[B]Guess what I woke up to find? Plus a question![/B]

[Meezerkoko]

Valentino surprised me by having changed his clothes last night! :laugh: I glanced at him and noticed he looked like a picture of a just molted Brachy just by how he was sitting. I ventured a look into the hide and there was the molt! YAY! My first big T's first molt with me! (I've never posted about a molt before because even though I love my slings, it's stlightly less impressive when one of them molts because they do it so much more often. In fact I think my C. elegans might be in premolt again after just 3 weeks!)

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I guess the vent sexing didn't lie, looks like he's a he. :sarcasm:

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He's also pretty big. I measured the skin and it was 4.25 inch dls. Can't wait to see how big he is now once he stretches out.

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Just the fangs

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Valentino with a certain magic blue box :biggrin:

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Now for the question: How do you tell when a male is Penultimate and how do you tell when they reach Ultimate? Is it just that they start making a sperm web? Or are there other signs before that? Come to think of that I guess I need to check for spurs when he hardens up. He was still flexing a bit when I got up (@ 6:30 am Central time). And don't worry, for those of you who were wondering, I didn't have to disturb him, he molted in the skull hide and I was able to very gently lift it out and the molt came with it. Anyways, thanks for reading my post. By the way, he's much prettier in person. I didn't want to disturb him by making it too bright but he's a nice dark black and a brighter red than he was before.

 

[spiderengineer]

as far as I know their is no way to tell when its at the molt before maturation could be wrong. you know when its a MM when it shows tibular hooks and the pedipalps will have the embolus and buld on them. should be noted not all species have the tibular hooks, but I pretty sure this species does. However looking at the molt I think its a female you have and not a male could be wrong. I am not an expert on molt sexing if you have the molt still could you take a closer pic on the abdomen.

 

[Meezerkoko]

Well the molt is in the trash now but I may be able to retrieve it later. Maybe I'll post the molt in the sexing forum. Anyways thanks for the advice. The reason I'd said male is that people (and myself) thought the vent looked male from a vent pic I took. Also the vent from the inside has like no slit at all. No flap or anything.

 

[spiderengineer]

well molts is the only guaranteed method of sexing. I have been looking over molt pic and I think its female, but again I could be wrong. so hopefully some one with more experience could chime in.

 

[Meezerkoko]

Just got confirmation it's male. Absolutely no flap. That's what you're looking for in sexing a female. Anyways, regardless of sex I was just extremely happy that he molted. Knowing that Brachys are such slow growers I was afraid that I'd have to wait eons before it molted but I got him only a couple weeks ago and he molted for me! Yay! It also explains why he never wanted to eat for me and looked drab. I just thought since he's not mature his colors were muted because of that but I guess not. I'm also just happy I remembered to don gloves before going in for the molt. He makes me itch so bad! Which really sucks butt because he's so docile he's nice to hold and he's not much of a kicker either, his hairs just get to me!

 

[Londoner]

Have you had a chance to see if he's got hooks or bulbs yet? There's something about the palp in your first pic that looks kind of 'blunt' but that may well be a combination of the photo and my eyes lol.

Good luck.

 

[Meezerkoko]

No bulbs yet but he's not mature yet either. They are a little bit roundish though.

 

[SuzukiSwift]

You should just ask Doctor Who =)