Culturing of Dalquestia formosa

[Smotzer]

This will be a thread to document progress with attempting to culture and introduce the species, of Opiliones, Dalquestia formosa.
I attempted to culture these back in January and was not successful, but I am attempting it again since May 31st.



1st attempt- photo from 1/11/22


Collecting them on 5/31/22

Second attempt and housed same day in a 6qt Sterile tub.


I don’t recall the exact count ~ ±10 individuals total mostly adult, as of yesterday a little over 2 weeks later all individuals are still alive and eating well and breeding behavior visualized.

Here’s to hoping I can get past F2 to CB F3 with them this go round and get CB ‘Oplings’
out to people!

 

[Aquarimax]

Best of luck with this project! I’d love to keep these someday!

 

[Smotzer]

Best of luck with this project! I’d love to keep these someday!

Thanks man!! I’ll keep that in mind and I will send you a message if all goes according to plan!

 

[CanebrakeRattlesnake]

Those guys are awesome! Wishing you luck <3

 

[Smotzer]

Those guys are awesome! Wishing you luck <3

They really are quite neat! Thanks!!

 

[Jonathan6303]

Love Opiliones especially the ones from Chile. Good luck bro

 

[schmiggle]

These are really pretty! Hope you get something working

 

[Smotzer]

Love Opiliones especially the ones from Chile. Good luck bro

Thanks man!! Yeah they’re very underrated!

These are really pretty! Hope you get something working

Indeed they are really attractive! Yeah me too thanks!!

 

[RezonantVoid]

Looks like you're having better luck than me getting ahold of harvestmen! I hope they work out for ya mate

 

[Smotzer]

Looks like you're having better luck than me getting ahold of harvestmen! I hope they work out for ya mate

Thanks man! What species have you been trying to get a hold of down there?

 

[RezonantVoid]

Thanks man! What species have you been trying to get a hold of down there?

Neopantopsalis pentheter, was hoping to get them in time for an entomological exhibition in a week's time but it doesn't seem that'll be likely

 

[Smotzer]

Neopantopsalis pentheter, was hoping to get them in time for an entomological exhibition in a week's time but it doesn't seem that'll be likely

Well I’m wishing you luck!!

 

[Smotzer]

As of today, no signs of any deaths.

they have successfully gone through their first bowl of dry food and it has been refilled this morning. Individual observed in moist area and another close by, all other hiding.

 

[RezonantVoid]

As of today, no signs of any deaths.

they have successfully gone through their first bowl of dry food and it has been refilled this morning. Individual observed in moist area and another close by, all other hiding.

Ive personally found in both my Nunciella and my local unknown sp., I hugely underestimated their water requirements. I think as long as you give them a dish (which I don't normally recommend for most things, but definitely these) and fresh food, they should definitely continue to thrive

 

[Smotzer]

Ive personally found in both my Nunciella and my local unknown sp., I hugely underestimated their water requirements. I think as long as you give them a dish (which I don't normally recommend for most things, but definitely these) and fresh food, they should definitely continue to thrive

These I do not keep with a water dish anymore, and I keep significantly more dry than last attempt as that’s what I was trying to do as a fellow keeper reported dedication was a high risk but I lost them due to too much moisture. these are rather poorly when kept with too much moisture last time

Where I find them in situ is in very very dry areas with little moisture so they straddle needing moisture but also needing dry here. This go round I find that keeping a portion moist suffices for their moisture needs. Photo is of then running away when disturbed but to show area.

But that they primarily hang out in the drier areas where their flat hide is

 

[Arthroverts]

Very glad to see this attempt is going better than the last one my friend!

Have you found any Eurybunus out your way?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[Smotzer]

Very glad to see this attempt is going better than the last one my friend!

Have you found any Eurybunus out your way?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

Thanks man!!

I have not and I looked on iNat and the closet observation to me is about 3:30min away, but I might be able to find habitat similar to where tbey seemed to be seen around river reservoir out west of me.
I wanna find them though there’s some awesome species it seems here in Texas but some are wrongly ID and are D. formosa

 

[Smotzer]

Ahhhhhhh I did it CB Dalquestia formosa. Possibly the first CB for this species in the hobby from what I’ve surmised!! Idk

2 weeks ago all adults, who have been eating and living for months without any deaths, mysteriously died with no changes to environment or diet. I figuredI had failed again and put it in my invert supply closet to deal with at a later time. Today rolls around and me and my partner decided to deep clean of the apartment and I decided to organize my closet. I opened the bin up with the intent to stomach tossing it in disappointment.

Ahhh but what did I find……?

…..50+ captive bred and born Oplings!!! Made my freaking year seeing these after the last two weeks I’ve had!!


Now comes the hard part raising these up to maturity! Fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading along this journey of mine to introduce these amazing and stunning arachnids! Have a wonderful day y’all!!

Gratefully,

Connor

 

[Smotzer]

And we’re getting the first successful CB molts! Top one circled is darker and gaining color!! Hooraaah for them starting to molt!

They will continue to gain color and darken as they molt! I’ve seen around 6 or so that have gotten darker! Very exciting stuff here! And they’re eating!

I’ll check in with future updates as they happen!

 

[Smotzer]

So all is going well and as planned!

Not noticing any death and all Oplings are eating and growing and I'm still getting new hatches as the weeks go by! Today I noticed one of the first of them reach L4 and start to show adult colors on the tibia and metatarsus joint!!

In the below photo the size difference between recently hatched and those from around the August 20th hatch!

I have been recording molts averaging between 7-10days so far so fairly rapid growth which makes sense to me given the environment they need to quickly grow up in!

Will be interesting to see how many instars until they reach adult size! They put on a lot of growth per molt too!