Today in the Spider Room?

[checkmate]

(you may already know this, just tossin' it out there anyways)
Fruit flies aren't any better for trues than tarantulas. I'm pretty sure the study that came to the conclusion that fruit flies aren't a good staple feeder for slings was actually conducted with wolf spiders.

Yea, I've read several sources. I give 3 ff about 2-3x a week and once they're at about 1/2" leg span, I switch to pins.

 

[boina]

My M. balfouri slings are jinxed. First I found out that I had only 4 slings left in my communal instead of 5, now I found another one dead stuck in a molt . It was actually my first ever death from a bad molt, so I should probably count myself lucky, but I don't feel lucky right now .

On a more positive note I separated my P. subfusca highland communal into separate enclosures and all 6 of them are still there and ok . I identified 1 male and 1 female ventrally and 1 runt.

 

[Ungoliant]

Genicula, my juvenile male Acanthoscurria geniculata, was wandering around the enclosure, shedding hairs. A dark area is spreading across his abdomen, and he isn't going into psycho attack mode when I add water to his substrate, so I am hoping he will molt soon. I can't wait to see how much he grows.

Squirt, my female Psalmopoeus cambridgei, discovered the big log for the first time I have seen.

 

[Dovey]

I just got chased out of a habitat for the first time in my life! Jeez Louise!

I was working on feeding the little wee babies I keep at my desk for close observation when it occurred to me I might try to feed my new mature female E. murinus, who is a little on the skinny side. I know they have smaller abdomens than most new world spiders, but hers is about half the size of her carapace or less.

Foolishly, I did not swap out my short tongs for my long tongs, and I swear she came charging out of her little hide, right up the side of those tongs, and nearly took my hand off! That is one moody wee girlie. I will treat her with more respect in future and will remember to get THE LONG TONGS!

 

[draconisj4]

My new additions are settling in this morning, P. auratus ate yesterday( no surprise there,lol) and is barricaded in it's hide, N. tripepi threw a threat display at it's meal and walled itself into it's hide, LP and B. albiceps ate their prekilled overnight and the little B. vagans is no longer a ball of stress and looks like a happy spider now, will offer it a meal later today.

 

[Dovey]

I fed slings all day, too. Everybody pretended to be afraid of their food, but when I went back to check, everyone was chowing down. Deduction: everyone hates the tongs.

 

[dangerforceidle]

Nearly everyone got a meal today which is a tad unusual, and my Tapinauchenius sp. Union Island was out, recently moulted and looking fabulous.

Also, the pet shop had horn worms for sale as feeders. I bought a few, but my Ts don't seem super interested. The Tapi got one, and the C. meridionalis took one down quickly, but my Lampropelma nigerrimum arboricola investigated and defensively slapped at it, and the Lp tried and was thrown aside by the writhing.

 

[draconisj4]

Yesterday, my tiny new B. albiceps almost gave me a heart attack. It has a leaf stuck in it's substrate as a hide that's at a slight angle. The little guy decided to molt halfway up the leaf, it was almost all the way out with just some toes still in the molt when it rolled off the leaf onto the substrate molt and all. It didn't fall very far, less than half an inch and was motionless for quite some time. Scared me to death. Evidently it's fine, eventually finished it's molt and flipped back over and it's doing yoga this morning. Whew!!

EDIT: Note to self....Never try to change Mr. Biteys (P. cancerides) without feeding him first, he does NOT appreciate it.

 

[Dovey]

Today in the spider room I was one lucky eejit...I found a spider I didn't even know I had lost! According to my notes, my P regalis sling that was given to me as a freebie disappeared on May 9th. I assumed it had dug itself in, which it had done previously, and died. No body, but the habitat was too big anyway, so I wasn't surprised. It was a very small sling, and there was a whole lot of dirt.

Anyway, this morning I lifted a habitat and happened to notice a little spider hiding under it. It was my regalis! Clearly a shed larger, and certainly doing well. I just happen to have a small habitat sitting there ready to go and was able to put a lid over it right on my desk and corral it into the little jam jar. It has since scarfed up some larger pinhead crickets and curled up in a moist corner for a rest. Lucky me: a spider back from the grave!

This is what comes of keeping a sling in a larger habitat, even for just a brief period. It was just too large an opening, and I never saw the little devil get out to begin with. I don't expect to be lucky like this again, so I don't intend to be careless like this again.

 

[lvc]

Just got done rehousing two of my recently moulted Ts (M.balfouri sling and G.pulchripes juvie) into a bit bigger enclosures. Rehoused the M.balfouri using the Dark Den´s fool-proof (at least for a single tarantula ;P) method with two cardboard pieces. Carefully poked the sling twice with a straw and it already was inside the transfercup. Positioned the transfercup on top of the new enclosure, removed the cardboard without the hole and two careful pokes with the straw later the sling was safely inside it´s new enclosure.

The G.pulchripes was sitting on top of her corkbark and didn´t move at all when I tried to guide her out of the enclosure with my trusty straw, so I carefully grabbed the corkbark with my tongs and lifted it into the new enclosure with the T still on top of it.
Both rehouses were super easy and took me about 2 or 3 minutes each, but just seeing the difference in movement between an OW and NW is a learning experience in itself imho.

Also fed some mealworms to my other smaller Ts and saw awesome takedowns from my A.geniculata sling and P.irminia juvie.
My freshly moulted B.emilia (or at least her 4 front legs) is currently chilling at the entrance of her burrow, showing of some her fresh colors, which made me pretty happy after not seeing her at all for almost an entire week

Pretty awesome day in my spiderroom so far

 

[MissOrangeHat]

My B.Vagans Big Man (hes about an 1 or close to it) decided to close up shop and bury his water dish after i rehoused him. There was a mite problem and I was like NOT TODAY.
Still cant wait for em to be 2 inches. I hope its male cause of the name, but hilarious if its female.

 

[Greasylake]

My B.Vagans Big Man

Does he play the sax?

 

[MissOrangeHat]

Does he play the sax?

Maybe...Can't help that saxobeat any time soon...But honestly is jamming to some skillet and linkin park

 

[draconisj4]

When I rehoused Mr. Bitey, my juvenile P. cancerides a while back I just put his old hide in his new enclosure. After his last molt I realized it was much too small for him and have been waiting for the opportunity to give him a new one but he almost always had a leg or three on it. Today he was at the other end of the enclosure and I took my chance, dropped a cup over him and changed out the hides. When I pulled out the old one I found 7 boluses (sp?) lined up in a perfect row that must have been tucked in behind it. What a neat and tidy spider!

 

[athlete96]

With a bunch of new moults came two deaths.. K brunnipes and N incei.. if anyone had seen my previous posts about my little brunnipes knows I adored the little spider. It had moulted two days ago after my birthday and I just found it in a death curl tonight. I thought hey I should check to make sure if my N incei is ok too because it's been hiding in premout for a few weeks now.. I saw through a little gap the same death curl. Two spiders dead tonight after their moults. Everyone else has been OK with 6+ slings moulting.

I wanted to get myself a few bday presents, but now I'm not feeling too hot

ETA: Looking at the brunnipes I think something went very wrong with the moult. Fangs still red, and the entire area behind its eyes is completely sunken in while the abdomen is full..

 

[Mirandarachnid]

I hope its male cause of the name, but hilarious if its female.

We named my N. chromatus Richard Parker, then confirmed it was female. I feel like that's part of the fun in naming tarantulas.

 

[Greasylake]

We named my N. chromatus Richard Parker, then confirmed it was female. I feel like that's part of the fun in naming tarantulas.

I named my S. Dehaani Herbert, then found out it was female. I also named a mantis Moriarty before finding out it was also female. Hopefully Cholo is male.

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

Hey guys first off id like to say im not dead sorry ive been gone for so long ive been in California for the past two weeks and before that i was focused on going from failing half my classes to failing only one. But enough about me were all here for the Ts. Ive decided to restart my true spider collection (there were only like 6) they were all locally caught ecept for one who passed away while i was gone so i just let them go. My Ts are doing amazing my a avic has produced the most webbing ive ever seen and my b albo molted and i think one more molt and i need to give it a bigger home. Now my only scorpion which is a H arizon i have no idea how its alive it hasent eaten in at least a month or two and i heard they get most of there water from there food and its a desert scorpion so i figured it doesnt need to be watered. Anyone know why it hasnt eaten in so long. But anyway it feels good to be back

Nearly everyone got a meal today which is a tad unusual, and my Tapinauchenius sp. Union Island was out, recently moulted and looking fabulous.

Also, the pet shop had horn worms for sale as feeders. I bought a few, but my Ts don't seem super interested. The Tapi got one, and the C. meridionalis took one down quickly, but my Lampropelma nigerrimum arboricola investigated and defensively slapped at it, and the Lp tried and was thrown aside by the writhing.

Idk what it is about horn worms but spiders hate them in my experience my H Carolinensis used to eat everything no matter what it was that i put in front of her and one of her favorates was caterpillars from outside (she was wild caught so its cool) so i decided to buy her a horn worm because they look enough like caterpillars but she wouldnt touch it

 

[dangerforceidle]

Idk what it is about horn worms but spiders hate them in my experience my H Carolinensis used to eat everything no matter what it was that i put in front of her and one of her favorates was caterpillars from outside (she was wild caught so its cool) so i decided to buy her a horn worm because they look enough like caterpillars but she wouldnt touch it

Well, it turns out the Lampropelma was in pre-moult and has now successfully done the deed (just a few days after the worm was offered). The horn worms were also quite large, so it's possible that they were intimidating.

The Lp. took one that was "pre-killed" so it definitely wanted the meal. A live worm was too strong.

 

[Mirandarachnid]

They just won't stop molting

I kept telling myself, "I really need to process these molts before they start molting again."

N. chromatus molts

LP molts

B. emilia molts (for the first time in my care, on my birthday, yay!)

B. vagans molts

"It's okay as long as I get to them before my marshmallows (gbbs) molt."

So far two have molted, one day after the other. I think this started on the 25th of last month. At least I'm off tomorrow night. I know what I'll be doing.