Interesting observation. (video)

[Talkenlate04]

Ok this is for all the Pokie fans.

I recently about a month ago bought two mated P. Regalis females. Both had seen several matings. I am in the habit of checking on my guys at night with a Led mag light, and thats when I noticed that you can see one of my females carrying eggs. You can actually see the round circles inside her, and really easily see the mass of yellow eggs. Her abdomen is stretched and transparent. I checked my other female and there is nothing.

Now I tried to capture this compairson on my web cam, its kinda crappy, but the gravid female gets shown the light first and the one that is not gets it second. Lastly I put the gravid female back under the light. I find this amazing that you can see if they are forming eggs or not.
So if there are any other people at all out there that I have mated females I want someone else to try this. Check out the video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBNLp0pGaZU

 

[moose35]

that is pretty cool. you really can see the eggs.

cool video
moose

 

[P. Novak]

Wow Ryan, very interesting find. At first I couldn't see it, but then I took a second and closer look and actually saw em. Very nice!

 

[Tunedbeat]

Very cool, i will have to try this, thanks!

 

[Talkenlate04]

So far this only works with Pokies. I have been tinkering with this for a while. It works for checking for premolt too. Thats why I can get so close to knowing when my Ts molt and catch them on video all the time. If you think you have a T in premolt use a led flashlight. Its harder on some species but with most I can see the second exo growing under the old one.

But like I said it was really hard to video what I was seeing with the eggs. Here I showed my GF I did not say what to look for and she spotted the eggs right away. And she knows beans about Ts.

 

[DrAce]

My first comment is, that's fantastic.

Second little point is - try to avoid using too much light on them. Embryos hate light... they really hate it. I can kill an embryo using normal indoors light in about 10 mins. And the effect can be cumulative. Shining a torch in there isn't going to be too bad... but try to keep it down.

Are pokie skins just thinner?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Light throught plastic then shinning on them I am pretty sure wont do anything at all. The eggs are not even aware its there. I dont see how they could be aware of the light.
As for pokies being thinner skinned I dont think thats it I think they stretch a lot when they are gravid making them somewhat transparent.

 

[julesaussies]

Premolt

It works for checking for premolt too. Thats why I can get so close to knowing when my Ts molt and catch them on video all the time. If you think you have a T in premolt use a led flashlight. Its harder on some species but with most I can see the second exo growing under the old one.

Hey Ryan, that video was awesome. Very cool to see the eggs. It reminds me of candling bird eggs to see if they're fertile and how far a long they are - but even cooler!!

Do you have any pics of T's in premolt with the second exo growing? i would like to try that out sometime. Does that only work in Pokies as well?
Thanks, jules

 

[Talkenlate04]

Hey Ryan, that video was awesome. Very cool to see the eggs. It reminds me of candling bird eggs to see if they're fertile and how far a long they are - but even cooler!!

Do you have any pics of T's in premolt with the second exo growing? i would like to try that out sometime. Does that only work in Pokies as well?
Thanks, jules

It does work with pokies. I have a few in premolt now I will work on getting some compairson pics on this thread maybe when I get off work tonight. I always know in advance when my Pokies are in premolt. And I hope with my crappy camera I can get good shots of what I am talking about, if not I am getting my new camera soon so Ill get them on here sooner or later.

 

[lunixweb]

So far this only works with Pokies. I have been tinkering with this for a while. It works for checking for premolt too. Thats why I can get so close to knowing when my Ts molt and catch them on video all the time. If you think you have a T in premolt use a led flashlight. Its harder on some species but with most I can see the second exo growing under the old one.

But like I said it was really hard to video what I was seeing with the eggs. Here I showed my GF I did not say what to look for and she spotted the eggs right away. And she knows beans about Ts.

Incredible Ryan, thanks for the video and the info... is just great :clap:

 

[DrAce]

Light throught plastic then shinning on them I am pretty sure wont do anything at all. The eggs are not even aware its there. I dont see how they could be aware of the light.
As for pokies being thinner skinned I dont think thats it I think they stretch a lot when they are gravid making them somewhat transparent.

Yeah, they are. Light in any visible region can cause oxidative stress - there are lots of funny proteins floating about in them which are quite senstitive to light.

There is one theory out there which implies that it is senstivity to extremely low levels of light which help the embryo develop a left and right side, but I don't subscribe to that school of thought.

Trust me on embryos... small amounts of light over a long period of time will kill em.

And why is this only good on Pokies, then?

 

[Talkenlate04]

With other Ts I cant see any transparency in the abdomen at all at any stage. Thats the main reason why its only worked with Pokies, but just for the gravid part. The premolt check works on all.
Hmm that's interesting I had no clue. So even at the stage where the egg is being formed and its nothing but a bunch of cells light can mess with them? I mean they dont have any stages of development ill much later. Interesting.
I am working on pics now.

 

[DrAce]

With other Ts I cant see any transparency in the abdomen at all at any stage. Thats the main reason why its only worked with Pokies, but just for the gravid part. The premolt check works on all.
Hmm that's interesting I had no clue. So even at the stage where the egg is being formed and its nothing but a bunch of cells light can mess with them? I mean they dont have any stages of development ill much later. Interesting.
I am working on pics now.

So I guess that indicates that the pokie skeleton is a little thinner, doesn't it?

And yeah, it really does make a difference. It's thought that, like most forms of radiation, there's a threshold of tolerance for exposure. Basically, they're all fine until you give em that one little bit too much, then it's all-over-red-rover. As I mentioned above, it's an oxidative stress, and it can occur inside, or outside the parent. It's been described in most animal systems, ranging from vertebrates to invertebrates, and I doubt that these guys are any different. You won't see any effect until you've exposed them that little bit too much.

I don't think you're doing yours any harm, but it's a good policy to not shine lights on them often... just keep it to a minimum.

 

[Talkenlate04]

So here are the best pics I could get showing premolt in a T.

There were two pokies used they are in heavy premolt and should molt in the next 48-72 hours.

Poecilotheria pederseni and Poecilotheria ornata are the two in premolt, and the one I used to show the transparence of a recently molted T is a Poecilotheria miranda.
Note the light barely getting through the legs in and only in some areas.

Same with this picture, look at the knee joints. They are dark and very little light passes through. That darkening is the new exo.

Now here is one picture with no light so you can see what they look like,

And here is a recently molted (as of two months) Note that you can see through most segments of the leg, where there is darker color its harder to see through but you can see it much better in person. My camera did not do it justice. But the legs are still almost all the way see through, where as in the pics above you can see those same areas darkened from the newly forming exo.

I want others to try this, its pretty cool knowing within a short period of when molt is coming. With time and practice on the darkness and its relativity to when a molt does occur you can even dial down to a day or two.

 

[julesaussies]

Wow! Thanks for the pics Ryan. That is a really cool find! i only have a few T's big enough for this to probably work on but i'm going to check it out. i also have one that molted less than 2 weeks ago and can use him to compare to other T's of the same size/species. Awesome - thanks. i'll let you know what i find. jules

 

[Merfolk]

Are pokie skins just thinner?

I think it would be logic if it was the case. Arboreals need to be lighter than ground dwellers, so they have to substract weight wherever it can be done. That means thinner skin, less bulky etc...

 

[Talkenlate04]

And just to show that the flashlight method for checking for premolt works, both Ts shown in the previous pictures molted tonight with me at work within less then 48 hours after I said they would in 48-72 hours.

 

[Alicemolted]

thats pretty amazing :worship:

 

[tony77tony77]

I dont see anything.

 

[julesaussies]

And just to show that the flashlight method for checking for premolt works, both Ts shown in the previous pictures molted tonight with me at work within less then 48 hours after I said they would in 48-72 hours.

That is very awesome. There is probably a lot that can be learned when you have a lot of T's and are as observant as you. And the video of the Pokies is amazing. i wonder how few people actually know about that? Very Cool!