CB Liphistius ornatus - 2 year summary and videos

Ranitomeya

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
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255
Still looking for a pairing?
Yes! I have one mature female and the other is probably still a subadult since it's still smaller and not nearly as vibrantly colored. I just rehoused them after well over a year of being in the same substrate--it was starting to break down a little towards the bottom and smell slightly sour with the constant moisture. They were starting to create burrows, abandon them, and create new ones and I have a feeling the breakdown of the substrate was the reason for it.

I've been using a mixture of coconut fiber, sand, and peat. I used more coconut fiber this time around since peat breaks down faster when used as a component of substrate. I thought about using clay in their substrate, but it's more difficult to gauge the moisture level with clay and very easy to add too much water if there's no drainage in the enclosure.

Here's a picture of the larger female. I purchased her as a little spiderling nearly two and a half years ago.
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
Yes! I have one mature female and the other is probably still a subadult since it's still smaller and not nearly as vibrantly colored. I just rehoused them after well over a year of being in the same substrate--it was starting to break down a little towards the bottom and smell slightly sour with the constant moisture. They were starting to create burrows, abandon them, and create new ones and I have a feeling the breakdown of the substrate was the reason for it.

I've been using a mixture of coconut fiber, sand, and peat. I used more coconut fiber this time around since peat breaks down faster when used as a component of substrate. I thought about using clay in their substrate, but it's more difficult to gauge the moisture level with clay and very easy to add too much water if there's no drainage in the enclosure.
Thanks for sharing!
She is beautiful. Can you share with me her setup here or privately? I'd like to see her trap. Your substrate looks good and you are right about the clay - hard to gauge moisture. Mine have been to clay heavy and I am still working on my substrate. How well does your substrate hold form? Do they throw out balls of it? Clay can be hard to get - if your alternative is working well that's great news.
 

Ranitomeya

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Oct 11, 2012
Messages
255
She is beautiful. Can you share with me her setup here or privately? I'd like to see her trap. Your substrate looks good and you are right about the clay - hard to gauge moisture. Mine have been to clay heavy and I am still working on my substrate. How well does your substrate hold form? Do they throw out balls of it? Clay can be hard to get - if your alternative is working well that's great news.
Her setup is nothing fancy, just a medium-sized Kritter Keeper filled up with substrate with a slope from one corner to the other. I don't heat their enclosures directly. I keep their enclosures in a larger bin that has a water reservoir and some eggcrate and heat from below with a heat pad so that they get warm, humid air and the substrate doesn't dry out from bottom or side heat.

Her new burrow in the fresh substrate is to the right of the bottom center. She's able to burrow without collapses and is able to toss balls of it around--you can see a couple large bundles of substrate as well as loose substrate from her excavation. The darker bits of substrate towards the top is some of her old substrate that got dropped in when I was coaxing her out of the old stuff--it was the same color as the fresh substrate a year ago.

Here's a closeup of the trap. There are no trip lines yet because she just started it recently.

The burrow and the trap is lined with a matrix of silk and fine bits of substrate. She always makes her trapdoors so that they open down-slope, do yours do the same thing?
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
They mostly do build that way, yes, but if there is anything like a wall or a root or log in the way they may build their lines tactically around or over it. Does yours build trip wires?

The substrate looks good and it's building a happy home, trip wires, etc. I'm sure it's good to go.

I would still suggest some clay content and a steep, as these really live on steep clay banks (though please correct me if I am wrong; my information on L. ornatus comes from what little I can find and a friend who've seen them in the wild). Yours has the advantage of likely being much lighter and probably more practical overall. My substrate attempts have 100% of the time been either too high clay content or the clay has not been blended well enough with the lighter peat so I am certainly not saying mine is better. It's certainly stupid-heavy. The spiders do seem happy as can be though and I love the way the clay gets mosses and liverworts and things thriving.

I am going to be out of the country for a bit but when I return I am looking forward to setting one up right as I have always rushed it. I have decent lights and the original enclosure where the babies hatched and set up camp is crazy with moss growth - looks like the habitat shots I can find - but I'd like to do one with a few plants, a piece of wood going through the substrate (as I've been told they appear to prefer building around things like roots), and bring the slop fairly close to the glass to maximize substrate depths. My brother bought my an endoscope and I scoped one of the empty holes from where one had moved... these things really go HAM down there.

Your spider looks healthy and happy as a clam. And beautiful too. These things are amazing.
 

Ranitomeya

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
255
They mostly do build that way, yes, but if there is anything like a wall or a root or log in the way they may build their lines tactically around or over it. Does yours build trip wires?

The substrate looks good and it's building a happy home, trip wires, etc. I'm sure it's good to go.

I would still suggest some clay content and a steep, as these really live on steep clay banks (though please correct me if I am wrong; my information on L. ornatus comes from what little I can find and a friend who've seen them in the wild). Yours has the advantage of likely being much lighter and probably more practical overall. My substrate attempts have 100% of the time been either too high clay content or the clay has not been blended well enough with the lighter peat so I am certainly not saying mine is better. It's certainly stupid-heavy. The spiders do seem happy as can be though and I love the way the clay gets mosses and liverworts and things thriving.

I am going to be out of the country for a bit but when I return I am looking forward to setting one up right as I have always rushed it. I have decent lights and the original enclosure where the babies hatched and set up camp is crazy with moss growth - looks like the habitat shots I can find - but I'd like to do one with a few plants, a piece of wood going through the substrate (as I've been told they appear to prefer building around things like roots), and bring the slop fairly close to the glass to maximize substrate depths. My brother bought my an endoscope and I scoped one of the empty holes from where one had moved... these things really go HAM down there.

Your spider looks healthy and happy as a clam. And beautiful too. These things are amazing.
Yes, mine build trip wires, but I've noticed that they do not do so until they are comfortable with their current burrow. Sometimes they'll make a burrow and never place trip wires before they move and make a new burrow shortly after. If they don't move on to a new burrow, they usually make their trip wires a day or two after they've reached the bottom of the enclosure and have run their burrow along the bottom a bit. The few times they burrow up against the plastic, I've been able to see that the burrows end in a larger chamber that they reside in when they aren't right under the door, waiting for prey.

I'll move them into something taller and try to provide more of a slope the next time they need to be re-housed. If I can find a more permanent place to keep their enclosures, I'll try a substrate of clay and fine sand like what I've seen in the hills around here.
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
Exactly what Ive noticed! Sorry guys, the work in France lasted weeks longer than expected.

My brother informs me that hes seen some male activity and expects one or two may emerge soon, so I will attempt breeding again even though I have FAR too many on my hands right now.

I miss my babies but they have been in good hands so I expect many are developing color and quite larger.

I will be home in the states and advertise them for sale soon.
 

BeeNine

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
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14
Excellent job on these guys. I was very excited to see this thread update today. What's the best way to get on a "want to buy" list.
B9
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
I have been pretty inactive since being in France but I will soon post an ad and an update thread as many of the slings are now larger and developping color.
 

Tony

Arachno-pragmatarian
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Aug 7, 2002
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I wonder how this all turned out. I almost bought some
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
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YOOOO so real update coming soon - I had been in France for a while.

I still have a bunch and, in my absence, I suspect several have matured into males. However, whether they have successfully mated or simply been consumed I do not know because I do not seem to have many very large female traps (comparable to my original female who was the brood mother, she has since passed it seems). I do currently have one alive mature male which, like the first time, is in a little retreat with a kinda weak lid. I am going to be closely monitoring him each night. It is possible that he is waiting a long time to emerge like my original male. He does appear freshly molted and healthy, so the primary concerns are whether he is indeed with a mature female and isn't consumed instead by an immature. If he leaves the burrow I will watch and, if nothing after a few days, I may introduce him into another tank with a very large female in hopes he breeds. He has built his little retreat near the largest female lid, againn similarly to my original male.

I would love if everyone could update me on their Liphistids in the mean time. Soon I will start a new thread summarizing my original breeding, what I've learned since, what I'd do differently, and how I hope to have breeding success again.

Yours in spiders,

Ambly
 

Tony

Arachno-pragmatarian
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I am still interested, though your prolong absences give me pause
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
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Sep 14, 2013
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YOOOO so real update coming soon - I had been in France for a while.

I still have a bunch and, in my absence, I suspect several have matured into males. However, whether they have successfully mated or simply been consumed I do not know because I do not seem to have many very large female traps (comparable to my original female who was the brood mother, she has since passed it seems). I do currently have one alive mature male which, like the first time, is in a little retreat with a kinda weak lid. I am going to be closely monitoring him each night. It is possible that he is waiting a long time to emerge like my original male. He does appear freshly molted and healthy, so the primary concerns are whether he is indeed with a mature female and isn't consumed instead by an immature. If he leaves the burrow I will watch and, if nothing after a few days, I may introduce him into another tank with a very large female in hopes he breeds. He has built his little retreat near the largest female lid, againn similarly to my original male.

I would love if everyone could update me on their Liphistids in the mean time. Soon I will start a new thread summarizing my original breeding, what I've learned since, what I'd do differently, and how I hope to have breeding success again.

Yours in spiders,

Ambly
I was lucky enough to pick up a sling. Fantastic spiders.
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
Tony, I am not a spider breeder - I am GIS guy with a full time job who's lucky enough to have someone to care for my spiders when I am required to go internationally. I have never been heavily involved in arachnoboard, just with these spiders and amblypygids. Seeing the baseline care that most trapdoors received, I felt I'd chime in a bit and share my success. The intention of selling them is to put some in better hands, allow them to receive more individual attention and observation, and because keeping them with adequate space when you have over 100 is simply impossible without a room dedicated to them. They dig a lot and 2 to 3 per ten gallon can be pushing it if they're particularly active. Real update coming soon and now I am finally home (at least until January) to properly keep an eye on them and see if I can get a second round going. A lot I'd do differently. Additionally I have a 55 gallon that would definitely receive a lottttt of slings until they got bigger... but even that for a whole brood isn't enough to prevent some cannibalism, which might be beneficial to those who eat.
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
UPDATTTTTE! As I've been away, I have not had the ability to closely monitor my trappies as before. Upon arrival back into the states I found a few open holes, lids back - some spiders changed location and it appears at least 2 are mature males. One is in it's hole, apparently freshly molted which I can see from the glass. The other, like my first mature male who I observed mating, is in a pretty shoddy hole with more of a cover than a lid. His little shelter is also very close to the largest female - as was my first mature male.

However, I do not know if the females from that same brood are indeed sexually mature nor do I know the age at which they are sexually mature. My first successful male took a long time to begin leaving his shelter each night and I believe there may have been some form of webbing constructed outside the female's trap. Letting things go naturally was a success the first time so, as there are two males, I will let the first who exits do his thing for a while in hopes I observe breeding or he is not rapidly consumed. I will then introduce him to another enclosure with a very large female* who I suspect is sexually mature and likely repeat the process - again, if both males are not rapidly consumed.

*Speaking of that big female. She was in a tank with 2 subadults, one of which is either inactive (maybe molting maybe just well fed) and the other who is abandoned. Additionally, there is either an attempted trap or temporary shelter for a previously matured male which is abandoned. There is also a black bolus (refused or unedible food) and, given the coloration of what she is fed and of the other spiders, I am thinking this was a mature male that was consumed. Additionally, she has not eaten but is expanding her burrow and ejecting lots of earth. Given the behavior is similar to that of my first broodmother (ha) I think it's possible there was a successful mating there.

My friend, who is keeping several of my liphistids, reported to me he also had a mature male... so I do not think it is so uncommon to have males if you are raising the spiders (as it appears the males mature in 1.5 to 2 years). If they are wild caught, they are likely adult females.

I will keep posted and be watching them like a hawk. If anyone has any suggestions, please share. My first time breeding these was my first time breeding spiders, so any advice is welcome. Stay tuned.
 

Ambly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
328
So I've got 3 mature males. One of them is still in his shelter, the other two began wandering last week in search of a mate. I observed no mating but it is very possible it has already occurred. One male is missing his pedipalps, which suggests to me a mating possibly occurred especially as I have witnessed him enter the hole of smaller females and exit unharmed. The other male I have put in with my largest female and he has since gone missing - hopefully after attempting breeding.

In Ts or other spiders, has anyone witnessed a mature male missing pedipalps?

Given that I have had 3 mature males recently and have previously observed black bolus or two, I think it is possible I have since had a successful breeding. My only concern is that my females of the same generation are not mature. I am fairly certain the one to whom I introduced one of my males (vs. letting him to continue wandering his current enclosure with smaller females) is indeed mature/potentially already preparing for a brood.

Wish me luck and any advice is welcome. I am soon to have another mature male come to the surface - anyone on the east coast have a large female L. ornatus?
 

Susej

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
Messages
6
I have a couole of them. Tradd them for other stuff. I do own lots of t's, but i can't find anything about these guys...they already made their trapdoors and had first meal. lifespan? Max size? Temps?
 

ArlaFett

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 8, 2018
Messages
11
Thank you, Tony. Working on a care sheet / notes on my experience with keeping that I hope will be useful for those keeping Liphistids in the future! When weather warms I'll begin shipping some out
I was wondering if you can help me. I am picking one up and can’t find much info on it. What is the lifespan of this spider
 
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