H.spinnifer babies.

[skinheaddave]

Well, Madame Hortense has done it again. She has provided me with another litter of H.spinnifer babies. Tamara and I both guess that there are about 25 of them. Tank, the proud father, is off hiding somewhere else in the enclosure. I must say, it has been a while since the last litter and I had forgotten how bit they are! Some of the babies are nearly the size of some of my Hottentotta.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[chau0046]

Congrats !

Check your pm`s

Mat

 

[skinheaddave]

Mat,

Thanks. I have no new PMs.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Congrats, Dave! These big girls just don't seem to stop having little ones. I have so many in a 75 gal enclosure, I'm going to start separating them. I need to get a few more adults and start pairing the younger scorps off with other breedings to avoid any inbreeding. I'm probably going to go with a huge group of pet pals or something, to avoid any more high costs on large tanks for this species.


adios,
edw.

 

[skinheaddave]

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd update you. First of all, the babies all just went through their first moult. "Two weeks for first instar?!?!," you exclaim. You see, the light bulb providing the heat in the enclosure burned out just before she went through partuition. I figured that instead of messing with her, I'd leave the conditions exactly as they were the moment she chose to give birth. Thus, there were no new light bulbs, no photo ops, no supplemental misting (it is near 100% humidity in the part of the enclosure with her scrape, so no biggie there) and basicaly nothing but the odd shining of a blacklight through the glass to see her (her scrape is right in the front of the enclosure, against the glass.) As a result, the temperature has been hovering around 72 in the enclosure, not the usual 85+ of that particular spot. It is no surprise then, that the duration of first instar was almost twice that as previously experienced with the same mother in the same enclosure. I don't think that the temperature drop necessarily had something to do with inducing partuition, but it does bring up some interesting questions if it did.

Anyhow, I decided to play things a little differently this time around than I would tell anyone else to do it. Instead of waiting for them to depart from their mother or have her care for them, I decided to seperate them. I know this is not the recommended course of action, but I chose to do it anyways. I figure that after coaching dozens of people in the "right way" over the years, I should do things the wrong way. Plus, it means no canabalism and no losing babies in the enclosure (quite complex, lots of hiding spots etc.)

So I scooped up Madame and her kin into a yogurt container and then transfered them to a large kritter keeper minus the lid. I then proceeded to coax all the young off a very angry Madame and swipe them all. There are 23 total, making our initial estimation of 25 pretty close. I chose to raise them in a slight variation of the method I have found worked best for me in the past. This time around, I placed them all individualy into small deli cups filled with moist vermiculite. I then placed stacks of these deli cups (air holes on the side) into the larger containers I use for a lot of my tarantulas and some scorpions. They have some ventelation, but not too much. I also put a small kriter keeper full of water into the container. This provides the humidity. I placed the two larger containers (I needed two for so many young) into one of my racks in my warm room, which is kept around 80F.

I will keep people up to date on the progress. I also took lots of pictures, so I will post them when I have them. If I am as succesful with this method as with the predecessor of this method, I will probably make a web page out of it.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Well, good luck!


adios,
edw.

 

[skinheaddave]

The pics are in. This is Madame Hortense looking pissed at me for moving her to an empty container in preperation for removing her babies.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[skinheaddave]

Here is one beside a penny for comparison. BTW, a US and Canadian penny are about the same size.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[skinheaddave]

Here is the setup I described. Getting them all moved around was a snap .. I had forgotten how nice it is to work with something so large and harmless.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Great pics, Dave! I can't wait to hear the outcome of the trial.


adios,
edw.

 

[chau0046]

Hey those are the same containers i use for my C. Gracilis. But i lined mine with paper towel and instead of a container full of water, i layered the bottom of the critter keeper with towel also to absorb. On top of the critter keeper i use a cotton towel wich i soak twice a day. Mine are doing great and the run around eating all the time.

Mat

 

[skinheaddave]

Just an update -- 100% survival so far. All the young are a very solid brown colouration now and eating well.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[skinheaddave]

Just thought I'd update this thread. As most of you know by now, I lost all but two of my spinifer while I was gone for three weeks. After reading through the notes of the guy taking care of them, examining the bodies, containers etc., doing some thinking and through some more recent experiences, I think I have discovered the culprit.

I was using vermiculite as a substrate, which I believe got to be too wet. As I know from my experiences with the C.gracilis babies, there is some condensation when the temperature drops at night. I think the vermiculite probably held this moisture and thus became water-logged, which can lead to all sorts of problems. I had been removing and replacing food every couple days due to moulding issues, which would tend to confirm my suspicion. More recently, I have put some of my 141 G.rosea s'lings in similar conditions but with a thin layer of peat. So far, the cricket parts have been in there for almost a week with no moulding or other problems. The humidity is still in the 90% range. I think that given another chance I would have provided the same setup but with peat as a substrate. Since my H.spinifer produce every year, I will undoubtedly get a chance to test this. I also have some other species I'm expecting to pop soon, so results may be posted much sooner.

Cheers,
Dave