Help with Phidippus audax slings.

Beedrill

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
156
Hey everyone,

So I have a very interesting story. On 07/03/18 we were all sitting around the kitchen table eating when a friend of mine (a huge arachnophobe) noticed 4 or 5 "ants" crawling out from the underside of the table. She asks me, "Hey are these ants or tiny spiders?" I look down and sure enough there are a bunch of tiny tiny jumping spider slings crawling around. After a quick inspection I realize that there is a P. audax egg sack erupting with baby spiders glued to the underside of the table. In standard form, I grab my nearest catch cup and start corralling 1/16th inch long slings into the catch cup. I end up getting about a hundred of them when all of the sudden mom pops out and is less than thrilled about my intervention. I cup her and continue catching babies until I finally seem to get them all. I let them all outside in secluded areas so hopefully they are doing just fine out in the big wide world.

However, as the week went by, I kept finding stragglers. I kept seven in total. My problem is that I can't seem to get them to eat. First I added springtails to their substrate hoping that they would hunt them down and eat them. But after loosing two of them already, I tried fruit flies. The flies are almost equal body length to the slings and I think the slings are just frightened by them.

Could I get some suggestions or tips from some experts?
Thanks in advance.
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
Perhaps try baby isopods? The smallest babies are usually about the size of springtails, but a bit bulkier and slower. And being smaller, their exoskeleton is still pretty soft. I just used a slightly larger isopod baby to feed my teeny tiny Avicularia purpurea sling the other day, and I was surprised at how readily the sling took it.

It's usually pretty simple to get babies. You just have to look around in areas you frequently see isopods, and pick up a handful of them and look underneath them on their bellies. A female with eggs or babies will have a puffy yellow bulge on her belly underneath her legs. Then you just need to keep her in some moist substrate (preferably rotting hardwood, but Eco Earth should work too as long as you supplement it's food), and eventually you'll have baby isopods walking around
 

Beedrill

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
156
Well I did actually consider isopods. I have a colony of dwarf white isopods that I can use. I just wasn't sure if they would burrow down into the substrate or not. Later today I'll try adding some isopods to the enclosure as well as some more springtails just in case. Thanks!
 

Sean Magbanua

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Messages
12
I have a sling (about the size of the tip of a pen)eating cricket nymphs almost 3 times bigger than she is. The only way she accepted the food was I had to squeeze the body of the cricket and made sure I caught her attention. I placed the cricket on the floor and she walked up on it and grabbed it by the abdomen and continued to eat. Make sure the cricket was still twitching when you present it to them. (I know its a super cruel way, but its the only way I got my slings to eat)
 
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