OBT or Mystery?

[Zayshah]

Ha! I rhymed 8D

So the other day my dad bought me a new teeny little OBT sling. Well, I saw him for the first time today moving him into his new little glass vial, and... he's brown. Like, a really deep cocoa color. I thought OBT's were born orange? He's a second or third instar, maybe 1/2-3/4'', and most definately a baboon of some sort. He was sold as an Usambara Orange Baboon, but something's telling me he's not a Pterinochilus sp. at all.
Or am I mistaken, and OBT's don't get their orange color until they grow a little bit? I was told that they are orange always and forever, but...

 

[kc7wdg]

I think mine started to get the normal orange color about 4th instar and iirc I could even see the typical pattern on top and the start of the pattern on abdomen. Mine were brown when I got them.

 

[stevetastic]

mine had orange abdomens at 2nd instar. 3ed isnstar they are orange hairs on they legs and 4th instart they are fully orange... at least with mine thats how it was. maybe you have H. gigas? someone i know adopted an obt when the add said H gigas. thats a shot in the dark tho. you should take some pics!

 

[somethingbig]

where did your dad get it? i have a few OBT slings that are brown, but after they molt, their abdomens are slightly oranger.

 

[Zayshah]

I think mine started to get the normal orange color about 4th instar and iirc I could even see the typical pattern on top and the start of the pattern on abdomen. Mine were brown when I got them.

Aw... I was kinda hoping he was a mystery. Irritating to some, exciting to me. I even had a name for him- Sherlock. Yes.

mine had orange abdomens at 2nd instar. 3ed isnstar they are orange hairs on they legs and 4th instart they are fully orange... at least with mine thats how it was. maybe you have H. gigas? someone i know adopted an obt when the add said H gigas. thats a shot in the dark tho. you should take some pics!

He has absolutely no orange fuzz at all. I tried to take a picture (my adventures with cameras never end with a happy z), but the camera has autofocus and would only focus on the glass... not the spider. LAME.

And I was looking through galleries... he looks a lot like this: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/gal...0&orderby=rating&direction=DESC&cutoffdate=-1 It's labeled as a P. Chordatus. I was looking at OBT sling pics, and couldn't find any that look like him... doesn't mean they're not there, though. I'll keep looking, though...

 

[Struckanerve]

why dont u take a picture and show us?

 

[Zayshah]

where did your dad get it? i have a few OBT slings that are brown, but after they molt, their abdomens are slightly oranger.

We got him at a local (****ty) petstore called Mark's Ark... they always mislabel their stuff, which is what made me suspicious in the first place. They're not knowledgeable about their animals at all, either, so I'm never surprised when I see, say, an LP being sold as a 'Giant Eartheater Tarantula' or some such nonsense. It's a 50/50 shot on whether or not the spider they're selling you is really what they say it is, so when I noticed that he lacked any normal OBT sling coloration that I've seen (which admitedly isn't much), I immediately thought that he was probably mislabeled... but, I'm still not sure.

 

[somethingbig]

We got him at a local (****ty) petstore called Mark's Ark... they always mislabel their stuff, which is what made me suspicious in the first place. They're not knowledgeable about their animals at all, either, so I'm never surprised when I see, say, an LP being sold as a 'Giant Eartheater Tarantula' or some such nonsense. It's a 50/50 shot on whether or not the spider they're selling you is really what they say it is, so when I noticed that he lacked any normal OBT sling coloration that I've seen (which admitedly isn't much), I immediately thought that he was probably mislabeled... but, I'm still not sure.

well it still could be an OBT. alex080 sent me a few OBT slings, and the only one that hasn't molted is all brown. it looks nothing like the coloration you would expect from an OBT.

 

[Widowman10]

there are 3 possibilities:
1) it's a tan color phase OBT
2) it's another pterinochilus sp.
3) it's not a baboon

a pic would help, but if it's still tiny, it'll be hard.

just remember, not all murinus are bright orange.

 

[jb7741]

Mine were kinda brown, with just tinges of orange on their butts.

Here is a couple old photos to compare:

 

[rochin]

that is for sure an obt sling!!

 

[Neophyte]

No kidding. You can see the orange tint on the abdomen quite well.

*edit* Oops, that wasnt HIS sling. My bad. But yeah, it will look pretty brown, but take a good look in some light and you may see a tiny bit of orange.

 

[rochin]

ouch!!! :wall: i just realized that the sling you are talking about is not on the pictures

 

[GOMER113]

I bought some 3/4" OBT slings in November 2007 and they didn't really show a lot of orange until they reached the 2.25" mark. When they were really small, there you could see a little bit of orange in pictures with flash, but it was barely visible to the naked eye, unless you want to look at an OBT from an inch away and risk the chance of it going after your eyeball.

 

[Zayshah]

@ jb7741- Hm... he looks similar to them for sure, but he has no orange coloration whatsoever. He prettymuch looks identical to them, but he's much darker, nearer to black than any sort of tan or orange.

@ Widowman10- what's a 'tan phase?' I've never heard of that.

@ everyone else - I will try to take a picture of him tonight when I get out of school (bad Z, on the forums in class!), but it will have to be with my cell phone. Looking at those pictures, though, it's very possible that he IS an Usambara, just a very young and dully colored one... though it's also still a possibility that he's some other sort of baboon. Those guys' abdomens are a different shade from their carapace and legs, while mine has a uniform coloration- though, he could just be younger...

Like I said above, he looks nearly identical to the pic of the P. Chordatus baby, very little difference in his coloration with my baby's. If Murinus look that dark/brown at so young an age, then I'm probably just slow on the uptake and he's an OBT after all

 

[Widowman10]

@ Widowman10- what's a 'tan phase?' I've never heard of that.

P. murinus can come in 2 color phases. the RCF, or orange, is the one commonly known. orange is the popular murinus color. murinus can also come in a tan color, or TCF. this looks very similar to the other pterinochilus species.

 

[GartenSpinnen]

It is basically a shot in the dark without a picture. And even with a picture it is still somewhat a shot in the dark, and pointless even to guess, with a small spiderling. So, you do have your mystery T, and feel free to name it sherlock. Give it a few molts and then you should know what you have for sure, if you post a picture that is.

-Nate

 

[Zayshah]

I got a good look at him, used a flashlight and everything, but saw no hint of orange. I'm betting that Widow is right and he's just a tan phase. Maybe if I'm lucky he's some other Pterinochilus species, but it looks doubtful now. LAME.

I took a few pictures, too, but I had to take them on my cell phone so they're not exactly commendable DX

Here's the only really decent ones of the bunch:

 

[somethingbig]

give him a few molts, and it may surprise you with an orange abdomen...

 

[arachyd]

It looks like every OBT sling we've ever had. Don't feel bad if it turns out to be a tan one. They are just as fiesty as the orange ones.