A journey only for the brave

[AlbaArachnids92]

fed it once the day I got it, rehoused the next day, burrowed and has yet to be seen again.

aww man, I feel this comment! My favorite NW species by far is Brachypelma albiceps got it (April 2021) @~0.5cm, rehoused it, fed it and didn't see it again for 200+ days........reappeared roughly ~0.6cm.
Ate a few times since then and has now refused for about the last 3 months, shiny & black abdomen so I guess I might see a second moult by the end of 2022 haha

 

[A guy]

UPDATE

All of them molted! But I would be lying if I said that they gained some size lol no noticeable size gain whatsoever, their abdomens just shrunk

 

[AlbaArachnids92]

no noticeable size gain whatsoever, their abdomens just shrunk

I think the exact wording I used when mine moulted was "slightly less small"

 

[Sanjo]

Congrats! A journey for the brave and super patient! As much as I'd love to have an Aphonopelma species the ultra slow growth rate is a deal breaker. Luckily we have A. hentzi here that I can see in the wild.

 

[A guy]

Congrats! A journey for the brave and super patient! As much as I'd love to have an Aphonopelma species the ultra slow growth rate is a deal breaker. Luckily we have A. hentzi here that I can see in the wild.

They grow at a glacially slow pace
They'll be with you for a very long time

Put some positivity in to it

 

[ForTW]

Atleast you have something to pass on to your kids!
I got a sling that size, funny thing, molted once in a year . He's fine beeing "the forgotten one", so pretty cool!

 

[LucN]

Hopefully, you'll keep us updated over the years so we can get an indication of how long it really takes for these to go from 1/4" to 5+" I'd rather get them a little bit bigger, like 1" or so, they're not quite as fragile at that size.

 

[A guy]

Hopefully, you'll keep us updated over the years so we can get an indication of how long it really takes for these to go from 1/4" to 5+" I'd rather get them a little bit bigger, like 1" or so, they're not quite as fragile at that size.

Of course, if I live to see them reach adulthood that is.

They're surprisingly really good eaters though, the smallest crickets I have available is like 3 times their size but all of them do not leave anything behind.

 

[Matt Man]

Of course, if I live to see them reach adulthood that is.

They're surprisingly really good eaters though, the smallest crickets I have available is like 3 times their size but all of them do not leave anything behind.

your avatar throws people off. You are a kid, yes? (sorry 22 is kid in my book)
Heck I'm 59 and I have an A. bicoloratum, it's about an inch and change DLS, an A. moderatum about 1.5" DLS, a juvenile A. steindachneri, a sub adult A Steindachneri, a sub adult A, Chalcodes and I am guessing I may never see some full grown, but who cares, the process is the fun part.
Luckily my daughter will happily take them. (Note: I also have 2 full blow Adult Females - A. steindachneri and A. Chalcodes)

 

[Edan bandoot]

your avatar throws people off. You are a kid, yes? (sorry 22 is kid in my book)
Heck I'm 59 and I have an A. bicoloratum, it's about an inch and change DLS, an A. moderatum about 1.5" DLS, a juvenile A. steindachneri, a sub adult A Steindachneri, a sub adult A, Chalcodes and I am guessing I may never see some full grown, but who cares, the process is the fun part.
Luckily my daughter will happily take them. (Note: I also have 2 full blow Adult Females - A. steindachneri and A. Chalcodes)

im 9 yrs old

 

[A guy]

your avatar throws people off. You are a kid, yes? (sorry 22 is kid in my book)
Heck I'm 59 and I have an A. bicoloratum, it's about an inch and change DLS, an A. moderatum about 1.5" DLS, a juvenile A. steindachneri, a sub adult A Steindachneri, a sub adult A, Chalcodes and I am guessing I may never see some full grown, but who cares, the process is the fun part.
Luckily my daughter will happily take them. (Note: I also have 2 full blow Adult Females - A. steindachneri and A. Chalcodes)

My avatar is uncle Ben, from spiderman lol
22 year old with back pain lol You still have a long way to go old man. You'll see them full grown

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

I've had an Aphonopelma sp. "Jalisco" since 2016 and so far it has taken about 4 years for it to grow from a tiny pinky fingernail size spiderling to reach a 2 inch long legspan that is light tan in color. It hasn't molted in about 2 years so I have no idea how much bigger it will get. The problem I have with these undescribed/ unidentified Mexican Aphonopelma species is that I have no idea how big it is supposed to get or what it is supposed to look like as an adult. I could Google the trade name, but I can't verify that what I have as "Aphonopelma sp. Jalisco" is the same as someone else's.

 

[A guy]

I've had an Aphonopelma sp. "Jalisco" since 2016 and so far it has taken about 4 years for it to grow from a tiny pinky fingernail size spiderling to reach a 2 inch long legspan that is light tan in color. It hasn't molted in about 2 years so I have no idea how much bigger it will get. The problem I have with these undescribed/ unidentified Mexican Aphonopelma species is that I have no idea how big it is supposed to get or what it is supposed to look like as an adult. I could Google the trade name, but I can't verify that what I have as "Aphonopelma sp. Jalisco" is the same as someone else's.

Great progress!
That's my problem aswell, I contacted multiple people with "Aphonopelma sp. jalisco" but all of them have different looking adult specimens.

 

[A guy]

UPDATE

Bad news: one of the five slings has sadly died out of nowhere. I can't find a reason why it happened, everything was as it should. I guess it was just natural selection.

Good news: All four have molted again and if you look at them with a magnifying glass, there's a subtle size difference this time lol

 

[A guy]

UPDATE

Another bad news: Unfortunately, another one of the slings had died because of a bad molt. Molted out fine but I noticed that its exoskeleton never hardened. For the whole time after its molt it stayed looking like it was freshly molted for 2 weeks before inevitably dying. Very bummed out. That leaves me with 3 out of the original 5

 

[NMTs]

UPDATE

Another bad news: Unfortunately, another one of the slings had died because of a bad molt. Molted out fine but I noticed that its exoskeleton never hardened. For the whole time after its molt it stayed looking like it was freshly molted for 2 weeks before inevitably dying. Very bummed out. That leaves me with 3 out of the original 5

I've read about this happening before. Very strange, indeed. Sometimes it has seemed to take extraordinarily long for a few of mine to harden, but I've never lost one due to it. Sorry to hear it.

 

[A guy]

I've read about this happening before. Very strange, indeed. Sometimes it has seemed to take extraordinarily long for a few of mine to harden, but I've never lost one due to it. Sorry to hear it.

Yeah, I've only heard of it once before. I guess these are the risks taking small slings.

 

[A guy]

UPDATE

New passengers for this journey. 3 1/4" Aphonopelma anitahoffmannae

 

[liquidfluidity]

I saw that and related it to my next venture - Phoneutria

All aside, it is kind of hard to think about the future of our little buddies as some of us aren't spring chickens.....

 

[A guy]

I saw that and related it to my next venture - Phoneutria

All aside, it is kind of hard to think about the future of our little buddies as some of us aren't spring chickens.....

Oh I totally get it. That's @viper69 's reason too I believe.