Amblypygi care questions.

[Korkadskit]

I'm new to this place. I initially tried looking for help on reddit, but I couldn't find any subreddits specifically for amblypygids. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post questions on here, but it's about amblypygids so I figured I'd just stick it under the "other spiders and arachnids" section.

I got an amblypygid for my birthday, I had been wanting one since I was a little kid so I was pretty excited. It definitely belonged to genus damon. I believe it was either a damon medius or damon diadema. It never molted so I never got to identify it's sex, but based on its larger body and long palpal spines I assumed it was a female. If you haven't already figured it out by me saying was instead of is, it died. I'd really like to know why, because I'd like to get another amblypygid, but I don't want to mistreat and have another one die.

My father is the one who got it for me. He got it from a small local pet store where I have gotten other pets from before. I know that most of their animals are captive breed, but I don't think all of them are considering some of the crazy stuff they have there. This next part isn't important, but last time I went in there they had an AFRICAN LUNGFISH, where the hell did they get there hands on an african lungfish. Ok back on track. I'm pretty sure that my amblypygid was wild caught for two reasons. First being that almost everything they sell is juvenile, but my amblypygid was an adult. And second being that it was super defensive/aggressive, and I've heard that most captive breed amblypygids are pretty chill. I've handled arachnids all the time with mostly no issues, but if I put my hand anywhere near it it would go straight into defensive posture. Even when I just slowly tried to get it on to my hand from behind he she would Immediately turn around and snap at me. One time she even bit my finger with her chelicera which I didn't even realize they would do in self defense. And its not like I was just swooping my hand down and grabbing her, I made sure to be extremely gentle. She was also this way with food. whenever I would feed her she would instantly attack her prey, hungry or not. many times she would kill her prey, but then just not eat it. I don't believe I over fed her. I'd give her a couple crickets once a week.

The reason I was stating before that it was most likely wild caught is that I don't even know if it's my fault it died. I'm not trying to push the blame of it's death away from me, I'm just saying that It having some kind of disease from the wild, it being old, or even just the stress of getting shipped are still possible reasons it could have died.

I think it might have been disease or age, because for about two weeks before her death she got more and more sluggish and stopped eating. The fact that she stopped eating didn't bother me a whole lot, as I knew that didn't eat a whole lot so I assumed she wasn't hungry. I obviously still offered her food though. Her being sluggish I was kind of worried about, but I assumed she was just going to molt soon and then she would be back to normal. Then one day I found her upside down at the floor of her terrarium. Her legs weren't curled up though it was like she had just frozen in place. I don't know how se managed to get upside down. She might have climbed up to the top of her terrarium and then fallen down, but other than that I have no Idea how she could have gotten upside down. It's so weird to describe, she didn't really seem dead. she wasn't curled up at all, she just looked like she did when she was sitting on the wall, but frozen in place and then turned upside down. Because of how, well, alive she looked, I thought I'd just wait and let her molt and see what happened. About three days past and she never molted. On the third day the cage stunk a little and thats how I knew she was dead. It's strange how I only had her for a little over a month and yet I felt so attached. She always attacked me and was a pain in the ass, Yet I still felt so sad.

I got a lot of my care info from this video

and other random miscellaneous care websites. She had a larger terrarium with a lot of vertical space and cork bark back drop wall. I personally did not pick out the terrarium. I've heard a lot of bad things about mesh lids for terrariums. This one had a mesh lid I was going to replace the lid with a non mesh one, but I could not find one that fir my specific terrarium. I admit I didn't think the mesh lid was very big problem, as she rarely if not ever climbed on the lid. I had some fake plastic vegetation in the terrarium for her to hide behind/ climb on. I didn't want to use fake vegetation, but I couldn't find any live vegetation large enough. If anyone knows anywhere that has live vegetation that is not so big to where it takes up lots of space, but is still large enough for a an amblypygid to hide behind and climb on please message me it. I used a fine water absorbent coco fiber for substrate and I topped it with a thin layer small pieces of coconut mulch. The temperature was a problem for me. I read that they like room temperature but the room it was in would got kind of hot during the day. At night it would be room temperature at about 74 degrees Fahrenheit, but during the day it would go up to 78, I don't think it was the issue, but If I want to know what went wrong I have to share all the details. I fed her the same crickets I gave to all my other arachnids. I get crickets from Petsmart and gave the cricket Flukers orange chunks and this Flukers branded gelatin like substance that is supposed to be a replacement for water that gives the crickets extra vitamins and nutrients that get passed on to what you feed them to. I don't know if it really helps, but It keeps the crickets kicking long enough for me to feed them to my pets so I use it. I know that they like high humidity levels so I misted very often, about once a day occasionally twice. the humidity was usually at ~65%. I gave her a water dish and made sure to spray the walls so she could drink the condensation. I also had a clay rock hide with a hole in the bottom so that it didn't puddle up water when i misted.

This is all the Important info I can think of. Ask me any questions you want. I really want to be sure I'm not going to hurt another amblypygid.

Jeez I had no clue how much I wrote, guess this is what happens when you have to take adderall.

 

[CRX]

I can't help you with the ambys, but welcome to the forum! I'm sure someone will be along to help you pretty soon. I'm sorry to hear yours died.

 

[CRX]

OH also, joshfrogs is the best resource I know of for live plants for terrariums https://www.joshsfrogs.com/

 

[Korkadskit]

OH also, joshfrogs is the best resource I know of for live plants for terrariums https://www.joshsfrogs.com/

thanks i will definitely check that out

 

[CRX]

Also as for the humidity, misting is fine to do, but the substrate and water dish are going to be the main sources of humidity. I've heard these guys will even tolerate mold. They really like their humidity. The substrate should be near waterlogged I have heard. obvs not standing water, but it needs to be soaked.

 

[Korkadskit]

Also as for the humidity, misting is fine to do, but the substrate and water dish are going to be the main sources of humidity. I've heard these guys will even tolerate mold. They really like their humidity. The substrate should be near waterlogged I have heard.

yeah i was really worried about accidentally waterlogging the substrate so I tried to mostly hit the walls while hitting the ground less

 

[CRX]

yeah i was really worried about accidentally waterlogging the substrate so I tried to mostly hit the walls while hitting the ground less

Misting won't do much for the ground, you need to actually pour water into it. Some people use like a big tube or similar to make sure it penetrates, but I just pour it in and make sure its mixed around.

 

[that1ocelot]

Hey there, I didn't read the whole post (sorry) but you care and that's what matters.

@CRX is right. If it was a husbandry issue, it was because of a lack of humidity. Saying that, wild caught Damon usually do not do great, and really each Damon species requires different care which doesn't help because their often mislabeled.

You very likely had a Medius, which requires a TON of moisture. A ton. Wetting the substrate is #1. Amblypygi don't care about mold, and it can be pretty easily rectified anyways by throwing in some springtails. I also hate plants. Every single "pro" ambly keeper I know has their animals in a minimalistic tank. My most "complicated" set up is simply 2 large pieces of cork with substrate in a 12x12x18 for my adult Damon Medius. The lids on these things are fine, and they might even like molt from them.

I did read that you handled your animal...that's a no no, usually. Especially for WC. They require to be left alone in a very humid environment after shipping, I don't even feed them for 2 weeks if I get an animal from someone who doesn't breed them. If you handle from the beginning in CB, you might get off a bit better. My WC Medius is SUPER skittish, and while it's my most impressive animal handling it would just stress him out way too much.

I have a couple enclosures like this for my young Phrynus Whitei. They can find prey and molt just fine. The humidity is easy to maintain and it can hold springtails, perfect!

 

[that1ocelot]

I'm new to this place. I initially tried looking for help on reddit, but I couldn't find any subreddits specifically for amblypygids. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post questions on here, but it's about amblypygids so I figured I'd just stick it under the "other spiders and arachnids" section.

I got an amblypygid for my birthday, I had been wanting one since I was a little kid so I was pretty excited. It definitely belonged to genus damon. I believe it was either a damon medius or damon diadema. It never molted so I never got to identify it's sex, but based on its larger body and long palpal spines I assumed it was a female. If you haven't already figured it out by me saying was instead of is, it died. I'd really like to know why, because I'd like to get another amblypygid, but I don't want to mistreat and have another one die.

My father is the one who got it for me. He got it from a small local pet store where I have gotten other pets from before. I know that most of their animals are captive breed, but I don't think all of them are considering some of the crazy stuff they have there. This next part isn't important, but last time I went in there they had an AFRICAN LUNGFISH, where the hell did they get there hands on an african lungfish. Ok back on track. I'm pretty sure that my amblypygid was wild caught for two reasons. First being that almost everything they sell is juvenile, but my amblypygid was an adult. And second being that it was super defensive/aggressive, and I've heard that most captive breed amblypygids are pretty chill. I've handled arachnids all the time with mostly no issues, but if I put my hand anywhere near it it would go straight into defensive posture. Even when I just slowly tried to get it on to my hand from behind he she would Immediately turn around and snap at me. One time she even bit my finger with her chelicera which I didn't even realize they would do in self defense. And its not like I was just swooping my hand down and grabbing her, I made sure to be extremely gentle. She was also this way with food. whenever I would feed her she would instantly attack her prey, hungry or not. many times she would kill her prey, but then just not eat it. I don't believe I over fed her. I'd give her a couple crickets once a week.

The reason I was stating before that it was most likely wild caught is that I don't even know if it's my fault it died. I'm not trying to push the blame of it's death away from me, I'm just saying that It having some kind of disease from the wild, it being old, or even just the stress of getting shipped are still possible reasons it could have died.

I think it might have been disease or age, because for about two weeks before her death she got more and more sluggish and stopped eating. The fact that she stopped eating didn't bother me a whole lot, as I knew that didn't eat a whole lot so I assumed she wasn't hungry. I obviously still offered her food though. Her being sluggish I was kind of worried about, but I assumed she was just going to molt soon and then she would be back to normal. Then one day I found her upside down at the floor of her terrarium. Her legs weren't curled up though it was like she had just frozen in place. I don't know how se managed to get upside down. She might have climbed up to the top of her terrarium and then fallen down, but other than that I have no Idea how she could have gotten upside down. It's so weird to describe, she didn't really seem dead. she wasn't curled up at all, she just looked like she did when she was sitting on the wall, but frozen in place and then turned upside down. Because of how, well, alive she looked, I thought I'd just wait and let her molt and see what happened. About three days past and she never molted. On the third day the cage stunk a little and thats how I knew she was dead. It's strange how I only had her for a little over a month and yet I felt so attached. She always attacked me and was a pain in the ass, Yet I still felt so sad.

I got a lot of my care info from this video

and other random miscellaneous care websites. She had a larger terrarium with a lot of vertical space and cork bark back drop wall. I personally did not pick out the terrarium. I've heard a lot of bad things about mesh lids for terrariums. This one had a mesh lid I was going to replace the lid with a non mesh one, but I could not find one that fir my specific terrarium. I admit I didn't think the mesh lid was very big problem, as she rarely if not ever climbed on the lid. I had some fake plastic vegetation in the terrarium for her to hide behind/ climb on. I didn't want to use fake vegetation, but I couldn't find any live vegetation large enough. If anyone knows anywhere that has live vegetation that is not so big to where it takes up lots of space, but is still large enough for a an amblypygid to hide behind and climb on please message me it. I used a fine water absorbent coco fiber for substrate and I topped it with a thin layer small pieces of coconut mulch. The temperature was a problem for me. I read that they like room temperature but the room it was in would got kind of hot during the day. At night it would be room temperature at about 74 degrees Fahrenheit, but during the day it would go up to 78, I don't think it was the issue, but If I want to know what went wrong I have to share all the details. I fed her the same crickets I gave to all my other arachnids. I get crickets from Petsmart and gave the cricket Flukers orange chunks and this Flukers branded gelatin like substance that is supposed to be a replacement for water that gives the crickets extra vitamins and nutrients that get passed on to what you feed them to. I don't know if it really helps, but It keeps the crickets kicking long enough for me to feed them to my pets so I use it. I know that they like high humidity levels so I misted very often, about once a day occasionally twice. the humidity was usually at ~65%. I gave her a water dish and made sure to spray the walls so she could drink the condensation. I also had a clay rock hide with a hole in the bottom so that it didn't puddle up water when i misted.

This is all the Important info I can think of. Ask me any questions you want. I really want to be sure I'm not going to hurt another amblypygid.

Jeez I had no clue how much I wrote, guess this is what happens when you have to take adderall.

I read a bit more and will mention that the mulch is also not fantastic. Not a huge deal though. The fibre is fine and I would recommend springtails. As well, the temperatures were perfect. They do well at virtually any temperature, but I've found a couple DOA's because it got too hot during shipping (like 35 Celsius plus)

 

[Korkadskit]

Hey there, I didn't read the whole post (sorry) but you care and that's what matters.

@CRX is right. If it was a husbandry issue, it was because of a lack of humidity. Saying that, wild caught Damon usually do not do great, and really each Damon species requires different care which doesn't help because their often mislabeled.

You very likely had a Medius, which requires a TON of moisture. A ton. Wetting the substrate is #1. Amblypygi don't care about mold, and it can be pretty easily rectified anyways by throwing in some springtails. I also hate plants. Every single "pro" ambly keeper I know has their animals in a minimalistic tank. My most "complicated" set up is simply 2 large pieces of cork with substrate in a 12x12x18 for my adult Damon Medius. The lids on these things are fine, and they might even like molt from them.

I did read that you handled your animal...that's a no no, usually. Especially for WC. They require to be left alone in a very humid environment after shipping, I don't even feed them for 2 weeks if I get an animal from someone who doesn't breed them. If you handle from the beginning in CB, you might get off a bit better. My WC Medius is SUPER skittish, and while it's my most impressive animal handling it would just stress him out way too much.

I have a couple enclosures like this for my young Phrynus Whitei. They can find prey and molt just fine. The humidity is easy to maintain and it can hold springtails, perfect!

they cant be handled? I'm not doubting you, I'm just surprised to here this as I've seen lots of people handling theirs.

 

[that1ocelot]

they cant be handled? I'm not doubting you, I'm just surprised to here this as I've seen lots of people handling theirs.

You can def handle them but it's always at the risk of the animal.

Handling captive bread since birth will lead to an animal more comfortable being held.

Holding a WC Damon fresh from the pet trade is a recipe for disaster. They don't know people, aren't used to people and were just through a traumatic even. They also likely aren't in good health, and stress kills animals. Just not a good idea with certain Amby. I'd never even try to hold my Damon Medius for this reason, while my first Whitei is significantly more tolerant.

 

[Korkadskit]

You can def handle them but it's always at the risk of the animal.

Handling captive bread since birth will lead to an animal more comfortable being held.

Holding a WC Damon fresh from the pet trade is a recipe for disaster. They don't know people, aren't used to people and were just through a traumatic even. They also likely aren't in good health, and stress kills animals. Just not a good idea with certain Amby. I'd never even try to hold my Damon Medius for this reason, while my first Whitei is significantly more tolerant.

Yeah, I kinda understood that it didn't want to be held so after a couple tries I just stopped.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Agree that if it was a wild caught D. medius there’s a very good chance it was a humidity issue - that species in particular has unusual moisture requirements. Generally for WC medius we recommend blocking all but a small (like 1-2”) square of the ventilation and totally soaking the substrate. For other species you still want to block most of the ventilation, but just maintaining the substrate as moist to the touch is sufficient. Blocking the ventilation is important in any case, because these animals will lose moisture to the air VERY rapidly, and just misting isn’t enough to stop them from desiccating. No matter how much you mist or whether they have a water dish (which most will never use anyway), if there’s too much evaporation happening in the enclosure, you’re going to have a problem.
The temperature was certainly completely fine. These animals seek out cool damp caves and crevices - room temperature is great for them. Plants are pointless and mostly just give prey a place to hide, so most of us forgo them. A tall slab or two of cork bark or styrofoam is all the decor they need.