New species of giant-fishing spider, Ancylometes spec.

[Steven]

looking excellent !!! :clap: :clap: :clap:


PS:
what kind of enclosure is that new one ?

 

[Stefan2209]

looking excellent !!! :clap: :clap: :clap:


PS:
what kind of enclosure is that new one ?

Thanks, Steven!

The new enclosures are so-called "Fauna-boxes". I bought them via the internet @ Reptilica.de. It´s the smallest size they hold, only 3,- € the box.

By the way: what about that carolina wolfies, are they doing ok?

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Steven]

By the way: what about that carolina wolfies, are they doing ok?

they are doing OK still all alive and well,... only not grown that much :?
guess i need to powerfeed them some more

if ya ever accomplish to breed these fishing spiders,... let me know when you got to much slings
(PS: i'm still waiting for my A.bogotensis to drop an eggsac,... )

 

[Stefan2209]

Hmm,

could it be, your carolina´s won´t grow too much cause they lack light? I know it sounds strange but i experienced this with my L. tarantula. I keep some of them without any artificial lighting, they eat ok but not too much and haven´t done a molt since nearly 2 months.

Two other spiders of this species i keep with artificial lighting, they don´t get any heat from the lamp but the light. They eat much more than their brothers and sisters and molt regularly. As Lycosids rely strongly to their visiual perception for hunting i wouldn´t be too surprised to learn that light may play a significant role.

I plan to keep 2 females and 2 males of this species, just waiting for them to be big enough to tell for sure.

Yeah, i´ll not only think of you if i´ll ever happen to have some offsprings, might well be i´m gonna get in touch with you when i´m looking for someone to take away my 4 "surplus" Ancylometes.

Before you think i´m a nice guy, i´m not too thrilled about your A. bogotensis sac, but with your C. getazi and those Geolycosas that´s a different story...

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Steven]

Before you think i´m a nice guy,

That never crossed my mind,... don't worry

 

[Stefan2209]

7. molt

Hey again,

time for some macros. As seen in the "6. molt" post, there´s some colour difference between some specimen. This increased with the last molt, guess it´s sex-depending. As the sub-adult male which i´ve seen at the spider show had a deep-brown colouration, i guess the brown-ones will turn male and the reddish-orange ones will turn out female. Time will make sure.

I´ll start with some pics of a "supposed" male:

 

[Stefan2209]

Still 7. molt

Now some pics of a "supposed" female. By now 4 of 8 specimen have done the 7. molt, as it turned out i have exactly 2 males & 2 females, suits me right.

From now on, all others are "surplus". ;P

Enjoy....

That´s it, see ya next year....

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[WithCerberus]

The color on the "supposed" females is beautiful. Any updates on your friend's experiment with the fish?

peace,
Bobby

 

[Stefan2209]

The color on the "supposed" females is beautiful. Any updates on your friend's experiment with the fish?

peace,
Bobby

Hi,

no news on the "fish-experiment",yet. My buddy read this thread some days ago and told me via mail he now really needed to go get some fishes....

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stefan2209]

8. molt

Hi everybody,

8. molt already done on 4 out of 8 specimen. This molt was a real size-booster, the development speeded up considerably!

If they keep on growing like this, i will run out of space way sooner than i thought, so i´m not too sure, if i´m all too happy about this, but anyway it won´t change the the hard truth. This guys definately gonna to grow big...

Red colour form:

Brown colour form:

Size reference:

Sidenote: my friend in switzerland finally executed his "Guppy-experiment", the Ancylometes took down the fish with ease. Unfortunately he wasn´t able to take pics of "the act", but before and after.

Guess when wil be the next update.... ;P

Greetings,

Stefan

P.S. If you like this, watch out for some new species to be displayed, won´t take long....

 

[Scolopeon]

they look amazing..
WOW, I spider hunt somtimes, but the spiders here arent amazing, and max out around 3-4'' on the biggest ones..

 

[WithCerberus]

Very nice looking Stefan! Poor you, having to find room for all those spiders 8). Any chance of getting a shot with a ruler or some other size reference next to one of the beast? Can't wait to see the other species you will be teasing us with 8)

peace,

Bobby

 

[Stefan2209]

Hey you two,

thanks for the appreciation!

@Ryan: Unfortunately i haven´t ever been spider-catching myself so far. Hopefully this will change later this year....
The spiders native here, aren´t as big as the Ancylometes get, the biggest native species i´ve seen around here had a little more than 3" legspan.

@Bobby: No problem, will take some pics with a ruler inside the tank after their next molt, should start around the 6. of February...
I have to admit i´m a lil bit worried about two of my specimens, they should have molted by now, but somehow it seems, they just don´t do it. They changed colour nearly a week ago, which is a quite certain indicator for a nearing molt. They also didn´t take any prey anymore. Strangewise i´ve seen each specimen of the two on several ocassions at the "molting-bark" i put in their enclosure, but nothing happened. Both of them now have such a dark colour, i´ve never seen with any of the other specimens. I have no real clue what´s causing that, but as longer they don´t molt, the more worried i get. What´s further complicating the situation is that i have not even the slightest idea what to do to improve the situation. Guess it´s time for some improvisation so i raised the temperature in the enclosures about 2° C. Time will show, if this helps, will keep you updated on this one.

Read you soon.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Stefan2209]

Molt 9

Hey guys (and gals, of course),

before i go to the news, i´ll stick to my word and gonna give you one info: raising of the temperature had indeed been the key to my above mentioned problem. Already 4 hours after i raised the temperature the first specimen started to molt. One day later the second specimen molted,too, both with out any problems.

Ok, guess you already know what´s coming now, the buggers have molted once again. Time between molts is slowly increasing, the size-gain however is still massively increasing. They have something more than 2cm bodylength (roughly an inch) now and a something like 7-8cm legspan (3 inches more or less).

I´ll start off with a freshly molted male for today. The molting began yesterday evening, so far only 2 specimen have molted, both males. Will turn up a second post with pics of a female, as soon as i happen to have one molted.

Now, enjoy :drool:

@ Bobby, this one´s for you personally:

Sorry, couln´t find a ruler that´d fit into the enclosure, so i used a pen instead, hope this will give you the right impression,too:

That´s it for now, folks. As 3 of my 4 females are already clinging to their "molting-bark", it won´t take long till we meet again.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[JesseD]

Man,

I've only just started looking at these pics. AWESOME! I haven't taken the time to read all the thread. Around Montreal (here) I find a big species of fishing spider or someone told me it was a nursery web spider. Maybe I'll try and catch some again this year.

 

[WithCerberus]

Great shots Stefan. Thanks for the shot with the pen. They are getting pretty massive. How many more molts do you think these buggers have to go? Good call on increasing the temps too. I'm glad that worked for you.
peace.
Bobby

 

[spinnekop]

Hi Stefan,
Fantastic pictures !
Your spiders seem to mature very fast. Do you think your males are adult by now or still one molt to go?
How old are they now?
I ask this question since I read somewhere that the time to mature is 8 months for Ancylometes but it seems to go faster than that.

Greetings,
Geert

 

[Stefan2209]

Molt 9 - Female

Hey guys,

thanks for the appreciation!

@ Jesse: the spiders you referred to should be of the Dolomedes genus, which is quite similar to the Ancylometes by behaviour. Should be some very interesting pets,too. Also there are many threads about the keeping, breeding and raising of this species available.

@ Bobby: Thanks, man. I´m quite satisfied with their development. They have really bulked up with the last molt. That´s a very good question, you´re asking there, i´d like to know myself how many molts are still left, but unfortunately i don´t know. If their development is similar to other ctenid species it should be something like 12-15 molts all together, but that´s just a guess. Anyway, there´s still much growing to do, this species really gets big.

@ Spinnekop: No, the males are by no way adult. Since this molt i can see slightly thicker palps with the males, so i guess they´ll have at least 2 more molts to go, if not even more.
Yeah, they mature real fast, for me, warm temperatures, high humidity and qualitiy prey with as much variety as can be done is the key. I´m quite careful to believe such sayings as "species xy matures in yx months". While such statements can be true, it depends a lot of how the spiders are kept and fed.
I got my specimen at the beginning of octobre last year, they were fresh hatched at the time. So i guess they´re something between 5 and 6 months of age. Guess they´ll be mature sometime from may to july, we´ll see...

Nough said, i still owe you all some pics of a fresh-molted female. Here we go...

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Steven]

nice development Stefan ! :clap:

really :drool: pictures !

 

[WithCerberus]

I love the orange color on the females. Great stuff. :clap: :clap:
peace,
Bobby