Dolichothele diamantinensis (Brazilian Blue Dwarf Beauty) Open Thread

[KenD]

My dolichothele diamantinensis did the cutest think I have ever seen in my life yesterday. She dropped the cricket she was eating, came out of her burrow, and she did the “happy dance”! It was so adorable. She was walking around in circles and waving her abdomen and spinnerets around.

I want a pair of spinnerets - wonder if I can get some installed somewhere? Looks like fun to go around rubbing one's butt on everything and spread webbing all over

 

[mack1855]

Well...you can never grab enough pics,right…..sat there,with lid off,(don't try this at home)and would not move at all !.
And only moved after filling the waterdish.And was not in hurry to do that!!.

 

[Chebe6886]

The Webs...They are a Plenty

View attachment 349337

Most of the slings have moulted. Of the 8 slings there are 2 holdouts. And with this latest moult, there is distinct color changes on each sling...and the webbing of the enclosures has renewed with vigor.

I spent so much time trying to get images of the slings, I should’ve just taken a couple images of some enclosures and said, “Somewhere in this crazy webbed up enclosure...is a beautiful spider. Now go find it.”

How sensitive to light are these guys at the stages you’ve had them so far?

 

[mack1855]

So @Colorado Ts can answer for his self.For me,if your asking,as slings they hide a lot,and bolt around.As they grow,they seem to gain confidence.
Light,as in daylight,dosent seem to bother my adults at all.Not sure if that helps?.
They sure are not light sensitive to pokie or H.mac levels.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Web Castles

This species, Dolichothele diamantinensis, is a webbing machine. As tiny slings in a 3.25oz soufflé cup, they would web up the enclosure from substrate to lid. This made it very hard to remove the lid, and I quickly found that ANY damage to their webbing efforts...put them in a mood to be bolty, bolty.



Now that they are in an nicely sized AMAC enclosure, they are free to web to their hearts content. They are webbing machines.



And web they have...blankets of spider silk in all the enclosures. Some of it thick and dense...



And some of them like to include substrate into their silk works, creating thick dirt curtains...making it almost impossible for me to capture images of the sling...much less locate it and know where it is during feeding times.



Which serves to make observation challenging to say the least.



I have to say, now that these little spiders are in the AMAC enclosures...they are such a joy to keep. They have really mellowed, no longer skittish, and fun to watch as they grow, and moult, and live out their lives.

I need to figure out a good sling enclosure for this species when they are tiny. The soufflé cup needs to be taller, so they can web up all they want..and I can open the enclosure without damaging their webbing. That would make caring for them, as teeny tiny sling, sooo much easier. So I need to either find or create a sling enclosure that works for this species, without destroying their webbing and making them feel threatened.

Just another item on the “to do“ list...

 

[Chebe6886]

So @Colorado Ts can answer for his self.For me,if your asking,as slings they hide a lot,and bolt around.As they grow,they seem to gain confidence.
Light,as in daylight,dosent seem to bother my adults at all.Not sure if that helps?.
They sure are not light sensitive to pokie or H.mac levels.

That’s kind of what I was wondering. If I shine a light at my Pokies they practically have a seizure

 

[Colorado Ts]

So @Colorado Ts can answer for his self.For me,if your asking,as slings they hide a lot,and bolt around.As they grow,they seem to gain confidence.
Light,as in daylight,dosent seem to bother my adults at all.Not sure if that helps?.
They sure are not light sensitive to pokie or H.mac levels.

I wouldn’t say that they have ever been light sensitive. When I’m taking images, the lighting is focussed and pretty bright compared to light levels in the cabinet.

Since I have rehoused them into the AMAC boxes, their skittishness is gone, they are much much calmer...bolting is now a thing of the past. I love them...

 

[Colorado Ts]

Well...you can never grab enough pics,right…..sat there,with lid off,(don't try this at home)and would not move at all !.
And only moved after filling the waterdish.And was not in hurry to do that!!. View attachment 349728

That is such a cool image. My slings are out all the time, but as soon as I pickup the enclosure to take images, they just slip into the webbing. I can never get nice clear images, I'm always looking through webs...your image is great, nice clear image.

 

[mack1855]

That is such a cool image. My slings are out all the time, but as soon as I pickup the enclosure to take images, they just slip into the webbing. I can never get nice clear images, I'm always looking through webs...your image is great, nice clear image.

Well thanks ,buddy.I appreciate it.But, no magic or anything.You have no idea how many times I try and get good pics,and...BOOM!,gone in the blink of an eye!
I generally get this

 

[Brachalakin]

Starting to show more adult colors every molt! So excited to see what future has in store

 

[Chebe6886]

Got 3 of these coming next week. Pretty excited to check them out in person

 

[Arachnid Addicted]

Color variations.

 

[Brachalakin]

Midnight Snack!

 

[Colorado Ts]

Size Wise



The slings finished moulting as a group last week, I was able to verify all the moults today when I fed them. They are all now over 1” in size and ready to be rehoused into their 4X4X8 AMAC box adult enclosures. These little spiders were just so tiny when I first got them, they are beautiful...and lightening fast.

Post moult, everybody was behaving normally and appetites have returned for all the slings. My small B.lateralis roaches arrived last night, and just in time (JIT). I fed the slings this morning and they were all very active and detained feeders. Two of the slings came out of their webs to get food, one of them is pictured in this post at the top.

The new enclosures are drilled, I just need to add substrate and materials they can use for attachment points and webbing. I will admit that I’m not looking forward to rehousing these spiders into their new homes...they are simply so fast.

I will post about the move once it happens, probably next week.

 

[Jess S]

Well it happened! My diamantinensis moulted into a handsome MM two days ago. Sorry for the terrible picture quality. When he hardens up I'll remove the lid for a better one.



I'm aware the below ventral is also an awful picture but it was taken in Sept 2019 when he was 2" and luckily it was just good enough to help me sex it:



Just a point of interest, here are the dates of the moults since I had it, at approx 1".

12/7/19 approx
01/09/19
21/11/19
04/08/20 (Ultimate Moult)

As you can see, he went from moulting every 2 months approx to going 257 days.

Just before his final moult he was in premoult, refusing food for nearly 5 months!

 

[Konstantin Konstantinov]

Hi all
I just acquired 5 slings between 1 and 1.5cm DLS.They are currently housed in 1oz condiment pots.I have 4oz deli cups as upgrade once they moult.
They were quick but no where as bad as my 0.5cm Pseudhapalopus sp colombia(Gorgeous little dwarf if anyone is into dwarfs)wich are little teleporting machines.Anyway Im keeping my guard up with them as I am with all my tarantulas.
Tip.It is very useful to do rehousing over a big white towel or bed sheet that way the little buggers are well more visible than over my dark carpet.Ah and catch cups, loads of catch cups.lol
Few not very good pics on arrival.

How moist are you keeping your substrate for your juveniles and adults?
Regards Konstantin

 

[Jess S]

Great acquisitions @Konstantin Konstantinov . I also recently acquired a 0.5 cm P sp Columbia blue. What concerns me after reading about yours being very fast, is mine hasnt shown that sort of speed since I got it, at all. More like a brachy sling 'speed'. It also abandoned it's burrow 2 days ago and is sitting on the substrate. I don't like that. It has been feeding prior and it's not about to moult.
I've checked husbandry, hardly any info on this species so I'd gone with its cousin Pseudhaplopus sp blue, as care info is more well documented.
In the absence of anything else I can identify as needing to change I've just added cross ventilation to the vial and placed it in a different room with a slightly lower temp. We shall see how it gets on.

Anyway, I've derailed the thread enough!

I got my diamantinensis as 1". I kept it dry with an overflown water dish and it's been absolutely fine. A sling I would keep slightly moist. They are pretty hardy.

 

[NukaMedia Exotics]

I enjoyed reading your observations. One good thing is although they are still pretty zippy when older, they do calm down considerably. Or at least my one is (!) calm and generally doesn't budge when I'm working in the enclosure.

View attachment 342941

I've got 2 that are about this size, very cool looking Ts can't wait until they're fully grown.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Another Moulting Cycle?

My D.diamantinensis slings are going through another moult cycle. 3 of them have moulted, 3 of them are in heavy premoult and 2 of them have large abdomens, but are still hungry feeders. I was a little shocked that they are moulting again so soon...it feels like only a couple weeks ago I was posting about this group beginning a moulting cycle.

 

[Brachalakin]

Fresh molt, colors are getting better and better!