you can do with pre-kill), you can feed less often and still maintain fat slings and good growth rates....but like I said, whatever you get will work, one medium cricket can have both legs removed, its head removed and effectively feed 4-5 slings.

Best of luck with the lucky sac

Here's the set up: http://imgur.com/a/BXAkz

the log goes almost to the bottom, and she dug the rest of the way. She's got the entrance sealed up with the dirt from her excavation project, and just a small crevice at the very top of the entrance, that I guess allows for atmosphere exchange, but is also webbed. The substrate is coconut fiber.

Dad's a fly fishing guide on the white river, so no bass, but I'm sure the fishing was as good as can be for whatever conditions. Maybe I should release a few back into their natural habitat once they reach maturity. Knock on wood!

And thank you for the advice! I will certainly be referring back to it over the course of this thrilling new adventure. : )

 

[cold blood]

I assume the top is ventilated? Doesn't look bad, I do wonder what all those cords are powering.

 

[Jake94]

I assume the top is ventilated? Doesn't look bad, I do wonder what all those cords are powering.

Yes the top is a screen. I actually had a bit of trouble with that at first because I think the humidity was too high due to the substrate being a bit damp out of the bag, which I guess she didn't like so much because she was doing a lot of climbing up the walls. I then learned how dangerous this is for them and my heart broke thinking she could have been killed from a fall that high. So I got another bag of substrate to reduce the possible falling distance. I'm so so lucky that I didn't have to learn that the hard way. I haven't had a problem since that though.

The cords are from my uromastyx light and heating pad right above her.

 

[cold blood]

Remove the heat pad.

When you can, I would also get a piece of plexi or acrylic fit for the lid and drill it our for ventilation. Screen tops are bad news.

 

[Jake94]

Remove the heat pad.

When you can, I would also get a piece of plexi or acrylic fit for the lid and drill it our for ventilation. Screen tops are bad news.

The heat pad is underneath the bottom of my lizard's terrarium, which is on top of the table. The tarantula is underneath the table, resting on two wooden beams connected to the table legs. Theres about an inch of wood and a couple feet of space between the T and the pad, and heat rises, so I don't think it's a problem, but I'll move the temp/humidity guage to the other side and see if it's having a local effect.

Plexiglass makes sense. Fortunately she hasn't come out of her burrow since laying so I've got time to make that change. Thanks again for the advice!

 

[Jake94]

No need to separate them before 1st molt..No rush.. And pics would be great as @Venom1080 says

Here is some of my vids you might find useful..

I wish you the best of luck with the sac..

Did you mean I can separate them into individual containers after their first moult, or separate from the mother?

More specifically, are there any signs I should look for that indicate it's time to take them from mom?

 

[louise f]

Did you mean I can separate them into individual containers after their first moult, or separate from the mother?

More specifically, are there any signs I should look for that indicate it's time to take them from mom?

Yes separate in 1st molt.. i would take the eggsac 25-30 days after she made it. And put the eggs in an incubator like i showed in the vid.

 

[Jake94]

Yes separate in 1st molt.. i would take the eggsac 25-30 days after she made it. And put the eggs in an incubator like i showed in the vid.

Awesome, thank you for the clarification.

 

[louise f]

Awesome, thank you for the clarification.

No problem, and good luck with the eggsac

 

[viper69]

I hope you raise up those Ts, if they hatch, and release back into the wild where the mother was found.

 

[Jake94]

I hope you raise up those Ts, if they hatch, and release back into the wild where the mother was found.

I'm certainly open to that idea! Are tarantula populations in the United States / around Arkansas in trouble or something? I definitely plan to keep some of them, but I imagine there will be more babies than I could ever possibly need.

 

[viper69]

I'm certainly open to that idea! Are tarantula populations in the United States / around Arkansas in trouble or something? I definitely plan to keep some of them, but I imagine there will be more babies than I could ever possibly need.

There is no reason not to return them, you will not get rich raising them and then selling them. When you look at how many are generated from a sac, and how many actually survive (not many- like sea turtles) every single one matters for the survival of the species.

 

[Jake94]

There is no reason not to return them, you will not get rich raising them and then selling them. When you look at how many are generated from a sac, and how many actually survive (not many- like sea turtles) every single one matters for the survival of the species.

Interesting! Do you have information, off-hand or otherwise, on how many / what percent of those initially born survive to maturity? If it's like you say, and only a small percentage statistically reach adulthood, then I could potentially double or triple that figure! Realistically though, although I do have several friends and family members who have expressed interest, I doubt 7-8 will put a dent into the brood. I could be wrong though!