HELP! The egg sac was viable after all. I purchased a curly hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) a few months ago not realizing she was wild caught. A month after I got her she laid an egg sac. Not knowing what to do with it I let her keep it on the assumption that it would never hatch. Wrong again. I just took the egg sac out (eggs sac was laid April 13th, 78 days ago) and snipped it open. It is full of babies. Very much alive. My eyesight is not very good even with my glasses but they appear to be fully formed with thorax and abdomen (not just eggs with legs). There are a bazillian of them. What do I do now? Please someone help the clueless. How do I house them? Do I leave them in the egg sac (just a small snip opening, the sac is mostly still intact)? Housing? Substrate? What and when do I feed them? Should I get drunk and pretend they don't exist? HELP!
HELP! Egg sac was viable after all.
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BobBarley
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Please post a pic. If they aren't eggs with legs than they could be 1st instar. Can you tell if their abdomens are fat or not? If they are not fat and they move quick then they are 2nd instar.
If they are 2nd instar, separate them into condiment cups or something slightly bigger if you'd like, with at least 1-2" of substrate. Make tiny holes in the containers with a tack, or something similar. Make sure to drip about 3-5 drops of water into each one, preferably not hitting the slings.
If they are 1st instar quickly look up how to set up a tarantula incubator here on arachnoboards. Use the search function above and just type in "incubator". That should give you ample results and things to work with.
For now this info should be enough to get you by.
If they are 2nd instar, separate them into condiment cups or something slightly bigger if you'd like, with at least 1-2" of substrate. Make tiny holes in the containers with a tack, or something similar. Make sure to drip about 3-5 drops of water into each one, preferably not hitting the slings.
If they are 1st instar quickly look up how to set up a tarantula incubator here on arachnoboards. Use the search function above and just type in "incubator". That should give you ample results and things to work with.
For now this info should be enough to get you by.
Moakmeister
Arachnodemon
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Run over to your local grocery store and get several hundred small deli cups. Don't worry, they're free. Poke some air holes into the side of each deli cup with a needle or a toothpick. Allow the spiderlings to live together in the same tub until they molt into their second instar (exoskeleton). Once that happens, put the slings into their own deli cup. Give them water to drink by spraying some water onto the substrate and side of the cup. Feed them by using prekilled pinhead crickets. This may sound like it would take a long friggin time, but i don't think albopilosums have more than around seventy or so babies (don't quote me on that). Have two bins to keep all the cups in. Keep the cups in one bin, then as you take the cups out and feed the spiderlings, put the cups into the other bin until you've fed all of them and the first bin is empty. You need to feed them as often as possible to get them to grow fast and get out of their fragile spiderling stage. More experienced keepers like @cold blood @EulersK can tell you how to package and sell spiderlings so you're not stuck with so many tarantulas for a long time.
Thank you for the reply. I went ahead and opened the sac into a large deli cup. I think they are first instar. They look like fully formed spiders (not just eggs with legs) and are climbing around and up the side of the cup. Do I feed them at this stage? I do have flightless fruit flies available. I can't get into any place to get deli cups until Monday. I put them on a very lightly misted paper towel but I dunno if that was a good idea or not.
BobBarley
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They are 1st instars. For now you should use layered (I'd layer it 3-4 times), and pretty moist paper towel. However you should look into making an incubator asap. No need to feed them at this stage.
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aphono
Arachnobaron
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Wow what a nice surprise! Glad you at least opened it instead of tossing it in the trash.
Is this your first tarantula? I'm also a noob, could not offer anything useful but think this is way too cool, a WC specimen unexpectedly producing babies in captivity.
Is this your first tarantula? I'm also a noob, could not offer anything useful but think this is way too cool, a WC specimen unexpectedly producing babies in captivity.
spotropaicsav
Arachnobaron
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Wow what a surprise:wideyed: I'm sure once you get more set up for them, you will feel more confident
She is not my first T but I am very new to the hobbie. I have 8 but they are all "beginner" speed. I never expected I would end up with 200+ babies lol. I have no clue what I'm going to do with them all if I can even manage to keep them alive.
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Fortunately, you should have no trouble finding people to take wild-bred Brachypelma albopilosum off your hands once they are 2nd instar or larger. You can either wholesale the slings (less work) or sell them individually (more work but possibly more money in total).
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Congratulations, spider mom!
Here's what to do with unexpected egg sacs:
1. Get a drink of your choice and down it. You need fortification.
2. This is first instar, as has already been mentioned. They don't eat at this point, so you are in luck, you don't need to feed - yet. It's not really necessary to build an incubator, either. You can just put them all in a big bowl with moist coco fiber substrate and but them somewhere slightly warm. As long as they stay moist you can then forget about them for a couple of weeks. At some point they will turn dark and they molt to second instar. Caution: 2. instars can move fast!
3. A few days after they become 2. instars they'll start eating, so they will try to eat each other... Therefore they need to be separated. You better pepare a few hundred cups with moist coco fiber and air holes beforehand... B. albopilosum can have several hundred babies. And they need to be fed. Prekilled works best, mealworm pieces or pinhead crickets, for example...
4. At second instar you can sell them. If I were you I'd find a wholesale buyer and ship most of them out...
5. Good luck!!
Here's what to do with unexpected egg sacs:
1. Get a drink of your choice and down it. You need fortification.
2. This is first instar, as has already been mentioned. They don't eat at this point, so you are in luck, you don't need to feed - yet. It's not really necessary to build an incubator, either. You can just put them all in a big bowl with moist coco fiber substrate and but them somewhere slightly warm. As long as they stay moist you can then forget about them for a couple of weeks. At some point they will turn dark and they molt to second instar. Caution: 2. instars can move fast!
3. A few days after they become 2. instars they'll start eating, so they will try to eat each other... Therefore they need to be separated. You better pepare a few hundred cups with moist coco fiber and air holes beforehand... B. albopilosum can have several hundred babies. And they need to be fed. Prekilled works best, mealworm pieces or pinhead crickets, for example...
4. At second instar you can sell them. If I were you I'd find a wholesale buyer and ship most of them out...
5. Good luck!!
I have set up a make shift incubator for tonight. I don't have any supplies on hand, like clean coco fiber, but I plan on going out and getting the stuff for a better set up tomorrow. Can they eat flightless fruit flies at second instar? I already have a colony of fruit flies on hand (I feed them to other critters).
mconnachan
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If you can, get pin head crickets they would be better, (not sure size of fruit flies) wait until 2i as @boina explained, you can keep them together for a couple of meals, then you will need to separate them. It makes sense selling them wholesale, that way you can sell them all in one or two goes. Keep some for yourself, that's if you want to of course. Good luck.
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Of course they can. I hate fruit flies, though. Even though they can't fly they can run like hell. Mine always ended up all over the place and my cats, who will kill escaped crickets and roaches couldn't care less about fruit flies.
If you know your way around fruit flies you can feed them, no problem. There's little eating on one fly though, so your babies need a few of them in one go to get enough nutrition. In my opinion those stupid flies are more trouble than they are worth.
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Good advice so far.
Definitely keep them incubated until they molt, it will speed the process.
Fruit flies are nutritionally worthless...feed anything but....but you wont need to feed until they molt.
Definitely start collecting condiment cups and set them up simply with just a little damp sub...i prefer topsoil.
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Feel free to message me if you need any more detailed info.
Definitely keep them incubated until they molt, it will speed the process.
Fruit flies are nutritionally worthless...feed anything but....but you wont need to feed until they molt.
Definitely start collecting condiment cups and set them up simply with just a little damp sub...i prefer topsoil.
Feel free to message me if you need any more detailed info.
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Nightstalker47
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Lucky for you those slings are likely the nicaraguan form that are currently in high demand. I would definitely try and sell the whole sack rather then one at a time seeing as your new to this. Contact your local breeder/vendor and make a reasonable offer, you shouldn't have any issues selling them off.
Moakmeister
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YO, I DIDNT EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT! This is gonna make her a nice wad of cash lol. I wanna buy a couple.
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Leila
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Congrats on the little babies 
aphono
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You've gotten excellent advice here. I thought and hoped there would be a fair amount of interest in those babies due to the wild bred-captive born thing. Plus depending on locality- Nicaraguan(strong interest) vs Honduran.
Not sure if you've had experience with sling care.. they are pretty easy once you know the basics especially as you apparently have experience with other critters. Still, a bit of fun when it's 200+ lol
Hope you decide to keep a few, just because this is really too cool....
mconnachan
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A positive mental attitude, PMA is what's needed here, follow the great advice you've been given, treat them like you would any other slings you may have had, once they reach2i then it's a piece of 200+ cakes, wishing you all the best, I know you can do this, with a little bit of effort and a clear goal, you'll do great.