Acanthophrynus coronatus care???

[Aracnophile]

I'm planning to get a 2" Acanthophrynus coronatus pretty soon and I only have a slight idea of what the care for this species is like. I've already set up an enclosure for it and I want to know if its ok or not. Also, I would like to get the general info on the care for this species.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Mostly this is a pretty good enclosure. A bit of room for improvement but a good start - I can tell you've done some research.

1. Moist substrate - good. Keep it that way by pouring water in (misting isn't great at moistening anything but the surface, though it can be nice to squirt a bit on the climbing surface occasionally to provide drinking water)
2. Climbing surface - good
3. Restricted ventilation - good (but is there anything open there? it looks as though it's entirely sealed off - they do need a bit of ventilation!)
4. Water dish - not necessary. they'll drink from droplets on the climbing surface if they need it, but mostly they get moisture from food.
5. Hygrometer - it's not really very useful. Most are not particularly accurate, and the animal itself will tell you whether it's humid enough by spending most of its time high up on the climbing surface. As long as the substrate stays moist and the animal isn't spending all its time close to (or on) the substrate, it's humid enough.
6. The wire mesh top can be a problem if it's exposed to the animal. You'd be better off extending the styrofoam across all but the last half inch or so of exposed wire mesh. Then you can get rid of the plastic wrap on top. This will reduce evaporation, keep the animal safe from getting caught in the wire mesh, and provide more climbing and moulting area.
7. The depth (front to back) of this enclosure is quite large, which means a lot of wasted space - you could also add some styrofoam partway along the sides to give more climbing area, which would make more of the enclosure space useable.

99% of care for this species is leaving it alone. A. coronatus has a pretty reliably good appetite. As juveniles they'll generally take prey once a week, but in adulthood this slows down and you can feed them every 2-3 weeks, depending on the size of the prey - a 1" cricket every 2 weeks is a pretty decent ballpark, but if you're feeding larger roaches, expect to go 3 weeks between feedings. Just keep the substrate moist, avoid bright light, and toss in some food once in a while - that's really all there is to caring for these majestic beasts. In general I don't recommend handling amblypygi. Handling just stresses them out, and they don't like all the nasty chemicals and smells on our skin. I handle mine only when necessary to do major enclosure work. You also don't want to leave live prey in with them for an extended period of time as this can cause stress and injury.

If you ever find your animal refusing food, there are a few reasons for this:
1. stress - if you just messed around in the enclosure, or if something happened to stress it out, it may not eat for a few days.
2. too dry - check that the substrate is moist
3. too cold (room temperature is good though - anything over about 18º is totally fine)
4. premoult - remove uneaten prey and try again in a week
5. still full from last feeding - remove uneaten prey and try again in a week

Just like with other arachnids, they are vulnerable while moulting and for a few days after moulting. Wait a week after moulting for juveniles to offer prey, and 10 days for adults, to be certain they are fully sclerotized (hardened).

Oh, and if you see mould, don't worry - this is normal in a humid enclosure, and is not harmful to these animals. You can pick out any larger unsightly clumps - usually these only form when there's a piece of dead prey left behind anyway, and you want to remove those either way so you don't end up with a mite infestation.

You're going to adore this species. Everyone does. They're just so fascinating and beautiful. Enjoy, and don't hesitate to ask any other questions as you go along!

 

[Aracnophile]

Alright here's the end result. Do I have to remove all plastic rap from the mesh and leave the last half of an inch of mesh accessible to the animal?

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

No, you can cover the whole thing as long as there’s some ventilation.

The moss you’ve added is more likely to be an annoyance to the animal than helpful in any way.

 

[jhjhj]

In my years of keeping A. coronatus I have never had one get tangled in the mesh of meshed lids, though they sometimes moult from them. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen, because it does, and I’m sure there are people here with much more experience here than me. The styrofoam on the roof makes up for the loss of mesh as a moulting surface and it would probably benefit the reduced ventilation keeping the plastic wrap would provide, just be sure not to suffocate the little guy!

 

[jhjhj]

Also, yeah I would remove the moss on the walls.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

In my years of keeping A. coronatus I have never had one get tangled in the mesh of meshed lids, though they sometimes moult from them. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen, because it does, and I’m sure there are people here with much more experience here than me. The styrofoam on the roof makes up for the loss of mesh as a moulting surface and it would probably benefit the reduced ventilation keeping the plastic wrap would provide, just be sure not to suffocate the little guy!

yeah, I’m sure it’s rare, but I’d hate to see one lunge for a cricket and get a pedipalp jammed in there (since the crickets will definitely happily run all over the mesh).

 

[Aracnophile]

Alr, took out the moss and removed a bit of the rap for ventilation, thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[Banshee05]

Far tooo complicated, use a 50*50*60 box, humid substrate, a large bark vertically/diagonally placed, 26-31°C, fine. The grow like the hell, so forget that small things.

 

[Edan bandoot]

Far tooo complicated, use a 50*50*60 box, humid substrate, a large bark vertically/diagonally placed, 26-31°C, fine. The grow like the hell, so forget that small things.

Wow 50*50 I never realized how much space those things needed.

Do you believe there are regional variants of A.coronatus?
When I first saw pictures of them many years ago I remember them being fiery orange, but the ones that exist in the Canadian hobby are a more muted orange.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Wow 50*50 I never realized how much space those things needed.

Do you believe there are regional variants of A.coronatus?
When I first saw pictures of them many years ago I remember them being fiery orange, but the ones that exist in the Canadian hobby are a more muted orange.

That would be centimetres, not inches, just so it’s clear. And of course that’s for an adult. They do grow quite quickly though, so it’s good to be prepared. Here’s the enclosure I built for my adult A. coronatus: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/spent-way-too-much-building-an-amblypygi-enclosure.338631/
Banshee is quite right that they need extremely little. Personally I prefer to provide vertical and horizontal climbing surfaces rather than diagonal, for space saving reasons - the animals are happy with either, though. The only thing that really matters is that they have room to moult and adequate humidity. If you use vertical and horizontal surfaces you can get more useable moulting space for your enclosure size. But as I said, both work fine for the animal.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Hey @Aracnophile, this may help you: @wizentrop just told me you’re getting one from him, and I happen to have a sibling from the same clutch. Here is how I am currently keeping it. As you can see it’s an extremely simple enclosure. I have a 1” hole cut in the top with wire mesh covering it. This enclosure will fit for another moult or two, and then I will size it up to an identical enclosure that’s 4” taller. It will fit in that next one for at least another year. Then I will transfer it to its final adult enclosure (see the thread I linked earlier for what that one will look like).



Edit: I’m told you are actually getting yours from a supplier that gets theirs from Gil. Still the same clutch though

 

[Aracnophile]

Thanks so much for the example! Also, I'm actually getting my little one from Amanda at Tarantula Canada since theyre closest to where I live.

 

[Edan bandoot]

Thanks so much for the example! Also, I'm actually getting my little one from Amanda at Tarantula Canada since theyre closest to where I live.

Sometimes tarcan's are gil's

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Thanks so much for the example! Also, I'm actually getting my little one from Amanda at Tarantula Canada since theyre closest to where I live.

Sometimes tarcan's are gil's

Indeed, and at the moment, that juvenile batch they have happens to be from the same clutch I got Churro from
He told me they were the same clutch and I incorrectly assumed you were getting it directly from him and not from TarCan - he corrected me after I posted, lol. I should have realized, since he doesn't generally ship in winter.

 

[Aracnophile]

That's so cool, and yeah, even with the correct isolation, there still is a chance an animal might die while being shipped, right? Especially in winter.

 

[jhjhj]

You can find black individuals in Mexico too.

 

[Banshee05]

Wow 50*50 I never realized how much space those things needed.

Do you believe there are regional variants of A.coronatus?
When I first saw pictures of them many years ago I remember them being fiery orange, but the ones that exist in the Canadian hobby are a more muted orange.

sure, more species are most likely present, a morphological study is on the way...

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[Banshee05]

That would be centimetres, not inches, just so it’s clear. And of course that’s for an adult. They do grow quite quickly though, so it’s good to be prepared. Here’s the enclosure I built for my adult A. coronatus: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/spent-way-too-much-building-an-amblypygi-enclosure.338631/
Banshee is quite right that they need extremely little. Personally I prefer to provide vertical and horizontal climbing surfaces rather than diagonal, for space saving reasons - the animals are happy with either, though. The only thing that really matters is that they have room to moult and adequate humidity. If you use vertical and horizontal surfaces you can get more useable moulting space for your enclosure size. But as I said, both work fine for the animal.

correct.
The only problem I always have is with hatching the eggsac in the end, everyhting till that is extremely easy in my climate chambers (!!!), and when they are quite massiv and heavy, their ptelious can't carry the body mass during molting...so there is a deadline for the lifespan, at least in my breedings, but of course, in nature they would grow much slower and live longer due to 'hibernation', dry/wet season, etc.

 

[Edan bandoot]

sure, more species are most likely present, a morphological study is on the way...

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Are they all the same size?