Camel spider "babies"

Ranitomeya

Arachnoknight
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Oct 11, 2012
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I'm assuming they'll need to feed in order to complete their next molt. Most invertebrates molt and pump air into their bodies to increase their exoskeletal volume before hardening. Once hardened, they're pretty empty inside and have the minimum muscle mass required to function. In arachnids, the young hatch from eggs and molt once--sometimes twice depending on the species--before they're moving around freely and feeding and they can do so because of the very large amount of yolk they still have. Once they've molted and become free-moving, you can assume they're quickly going through the remaining yolk and will soon need to feed. If they don't feed, they won't have the nutrients to successfully molt again.

Crabs are a great example of how empty an invertebrate becomes after a molt. If you catch a barnacle-encrusted, old-looking, pre-molt crab, it's going to be filled with meat with barely any empty space inside. If you catch a clean, freshly-molted crab, you'll cook it only to find that it barely has any meat inside of it and wasn't worth catching and cooking. Invertebrates need to feed and put on mass after a molt in order to molt again. In many juvenile invertebrates, you'll find that there is a critical mass, or minimum mass required in order for them to complete a successful molt.

I would try small, live prey items. Fruit flies and pinhead crickets would probably work best. It may be possible that they need to go dormant after hatching and will only become active and start feeding after dormancy is broken. I know of some butterflies that hatch out as caterpillars late in the year and immediately go into diapause and will only begin feeding the following spring. Try as many things as you can with various life strategies in mind. We can definitely use more information on these neat critters--maybe then more people can successfully keep them alive for their actual lifespan and manage to breed them.
 

Nightstalker47

Arachnoking
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Jul 2, 2016
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2,612
This is awesome, wish I could buy one of those as a sling. I'm sure they will do fine as long as you keep a close eye on em, especially for cannibalism, they are vicious arachnids. Good luck man hope they all make it!
 

billrogers

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Jan 18, 2016
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Someone mentioned termites earlier I believe. When I was hunting for solfugids scorps and the like earlier in the year I found hundreds of termites under rocks in desert terrain. Maybe they would like those?
 

Andy00

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Feb 4, 2016
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Someone mentioned termites earlier I believe. When I was hunting for solfugids scorps and the like earlier in the year I found hundreds of termites under rocks in desert terrain. Maybe they would like those?
I think I might try that. Flightless fruit flies are similar size and movement speed though, maybe they don't even eat at this size. I'm goin T hunting this weekend hopefully so maybe I'll gather some termites.
 

schmiggle

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Nov 3, 2013
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If you want to, I'm pretty sure it's not that hard to start a termite colony (way easier than, say, an ant colony): you just get some wood, a bunch (500-1000) workers, and a container that is 297% escape proof, and at least one pair of workers will molt into a king and queen by themselves. If the solifugids eat termites, that might be an easier thing to do than going hunting termites all the time or alternatively trying to get them to eat something else.
 

Ranitomeya

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Oct 11, 2012
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Someone mentioned termites earlier I believe. When I was hunting for solfugids scorps and the like earlier in the year I found hundreds of termites under rocks in desert terrain. Maybe they would like those?
Be very careful when feeding termites to small invertebrates. Their jaws are strong and very capable of chopping off antennae and legs. Definitely avoid using soldiers, but don't be fooled by how small the workers' mouthparts look.
 

Tleilaxu

Arachnoprince
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May 7, 2006
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You may want to invest in this book, The Biology of Camel-Spiders (Arachnida, Solifugae) by Fred Punzo. While pricey seems to be the Bible for keeping and caring for these animals.
 

ophidia

Arachnopeon
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May 28, 2015
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30
I wonder if they'd eat springtails. Just a suggestion of something I thought of that you can buy and are likely tiny enough.
 

Andy00

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Feb 4, 2016
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I tried them on just born mealworms and they seemed to love them! They've been eating them like champs. Some have molted into what I think would be 2i and ive noticed that sadly the 2i ones have been cannibalizing... ALOT. I've separated the whole group into 3 enclosures. One with regular top soil, one with half peat and half topsoil, and a small one with just 5 of these little guys with just peat moss. They seem to be pretty hardy imo. I drop a few drops of water every other day on the substrate. The group of 5 sadly turned into one fat one because it molted first and ate all the others :/ even though I fed each of them a lot of mealworms haha. It must just be natural selection. I'll start separating them asap.
 

Hisserdude

Arachnoking
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Apr 18, 2015
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2,453
Yeah these guys are very cannibalistic, definitely keep them individually.
 

symbol

Arachnopeon
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Sep 4, 2016
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So glad to hear that they're eating and doing well for you! Sorry about the losses, but it's great to hear that the remaining ones seem to be continuing to molt and grow. Definitely keep us posted!
 

Andy00

Arachnoknight
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Feb 4, 2016
Messages
153
They're doing good still. Not many molts, if any, these past couple weeks. Maybe they don't do as much during this half of the year. I took a little feeding video but I can't upload it on here so I might have to make it a YouTube video and share it.
 

Kymura

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 1, 2015
Messages
182
They're doing good still. Not many molts, if any, these past couple weeks. Maybe they don't do as much during this half of the year. I took a little feeding video but I can't upload it on here so I might have to make it a YouTube video and share it.
Please do!
 

Andy00

Arachnoknight
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
153
Just to make it clear the only reason they were on a clear deli cup lid was because that one ran out of his enclosure and I figured why not try to feed it on a nice clear surface to get a good video of it. I normally just feed in the enclosure haha
 
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