Today in the Spider Room?

[dangerforceidle]

Decided to rehouse this gorgeous lady, Ceratogyrus meridionalis. She was not too happy about it, stridulating and slapping the entire time. Understandable. She was embarrassed from being tricked out of her burrow with a superworm bait, so she lashed out.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to tamp down the coco fiber adequately, so I'll check her for the next week and hope she digs and webs enough to make the ground more acceptable to walk on. If not I'll cup her again (that will be fun) and dampen the sub a bit to help it tamp more tightly.

 

[Brachyfan]

While doing my watering rounds today I discovered that my B Hamorii sling has finally dug a burrow. This is by far my boltiest t. Every time I move its enclosure or open the lid it runs up the side of the enclosure. Hopefully it will react like my Albopilosum now and run into it's burrow instead of trying to escape! This one is scared of everything !

On the other hand my G pulchra is mostly hanging on the wall too. But it just calmly walks up and down, cool as a cucumber!

 

[Enceladus]

Technically, this happened this past Friday (but new to the boards and just discovered this thread).

I saw my T make a kill and begin feeding for the first time! I have a sling that I THINK is a C. schmidti. It's still a little small to identify by physical looks (just over 1 inch leg-span). It was given to me with only the genus known (about a year and a half ago) and through researching, thats whAt I think it is.

Anyway, I've been feeding it mealworms since I got it. I generally put it in at night just before I head to bed, and take out the carcass the next day. Sometime overnight, it feeds on it. However on Friday, I noticed that as I was opening the enclosure and beginning to lower the mealworm in, my T began slowly making its way up from its burrow (could actually see it walking up the tunnel). So I decided to stick around and watch (ESPECIALLY because this was the first time I didn't straight up kill the mealworm completely, I just crushed the head enough to incapacitate it but let it still move around a bit).

SO after I closed the lid, the mealworm was drunkenly stumbling around the enclosure and as it got close to the hole, my T ran out of the tunnel, pounced on top of it (bit it, I'm assuming) and ran back inside the tunnel. But now, the mealworm was lying completely motionless on its back. This was so exciting! I had never seen it move like that. I could see the T was inside its tunnel, but still near the entrance. I got really excited so I ran and got my gf to come watch. When we got back, the mealworm had began moving again, crawling around very very slowly. Finally, after about 2 minutes with us still standing there watching, the T ran back out, grabbed a hold of the mealworm, and began dragging the mealworm down into its burrow. It dragged it down ever so dramatically, as if out of a movie. The mealworm was being dragged by its backend. The T would move in spurts. So we watched as it was slowly disappeared beneath the substrate, wriggling around until finally, as it was just the head of the mealworm stuck out, it disappeared out of sight completely....forever.

It was amazing to watch. It finally felt like we had an actual T, a predatory animal who killed its prey. Work up yesterday, two days later, and the T had brought the carcass back up for me to remove, only there was about half a meal worm left for me. It really feels now like Im a T owner!

 

[Thekla]

Today I rehoused my A. purpurea. He (suspected) definitely outgrew his baby enclosure, so, it was moving time. Unfortunately, that little fellow didn't want to leave his home. It took me nearly an hour to get him out of the old and into the new, but finally he was safe and sound in its new enclosure and he already seems to like it... looking comfy.



Already 2 weeks ago I rehoused my now mature male B. albopilosum. It was his first rehouse since I got him in 2017, back then I made the mistake to put him in a too big enclosure, he buried himself away for months. Eventually though he outgrew that enclosure after his ultimate moult, so he earned himself a more suitable bachelor home.



And last but not least I rehoused Mrs Blue Berry also 2 weeks ago.

The first day it seemed she was comfortable hanging out on her cork bark, but then she decided to camp out on the front door for the next two weeks. Only yesterday, I found her exploring the deeper parts of her enclosure. That had to be rewarded with a juicy roach.

And we all know... all that feeding and exploring makes thirsty, doesn't it?

 

[Kitara]

Unfortunately, that little fellow didn't want to leave his home. It took me nearly an hour to get him out of the old and into the new

That was me yesterday too with my c. cyaneopubescens. Little brat made us pull all his webbing out (including the two molts that were stuck in there) because he wanted nothing to do with moving day and got as small as he could down in the lowest corner. Finally got her out and she refused to come out of the catch cup so fine by me. Enjoy your new house! lol

 

[Kitara]

@dangerforceidle I just love that picture!!!

 

[draconisj4]

So about 3 weeks ago when I checked on my spiders I found my M. robustum scrunched up in her water dish and her burrow entrance completely filled in. She'd been perfectly happy in that enclosure for a year. Something totally freaked her out. So I opened up her burrow entrance but she would not for the life of her go back in.
For the last 3 weeks she has been wandering the enclosure, not digging and has totally kicked all the hair off her butt. She is eating though. I checked and nope not a MM (in fact looks very female ventrally) , substrate is moist not wet, no mites, no mold, no funky smell and she still has plenty of room and depth in there.

The only thing I can think of is that her piece of cork bark which was a bit small and not very curved might have collapsed on her while she was renovating and spooked her, so I got a much larger hide for her and put it in a couple of days ago. Yesterday I noticed that she had webbed up the leaves on the hide a bit but was still scrunched in the corner. This morning she was sitting on the substrate looking very relaxed and I just checked and she is in the hide. Hopefully she will start burrowing again.

This was the only T I have that had never given me any cause for concern, figures it wouldn't last. Darn spiders.

 

[Marika]

My G. rosea sling died today She had a bad molt about 1.5 months ago, didn't eat after that (she was still very plump though) and today I found her lying on her back (wasn't molting). At first she was still moving her legs a bit, but she's dead now. RIP Hali.

 

[Asgiliath]

Cats shredded my b. albo molt. Little monsters. Stupid of me for putting it on the bottom shelf though.

 

[Brachyfan]

Today I fed my Grammastola pulchripes for the first time. It was molting the day I got it and has been about 3 weeks. I waited for it's fangs to harden. Took two mealies really calm and went to the glass to display them. It is pretty cool for me to see a larger t hunt.

Also checked on my Liphistius cf ornatus. Haven't seen signs of life in about a month. I was sure it dehydrated or something. Nope! The cricket is gone!
Such a relief.

 

[Marika]

My little E. campestratus has made this:




The little excavator, before s/he built the wall:

 

[Asgiliath]

Juvie A. seemanni BCF made an appearance. They’ve been burrowed for almost a month.

 

[Minty]

Today I rehoused my A. purpurea. He (suspected) definitely outgrew his baby enclosure, so, it was moving time. Unfortunately, that little fellow didn't want to leave his home. It took me nearly an hour to get him out of the old and into the new, but finally he was safe and sound in its new enclosure and he already seems to like it... looking comfy.

View attachment 321946 View attachment 321947

Already 2 weeks ago I rehoused my now mature male B. albopilosum. It was his first rehouse since I got him in 2017, back then I made the mistake to put him in a too big enclosure, he buried himself away for months. Eventually though he outgrew that enclosure after his ultimate moult, so he earned himself a more suitable bachelor home.

View attachment 321948 View attachment 321949

And last but not least I rehoused Mrs Blue Berry also 2 weeks ago.
View attachment 321950 View attachment 321952
The first day it seemed she was comfortable hanging out on her cork bark, but then she decided to camp out on the front door for the next two weeks. Only yesterday, I found her exploring the deeper parts of her enclosure. That had to be rewarded with a juicy roach.
View attachment 321951
And we all know... all that feeding and exploring makes thirsty, doesn't it?
View attachment 321953

Some great photos there.

 

[Paiige]

Making room for a little P. cancerides and C. versicolor that should be arriving tomorrow! I need another shelf...

 

[SteveIDDQD]

Last night was an exciting night.

To challenge my lingering phobia of leggy true spiders, I got an L.fallax large sling. As usual, I take all the precautions assuming the spider is out to purposefully run away/up my arm/on my face/murder me, and as usual it was nowhere near that eventful - it teleported out of it's vial and sat on the cork bark provided, and didn't move again until well after I'd got the lid back on. Easy. Fed it after a while and it did a pretty epic sprint across the enclosure to get the cricket, boy is this guy is fast.

Next was something that was also treated like it could go monumentally wrong, putting 5 M.balfouri slings in one enclosure. This would have been easier if they where in separate vials, but they where shipped in one container and I was a little weary of keeping track of them all when I lifted the paper towel lid off of them. As normal though, I planned for carnage and got a very orderly "shoeing" of slings from place to another with a straw. We did the transfer in a large container with some water in the bottom to slow down any runners, but they all behaved really well. My wife was helping by holding the torch and a catch cup, but didn't need to intervene.

I really like M.balfouri's, for an OW they are pretty slow (although once they go, they keep going, unlike a NW), and I've found these guys and my sub adult to be way more manageable than the more skittish NW I have (looking at you GBB!). Very interested to see how they get on together. So far they've all ate from the same cricket, but not at the same time, and have started to web up the cork bark when I checked this morning.

 

[Brachyfan]

Weird night!

Decided to feed my tarantulas and for the first time I saw 4 out of 5 slings refuse food. I have only seen one t refuse food (B albo) so that was quite a surprise. 3 of them have HUGE booties so I figure premolt.

Finally saw my B albopilosum for the first time in months. He has been in his burrow since the last rehouse. Just molted a few weeks ago and made his tunnels like 4 times the size. So now I can see more than a butt and a few legs!

On a side note I saw my leopard gecko drinking for the first time ever! She was not impressed and threat postured at me. Cardinal sin apparently like walking in on a lady changing

All told it was an interesting night! This is the reason I got into the hobby.

 

[Minty]

Saw my Chilobrachys sp. Vietnam blue for the first time in months. She moulted about a month ago so I fed her a couple of crickets as I assumed that’s why she was out.

 

[Thekla]

I rehoused my C. versicolor a month ago into her forever home and she never started webbing... until now. I've been away for the weekend and just came home... and yes, she finally started webbing...



... right at the front door! Seriously, girl? You have such nice foliage and a great slab of cork bark... just why? Why would you do that to me?

 

[SteveIDDQD]

Rehoused my LP and D.pentaloris yesterday.

LP was not too bad, but she's getting big now and can cover some ground when she wants.

The pentaloris was more of an issue, after the cute little threat pose that made it roll onto it's back, it got super skittish and decided bolt all over the place. Little guy is pretty fast. Took a while to get it settled in a decent spot to drop a cup over it. Was pretty easy once it was in the cup though, as it was much calmer getting it into the new enclosure.

Have a few slings to re-house in the next few weeks, but waiting on a new bookcase as I've run out of space!

 

[SteveIDDQD]

Rehoused my T.blondi tonight. It was pretty scared and just hunkered down through it all, so it was pretty easy.

New enclosure is a bit big, but you know, its a T.blondi, it'll soon grow into it.

Managed to get a photo before it ran into its new hide.