Baby Snipers (Scytodes spec. Tanzania)

[Raqua]

Hi Dominik,

damn you´re lucky!

That´s Scytodes thoracica, the european spitting-spider. Are you located in the south of germany?

I´ve kept my eyes peeled for these since long, but have yet to find one.

Do you still have it? I´d be major-interested in a pic that shows a size-reference, an € for example...

Thanks for showing!

Oh, by the way, one of my adult females built me another sac already.

Greetings,

Stefan

Hello Stefan,

I have found this one already twice here ..
Some of my pictures are here ..
http://www.pavuky.sk/foto/f_scytodidae.htm
Body lenght of this spider is less than 1cm.

 

[chrsgr]

i would buy some of your african snipers. if you sell them. could you please pm me? i'm german too.

 

[Stylopidae]

Stefan: in another thread, you said you had problems raising spitters on friut flies.

I'm not very good with pinheads, so fruit flies are my only option right now (I'm working on a springtail culture ATM), so I'd like to know what sorts of problems I can look forward to.

 

[blombo]

Hi Stefan,

sorry for threadjacking again
but look what I found a few days ago ^^
this one is smaller than the one above

 

[Stefan2209]

Stefan: in another thread, you said you had problems raising spitters on friut flies.

I'm not very good with pinheads, so fruit flies are my only option right now (I'm working on a springtail culture ATM), so I'd like to know what sorts of problems I can look forward to.

Hi,

i had "problems" with fruit-flies on different occassions with different species. Those problems were just that the spiders died during the molt process, they got stuck and that was it.

The trouble with fruit-flies are, that they lack some essentials needed by the spiders for the molts. This means, if you feed your slings exclusively on Droso´s for a longer period of time, you have a high probability to kill them due to bad molts. This doesn´t have to be true for all species, but i experienced such with Scytodes spec. from french-guyane and with an Ancylometes spec.

If you use the Droso´s not as the only prey-items or just for a limited period of time, your slings should do fine, though.

A word about springtails: all i said about Droso´s is even more true for springtails. If you have only the slightest chance, avoid these at all costs! I haven´t worked with these myself, but have several buddies who did, all with the same outcome: dead spiders.

If you´re gonna raise Scytodes spec.´s give micro-crix a try. I know they may seem quite too big to be overpowered by 1. instar Scytodes slings, but at least my tanzanian slings have no problems at all with taking those down, they´re very skilled killers.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stefan2209]

Hi Stefan,

sorry for threadjacking again
but look what I found a few days ago ^^
this one is smaller than the one above

Hi Dominik,

congratz, great find!

Boy, those are really tiny, aren´t they????

Seems the adult is just as big or small, as my 4. instars are!! Don´t even dare to think about how small the slings are....

Gonna try to raise them?

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stefan2209]

i would buy some of your african snipers. if you sell them. could you please pm me? i'm german too.

Hi,

sorry, i´m not gonna give away one single specimen for now.

I had a third sac hatch just two days ao, that yielded as "much" as 10 slings. That makes some 50 slings of this species in different stages that i have at all. Right now, i´m experimenting with different methods of keeping and raising them, so far with success and some quite interesting indicators about social-behaviour and advantages one can use to make raising these very easy.

However, until i´ve not a steady breed going on with my own offsprings, i´m gonna keep all my specimen here with me. Last year another Scytodes species had been sold and apparently most buyers did not know how to take proper care of them, which resulted in a "lost" species.
This is something i´m gonna avoid with these. As soon, as i have mature specimen, i´m gonna post my methods of raising, than comes breeding and if this should be successfull i´m gonna give selling and spreading a second thought.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stylopidae]

Hi,

i had "problems" with fruit-flies on different occassions with different species. Those problems were just that the spiders died during the molt process, they got stuck and that was it.

The trouble with fruit-flies are, that they lack some essentials needed by the spiders for the molts. This means, if you feed your slings exclusively on Droso´s for a longer period of time, you have a high probability to kill them due to bad molts. This doesn´t have to be true for all species, but i experienced such with Scytodes spec. from french-guyane and with an Ancylometes spec.

If you use the Droso´s not as the only prey-items or just for a limited period of time, your slings should do fine, though.

A word about springtails: all i said about Droso´s is even more true for springtails. If you have only the slightest chance, avoid these at all costs! I haven´t worked with these myself, but have several buddies who did, all with the same outcome: dead spiders.

If you´re gonna raise Scytodes spec.´s give micro-crix a try. I know they may seem quite too big to be overpowered by 1. instar Scytodes slings, but at least my tanzanian slings have no problems at all with taking those down, they´re very skilled killers.

Greetings,

Stefan

I'm still having trouble getting micro crix and they don't seem to be interested in isopods:wall:

I'm stopping by the pet store today...I'll figure something out.

How long do you think I have until feeding them with friut flies will become a problem?


How long will it take a female spider to make another sack? I'm pretty sure I saw my two adult specimens mate.

Come to think of it...how do you sex these things?

Thanks for all the help, man...really appreciate it.
Pics will come soon

 

[Stefan2209]

Hey Cesh...,

now i understand your problem much better.

However, on one occassion i had exactly the same troubles: a fresh hatched brood and no micro-crix available...

I was wrecked! So i bought the next smallest prey items available out of pure desperation: house-flies. Seemed much too big for the tiny creepies...

First observation yielded exactly the expected results, my babies were just running away...

However next morning showed some nice surprise: dead flies and fat slings...

Not the ideal solution, but as a saying goes: if the devil gets hungry, he starts eating flies.

If you can manage to get hold of some, it´d at least be worth a try.

Just to let you know.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stylopidae]

Hey Cesh...,

now i understand your problem much better.

However, on one occassion i had exactly the same troubles: a fresh hatched brood and no micro-crix available...

I was wrecked! So i bought the next smallest prey items available out of pure desperation: house-flies. Seemed much too big for the tiny creepies...

First observation yielded exactly the expected results, my babies were just running away...

However next morning showed some nice surprise: dead flies and fat slings...

Not the ideal solution, but as a saying goes: if the devil gets hungry, he starts eating flies.

If you can manage to get hold of some, it´d at least be worth a try.

Just to let you know.

Greetings,

Stefan

I tried the smallest crickets out of the shipments of smalls I was getting...whattdya know, dead crix (hopefully not from natural causes).

I'm going to try to capture flies using a net and dog poo...don't quite know if it's the best way to do it but it's all I got since I can't seem to get pinheads no matter what I do.

 

[Galapoheros]

Are the babies still close together in any kind of webbing? If you're desperate, you could chop up really small pieces of crickets and drop in the webbing and just hope.

 

[Stylopidae]

Are the babies still close together in any kind of webbing? If you're desperate, you could chop up really small pieces of crickets and drop in the webbing and just hope.

They're in webbing, but I have to destroy it to open the container. They *seem* bigger now than when you shipped them to me, but I haven't seen any moults to back that up.

However, you did send me a male and a female specimen. :razz: The female specimen is gravid again and I should expect another sack soon.

Either way, I'm getting a lobster roach colony here soon and those should be there before the next sack hatches.

I *think* the newborns should be small enough to feed the spitters.

 

[Jonathan]

Hi,
Why not start a cricket colony. I have too many crickets that are the size of grains of sand that are useless to me. They are hella easy to cultivate. Almost seem like a problem. Generations keep popping up every week or so. These guys are as small if not smaller than fruit flies. I don't see why you couldn't feed your spitters on these.
Jon