T seladonia - a personal account

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
Hi everyone, I stumbled across what turned out to be an old post (from 2018) about lifespan of T seladonia so I provided a personal account that I thought may help the OP.

A very kind member (@Smotzer) pointed out that as the OP was not active, maybe a new post of my personal account would be helpful. So now the back story is explained, here is what I posted....

If any use to people here, I have one that was a sling in 2018 as well as 7 other slings from 2020.
Much has been written about ventilation, humidity and fragility of this species but I have not had any issues with mine (must be lucky)
Basic requirements from my experienc as follows:
1 Vertical piece of Cork bark that I pierce and hollow out various sized holes to promote the team door behaviour (they often find their own hats and ignore my efforts....pfft!)
2. Lichen - if already on your Cork bark great, if not, rummage round the bottom of the Cork bark baskets and you will find lots of flakes haha. Yes this is needed for the trap door they make as others have said.
3. Food - as slings fruit flies or microcrickets is what mine have. The older spiders will take small to medium small crickets no problem and if you are lucky, you will actually see the trap door action! Once I have seen it and missed the video opportunity :(
4. Water dish obviously
5. Humidity - I do keep these in high humidity mainly through moss, damp sub and regular very fine spraying
6. Ventilation - lots of! Loads of cross ventilation holes
7. Temps - I have a purpose built spider house and all my spiders, approx 250 at any given time, are generally kept in the daytime temps of 23°c dropping to 19°c at night. I will increase this in spring/summer as that helps with 'season simulation' for breeding.

I can honestly say the only difference or changes I make from the normal set ups is higher humidity. No losses to date (touch wood) so hope these very basic, but borne from real life actual experience, helps.

Sorry for the length of post, hope you didn't fall asleep half way through ha ha 😅
 
Last edited:

Smotzer

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Very good post with valuable information.

Only thing missing that I’d additionally be interested in seeing included in there is growth rate observations
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
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Aug 12, 2020
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534
Very good post with valuable information.

Only thing missing that I’d additionally be interested in seeing included in there is growth rate observations
Good point. Growth rate is somewhat of an enigma given that the 3 year old is probably all for 3cm max. Ha ha. I would say that they are not very frequent moulters and they do not pack on lots of size each moult either.
 

Smotzer

ArachnoGod
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Good point. Growth rate is somewhat of an enigma given that the 3 year old is probably all for 3cm max. Ha ha. I would say that they are not very frequent moulters and they do not pack on lots of size each moult either.
Wow thats like 1.2in after 3yrs...... very interesting!

Have you tried to sex it?
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
20201003_112145.jpg
Picture taken Oct 2020.the
trap door was lifted to get a pic.

Wow thats like 1.2in after 3yrs...... very interesting!

Have you tried to sex it?
Not had a moult that has been viable for sexing. Certainly in mature males the pink on the 1st leg segment is replaced by blue/green. No sign if that yet and I believe males mature at about the 3/3.5 year mark

One of the babies on walk about
View attachment 20-12-27 16:29:36.mp4
 

Liquifin

Arachnoking
Active Member
Joined
May 30, 2017
Messages
2,110
I have some questions, but my main concern is how is their feeding response and reaction to catching prey? I've heard some are very shy eaters or are bad/picky eaters. How often do they eat prey when offered? And how well do they respond to them?
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
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Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
I have some questions, but my main concern is how is their feeding response and reaction to catching prey? I've heard some are very shy eaters or are bad/picky eaters. How often do they eat prey when offered? And how well do they respond to them?
I feed all the slings twice a week on micro crickets. I very rarely see any take down so yes, I would say picky eaters, but I have yet to see any prey that has not been taken and so guess they just help themselves when they feel like it.

only ever seen one take down and that was the large one when like lightning, the trap door was triggered and the small cricket had no chance!
 

Tarantuland

Arachnoprince
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
1,354
I got mine to take a very small hornworm maybe .25 inches for the first time after using fruit flies for a few months. I was concerned because it took some time for it to built a trapdoor, but upon adding lichen and raindeer moss and spagnum moss it did. I have one molt under my belt for this tiny sling I've had since september. Thank you for all of the info, it's in line with what I've been learning on the one I have.
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
I got mine to take a very small hornworm maybe .25 inches for the first time after using fruit flies for a few months. I was concerned because it took some time for it to built a trapdoor, but upon adding lichen and raindeer moss and spagnum moss it did. I have one molt under my belt for this tiny sling I've had since september. Thank you for all of the info, it's in line with what I've been learning on the one I have.
Congrats on the hornworm. How long did you have to wait for the take down?
Glad that our own personal experiences are similar. There is a lot of apprehension about owning this species so the more personal accounts to mitigate some of the fears of owning, the better. :)
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Hi everyone, I stumbled across what turned out to be an old post (from 2018) about lifespan of T seladonia so I provided a personal account that I thought may help the OP.

A very kind member (@Smotzer) pointed out that as the OP was not active, maybe a new post of my personal account would be helpful. So now the back story is explained, here is what I posted....

If any use to people here, I have one that was a sling in 2018 as well as 7 other slings from 2020.
Much has been written about ventilation, humidity and fragility of this species but I have not had any issues with mine (must be lucky)
Basic requirements from my experienc as follows:
1 Vertical piece of Cork bark that I pierce and hollow out various sized holes to promote the team door behaviour (they often find their own hats and ignore my efforts....pfft!)
2. Lichen - if already on your Cork bark great, if not, rummage round the bottom of the Cork bark baskets and you will find lots of flakes haha. Yes this is needed for the trap door they make as others have said.
3. Food - as slings fruit flies or microcrickets is what mine have. The older spiders will take small to medium small crickets no problem and if you are lucky, you will actually see the trap door action! Once I have seen it and missed the video opportunity :(
4. Water dish obviously
5. Humidity - I do keep these in high humidity mainly through moss, damp sub and regular very fine spraying
6. Ventilation - lots of! Loads of cross ventilation holes
7. Temps - I have a purpose built spider house and all my spiders, approx 250 at any given time, are generally kept in the daytime temps of 23°c dropping to 19°c at night. I will increase this in spring/summer as that helps with 'season simulation' for breeding.

I can honestly say the only difference or changes I make from the normal set ups is higher humidity. No losses to date (touch wood) so hope these very basic, but borne from real life actual experience, helps.

Sorry for the length of post, hope you didn't fall asleep half way through ha ha 😅
Thank you very much for all your posts here. Few people have them stateside, and fewer people post about them, let alone husbandry.

Would you mind posting some pics of their complete setups when you have time please?

I've heard the point about lichen from another owner. However the most relevant piece I've heard from another owner and you is point 5. In the other person's case he's currently using live plants for humidity. He was probably one of the first to own them here.

I am interesting in seeing how larger their setup is relative to the size of the T, particularly as they are trapdoors. Having owned I mira, they are true trapdoors. While insects crawl all over, feeding I mira is easy, as crx will walk on the ground. My concern with these guys is the insects may not be so inclined to walk up arboreal. I don't crix to do the right thing hah. Even with my many Avics, they don't always crawl up to the Ts.

Point 1- are you saying they make their own homes in the cork and do NOT use the predrilled holes you make?
 

Tarantuland

Arachnoprince
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
1,354
Congrats on the hornworm. How long did you have to wait for the take down?
Glad that our own personal experiences are similar. There is a lot of apprehension about owning this species so the more personal accounts to mitigate some of the fears of owning, the better. :)
I agitated the trapdoor a big and then put the hornworm right on the edge of it. At some point while feeding my other spiders I looked over and I could see the little feet popping out and the spider holding it but it's hard to tell since both the spider and hornworm are so small. I have it in a dram vial. I want to rehouse it eventually but for now I'm not messing around haha
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
Thank you very much for all your posts here. Few people have them stateside, and fewer people post about them, let alone husbandry.

Would you mind posting some pics of their complete setups when you have time please?

I've heard the point about lichen from another owner. However the most relevant piece I've heard from another owner and you is point 5. In the other person's case he's currently using live plants for humidity. He was probably one of the first to own them here.

I am interesting in seeing how larger their setup is relative to the size of the T, particularly as they are trapdoors. Having owned I mira, they are true trapdoors. While insects crawl all over, feeding I mira is easy, as crx will walk on the ground. My concern with these guys is the insects may not be so inclined to walk up arboreal. I don't crix to do the right thing hah. Even with my many Avics, they don't always crawl up to the Ts.

Point 1- are you saying they make their own homes in the cork and do NOT use the predrilled holes you make?
I will sort some pics of the larger set up. The slings are in sling pots with a small piece of Cork bark, moss, substrate and a cabinet blanking cap as tiny water dish.

Regarding the holes, I made 2 or 3 to provide a starter home, some decided that natural crevices were better than my efforts but they either then webbed around that area or used loose lichen to make a team door in their chosen area. I am about to move the larger one into a brand new set up so will share that too.
 

Tarantuland

Arachnoprince
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
1,354
Thanks! For the first couple months it didn't build a trapdoor and I felt stressed and considered rehousing in one of the Jamie's sling enclosures, but only a few days after adding lichen and moss it made the trapdoor thankfully
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
Thanks! For the first couple months it didn't build a trapdoor and I felt stressed and considered rehousing in one of the Jamie's sling enclosures, but only a few days after adding lichen and moss it made the trapdoor thankfully
I think we stress about keeping them more than they do! 🤣
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
534
20210123_171406.jpg
Top image is proposed new home for the big one (although I am thinking it may be too large now 🤔)
Bottom image is current home with the trap door circled
20210123_173155.jpg
 

RevS

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 19, 2019
Messages
5
Very interesting information I've been waiting for (not that I'm getting one of those Ts anytime soon).
Sort of aligns with what I heard about what needs to be done for it to make a trap door.

Speaking of... I have a perfect piece of cork bark with lots of holes in it and lichen growing on it... Too bad it's already being used by another spider... Dang it!

I'm very greatful for the information on how to keep humidity and pictures that show the amount of ventilation holes.
 
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