MoranDisciple
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
- Messages
- 107
Hello all. This thread will be dedicated to documenting my six newly acquired Sicarius thomisoides as they grow, eat, pray, love, and do all the other things sand spiders do. (It will also feature a side plot of another species) I recieved the spiders from @Philth aka Tom Patterson today. They are all 3i slings and all molted just before he shipped them. Like some other "diaries" you may have seen here, this series will last a while and may not have a definitive end. Pictures will he a prominent feature despite me having nothing but a crappy Galaxy S9 phone camera. It will have a bit of a twist differentiating it from others because I'll be running an experiment. Each spider will be kept in different conditions to see whether they are as bulletproof and easy to care for as we think. One will be kept on calcium sand, one on fine river sand, one on rough grained beach sand, on in a naturalistic setup on fine red sand, and the remaining two together in a communal setup on the same fine red sand.
First up, here is how they were shipped. You can tell Tom takes care when packaging by this photo. The vials labelled "Selenops" contain Selenops radiatus, a species of flat spider from Egypt with the fastest turning speed of any land animal. They were freebies.
Unpacking the Sicarius was a bit more nerveracking than I thought it would be. They were not at all groggy from their trip which caught me off guard.
Once they were all in their containers, they scuttled around a bit before settling down, with some taking much longer to do so than others. The first one to bury itself was the one in the fine river sand setup. It was interesting and funny watching the process in real life.
Here is the one in the calcium sand setup. This one has a name, "Four Twelve." Interesting, I know. I got it from the label on the side of the coffee shop container it's in. I don't know if it prefers coffee or tea. I do know that Fourtwelve took the longest to bury itself at approximately half an hour.
Here is the one in the rough grained beach sand setup. This one buried itself quickly but hasn't taken the cricket I gave it.
Here is the one in the "naturalistic" setup, where I mixed the sand with an equal part topsoil and added some twigs, dead grass, and a rock. I have to admit, this is the setup I'm most interested in. Can you find the spider?
Here is the communal setup with the two Sicarius on plain red sand. Before you attack me, please watch this video:
Three out of the six have eaten so far. One of these was one of the two in the communal setup. I have seen no evidence of sharing.
Here is the setup for the Egyptian flat spiders Selenops radiatus. I thought it would be easier to feed this feisty little fellas by keeping all four in the same enclosure and dropping in fruit flies and prekilled red runners.
Closeup of one of the tiny Selenops slings. I plan on separating them when they get a bit bigger.
This same sling also molted in transit but is doing fine. I'm not sure what instar they are. They have a limited ability to climb plastic which caught me off guard. Thankfully it's bad enough that I dont think I'll have to worry about escapees even with a half off lid for ventilation. Anyway, back to the sandy stars of the show.
The sling in the naturalistic setup stopped feeding on his cricket after a few hours but soon returned to it. Fickle little guy.
I cant attach any more pics due to the file limit but I should probably stop spending time on this post anyway. I'll keep you all updated over the next few months (years?).
First up, here is how they were shipped. You can tell Tom takes care when packaging by this photo. The vials labelled "Selenops" contain Selenops radiatus, a species of flat spider from Egypt with the fastest turning speed of any land animal. They were freebies.
Unpacking the Sicarius was a bit more nerveracking than I thought it would be. They were not at all groggy from their trip which caught me off guard.
Once they were all in their containers, they scuttled around a bit before settling down, with some taking much longer to do so than others. The first one to bury itself was the one in the fine river sand setup. It was interesting and funny watching the process in real life.
Here is the one in the calcium sand setup. This one has a name, "Four Twelve." Interesting, I know. I got it from the label on the side of the coffee shop container it's in. I don't know if it prefers coffee or tea. I do know that Fourtwelve took the longest to bury itself at approximately half an hour.
Here is the one in the rough grained beach sand setup. This one buried itself quickly but hasn't taken the cricket I gave it.
Here is the one in the "naturalistic" setup, where I mixed the sand with an equal part topsoil and added some twigs, dead grass, and a rock. I have to admit, this is the setup I'm most interested in. Can you find the spider?
Here is the communal setup with the two Sicarius on plain red sand. Before you attack me, please watch this video:
Three out of the six have eaten so far. One of these was one of the two in the communal setup. I have seen no evidence of sharing.
Here is the setup for the Egyptian flat spiders Selenops radiatus. I thought it would be easier to feed this feisty little fellas by keeping all four in the same enclosure and dropping in fruit flies and prekilled red runners.
Closeup of one of the tiny Selenops slings. I plan on separating them when they get a bit bigger.
This same sling also molted in transit but is doing fine. I'm not sure what instar they are. They have a limited ability to climb plastic which caught me off guard. Thankfully it's bad enough that I dont think I'll have to worry about escapees even with a half off lid for ventilation. Anyway, back to the sandy stars of the show.
The sling in the naturalistic setup stopped feeding on his cricket after a few hours but soon returned to it. Fickle little guy.
I cant attach any more pics due to the file limit but I should probably stop spending time on this post anyway. I'll keep you all updated over the next few months (years?).
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