Menavodi sacs

[John Apple]

I have been hearing a bit about the difficulty in hatching sacs from these guys.
The same problem I have been having until recently.
Being these guys are from a wet local it got me thinking...hmmm I said.
The sacs are somewhat transparent so I was thinking the humidity retained in a sac is really nothing compared to other widows.
After a conversation with Frank a couple of nights ago I went down to the critter room and checked on my experiment, Out of one sac hanging in the deli cup with wet paper towel in it came many slings and the sac was hatched with about a 75 percent hatch rate. The other sac was all but dried up that I left with the female.
So that being said seperating the sacs from the females and putting them in a humid environment works with an acceptable hatch rate. Has anyone else noticed this with these sacs????
Thanx for reading

 

[buthus]

I have been hearing a bit about the difficulty in hatching sacs from these guys.
The same problem I have been having until recently.
Being these guys are from a wet local it got me thinking...hmmm I said.
The sacs are somewhat transparent so I was thinking the humidity retained in a sac is really nothing compared to other widows.
After a conversation with Frank a couple of nights ago I went down to the critter room and checked on my experiment, Out of one sac hanging in the deli cup with wet paper towel in it came many slings and the sac was hatched with about a 75 percent hatch rate. The other sac was all but dried up that I left with the female.
So that being said seperating the sacs from the females and putting them in a humid environment works with an acceptable hatch rate. Has anyone else noticed this with these sacs????
Thanx for reading

Winter out there ...humidity must be extremely low ...30-40%? At least thats how MN is during the winter. Thats too low for most widows, but any species that comes from higher humidity areas of the world will definitely have troubles.
I kept a "happy medium" plastic drawer going. Basically just a cup full of water crystals and coconut substrait ...soaked. Keeps it around 60-65% as long as the drawer remains closed and I stay on the ball with the water.

Specifically menavodi.. havnt had the opportunity to deal with reproduction yet. Mated a couple but with no results. But, Madagascar is a humid place...
http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/madagascar/antananarivo

hehe I love looking at the current conditions of a region of which I have spiders from. I keep them up to date with the weather conditions back home and convince them that its better here in CA.

 

[John Apple]

Heh Heh
I received a sac from someone here on the boards and only got two slings from it...just figured it was dumb luck:?
In any event what I did seems to have worked well and I have many slings now, cute white looking lil buggers.
The adult female I have has laid about 7 sacs and this is the first one to have an acceptable hatch rate. Yes she was bred.
Soooo it looks like I'll have many to trade off and raise now

 

[buthus]

Heh Heh
I received a sac from someone here on the boards and only got two slings from it...just figured it was dumb luck:?
In any event what I did seems to have worked well and I have many slings now, cute white looking lil buggers.
The adult female I have has laid about 7 sacs and this is the first one to have an acceptable hatch rate. Yes she was bred.
Soooo it looks like I'll have many to trade off and raise now

Are your adults webbing up their enclosures well? Are they hunting the enclosure floor? Mine just havnt gone full out when it comes to web making. (One went crazy in a jar, but she was an exception.)
I have a feeling that its due to environmental conditions. This would be a great specie for someone living in Georgia or similar.

 

[John Apple]

Well they don't seem to web up tooooo much but have witnessed them checking the cage floor at night..
Now I have increased the humidity in the adults cage and when they web something up there are more sticky globs on the silk being thrown on prey.

 

[buthus]

Well they don't seem to web up tooooo much but have witnessed them checking the cage floor at night..
Now I have increased the humidity in the adults cage and when they web something up there are more sticky globs on the silk being thrown on prey.

Good sign. The first thing that goes on widows when they get dehydrated is their ability to lay down webbing ...esp the sticky snaring stuff.

 

[Canth]

This'll help me a lot. Thanks a bunch. I hope I get better results as well.

 

[buthus]

This'll help me a lot. Thanks a bunch. I hope I get better results as well.

I know Ive been mostly anti-substrate when it comes to widows, but for a few of these species, next round..Im changing my ways.

 

[UrbanJungles]

I found that adding a substrate to my bishopi really helped alot. I generally didn't keep substrate in with my Latros but have changed my ways!

 

[buthus]

I found that adding a substrate to my bishopi really helped alot. I generally didn't keep substrate in with my Latros but have changed my ways!

For me its really all about my local average humidity ...or lack there of.
I need to start watching some inland florida weather reports ...but I have to suspect that their average humidity is way up there ...probably 70s and 80s. (??)
Lots of days where its only 35% over here. Cups with soaked crystal/substrate mix kindof work, but its like a couple super foggy evenings, proceeded by a 3 or 4 day dryout back to desert again. Easy to neglect those enclosures for a week or two. Adult bishopi and menavodi seem to do alright with the dry air, but I believe they are at a constant level of stress which inhibits normal web making, feeding, mating, etc. Anyway, its easy to ignore the obvious if you're content with staring at pretty things in glass boxes. Personally, I want to observe natural n' healthy "frisky" behavior.

Sorry, a bit beyond thread jack.