Harvestman babies

[Dominic444]

So I've had a communal Vonones sayi harvestman tank for about half a year now and I was excited to find out they had babies. I've counted 10 so far and it doesn't look like there's any predation on them from the parents. As I was I couldn't find a lot on harvestmen juveniles/juvenile care online but one website said the parents take care of them for up to 2 months. The species is also very communal so I'm not sure if I need to worry about predation. If anyone has kept these guys in the past or is keeping any of these currently I would love to pick your brain on how you've kept juveniles. I've attached 3 pics. First one is of one of the adults, the sevond is of some juveniles, the 3rd is the same pic as the second but rhe juveniles are circled.

 

[RezonantVoid]

Awesome job! I've recently had baby success with Australian Nunciella sp., there are clutches from several adult individuals coexisting in a communal tank also without predation so far, but I plan to seperate the larger babies into their own setups, pretty much the same style as the adult's communal one but smaller.

 

[Dominic444]

That is awesome! Congrats amd what a dope setup! Is it a bioactive tank by chance? Also, I'm curious to kniw what you feed the juveniles?

 

[RezonantVoid]

That is awesome! Congrats amd what a dope setup! Is it a bioactive tank by chance? Also, I'm curious to kniw what you feed the juveniles?

Thank you very much! Yep, it's a planted bioactive, using natural soil/clay as the main substrate and some white reptile sand underneath. I will be adding extra leaf litter in soon though to provide more cover for the smaller babies to hide in. The hollow log is mostly used by the adults and larger juveniles.

All individuals are fed day old/pinhead crickets. The adults have been eating them for months now, but just recently I'm noticing the adults are beginning to show less interest in them. I'm not sure they are getting fussy or possibly nearing the end of their lifespans after raising young (so little is known about Australian Opiliones so I'm not even sure what their lifespans are like). I have also sprinkled some crushed up dried mealworms that I bought in a bag as reptile food from a petshop, individuals of all ages appeared to eat it but weren't as interested in it as they are in live prey.


Some other harvestmen I've had less success with showed great interest in sweet fruits, but I haven't yet tried to see if my Nunciella colony also like them.

 

[sideradmirer84637]

I love harvestmen spiders so gentle and sweet

 

[RezonantVoid]

I love harvestmen spiders so gentle and sweet

They are not spiders though, they are completely separate, calling them spiders is basically the same as calling a scorpion a spider

 

[sideradmirer84637]

Thank you for telling me I was always told they were spiders.

 

[The Snark]

@RezonantVoid Not sure if you have them in Aus but watch out for not fully ripe Lychee fruit. Turns out the are toxic to some degree to nearly all animals. Got all Lychee juice containing products pulled from the market shelves here a while ago.

 

[RezonantVoid]

@RezonantVoid Not sure if you have them in Aus but watch out for not fully ripe Lychee fruit. Turns out the are toxic to some degree to nearly all animals. Got all Lychee juice containing products pulled from the market shelves here a while ago.

Honestly this info is extremely useful, we occasionally buy lychees and I can guarantee I'd probably have tried giving some to my harvestmen as an experiment before reading this. Thank you very much

 

[The Snark]

useful

Unreal how many potential hazards can be out there isn't it? The unripe lychees were discovered when people got tummy aches. The fruit processing people don't care how ripe or other when the truck loads of fruit get dumped into the juicers. And of course it's all about money and profits. Farmers commonly 'future lease' their fields or orchards and the money lenders come in to tell them when to harvest. It's very common to see rice fields mown well before the plants are fully mature. Same with most other produce.