E.Amanica care tips

[Edan bandoot]

Looks like I'll be getting a couple CB amanica juvies in the coming months, I've been told that they can be pretty fragile.

How moist should I keep them. (Assuming permanently water logged substrate, but unsure if they will tolerate the top drying out)

Do they have to be misted daily/bidaily or not.

And is 22C an alright temperature.

If anyone has any other info that they think I would find helpful please let me know.

Also, how early on would they be sexable by genital operculum hairs with a microscope or magnifying glass.

 

[Scourge]

I've found them quite easy to keep and breed. I've kept them in large containers with the back/ sides/ roof covered with cork tiles or styrofoam tiles and a large piece of curved bark inside.
I tried to keep the substrate a little moist, but always kept a water dish available. I sprayed water against the bark every week or two and often saw the whipspiders drinking.
You can often tell if the humidity is too low as they will start to spend time on the substrate. My temps fluxuated between 18°C and 24°C usually.

Freshly moulted, showing the cork tiles glues to the back and ceiling of the enclosure:



Female and male together:



Female with young:

 

[Edan bandoot]

I've found them quite easy to keep and breed. I've kept them in large containers with the back/ sides/ roof covered with cork tiles or styrofoam tiles and a large piece of curved bark inside.
I tried to keep the substrate a little moist, but always kept a water dish available. I sprayed water against the bark every week or two and often saw the whipspiders drinking.
You can often tell if the humidity is too low as they will start to spend time on the substrate. My temps fluxuated between 18°C and 24°C usually.

Freshly moulted, showing the cork tiles glues to the back and ceiling of the enclosure:

View attachment 411158

Female and male together:

View attachment 411159

Female with young:

View attachment 411160

can you elaborate on the enclosures? (how big, how ventilated)

and about the breeding, do they have to have a faux-seasonal shift or is it as simple as putting two mature specimens together.

 

[Scourge]

The enclosures were just plastic under-bed storage containers turned on their ends (I'll see if I have photo somewhere).
Breeding was usually very peaceful - as long as the female accepted the introduction of the male (and didn't try to chase him off) they lived together for months. I would find the stalks of spermatophores now and then, so I knew they were mating. Usually I would remove the male before the female extruded eggs, or just after, and then wouldn't intorduce him again until after the female had moulted.
But considering how peaceful they were I'm not if it was entirely necessary??
I also found that the young could be kept with the mother for a few moults, and grew much faster that way. There were only a few deaths, but I did not witness any cannibalism (that's not to say that it didn't happen though!).

 

[Scourge]

Don't think I did too much to season the females, maybe kept them a little drier during mating and a little more humid when I expected eggs.

 

[Scourge]

Haven't got one of these enclosures set up right now, so you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the substrate and water dish.
It's pretty simple, but effective. Dimesions are 24 x 16 x 10 inches, and there wasn't a huge amount of ventilation, only a few holes in the lid at the top and near the bottom (and the lid isn't exactly airtight).

 

[Banshee05]

22°C sounds a bit too low, I have groups at 25°C and at 33°C, both do well, the lower ones reproduce earlier but grow slower, the warmer ones grow like the hell but need more time to produce an eggsac.
However, ones u have stable captive breed animals it is very easy, u just need big containers. My substrat is mostly always a bit wet, never dry out.