Shaka
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- May 25, 2010
- Messages
- 17
Hi Everyone!
I recently posted this in South Africa, and it seems no-one down here has done it yet, but this is a nice way to get your T exuviums to spread out easily for sexing or taking pics for sexing. And it goes a lil something like this...
"--->
I don't know if anyone has tried this yet, but I have never seen it until I did it. During December my Chaco Golden Knee (G.Pulchripes) moulted, and I was very keen to find a way to get the moult moistened so that I could try and stretch it all out in order to try and sex it.
So I watched the T until it had just climbed completely out of it's old exuvium so it's legs were free and I grabbed the exuvium with the forceps to dunk it in a large deli dish of water to keep it moist until I found a better solution, but I had a fail moment and dropped the exuvium into the water on it's own, it landed on it's back and vwhalla! The exuvium immediately parachuted open into full stretch and remained in one single piece!
I tried this again with the exuvium of a Brazilian Red & White (N.Chromatus) but the exuvium was a few hours old and had dried a bit, so it didn't work.
So I tried it again today with my Mexican Red Knee (B.Smithi) and again grabbed the moult when it's legs were just free, and the moult was still slightly moist - and BOOM! it happenned again. Now I took it one step further, I used some fish tank air tubing and siphoned the water out of the deli dish so that it lowers the exuvium at full stretch onto the plastic when the water is gone, and I let it dry like that. it then comes off in one single complete piece, starting from the carapace all the way to the main body. Nice
Here's a pic I took.
So, if you want to do this, just do your best to grab a moult as soon as you can get hold of it after a moult while it's still slightly moist from it's own moisture, and drop in some water on it's back. put a torch under it, and you can tell sex pretty well. I am still learning, but I am sure the trained eye would sex it in a flash.
<----"
I asked another member of the forum to try it as he had an T moulting at the time and it worked like a charm. So please anyone else that has T's moulting (SA Spelling), please attempt this in order to verify if it's a successful method.
PS to Mods: Not sure if this should have gone in the sexing section as this is more of a general tip for everyone? :worship:
Shaka
I recently posted this in South Africa, and it seems no-one down here has done it yet, but this is a nice way to get your T exuviums to spread out easily for sexing or taking pics for sexing. And it goes a lil something like this...
"--->
I don't know if anyone has tried this yet, but I have never seen it until I did it. During December my Chaco Golden Knee (G.Pulchripes) moulted, and I was very keen to find a way to get the moult moistened so that I could try and stretch it all out in order to try and sex it.
So I watched the T until it had just climbed completely out of it's old exuvium so it's legs were free and I grabbed the exuvium with the forceps to dunk it in a large deli dish of water to keep it moist until I found a better solution, but I had a fail moment and dropped the exuvium into the water on it's own, it landed on it's back and vwhalla! The exuvium immediately parachuted open into full stretch and remained in one single piece!
I tried this again with the exuvium of a Brazilian Red & White (N.Chromatus) but the exuvium was a few hours old and had dried a bit, so it didn't work.
So I tried it again today with my Mexican Red Knee (B.Smithi) and again grabbed the moult when it's legs were just free, and the moult was still slightly moist - and BOOM! it happenned again. Now I took it one step further, I used some fish tank air tubing and siphoned the water out of the deli dish so that it lowers the exuvium at full stretch onto the plastic when the water is gone, and I let it dry like that. it then comes off in one single complete piece, starting from the carapace all the way to the main body. Nice
Here's a pic I took.
So, if you want to do this, just do your best to grab a moult as soon as you can get hold of it after a moult while it's still slightly moist from it's own moisture, and drop in some water on it's back. put a torch under it, and you can tell sex pretty well. I am still learning, but I am sure the trained eye would sex it in a flash.
<----"
I asked another member of the forum to try it as he had an T moulting at the time and it worked like a charm. So please anyone else that has T's moulting (SA Spelling), please attempt this in order to verify if it's a successful method.
PS to Mods: Not sure if this should have gone in the sexing section as this is more of a general tip for everyone? :worship:
Shaka