The Balfouri Communal

Trenor

Arachnoprince
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Jan 28, 2016
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How's your M.balfouri communal doing?

Both of mine are doing pretty good. I got some great molting photos from the 3 group communal the other day.
 

Bread

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 11, 2016
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26
My little guys trying to share some prey and a pic of there current house.


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Kodi

Title Master
Old Timer
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Jul 27, 2012
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My crew are recluses. I drop a cricket or two in every day or two and they disappear into their burrow overnight. This is the most I see of them. :rolleyes:
20161010_225655.jpg
Oh and they won't take meal worms.

Some of them seem to have been through two instars already. I've only had them for 3 weeks!
20161008_183924.jpg
 

14pokies

Arachnoprince
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My crew are recluses. I drop a cricket or two in every day or two and they disappear into their burrow overnight. This is the most I see of them. :rolleyes:
View attachment 222237
Oh and they won't take meal worms.
View attachment 222238
This is so strange to me.. I see my balfouri atleast 2-3 times a day.. He is always out webbing,tearing down web, re webbing what he tore down ,adding secondary holes filing them up adding more holes..
His appetite is amazing he will eat 3-4 med crickets a week.. He slowly creeps out of his burrow to nail them and then drags them into his abyss to eat.. I love my balfouri I wish I started keeping them years ago!
 

Kodi

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This is so strange to me.. I see my balfouri atleast 2-3 times a day.. He is always out webbing,tearing down web, re webbing what he tore down ,adding secondary holes filing them up adding more holes..
His appetite is amazing he will eat 3-4 med crickets a week.. He slowly creeps out of his burrow to nail them and then drags them into his abyss to eat.. I love my balfouri I wish I started keeping them years ago!
Yeah I don't know. Maybe the bark halfway in the sub encouraged them to dig down like that? I read that balfouri in communals were more active and less skittish, but that's not the case with my bunch.
 

14pokies

Arachnoprince
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Yeah I don't know. Maybe the bark halfway in the sub encouraged them to dig down like that? I read that balfouri in communals were more active and less skittish, but that's not the case with my bunch.
I don't know mine is about 2 1/2 inches and has about 6 inches of sub.. His burrow extends to the bottom of his enclosure and he still comes out to show off..
I got him at about 1-1/2 inch so maybe they are more reclusive when they are small like yours..
 

LuiziBee

Arachnobaron
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Apr 19, 2012
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I've got a pair of balfouri together that have been that way since 2012 or so. I have one who is about an inch larger than those two that is female. I know at least one in my "communal" is female, and the other unsexed. Very unfortunate I'm not sure which is which. I'm hoping the unsexed one is male, as my separate larger of the three recently matured. Gonna go true communal once I can pair her. So. Excited.
 

Bread

Arachnopeon
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May 11, 2016
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During the day my bunch hide the odd set of legs or a spidey butt poking out, but on a night at least 7 or 8 will be out on the web.
 

Trenor

Arachnoprince
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When my M.bafouri were really small (sub inch) they hid a lot I saw them come out to feed and that was it. The newer communal is just getting over an inch and I see them a few times a week in their webbing. My older communal Ts are 2.5-3 inches I see them daily. They all still live together in the same bundle of web though they are rapidly expanding the webbing to the rest of the enclosure.

I was able to confirm that there haven't been any losses in either communal and they are all roughly the same size.
 

Kodi

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I sold most of my communal so I should be down to 5, but after moving their hide to collect the final order I could only see 4 o_O. I got some pretty cool molt pictures though!
20161022_014637.jpg
Boy are they adorable. I can't wait for those colors.

Edit: Found the 5th one. Phew.
 
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Bread

Arachnopeon
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May 11, 2016
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My guys are growing so I've been working on the new house 140cmx50cmx70cm, I tried to make my own lid from perspex but my cheapo jigsaw has no speed control so just melted it.
In the end I found a guy on ebay who laser cuts the stuff, did me a 1415mmx515mm piece for £18 inc post!!! I just need to drill some ventilation in it now.

The issue I have now is substrate, in the below pic I've already used 5 bricks of coir, I think Ill just buy 5-6 bags of ecoearth and mix it with the 10kg bag of 2mm aquarium sand (if you can call sand that big sand) I have.

I'm wondering if I should make a progress thread for it, post updates as the little guys grow up and make more little guys (or has that been done to heck?)




 

Kodi

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I caught a wanderer. They're about 1" dls now and they are very often strolling around the enclosure.
20161105_164012.jpg
 
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