Incubator questions

[viper69]

LA is usually extremely dry,

Perfect weather if one 10 min by car from Venice. If further in, the weather gets hot, but at least dry heat! I hate humid heat.

 

[CommanderBacon]

After speaking to another breeder who lives in my area, I have also drilled a buttload of holes in the bottom of a new deli cup and gently switched it out with the one I had been using, which didn't have as many holes.

I think I'm solid on this incubator thing for now, pending results.

I hate humid heat.

Hard same. I lived in Las Vegas for 12 years and I can handle insane temperatures (up to 135 f or so) as long as it's not humid. Meanwhile, I was in Japan when it was 99 f outside and over 90% humidity and I thought I was going to die.

No thank you.

Well thats not necessary....ive never warmed an incubator....now my room is heated, there are times where the room is only around 70f, and while things may develope slower, i havent noticed it effecting survival rates.

I'm wondering if he thought that faucet water might be cold. I used filtered, room temperature water, but I don't think it hurt anything to warm up the water a little bit.

The incubator is currently on top of the refrigerator to take advantage of the warmth from the coils. I'll check on it daily and post pics if anything significant happens!

 

[Colorado Ts]

Well thats not necessary....ive never warmed an incubator....now my room is heated, there are times where the room is only around 70f, and while things may develope slower, i havent noticed it effecting survival rates.

I will be following this process at the beginning of July. My plan is to use the same incubator design in my sling cabinet for hatching. The temperature of the cabinet is set at 79 degrees and varies between 82 degrees for a high, and will drop as low as 77 degrees.

Is there a reasonable temperature range to stay within?

 

[CommanderBacon]

I will be following this process at the beginning of July. My plan is to use the same incubator design in my sling cabinet for hatching. The temperature of the cabinet is set at 79 degrees and varies between 82 degrees for a high, and will drop as low as 77 degrees.

Is there a reasonable temperature range to stay within?

Sound like it to me, but I'm curious what cold hands will say.

My final incubator design, after speaking to breeders that I know have produced many successful sacs, is one coffee filter inside one 16 oz deli cup with tons of small holes in the very bottom (like a colander) nested inside a 32oz deli cup with no holes, topped with a lid with very few holes. Water added to the 32oz cup up to 1 inch from the bottom of the 16oz deli cup.

I may shift to a hammock design if I do this again, pending results.

I would have thought more people had done this before and had this dialed in, but it seems like everyone has their own preferences and there's no general consensus. Am I correct in observing that in Europe it seems like they leave the sac with the mother until the spiderlings start to disperse naturally?

 

[Colorado Ts]

Sound like it to me, but I'm curious what cold hands will say.

My final incubator design, after speaking to breeders that I know have produced many successful sacs, is one coffee filter inside one 16 oz deli cup with tons of small holes in the very bottom (like a colander) nested inside a 32oz deli cup with no holes, topped with a lid with very few holes. Water added to the 32oz cup up to 1 inch from the bottom of the 16oz deli cup.

I may shift to a hammock design if I do this again, pending results.

I would have thought more people had done this before and had this dialed in, but it seems like everyone has their own preferences and there's no general consensus. Am I correct in observing that in Europe it seems like they leave the sac with the mother until the spiderlings start to disperse naturally?

Compared to things like the fish hobby...there really are not a lot of breeders.

I've found it’s a lot like the ancient days of the alchemists...most are not to willing to share their secrets and how they do things. But there are people that have a grasp on this information and willing to share their discoveries...after some prodding.

 

[cold blood]

Is there a reasonable temperature range to stay within?

yeah, its fine

in Europe it seems like they leave the sac with the mother

LOL, tried that....never again. 2 big reasons...

1. Locating, corralling and never knowing if you got them all is a real problem....well more a big pain in the behind....considering the simplicity of the same objective in an isolated incubator.

2. The longer it stays with Mom, the more likely chance something bad can happen or something bad can get worse. Mothers can eat the sac, or abandon it. if there's a bad egg inside as it breaks down it will affect other eggs and now one bad egg turns into 10 turns into 20 turns into the whole sac. if there's a problem, and you can't tell because it's inside a sac, you can't fix it.

 

[Fischer]

This is an alternate incubator setup I’ve had success with.
-Dry paper towels cut to size in the bottom of the plastic cup in the middle.
-Wet paper towels lining the bottom of the container.
-Cups of water gel crystals
-The incubator is an enclosure not being used so I taped the ventilation holes. A couple small holes poked in the tape.

I’ve used this setup with multiple Poecilotheria species, Brachypelma hamorii and others.

Poecilotheria smithi post embryos shown incubating

 

[CommanderBacon]

This is an alternate incubator setup I’ve had success with.
-Dry paper towels cut to size in the bottom of the plastic cup in the middle.
-Wet paper towels lining the bottom of the container.
-Cups of water gel crystals
-The incubator is an enclosure not being used so I taped the ventilation holes. A couple small holes poked in the tape.

I’ve used this setup with multiple Poecilotheria species, Brachypelma hamorii and others.

Poecilotheria smithi post embryos shown incubating
View attachment 348528

Oh, that's interesting. Is it difficult keeping the paper towels moist? Does mold ever form?

Wet paper towels bother me so much, I hate them, but if they work I should just get over it.

 

[Fischer]

Is it difficult keeping the paper towels moist? Does mold ever form?

The paper towels in the bottom of the incubator are the only ones that are wet. The paper towels under the slings are dry.
I've noticed they will sometime mold later in the incubation but it is quite easy to change the slings over to fresh paper.

 

[Colorado Ts]

This is the setup that I was planning to use to hatch out the eggs from the A.hentzi.



Its basically the same exact design that @CommanderBacon is using for this project.

The design that @Fischer has posted, looks interesting. It shouldn’t be to hard to fabricate one and set it up. I could easily divide my egg sac in half and look at both designs side by side. A mature adult female A.hentzi can produce 200+ eggs in an egg sac, that’s enough data to be statistically significant.

 

[cold blood]

The design that @Fischer has posted, looks interesting.

I use a similar style, except without the water crystals...not sure what they could provide.

 

[Fischer]

The only issue is making sure enough water is evaporating through the holes into the part with the eggs. I've cut out the bottom completely on those designs with success.

I use a similar style, except without the water crystals...not sure what they could provide.

Just to keep humidity up for longer if I have to go out of town for some reason. I replace them somewhat often to minimize any bacteria that may be forming in the older crystals

 

[Colorado Ts]

The paper towels in the bottom of the incubator are the only ones that are wet. The paper towels under the slings are dry.
I've noticed they will sometime mold later in the incubation but it is quite easy to change the slings over to fresh paper.

What is your water source? Tap water...distilled water?

 

[Fischer]

What is your water source? Tap water...distilled water?

Pumped from an aquifer by well and ran through a fridge drinking filter.

 

[cold blood]

What is your water source? Tap water...distilled water?

Mine is just tap water...Ive never had an issue.

 

[Colorado Ts]

That great to hear...thank you both for that information.
My water source is either carbon filtered house water, or a Berkey countertop filtration.

 

[CommanderBacon]

fwiw I'm just using filtered water.

This egg was going visibly black today so I pulled it.


The rest look good. They look better hydrated than they did yesterday, although that might just be me telling myself that.

 

[viper69]

After speaking to another breeder who lives in my area, I have also drilled a buttload of holes in the bottom of a new deli cup and gently switched it out with the one I had been using, which didn't have as many holes.

I think I'm solid on this incubator thing for now, pending results.

Hard same. I lived in Las Vegas for 12 years and I can handle insane temperatures (up to 135 f or so) as long as it's not humid. Meanwhile, I was in Japan when it was 99 f outside and over 90% humidity and I thought I was going to die.

No thank you.

I'm wondering if he thought that faucet water might be cold. I used filtered, room temperature water, but I don't think it hurt anything to warm up the water a little bit.

The incubator is currently on top of the refrigerator to take advantage of the warmth from the coils. I'll check on it daily and post pics if anything significant happens!

Yeah I loved living in the desert. I lived somewhere it was 100F, 100% humidity from April to October. The lowest we had was 95 for a few days. Wake up it's 78-80 already.

 

[CommanderBacon]

Yeah I loved living in the desert. I lived somewhere it was 100F, 100% humidity from April to October. The lowest we had was 95 for a few days. Wake up it's 78-80 already.

The horror... the horror D:

I checked the eggs before bed this evening and two of the EWLs are waving their little legs around and it's killing meeeee.

 

[CommanderBacon]

Update! I checked the eggs this morning and..

..I'm sorry but is this guy eating its sacmate??


There are two that are doing this. I see the little fangs moving up and down and the sacs next to them deflating.

This is blowing my mind. I didn't think they did this until 2i?