- Joined
- Nov 3, 2024
- Messages
- 62
Some recent pics from my jumping spider room, prob with a lot of rambling.
The bulk of the area this project has grown to (with some personal stuff covered up for privacy, sorry). I used to have space for other things out here.
Just because they're in this pic, I'm going to point out that the PETCO-shipped fruit fly cultures are very unreliable in quality, and the last few batches that came either molded or turned to soup in short order. I've long since moved to homemade cultures but the occasional store bought cultures mixed in does help keep the genetics stimulated after multiple generations. I usually make 2-3 x 32oz cultures every 2 weeks(ish), though I make some extra cultures here and there to support a friend who also keeps inverts.
This dirty dozen are all CB audax, my eldest & biggest (~9-10i) that just moved into their new 16oz & 32oz enclosures. The bulk of these guys actually have individual names. Most have yet to really get comfortable and web up properly, but they're happily hunting. The one in the foggy-looking container (different type of plastic deli cup we ordered by accident) was in premolt when I started moving spoods, finished molting in their old enclosure, and poked their head out for the first time today. I'm eager to see their new look. They'll be upgrading soon.
The 16oz ones on the shelf to the right of the aquarium are some of their dozen-ish younger siblings (from a later eggsac), that are ~7-8i. They also moved into new enclosures at the same time. None of these guys have names yet.
A closer look at the "nook area" which has an assortment of spoods. The front row in the smallest 2oz deli cups are a clutch of CB audax from a different mother, ~4-5i. The largest 25 or so are ready to upgrade but I'm still working on finishing their next enclosures. The 4 x 5.5oz deli cups on the right side with the fake foliage are the first of these I've finished, and the spoods are happy for the space. Another 30 or so will be done in the next couple of days.
I also have some tiny 4-6i slings of various species (regius, aurantius, ardens, octopunctatis) and some dinky jumper I haven't identified yet, who is just a temporary visitor happily eating fruit flies for a few more days before I release them back in the garden where I found them. No good pics of any of these guys today but I may share some eventually.
Huey - one of my two adult Regals (~9-10i) - eating a cricket on his corkboard shortly after moving into his forever home. This is probably my favorite enclosure of the ones I've created, for various reasons. I don't really care for the way these Zilla enclosures open (my jumpers often want to web up the corners by the front where it opens) but I like how it turned out, and he seems to enjoy it.
I love the elaborate and creative webbing some of these guys make when they've been in an enclosure for a while. Ayame here webbed up either opening of this fake flower and pinned it to the wall, creating a little "flower fort" she hangs out in. She also has a thick hammy in the back corner from her last molt that she continues to expand and sleep in.
Woody in the "archtop" version of the same enclosure. I love the multiple openings you can see in his favorite hammy - the pics don't do it justice. He uses his little orange hide as well but he prefers his little corner hammy more (much to my annoyance).
A note about the Tarantula Cribs - they're way overkill for these jumpers (possibly in the literal sense, with how strong those darn magnets yank at the lid), but I'm making it work. They look nice but come with their own issues. These particular cube sizes are too small (3" x 3" x 3") to be forever homes for my audax, but they work for juvies I want to show off.
I'm also going to add that all of the TC enclosures were gifts that I'm mildly embarassed to share, as on the whole I prefer my cheaply-sourced homemade enclosures.
If I could choose to instead spend that TC cash on other supplies I would have. But I gratefully accept and still very much appreciate the expensive stuff. It's nice to have a few show enclosures but on the whole having them has made me appreciate my own cheap designs more. This is just in terms of my own specific use case and preference, mind you. I'm not knocking the enclosures themselves, they're very nicely made.
Grimm has been in premolt for a few days now and literally started molting a few minutes after watering time, so I got to kinda watch the process.
This is the best shot i could get of them after they finished stretching out and left their molt to retreat further back into their hammy. You can kind of make out their molt near the top of the skull, but it's thick webbing and despite being visible with my eyes, doesn't really show up on the pic like I'd hoped.
Grimm is actually an unsexed WC audax that was meant to be a temporary visitor, but they've really taken to joining "the club" and are sticking around as long as they continue to thrive.
Ok so.. Huey lived in this enclosure previous to Grimm, and when Grimm moved in they immediately took over Huey's old web, happily making use of his big hammy and expanding it further.
But when Huey molted he only halfassed the cleanup job when he eventually got around to kicking his dirty old laundry out, and he left 2 of his stanky old socks in the back of the web. Bachelors..
I just thought it was funny that one of Grimm's last actions before finally molting was to take the time to finally pull Huey's old socks out of the hammy. I mean I wouldn't want them in there, either.
Ending this post with a random beautiful crab spider (Xystixus punctatus?) that I wish I'd grabbed in a catch cup to observe for a while. Didn't feel like making a unique post just for this one spider, but sharing it in my jumper post because.. why not.
I have no idea of any of this is interesting to anyone, but felt like (over?)sharing the current state of things and some random thoughts since I lurk a decent amount but I don't post a whole lot. I'm still very much a newbie to the invert hobby, despite my enthusiasm for it (jumping spiders in particular).
I'm looking forward to trying my hand at breeding some audax next (rather than just raising them from eggsacs), but I have a lot more research to do before I attempt that. I'd love some pointers in that area if anyone has experience or can point me to some good existing info/references.
Thanks to everyone here, love this place.
The bulk of the area this project has grown to (with some personal stuff covered up for privacy, sorry). I used to have space for other things out here.
Just because they're in this pic, I'm going to point out that the PETCO-shipped fruit fly cultures are very unreliable in quality, and the last few batches that came either molded or turned to soup in short order. I've long since moved to homemade cultures but the occasional store bought cultures mixed in does help keep the genetics stimulated after multiple generations. I usually make 2-3 x 32oz cultures every 2 weeks(ish), though I make some extra cultures here and there to support a friend who also keeps inverts.
This dirty dozen are all CB audax, my eldest & biggest (~9-10i) that just moved into their new 16oz & 32oz enclosures. The bulk of these guys actually have individual names. Most have yet to really get comfortable and web up properly, but they're happily hunting. The one in the foggy-looking container (different type of plastic deli cup we ordered by accident) was in premolt when I started moving spoods, finished molting in their old enclosure, and poked their head out for the first time today. I'm eager to see their new look. They'll be upgrading soon.
The 16oz ones on the shelf to the right of the aquarium are some of their dozen-ish younger siblings (from a later eggsac), that are ~7-8i. They also moved into new enclosures at the same time. None of these guys have names yet.
A closer look at the "nook area" which has an assortment of spoods. The front row in the smallest 2oz deli cups are a clutch of CB audax from a different mother, ~4-5i. The largest 25 or so are ready to upgrade but I'm still working on finishing their next enclosures. The 4 x 5.5oz deli cups on the right side with the fake foliage are the first of these I've finished, and the spoods are happy for the space. Another 30 or so will be done in the next couple of days.
I also have some tiny 4-6i slings of various species (regius, aurantius, ardens, octopunctatis) and some dinky jumper I haven't identified yet, who is just a temporary visitor happily eating fruit flies for a few more days before I release them back in the garden where I found them. No good pics of any of these guys today but I may share some eventually.
Huey - one of my two adult Regals (~9-10i) - eating a cricket on his corkboard shortly after moving into his forever home. This is probably my favorite enclosure of the ones I've created, for various reasons. I don't really care for the way these Zilla enclosures open (my jumpers often want to web up the corners by the front where it opens) but I like how it turned out, and he seems to enjoy it.
I love the elaborate and creative webbing some of these guys make when they've been in an enclosure for a while. Ayame here webbed up either opening of this fake flower and pinned it to the wall, creating a little "flower fort" she hangs out in. She also has a thick hammy in the back corner from her last molt that she continues to expand and sleep in.
Woody in the "archtop" version of the same enclosure. I love the multiple openings you can see in his favorite hammy - the pics don't do it justice. He uses his little orange hide as well but he prefers his little corner hammy more (much to my annoyance).
A note about the Tarantula Cribs - they're way overkill for these jumpers (possibly in the literal sense, with how strong those darn magnets yank at the lid), but I'm making it work. They look nice but come with their own issues. These particular cube sizes are too small (3" x 3" x 3") to be forever homes for my audax, but they work for juvies I want to show off.
I'm also going to add that all of the TC enclosures were gifts that I'm mildly embarassed to share, as on the whole I prefer my cheaply-sourced homemade enclosures.
If I could choose to instead spend that TC cash on other supplies I would have. But I gratefully accept and still very much appreciate the expensive stuff. It's nice to have a few show enclosures but on the whole having them has made me appreciate my own cheap designs more. This is just in terms of my own specific use case and preference, mind you. I'm not knocking the enclosures themselves, they're very nicely made.
Grimm has been in premolt for a few days now and literally started molting a few minutes after watering time, so I got to kinda watch the process.
This is the best shot i could get of them after they finished stretching out and left their molt to retreat further back into their hammy. You can kind of make out their molt near the top of the skull, but it's thick webbing and despite being visible with my eyes, doesn't really show up on the pic like I'd hoped.
Grimm is actually an unsexed WC audax that was meant to be a temporary visitor, but they've really taken to joining "the club" and are sticking around as long as they continue to thrive.
Ok so.. Huey lived in this enclosure previous to Grimm, and when Grimm moved in they immediately took over Huey's old web, happily making use of his big hammy and expanding it further.
But when Huey molted he only halfassed the cleanup job when he eventually got around to kicking his dirty old laundry out, and he left 2 of his stanky old socks in the back of the web. Bachelors..
I just thought it was funny that one of Grimm's last actions before finally molting was to take the time to finally pull Huey's old socks out of the hammy. I mean I wouldn't want them in there, either.
Ending this post with a random beautiful crab spider (Xystixus punctatus?) that I wish I'd grabbed in a catch cup to observe for a while. Didn't feel like making a unique post just for this one spider, but sharing it in my jumper post because.. why not.
I have no idea of any of this is interesting to anyone, but felt like (over?)sharing the current state of things and some random thoughts since I lurk a decent amount but I don't post a whole lot. I'm still very much a newbie to the invert hobby, despite my enthusiasm for it (jumping spiders in particular).
I'm looking forward to trying my hand at breeding some audax next (rather than just raising them from eggsacs), but I have a lot more research to do before I attempt that. I'd love some pointers in that area if anyone has experience or can point me to some good existing info/references.
Thanks to everyone here, love this place.
And a few egg sacs I raised. I've gotten more into tarantulas as of recent. 