Today in the Spider Room?

[spideyspinneret78]

My AF T. stirmi decided that today was the perfect day to do some spring cleaning. She dumped an old molt next to her water dish, then filled it with substrate and garnished it with some feces. The decorations have been rearranged and webbed over to her liking. Thanks Prisca! I'm going to have a blast cleaning up your enclosure.

 

[fcat]

Got to see my two most reclusive psalmopoeus this morning


Milagro, Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus

Actually left me a molt on the water dish, looking female. I haven't seen it out since about 24 hours after the last rehouse. Ate around then, but once she closed up shop I withheld food. So maybe 2 crickets. I cannot believe how much she grew. She's already due for a rehouse. Notice how she is substrate brown in color

The second sighting (if you count me being a peeping Tom), Inali, Psalmopoeus sp black

Due to the angle, I can't get a good picture, but she's RED. Like Phormingochilus sp Rufus red. Just a bit more red than the ecclesiasticus was last molt cycle. And way more red than substrate brown.

Since I mentioned him, a picture because I love this little dude. It's crazy to think I never would've sought out to buy one of these and he's been one of the most entertaining. I will be crushed when matures, I guess I should start tracking down a lady friend as I would love to keep his legacy in my collection. Cyclone, Phormingochilus sp Rufus

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Since I mentioned him, a picture because I love this little dude. It's crazy to think I never would've sought out to buy one of these and he's been one of the most entertaining. I will be crushed when matures, I guess I should start tracking down a lady friend as I would love to keep his legacy in my collection. Cyclone, Phormingochilus sp Rufus
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Rufus is on my short list!

 

[fcat]

Rufus is on my short list!

Oh please do!!!!!

 

[l4nsky]

Continuing with the breeding season in my facility, today was a much anticipated day. I decided to pull the Phormingochilus sp Akcaya eggsack a day early as I wasn't quite sure when she laid and just set a 32 day timer from when I first spotted her holding.

Initial excavation. Had a little bit of a tug of war, but I'm getting quite adept at stealing these from less than friendly species.


Larger than a golfball, but is it viable?


Yes, yes it is! Finally! Feels good to have another success with this species under my belt. They were the first species I was successful with back in 2021 and to my knowledge, they haven't been produced stateside since. Guess I should probably write a breeding report for them sometime soon. Anyways, this was the first eggsack this female has produced for me and my what a large one. She promptly got her reward...


These have been known to double clutch, so she'll be fed up again in the hopes that this does happen. I also managed to pair my other large female last night. She's the proven one from 2021 and is freshly molted, so I'll be surprised if she doesn't lay an eggsack or two.

In other news, the Ornithoctonus sp Ranong Blue are well into 1i and I'm expecting them to start molting into 2i sometime this week.


The Phormingochilus pennellhewlettorum is about halfway through her eggsack holding as well and I have a fresh MM Aphonopelma sp Dragoons in the facility settling in and getting prepared to meet two of my mature females.

Busy, busy, busy ....

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Well my V. chromatus couldn't hold on anymore. She had a bad molt about 4 months ago and since then has oscillated between doing really normal all things considered and doing scarily bad other days. This last week was a bad one. I don't know what truly did her in, she's looked slightly impacted since the week after her molt (just a really crusty anus area) or if she wasn't able to retain water properly, or some internal issue I can't see. It really sucks, especially because I lost my MM T. albo not even a month ago, but I know I did what I could with this spider. I helped her out of her molt and did my best to keep her going.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Well my V. chromatus couldn't hold on anymore. She had a bad molt about 4 months ago and since then has oscillated between doing really normal all things considered and doing scarily bad other days. This last week was a bad one. I don't know what truly did her in, she's looked slightly impacted since the week after her molt (just a really crusty anus area) or if she wasn't able to retain water properly, or some internal issue I can't see. It really sucks, especially because I lost my MM T. albo not even a month ago, but I know I did what I could with this spider. I helped her out of her molt and did my best to keep her going.

Ahh man, so sorry for your losses! Two so close together is rough. I hope you can at least take some solace in having done all you could.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Ahh man, so sorry for your losses! Two so close together is rough. I hope you can at least take some solace in having done all you could.

Yeah, back to back like this is rough. But it isn't as bad knowing that with these two I did all I could. My T. albo lived 3 years post ultimate molt and my chromatus I did everything I could but there were some serious issues after the molt. I know a lot of spiders can survive after a traumatic molt but this one just really wasn't right.

 

[l4nsky]

Time studies, as boring as that sounds . My collection is finally large enough that I figured I waste too much time bringing the enclosures to my husbandry station and it would be waaaaaay more efficient to bring the husbandry station to the enclosures. I'll elaborate more on how I've chosen to do that at a later date, but I just managed to feed and water 71 juvie/semi adults in 79 mins, which is a time savings of ~40 mins, +/- 5 mins. Working out the math, that means I can add an additional 100 specimens to the collection and still maintain a 5 hour per week time investment for general husbandry outside of rehouses, breeding endeavours, or shipping.

Ahh, scalability .

 

[Chris73G]

1. My adult male vagans lost a leg. Appears to be alright, no "bleeding" to see where the leg was and there was nothing where he could get stuck with his leg so it looks like....he just dropped it?
2. My adult female geniculata suprised me with a a molt. Didn´t expect her to molt again that soon (last molt was May 2023) and im still waiting for my albopilosum to molt again, her last molt was August 2022 :O.

 

[corydalis]

Rehoused my darker M.balfouri, the old setup had couple of minor flaws (including the impossibility to take a decent shot of its occupant) but otherwise there was no urgent need for rehoming her, kept delaying it for years, until yesterday.
Even as a juvie her blues were sightly more pronounced than her sister's, interesting to see that it hasn't changed during the years.

Raised them in the same enclosure in their first year btw, it was fascinating to observe how they made their burrows together, and shared larger prey items, later however as they were reaching maturity the darker one pushed out her sacmate (did not tolerate her presence in the same burrow anymore) so they live in separate enclosures since then.

 

[fcat]

Just outside the spider room:

My least favorite task, relocating the native flora that grows high enough to catch the attention of the local government, weeding.

This is my dream weed, it stays until I find out it's going to grow into my sewer or plumbing but look at my little Lynx spider friend keeping it safe.

I was unable to capture it's green color on camera, but it's green.

The plant is called globemallow (Sphaeralcea) according to Google lens

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Rehoused my juvie versi earlier this week (unsexed). It was heart wrenching as he definitely did not want to move. I ended up gently pushing him out the Amac box with a paintbrush, after he’d crawled back over the paintbrush twice in an effort to stay in his home. Wanted to get him moved, after fattening him up, before he molted this spring, agreeing with coldblood’s logic on premolt rehousing. As hoped, he’s created a good amount of web tunnel in just a few days and will already have a larger, homey place post molt.


In other news, I got to see my Neoholothele fasciaaurinigra.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Today in the spider room, I brought in 8 12x12x12 exo's, 4 8x8x12 exo's plus corks and fake plants for $500

No more spending for me!

That’s insane how did you get them so cheap ? There like $90-150 each for regular ones at the pet store.

 

[TLSizzle]

That’s insane how did you get them so cheap ? There like $90-150 each for regular ones at the pet store.

Facebook marketplace. Fella was getting out of Ts and into boas. Had to drive 2 hrs one way to get them (yay giant TX state) but definitely worth it!

 

[l4nsky]

Took some pictures tonight as I walked around the collection with a flashlight, doing the nightly checks.


Fresh MM Aphonopelma sp Dragoons. He's going to be putting in some work this week.


Unsexed Orphnaecus dichromatus. Really hoping this one is a male, but then again I wouldn't be too disappointed if it turned out to be female. It's been a pleasure growing this one up from a sling and is the reason I'm starting to wade deeper into the Selenocosmiinae pool.


Juvenile female Phormingochilus pennellhewlettorum, about 2" DLS.


Mature female Homoeomma chilense, looking for an eligible bachelor.


Juvenile male Phormingochilus sp Sabah Blue from my holdbacks.


Unsexed Chilobrachys sp South Thailand Blue. This is probably the spiciest tarantula in the collection currently and its behaviour is just absolutely fascinating. I'm leaning towards this one being a male, so I need to find more for sure.


Female Phormingochilus sp Sabah Dwarf. This is a drop dead gorgeous species, but her current enclosure isn't setup well to get a good picture. This one for sure will be getting a photo shoot when she gets rehoused next.

 

[Charliemum]

Took some pictures tonight as I walked around the collection with a flashlight, doing the nightly checks.

View attachment 469592
Fresh MM Aphonopelma sp Dragoons. He's going to be putting in some work this week.

View attachment 469593
Unsexed Orphnaecus dichromatus. Really hoping this one is a male, but then again I wouldn't be too disappointed if it turned out to be female. It's been a pleasure growing this one up from a sling and is the reason I'm starting to wade deeper into the Selenocosmiinae pool.

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Juvenile female Phormingochilus pennellhewlettorum, about 2" DLS.

View attachment 469591
Mature female Homoeomma chilense, looking for an eligible bachelor.

View attachment 469597
Juvenile male Phormingochilus sp Sabah Blue from my holdbacks.

View attachment 469594
Unsexed Chilobrachys sp South Thailand Blue. This is probably the spiciest tarantula in the collection currently and its behaviour is just absolutely fascinating. I'm leaning towards this one being a male, so I need to find more for sure.

View attachment 469596
Female Phormingochilus sp Sabah Blue. This is a drop dead gorgeous species, but her current enclosure isn't setup well to get a good picture. This one for sure will be getting a photo shoot when she gets rehoused next.

Awwww am disappointed, just a torch, I thought you'd have special night goggles and spood cams on every viv... mad genius standard kit

Jks aside they are stunning l4nsky , I do like seeing your collection you always have spoods I had no idea existed and they are always gorgeous

 

[l4nsky]

Awwww am disappointed, just a torch, I thought you'd have special night goggles and spood cams on every viv... mad genius standard kit

Jks aside they are stunning l4nsky , I do like seeing your collection you always have spoods I had no idea existed and they are always gorgeous

Thanks lol. I'm actually quite limited on the pictures I can take as most of my adults are in semi-opaque Sterilite totes. They're perfect as enclosures in every way except crystal clear visibility. I see most of the gorgeous adults every night as well, just hard to get a good picture through the enclosures.

 

[Charliemum]

Thanks lol. I'm actually quite limited on the pictures I can take as most of my adults are in semi-opaque Sterilite totes. They're perfect as enclosures in every way except crystal clear visibility. I see most of the gorgeous adults every night as well, just hard to get a good picture through the enclosures.

I hear that ! It's my one and only reason for my hatred of those totes. I spend 99% of my free time (and as my son gets older I have alot of it) just watching my spiders do their thing so it annoys me when I can't see them , my SO says I am an enclosure snob but I am not I just like to see my t's. If I could get a viv with the size of a tote and the clearness of acrylic I would be a happy girl .... maybe one for your invention list

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Today, I captured this chap. Offered him a meal and drink, and will release him to continue his search in a bit.