huntsman with eggsac

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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Sep 14, 2005
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This is her third eggsac since she arrived on the boat from Ecuador. The first one dried out before it was really given a chance, the second one she couldn't get detached from the wall and ended up spilling out all over the ground, this one she laid on December 15th and appears to be growing in size.

How long do I have to wait to see little babies come out? (assuming it is viable)
 

Arachnophilist

Arachnoprince
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IM not sure but I would guess a couple of months at least. someone will know for sure dont worry.
 

KUJordan

Arachnobaron
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Nov 22, 2005
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if it is like most other true spiders, it should only be around 20-30 days. good luck with it though. i hope this one works out for you and her.
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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So she is kind of answering my question for me. Last night the eggsac was so big it was starting to split at the seams and you can see the little slings in there wiggling around. My next question is: can they stay community for a while or do I have to separate them into individual vials ASAP?
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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Babies are everywhere!

The huntsman slings started dispersing on the 26th. We separated 23 babies on the 27th and 65 more babies today. The female is still holding the egg sac and there are still babies emerging as well as a few still wandering around that we couldn't get separated without disturbing the mom too much. We have about 70 in individual jars and we're thinking of setting up a few (maybe up to 10 per jar) communal jars to see if they cannibalize each other or if they ignore each other.

The babies are so adorable!

Mamma on the eggsac:


Eggsac growing larger:


babies emerging:


a not-so-good picture of mamma and a few of the babies:
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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we just went through feeding round 1...some of the fruit flies didn't even hit the ground before they were spider food. :)
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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why? I hadn't heard that. Should I switch to pin heads? The slings are really small, I don't think they can take something much bigger than a fruit fly.
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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never mind. I found a thread explaining the potential risk with FFF. I'm only planning on feeding them on this diet until their next molt or two when they will be big enough to eat crickets with no problem. Do you think that this will be ok?
 

funnylori

Arachnobaron
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I fed my purple fruit flys exclusively for 3 months and didnt have any problems. I think they should be fine. It wasnt until after she was big enough to take petco sized small crickets that I realized it could lead to a dietary deficiency problem. At least you know the flys will not eat the spider...
 

Stylopidae

Arachnoking
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I think they'll be OK for temporary feeders. I was raising some spitting spiders on friut flies and lost the entire culture to moulting problems. Conversely, I raised my H. maculata to the third instar on friut flies with no problems.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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nice work!

with a little care you could easily introduce this species to the hobby :)
 

Arachnophilist

Arachnoprince
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I dont know if they will accept them but I often use chopped up or pre killed small crickets to feed babies. try a 2 week killed and left in the communal jar. see if they will share a meal. I dont think a temporary diet of them should be too harmful though.. but it also wouldnt hurt to try throwin in some cricket bits.
 

funnylori

Arachnobaron
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I am going to try giving mine all the extra cricket legs that seem to show up everywhere... One still hasnt eaten, the other is Fat!
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
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we separated 95 more today! The total is now up to 183!!!

I'm not sure if the mom is done now or not. She is still hanging on to the egg sac, but there don't appear to be slings coming out. I'll check her again tomorrow.

I've set up communal jars ranging from 4 to 20 per jar, thus far they are far more interested in food than each other, but we'll see if that continues. All of them are eating well and plumping up quite nicely. woohoo!
 

P. Novak

ArachnoGod
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Wow, that is alot of babies! Keep us updated on the growing process of these little ones! Some more pictures would be nice as well!



we separated 95 more today! The total is now up to 183!!!

I'm not sure if the mom is done now or not. She is still hanging on to the egg sac, but there don't appear to be slings coming out. I'll check her again tomorrow.

I've set up communal jars ranging from 4 to 20 per jar, thus far they are far more interested in food than each other, but we'll see if that continues. All of them are eating well and plumping up quite nicely. woohoo!
 

dragontears

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Sep 14, 2005
Messages
266
54 more today! Total now is 237!

I think she might be done now. There are a couple left in the tank with her that we couldn't get out, but she has dropped the egg sac and it looks pretty empty. Hopefully tomorrow she'll move out of the way so we can get the remaining babies out and remove the egg sac to make sure it is empty. Now I just want her to get a good meal and lots of water in her...she looks so dehydrated at the moment.
 
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