Today in the Spider Room?

[Ungoliant]

So how far did Flash travel from her enclosure?

We found her about 20 feet away, although she would have traveled a bit farther, since she had to climb down to get where she was.

 

[l4nsky]

Ever soo close....

 

[NMTs]

View attachment 458490
Ever soo close....

Yep, looks like she's made lots of space and that webbing is getting THICK! Awesome.

 

[l4nsky]

Yep, looks like she's made lots of space and that webbing is getting THICK! Awesome.

She's really kicked into overdrive this past 12 hours. At this point, I can barely see her shadow inside as she continues to web herself in, so I'm thinking it'll be VERY soon .

What's exciting is this is more than likely the world's first captive reproduction of this species and my first 'world's first' if that makes sense. The irony of the fact that my first 'world's first' might turn out to be a highland desert Aphonopelma sp when I tend to specialize in breeding lowland rainforest species like Phormingochilus is definently not lost on me lmao.

 

[l4nsky]

Yep, looks like she's made lots of space and that webbing is getting THICK! Awesome.

She dropped. Still in the process of rolling it all up, but the eggsack is absolutely massive for her size. Start the timer for 32 days lol.

 

[NMTs]

View attachment 458522
She dropped. Still in the process of rolling it all up, but the eggsack is absolutely massive for her size. Start the timer for 32 days lol.

Sick! I guess she was pretty close, . Keep us posted!

 

[Mike Withrow]

Today is popcorn cricket day I guess.
I do this to provide hunting and general movement so I can monitor my spider's and basically a treat.

I love watching them hunt.

 

[l4nsky]

From this.


To this. Last time I'm going to bother her until 11/19. Should be pairing my other, freshly molted female A. sp Dragoons here in two weeks or so. Wonder if I should just go ahead and make a project thread for these too......

 

[MariaLewisia]

This little A. genic gal was more than ready to eat after going a whole WEEK without food. Seven entire days AND nights! How dare I not feed her, when she's newly moulted and would hurt herself if she tried eating a worm? Shame on me. Just look at those puppy eyes.





"Mother has not fed geniculata in a thousand years. Mother has starved geniculata. How could you, Mother?"

 

[Lucianoluxx]

It has been 3-4 days since my first Caribena Versicolor came home - everyone pressured me into giving it a name so I named it Archie due to it's bravery!
It explored it's new surroundings shortly after getting home, decided to take a sip and then find the perfect spot to stay at. A day later it started making it's web around the chosen spot! For the very hard work, I decided to try and feed it with a cricket yesterday at night - by today the head of the cricket is gone. The web is making even more process.
I decided to give two drops of water to Archie, and they are currently sitting on it's web. The water dish still has some water left so I didn't touch it.
I have also ordered a new enclosure and props that will arrive on Wednesday to accommodate the fact that the size of Archie is bigger than expected.
Below you can see the web from a day ago. It looks even better today, but sadly I can't take any good pictures of it with my phone.

 

[zsiciarz]

All my African tarantulas molted within a few days of each other.

Augacephalus ezendami, apparently MM

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• 3
• augacephalus augacephalus ezendami ezendami mature male old world

Supposed female who molted into a mature male.

Ceratogyrus darlingi

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• ceratogyrus ceratogyrus darlingi darlingi old world sling

Molted a week ago. Quite a chill spider so far, didn't bolt into the burrow when I opened the lid.

Heterothele gabonensis

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• 3
• dwarf tarantula gabonensis heterothele heterothele gabonensis old world

Still a tiny sling, but less tiny than before ;-)

That little thing is FAST, seriously.

 

[Mike Withrow]

My Cyriopagopus albostriatus enjoying the warmth of the sun. Btw this is not on full blast.
That's actually the sun coming through the curtains I have on every window in my home. Black loose woven curtains.

 

[NMTs]

All my African tarantulas molted within a few days of each other.

Augacephalus ezendami, apparently MM

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• 3
• augacephalus augacephalus ezendami ezendami mature male old world

Supposed female who molted into a mature male.

Ceratogyrus darlingi

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• ceratogyrus ceratogyrus darlingi darlingi old world sling

Molted a week ago. Quite a chill spider so far, didn't bolt into the burrow when I opened the lid.

Heterothele gabonensis

• zsiciarz
• Oct 21, 2023
• 3
• dwarf tarantula gabonensis heterothele heterothele gabonensis old world

Still a tiny sling, but less tiny than before ;-)

That little thing is FAST, seriously.

Well, if the ezendami had to be a male, at least it is an awesome looking one... That coloration and the markings are just beautiful! The gabonensis is a looker, too, but the darlingi is just meh... 🧌

 

[fcat]

I received this little fellow in a mystery box, otherwise I'd probably never own one. Why didn't anyone tell me T stirmi were so pretty???

 

[Jonaszig]

Yesterday i bought this little fellow and put him in his terrarium.
Today he already dug the whole way to the bottom.
He or she is a ornithoctoninae sp. vietnam silver.

 

[fcat]

My husband woke me up yesterday by saying, “One of your tarantulas is out.” He led me to the kitchen and pointed out Flash (sub-adult Grammostola pulchra), who was chilling a couple of inches up in the corner. Fortunately, she was easy to catch and put back into her enclosure. I’m really lucky that our cat didn’t find Flash before my husband spotted her.

Check the latches on your enclosures!

TL,DR; check your latches and keep them on the bottom shelf


I acquired a pulchra of craigslist a few months ago and left her in the critter keeper she was raised in until she molted. Even though I hate critter keepers and I hate when things don't match, I wasn't the worst setup so I left her. I also don't move premolt spiders. The drive was scary enough. She molted, and I let my boyfriend feed her first post molt meal when she came out of her hide a couple weeks later. He paid for her lol.

Anyway, I know the lid was flush when I left for work the next morning because I do a visual inspection about 12 times a day after that one time I FOUND A CONDIMENT CUP LID ABOUT 5 FEET FROM THE BASE. I mean I got a C in high school physics but that was a weird one. Back to the pulchra, I did not actually check to see if the latch was engaged.

Well I came home from a 24 hour shift, and found the lid at a 90 degree angle. And en empty enclosure. Did I mention I put her on the top shelf to keep her warm and hurry things along? Bless her deliberate escape methods...I was a little more at ease finding a thick web trail down to the ground, where she appeared to take a hard right further into the spider room and then the trail ended. After tearing my spider room (okay fine it's my boyfriends bedroom lol), I went the hard left route. And found her.

I think out of guilt, my boyfriend has been watching more Dave's videos. Anyway, a few weeks ago he comes in to make me watch Dave comment on his Pulchra being the biggest escape artist of any other T he's kept.

She now lives on the floor. In her enclosure of course.

 

[tamra]

I tried the ping pong ball thing based on a) research suggesting Ts are more calm in enriched environments, b) observations that my T spends a ton of time exploring every facet of objects in her enclosure and c) curiosity.

I meant to put it in the middle of the enclosure but it rolled to block the entrance to her hide. I decided to leave it given that in the wild a tarantula would regularly deal with changes in their environment and repairs to their hide.

RESULTS:
She spent about two hours observing the ball and very slowly moving toward it.

When she got within leg-reach, she touched it, then grabbed it with her palps, front legs and fangs.

Then she spent a good two hours carrying it around, dropping and picking it up, positioning herself over it, moving it with her front, then her back legs, and gently testing all of the surfaces with her fangs. She could move it easily so no, I don't think she was trying to get rid of it. Also, she drops all trash in the moss in the front right corner of her enclosure (which I appreciate) but opted to place the ping pong ball beside her water dish which is where she prefers to sit, and she spent the night beside it with one foot on the ball like she was keeping tabs on it.

I'm cautious of anthropomorphizing my pets, but it's difficult to find an explanation other than that she was curious about this thing and wanted to explore it. Also, at no point did she assume a tense body posture or give a threat pose. I wonder if handling the white ball is similar to the action of holding an egg sac?

I made a time lapse of her explorations (best viewed at a slower speed).

View attachment Ping Pong 1 Time Lapse.mp4

 

[NMTs]

I tried the ping pong ball thing based on a) research suggesting Ts are more calm in enriched environments, b) observations that my T spends a ton of time exploring every facet of objects in her enclosure and c) curiosity.

I meant to put it in the middle of the enclosure but it rolled to block the entrance to her hide. I decided to leave it given that in the wild a tarantula would regularly deal with changes in their environment and repairs to their hide.

RESULTS:
She spent about two hours observing the ball and very slowly moving toward it.

When she got within leg-reach, she touched it, then grabbed it with her palps, front legs and fangs.

Then she spent a good two hours carrying it around, dropping and picking it up, positioning herself over it, moving it with her front, then her back legs, and gently testing all of the surfaces with her fangs. She could move it easily so no, I don't think she was trying to get rid of it. Also, she drops all trash in the moss in the front right corner of her enclosure (which I appreciate) but opted to place the ping pong ball beside her water dish which is where she prefers to sit, and she spent the night beside it with one foot on the ball like she was keeping tabs on it.

I'm cautious of anthropomorphizing my pets, but it's difficult to find an explanation other than that she was curious about this thing and wanted to explore it. Also, at no point did she assume a tense body posture or give a threat pose. I wonder if handling the white ball is similar to the action of holding an egg sac?

I made a time lapse of her explorations (best viewed at a slower speed).

View attachment 458908

Next you should introduce a T-sized ping pong paddle. After she's mastered that, you can put a mini ping pong table in there...

It is cool to see them manipulate the objects in their enclosures - mine usually just move the fake plants and water dishes all over the place.

 

[MariaLewisia]

Today, I had a female Avicularia juruensis scare away her new husband when he didn't properly introduce himself before trying to enter her home. Then, once he had been chased away to sulk in a corner, she walked to the top of her enclosure, stuck her butt over the ledge, and proceeded to poop. Straight at him. With force. It was kind of impressive, even though she missed.

Needless to say, no fun-time was had today. She was given a roach, and he was given some more alone time to reflect on the consequences of his actions.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

So here's something I noticed. My B. hamorii sits in the same spot every day, and doesn't move much. Typical. Except the top of her abdomen concerningly will sag when she sits in one spot for too long. But the second she moves, that spot sort of "reinflates" and stops looking so concerning. I assume it's just her circulatory system not doing a lot of hard work while she's at rest, and then when she moves it kicks up. I haven't noticed this in any of my other very sedentary spiders though. She has access to water and I know she's drinking it. (After I clean it out I'll come back to little specks of dirt in it from her feet) She's been on a hunger strike for quite some time, though.