Today in the Spider Room?

[Vanisher]

I fed small mealworms to my T vagans, T albopilosum and P murinus "kigoma" juveniles

 

[Smotzer]

My female Argiope aurantia took her last breath sometime this morning or last night. Found her dead in her web. But I’m going to pin her tonight and add her to the entomology collection

 

[Colorado Ts]

My small female Aphonopelma hentzi is fully active. She came out of torpor on Tuesday, and I got to watch her tunnel to the surface of her enclosure, after several months of dormancy.

I fed her on Tuesday...and today at the end of the day, I noticed that she was back guarding the entrance to her burrow. Several other teachers walked by and I invited them in to see her and to see her get fed a roach.

They had never seen that before and it was a new experience for them.

Good times.

 

[Vulksgren]

Confirmed a X. Immanis as male not too long ago, not disappointed at all since I typically dont mind males. Decided to name him "Vector" after the SMG. Have two Ts been buried for months, one of them is my T. Albo 'Rachnera' who has been buried for over two months in a possible hunger strike. And my A. Chalcodes who has been buried since I got em (4 1/2 months ago). Really hate having Ts bury and not being able to see them.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Watched my T. albo groom herself for awhile and noticed she was putting her toes in her mouth. Grabbing a toe with her fangs and guiding it into her mouth. Cracked me up, I took about four videos of her doing it. Later I googled it and found a few old AB threads about other keepers' spiders doing the same! She's the only one in my collection I've spotted doing this but it was highly entertaining.

 

[Swagg]

A. Chalcodes molted and is hardening. G. Pulchripes in heavy premolt. Molt mar laid so should be any day now. T. Albopilosum is buried but eating and A. Avic was caught grooming itself this afternoon.

 

[magneto]

My newest addition, a P. ornata had, ever since I got it about a month ago, been playing possum out in the open to the extent that I was starting to get worried it was something wrong with it. Don't get me wrong, I loved that I could see it every day, and it ate several times, but it never left the spot I put it in and never seemed to explore the enclosure. But this morning there was poop all over two glass sides and I could see a leg sticking out of the cork bark tube. I believe that is tarantula speak for "Oh very well then".

So I am relived that it seems to have found an acceptable hide...but at the same time slightly bummed that now I'll probably never see anything other than its legs poking out of the hide ever again.

 

[mjzheng]

My smallest sling , a Lil baby Nhandu chromatus , ate its first live prey last night no more pre killed for this skittish little one , it's one step closer to being a real T

 

[Colorado Ts]

Well shucks...I've been looking for a couple of months trying to find a nice glass front cabinet that I can use for keeping and raising slings. My wife wanted to go to the chiropractor, and I mentioned what I was looking for, and he mentioned that his dad had what I wanted. It was exactly what I wanted, 7 feet high, 4 feet wide, 17 inches deep.

Everything that I've been finding has 8” shelves or maybe 10” shelves...this glass fronted display cabinet is beautiful solid oak, with 17 inch wide shelves. Amazing amounts of room. Wide enough to hold 5 gallon aquariums length wise...

Got the number and had an amazing conversation about the cabinet. He said that he had a person wanting to look at it, and if that person didn't show up, then it was mine.

Called this morning, and after a few tries, he finally answered the phone. His friendly warm demeanor was gone. Said he talked with his son about me, and he was not pleased that I was going to use his cabinet to raise dirty filthy spiders.

Well darn...that was weird and a bit depressing.

Back to looking.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

My B. hamorii has graced me with her presence once again after sulking in the back area of her enclosure for about two weeks. Welcome back, Doris!

 

[Brachyfan]

Rehoused my Pterinopelma sazimai last night. No messing around. I put the old enclosure inside the new one and it took spazzy hours to come out. Now I need to remove the old enclosure without the t bolting! This one lives up to it's name and then some.

Fed my Brachypelma baumgarteni for the first time since he molted. Never seen a feeding response like that even out of my genic! That t was hungryyyyy!

Well shucks...I've been looking for a couple of months trying to find a nice glass front cabinet that I can use for keeping and raising slings. My wife wanted to go to the chiropractor, and I mentioned what I was looking for, and he mentioned that his dad had what I wanted. It was exactly what I wanted, 7 feet high, 4 feet wide, 17 inches deep.

Everything that I've been finding has 8” shelves or maybe 10” shelves...this glass fronted display cabinet is beautiful solid oak, with 17 inch wide shelves. Amazing amounts of room. Wide enough to hold 5 gallon aquariums length wise...

Got the number and had an amazing conversation about the cabinet. He said that he had a person wanting to look at it, and if that person didn't show up, then it was mine.

Called this morning, and after a few tries, he finally answered the phone. His friendly warm demeanor was gone. Said he talked with his son about me, and he was not pleased that I was going to use his cabinet to raise dirty filthy spiders.

Well darn...that was weird and a bit depressing.

Back to looking.

Jeez....some people's children!

I had the opposite happen. Needed a stand for my Jeweled lacerta's enclosure and found a free one on kijiji. Called the lady up and asked if the stand had been around any reptiles as a precaution (new reptile quarantine issue). She said no just her cats and then asked me a ton of questions about reptiles! Stand worked perfect!

I too am on a quest for a good T cabinet with a glass front! Good luck in your search!

 

[MintyWood826]

One of my spiders finally molted (although it wasn't a T).

A T. albo sling of mine has been very busy remodeling their enclosure. They bulldozered one of their tunnels full of sub and it was lovely to watch.

 

[Colorado Ts]

I have a male Aphonopelma hentzi, that was part of my A. hentzi breeding last fall. He has greatly slowed down and is quite lethargic. Over the winter his abdomen has gotten so small. I’ve been making sure that he gets water, but he has refused to eat since late October of last year. He has been so focused on breeding that he just flat refused any kind of food.

Today I was determined that he would eat. I tried feeding him a male B. lateralis. I took the roach and held it right infront of the spider, touching him and getting all sorts of negative feedback. I finally got him to grab the roach, but the roach was to fast for him. He has gotten so slow that after he grabbed the roach, and I released the insect from the tongs, the roach bolted and the spider lost its hold. I was unable to re-catch to catch the lateralis roach, and the spider went into a stress pose and shut down.

Undeterred, I was going to get food into this little guy somehow.

Fortunately I am starting a Dubia Colony, much slower roach and likes to play dead. So I caught a Dubia Roach nymph and tong fed it to the male. It took several minutes as the male just would not take the roach. It was throwing threat poses and kicking hairs, but it flat refused to take the roach. I finally just took the roach in the tongs and kept it right in his "face" until he got so mifted that he grabbed it.

Once he got his fangs into the roach everything looked so much better. He wrapped the roach up and he is still contentedly feeding on that Dubia nymph.

I chose not to take "NO" for an answer. I’ll get him back to a healthy condition, he's a cool little guy.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

It was supposed to be water dish rinsing day yesterday. My A. chalcodes was about an inch from her dish and I know better than to grab it when she's that close so she just got a refill. My B. hamorii and GBB behaved spectacularly and I was able to clean their dishes no problem. My G. porteri usually runs from me when I'm doing maintenance but she decided to shake things up and just stood on top of her dish. Aaaand my T. albopilosum was also too close to her dish and cannot be trusted. In the end I ended up only refilling hers, overflowing it and she wigged out and this morning was on the walls of her enclosure due to the moisture.

 

[scooter1685]

Not sure what's going on exactly, probably just the change in season, but five of my slings have molted in the last 4 days. I think Alex from Tarantula Haven mentioned something similar in a recent video, a large number of Ts molting in a very short time.

My Cyriocosmus elegans is still around 1/4 inch, but it's already showing some color. Took ages for me to find his molt, the darn thing is so tiny. Absolutely adorable.

Both of my Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens molted, within a day of one another. Super bright orange on their abdomen, and little puffs of reflective hair. I love these guys. They're around 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" now. Got to watch one of them a little bit, which was awesome. I didn't touch his enclosure or anything, just watched for a little while once I noticed he'd flipped onto his back.

The slower of my Pterinopelma sazimai slings to grow, Jerry, closed off his burrow to molt about a week ago. Finally saw little legs poking out of a freshly-cleared burrow, so I'm sure I'll get to see him again in the next few days. His sibling had a second molt in my care about 5 weeks ago. Been wondering when he'd catch up.

The prettiest one, in my opinion, is the Ephebopus cyanognathus though. She (hopefully) molted on Monday. I just can't believe how colorful she is. Her abdomen is metallic purple now, with bright pink legs that have little blue tips. Just stunning.

At least two more of my slings should be molting soon, possibly three. I keep thinking the G. pulchripes is getting ready to molt, but he seems to be trying to teach me patience. I don't often post pictures, but since so many of them molted recently I'll try to get a few this weekend.

 

[Paiige]

Found out my female S. cal is actually a MM S. cal

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Tried to feed my G. porteri on Tuesday. Not only did she not want to eat, she ran from the cricket and went full defensive posture on the stupid thing. She hasn't eaten in over a year. I know it's normal for this species but I was seriously hoping I'd get to see her eat something.

 

[Eukio]

I was really worried about my Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens for a bit. She molted. She was moving a bit weird after even for a molt a few days later. My suspicions were confirmed when she wouldn't even move a few days later after that when I touched her after she came out of her cork bark round. I put her face in her water dish. The spider came back to life! I was still worried a little because spi-doo wouldn't eat, but she seemed fine over the next few days. She finally ate today. I feel like she has made a full recovery.

I rehoused my Aphonopelma chalcodes. She is more of a fossorial than my fossorial tarantula (Aphonopelma seemanni) who has made a burrow, closed it up, and been buried for 11 months! She has made a more extensive burrow than the other and stays in there. Why is she labeled as a terrestrial again? And no, she isn't a sling!

 

[Colorado Ts]

I have 2 Aphonopelma hentzi females, that I bred last fall. Both of them went into torpor in late October.

On Tuesday one of the females, the smaller one started tunneling back to the surface, by noon she was at the surface and readying her digs.

Today the second female, the big girl, started tunneling to the surface. By the end of the day at work she had moved about 3 inches of substrate. I’m guessing that on Monday both girls will be eager for food.

 

[Swagg]

Added a new spider yesterday A. semmani sling (excuse the spelling). I believe I bought it in premolt. Pretty dark and refusing food.
Caught my A. avicularia grooming. G. pulchripes still in heavy premolt. Has put up dirt curtains and blocked itself off.
T. albopilosum in premolt again. A. chalcodes molted last week and has eaten a small pre killed discoid.