Today in the Spider Room?

[spideyspinneret78]

Miss Laguna ( C. cyaneopubescens) sensed me doing maintenance on a nearby enclosure. I accidentally banged metal tweezers against the shelf and she immediately started drumming and frantically pacing her enclosure, searching for a potential boyfriend.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

I was checking water dishes and saw my young adult female Ephebopus murinus, Virna, had thrown a bolus in hers. She's usually terribly shy but today she stayed out while I took the enclosure down and opened the lid. She even allowed me to take pics!

View attachment 466298

I thought she'd bolt when I took the bowl, but no, she stayed outside to watch. I put the clean bowl back and gave her a roach which she's currently eating on the spot, just happy with life.

View attachment 466299

Love this girl.

Mine just molted and is now showing that stark carapace to abdomen contrast. Probably about 1.5-1.75” now. These guys are just amazing and your girl is so beautiful!

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Miss Laguna ( C. cyaneopubescens) sensed me doing maintenance on a nearby enclosure. I accidentally banged metal tweezers against the shelf and she immediately started drumming and frantically pacing her enclosure, searching for a potential boyfriend. View attachment 466365

Are you planning to pair her?

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Are you planning to pair her?

Eventually I might. It's been over a year since her last molt though so I'm going to wait a bit.

 

[zsiciarz]

Rehoused my Psalmopoeus victori to a larger braplast. She was very cooperative all the time, no threat postures (which she used to display even towards water...). Judging by her dull colors she's now in premolt so maybe that's why she was so chill.

 

[MariaLewisia]

I was originally going to sell my female H. gigas juveniles because of the upcoming H. gigas breeding project, but I noticed a while back that this one had lost her fangs last moult. So now I've had to baby her, mashing up roaches to oblivion because she refuses to eat worm soup, and suddenly! There it is! The attachment. I can't sell this little toothless critter now, when I've spent so much time and love to feed her.



She also went into hyperspace drive and made me laugh because of this picture so now I REALLY can't sell her. Sigh... time to find a suitable name.

 

[Pillenslikker]

I rehoused my Ybyrapora diversipes i will remove the catch cup when he/she left it by her own.

 

[fcat]

What in tarnation????? (That's her water dish webbed to the entrance of her turret. I think she just molted but I would say she's out of decorating material


(Ephebopus cyanognathus)

 

[NMTs]

I rehoused a bunch of my tiny slings from their teeny-tiny vials up to itty-bitty vials because they've grown almost perceptibly in the last several months, .

0.0.1 Homoeomma orellanai, 0.4" DLS:


0.0.1 Homoeomma chilense, 0.625" DLS:



0.0.1 Cyriocosmus ritae, 0.875" DLS:


0.0.1 Cyclosternum sp. cundinamarca, 1.125" DLS:



0.0.1 Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus, 1.5" DLS (aka the Ecuadorian tree Pamphobetus, ):



Hoping they grow well and prosper in their new, less-tiny vials!

 

[corydalis]

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[corydalis]

Managed to lure out my Orntithoctonus aureotibialis juvie for a couple of shots.



The image is out of focus, but pretty sure that I'm looking at a female instrument (at least that's what they looked like back in my day).

 

[zsiciarz]

So yesterday I gave away one of my old MM Cyriocosmus elegans. Today I've noticed my only remaining juvenile kicked its molt out of the burrow. I opened the enclosure, took the molt thinking "let me sex that", and immediately after decided not to bother. Why? Well...

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Most spiders stretch the day after molting….Ms pulchripes drags her exuvia to her favorite corner like a blankie and scrunches up in there.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

This happened several days ago but I thought I'd share. I smelled something horrible in my T room the other day and looked like an idiot sniffng every enclosure to figure out where it was coming from. It was my V. chromatus, the one with the bad molt over Thanksgiving. She had killed a cricket and dropped it in her water dish where it started to rot and mold. Seriously one of the worst things I've ever smelled, and I used to work in a place that processed dead animals. So I cupped her to get to the dish and clean it out, but after several rinses with steaming hot water it still smelled god awful. Threw that dish away and now she's got a clean one.

In all honesty that spider is not doing well at all. Ever since she molted she's been weak, is always in a stress curl in a corner, she looks pretty bad off. But I'm not giving up on her, I'm still trying to feed her regularly even if she only eats half the time.

 

[MariaLewisia]

Today I had my first ever escape. It ended well with the spider recaptured after ten whole minutes on the run, but man, those were some tense minutes.

I was feeding the large Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus slings when one of them - no. 5 to be precise - decided that the prekilled mealworm I dropped into their enclosure was so freaky, so terrifying, they'd make a run for their life. So out they went, scuttling along the floor like a headless chicken with turbo boosters: senseless and FAST. And for some reason I can't explain, I didn't reach for the catch cup, but tried to catch it with my hand. Oof. Such a rookie mistake to make on my fifth year in the hobby, but I digress. No. 5, of course, did a dodge a Premier league player could only dream of around my hand and disappeared behind my small mealworm farm and a stack of empty plastic enclosures. I very carefully moved all my junk and took a peek. Nope. Nothing. Then I saw the gap in the old carpet right where the sling had gone. A perfect dark hiding spot. I got down on my knees, flashlight on and looked inside–

No. Not there either. But if it wasn't there... I felt my heart drop. If it hadn't gone underneath the carpet, that meant it could be anywhere. I had lost it. Just then I spotted something fuzzy. Either the carpet had grown gigantic mold, or No. 5 had scrunched up right against a chair leg stood on said carpet and managed to blend in perfectly with the decrepit and slightly disgusting old blue-brown pattern.

I built an inescapable fortress of catch cups and with the nudge of a brush, No. 5 was recaptured. Talk about adrenaline shivers! I didn't want to risk another escape when poking them back into the old "one more moult and then we'll upgrade to something bigger"-enclosure, so I upgraded their enclosure to a bigger one right away.

Before rehousing No. 5 into the luxury mansion not ethically suitable for an escapee, I decided to throw in the old prekilled mealworm which had caused this whole fiasco to begin with. Waste not want not, you know? Two minutes after the laughably smooth rehousing, what do I spy with my little eye? Why, it's No. 5, snacking on the dreaded mealworm! To say I was tired is an understatement.

I also think the tarantula gods really wanted to teach me a lesson about catching bolting spiders with one's hand because an hour later I slipped on some ice while walking my dog and sprained the very same hand and wrist which tried to stop the sling. And as I sat there on the cold ground, confused and hurt, my dog ran up to me. Not to comfort me, but to steal the beanie right off of my head. Sigh... what a day lol.

 

[fcat]

Circa 135 days since he matured, Alpha is finally Oscar Mike!!

 

[corydalis]

Some pic from yesterday morning. She really was in love with her former "self", tried every position before sucking it completely dry.

 

[l4nsky]

Managed to make it through my entire backlog of molts to sex. Some were too mangled to work with, but I was able to get quite a few successfully sexed. Need to update records in a few places, but I sexed out:

• 1.0 Aphonopelma sp Chapala (Looking for a female)
• 0.1 Aphonopelma sp Dragoons
• 0.1 Cyriopagopus sp Sumatran Tiger
• 1.1 Phormingochilus everetti
• 0.2 Phormingochilus pennellhewlettorum
• 1.3 Phormingochilus sp Sabah Blue
• 2.0 Poecilotheria rufilata
• 3.0 Tapinauchenius sanctivincenti

 

[NMTs]

Today I rehoused a few more slings to the next larger sized vial.

0.0.1 Augacephalus ezendami, around 1.5" DLS:


0.0.2 Eucratoscelus pachypus, each close to 1" DLS:

 

[TLSizzle]

Stout legs are so cool!