# Help! Dark fishing spider laid an egg case!



## ZephAmp (Mar 2, 2009)

I went to check on a dark fishing spider my dad's coworker found in his basement back in October. I've been feeding her on roaches and she molted once; a week after I got her. Anyways, she's laid an egg case and is clenching it in her jaws. It's wrapped in a blue-ish bundle of silk.
What do I do? Remove it and incubate it? Put her in a container where the babies won't be able to get out? Is it fertile? Any one want some of the young?

-Kyle

PS- Scientific name is Dolomedes tenebrosus


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## Widowman10 (Mar 2, 2009)

wow! lots of questions!

well, you can probably slow down a bit, because if she molted _after_ you got her, chances are the sac is infertile.


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## ZephAmp (Mar 2, 2009)

Widowman10 said:


> wow! lots of questions!
> 
> well, you can probably slow down a bit, because if she molted _after_ you got her, chances are the sac is infertile.


And if it isn't?


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## Widowman10 (Mar 2, 2009)

just let mom do her thing, the sac will hatch and the babies will ride around on her for awhile. after they molt once (maybe twice?) they will start jumping off one by one. they can't really climb plastic, so you shouldn't have too many worries there...


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## ZephAmp (Mar 2, 2009)

At first she wasn't able to climb the sides of her container, but not she has placed many little "pads" of silk on the sides, so she hangs out in the top corners. There are a few small holes on the corners too...
So how long until the eggs hatch, if they're fertile?


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## jsloan (Mar 2, 2009)

Widowman10 said:


> just let mom do her thing, the sac will hatch and the babies will ride around on her for awhile.


I don't think pisaurids carry their babies around on their backs the way wolf spiders do ... at least, not that I know of.  They do care for their young, though, by building a protective web/chamber around the egg sac before the spiderlings emerge.  The spiderlings stay within the protection of the "nursery web" for a while before going off on their own.  The mother guards them during this time.


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## Widowman10 (Mar 2, 2009)

jsloan said:


> I don't think pisaurids carry their babies around on their backs the way wolf spiders do ... at least, not that I know of.


oh! totally my bad, i thought they did! :8o


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## Raikiri (Mar 4, 2009)

But how could the sac be fertile if the female molted before building it??


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## Widowman10 (Mar 4, 2009)

Raikiri said:


> But how could the sac be fertile if the female molted before building it??


highly unlikely it is fertile. but from what i remember, some trues can store sperm through a molt if they are mated at the perfect time.


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## Raikiri (Mar 5, 2009)

Widowman10 said:


> highly unlikely it is fertile. but from what i remember, some trues can store sperm through a molt if they are mated at the perfect time.


Could be, but she was catched 5 months ago. Each case when I mate a true spider the female lays her sac in a month. I belive in October when she was catched she was subadult then in a week she became adult.


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## Widowman10 (Mar 5, 2009)

Raikiri said:


> Each case when I mate a true spider the female lays her sac in a month.


sometimes. course, then i have widows that go in dormant type state for 7 months before laying a sac...


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