Today in the Spider Room?

[zsiciarz]

Always happy to see Her Majesty, Lady of the Dark in her best pose. And the Soleirolia is thriving as well.

 

[NMTs]

Finished the incubator:



Should start filling it up in about 10 days...

 

[goofyGoober99]

My Brachypelma emilia got her first post molt meal today (a nice medium horn worm). The orange on her legs looks amazing and she's so fluffy!
She built the molt into the wall of her cavern so no hope of retrieving it unfortunately

 

[l4nsky]

Finished the incubator:
View attachment 491072
View attachment 491073

Should start filling it up in about 10 days...

You have the wrong type of thermostat. That appears to be a simple on/off seedling thermostat made by Vivosun. This will produce a ±3-4 degree shift as it will take time to ramp up and cool down as it cycles on/off. With such a high humidity environment as an incubator, the dew point is only going to be a few degrees off the actual temperature. Bouncing the temps around using an on/off thermostat in that situation is a good way to cause condensation which causes complications.

You need a pulse proportional thermostat, where it will send just enough power to the heat mat to maintain the set temperature, not turn off when it reaches goal and turn on when it's under goal.

You'll also likely end up covering most of the ventilation. Might be tough getting anything over 75% RH otherwise .

 

[NMTs]

You have the wrong type of thermostat. That appears to be a simple on/off seedling thermostat made by Vivosun. This will produce a ±3-4 degree shift as it will take time to ramp up and cool down as it cycles on/off. With such a high humidity environment as an incubator, the dew point is only going to be a few degrees off the actual temperature. Bouncing the temps around using an on/off thermostat in that situation is a good way to cause condensation which causes complications.

You need a pulse proportional thermostat, where it will send just enough power to the heat mat to maintain the set temperature, not turn off when it reaches goal and turn on when it's under goal.

You'll also likely end up covering most of the ventilation. Might be tough getting anything over 75% RH otherwise .

Yep, that's the controller that came with the heat mat, but I have a pulse-proportional unit on order that will be delivered soon (Vivarium Electronic VE-300). I just wanted to power it up and see how it holds heat, though, and it seems to be doing well as far as that goes - temp was at 82.5 with 80% RH this morning. I've still got a few days to make adjustments and get it dialed in. Versi female looks like she's going to drop any minute now...

 

[ladyratri]

Made the questionable decision to swap out friend iheringi's water dish for a clean one, rather than just filling up the dirty one. Forgot that it was going to be much touchier than usual while super soft post molt, and that it has such an extensive web mat (basically the whole surface of the enclosure) that it knows instantly when a single grain of dirt anywhere is disturbed.

Today I learned: what it looks like in person when one of them "terrestrials" does that "hair flicking" thing. Luckily, I stuck with my cardinal rule of "no hands in the bin, ever, not even for that exception that seems totally fine", and was placing the new water dish with the 12" tongs I keep on the table next to the spider desk.

That said, I feel like this was maybe the absolute most polite little half-assed (ha ha ha) hair kicking ever. Still thought I'd share a terrestrial-newb first.

Photo for distance scale:


Bonus photo for "that is one beautiful spood":

 

[jrh3]

Y. Diversipes female molted today. Sadly, she was paired so no sac for now. She is an odd one, never webs, just molted while hanging on.

 

[NMTs]

Oh boy...



Phormingochilus everetti. Pulled it about a week early because I got nervous. It was good timing, though - there were a handful of rotten eggs that needed removal. There are still plenty left, though.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Bernie ( 0.1 Theraphosinae sp. mandarin) is food obsessed. I fed her a mealworm and as I was moistening a corner of substrate, she ran around her enclosure dragging her dinner along with her, stopping every few seconds for a tasty slurp of mealworm guts. This little spider has so much personality. I absolutely adore this species.

 

[corydalis]

I was convinced that this C marshalli girl is in heavy premolt, then she took two smaller dubia after 4 months..

 

[NMTs]

Rehousings of some little one done today:

0.1 Theraphosinae sp. dorado, 1.875" DLS


0.0.1 Euathlus sp. bronze, 1.125" DLS


0.1 Davus sp. Oaxaca, 2.25" DLS

0.1 Davus sp. Oaxaca - 2.25" DLS

• NMTs
• Feb 17, 2025
• davus davus sp. oaxaca female oaxaca oaxaca white tiger rump

Young female, starting to show some white on the legs that this undescribed species is known...

1.0 Theraphosidae sp. yasumi, 2" DLS (he's very photogenic, lol)

1.0 Theraphosidae sp. yasumi - 2" DLS

• NMTs
• Feb 17, 2025
• 1
• juvenile male theraphosidae theraphosidae sp. yasumi yasumi

Young male looking sharp.

 

[l4nsky]

So, one of the little known behaviours of some fossorial Ornithoctoninae is they will often bring their eggsacks up to the top of their burrow in the morning to expose the eggsack to sunlight for heat for development. This female C. sp Purple Zebra is responding in the same way to the heat being thrown out from the space heater in the room. Unfortunently this one is a phantom. If she's on it still in a week, I'll likely use this behaviour to steal it away.

 

[NMTs]

One more dwarf was rehoused yesterday, this fossorial Euthycaelus sp. Cesar:

0.1 Euthycaelus sp. Cesar - 1.5" DLS

• NMTs
• Thursday at 3:34 AM
• 2
• euthycaelus euthycaelus sp. cesar female fossorial nw dwarf sp. cesar

There is very little info about this species anywhere to be found. It's tiny, just barely 1.5"...

A couple more photos:



And for size reference, here she is next to a 1-gallon jug top:

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Oh boy...
View attachment 491451
View attachment 491452

Phormingochilus everetti. Pulled it about a week early because I got nervous. It was good timing, though - there were a handful of rotten eggs that needed removal. There are still plenty left, though.

Congrats!!

 

[NMTs]

C. versicolor dropped in the last few days, too:


It's going to be a busy next few months...

 

[zsiciarz]

My 1.0.1 Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus turned into 1.1. Leibnitz is a boy, but Newton is a girl!

 

[l4nsky]

Some of you might find this interesting as well, so figured I'd share. I'll run a time study once or twice a year to judge efficiency when moving through the collection for husbandry. The less time it takes to properly care for the specimens ultimately means you can keep more. Here's the results for this study:

Time Taken - Activity

12:17.05 - Clean/Water colonies
• Colonies are kept bare bottom and cleaned weekly
02:42.80 - Prep for sling feeding
• Lateralis nymphs are raised apart from the main colony, greatly increasing the speed of this step.
13:32.41 - Feed Nursery Shelf C
• 26 slings
○ 1 molt
○ 26 fed and watered
12:38.12 - Feed Nursery Sheld D
• 21 slings
○ 6 molts
○ 21 fed and watered
15:47.98 - Feed Nursery Shelf E
• 23 slings
○ 1 molt
○ 23 fed and watered
28:05.22 - Feed Nursery Shelf F
• 22 slings
○ 5 molts
○ 22 fed and watered


21:49.50 - Prep for small juvies/small adults
• Pulled 75 male lateralis and 40 medium lateralis for this husbandry stage
15:32.23 - Feed Shelf 1C,
• 11 specimens
○ 3 molts
○ 1 water only
○ 10 fed and watered
02:56.33 - Feed Shelf 2E
• 3 specimens
○ 3 fed and watered
02:39.46 - Feed Shelf 2D
• 3 specimens
○ 1 molt
○ 1 water only
○ 2 fed and watered
04:27.49 - Feed Shelf 2C
• 3 specimens
○ 3 fed and watered
05:58.72 - Feed Shelf 2B
• 7 specimens
○ 7 fed and watered
06:10.57 - Feed Shelf 2A
• 6 specimens
○ 6 fed and watered
08:20.94 - Feed Shelf 5E
• 8 specimens
○ 1 molt
○ 3 water only
○ 5 fed and watered
07:59.52 - Feed Shelf 5D
• 10 specimens
○ 10 fed and watered
06:03.97 - Feed Shelf 5C
• 5 specimens
○ 5 fed and watered
13:33.88 - Feed Shelf 5B
• 11 specimens
○ 3 water only
○ 8 fed and watered
07:37.05 - Feed Shelf 5A
• 6 specimens
○ 1 water only
○ 5 fed and watered
15:13.18 - Feed Shelf 6D
• 12 specimens
○ 3 molts
○ 12 fed and watered


10:33.44 - Prep for large juvies/large adults
• Knocked a flat of dubia and a flat of lateralis into two separate bowls for this husbandry stage
03:01.11 - Feed Shelf 6C
• 2 specimens
○ 2 fed and watered
05:53.48 - Feed Shelf 6B
• 4 specimens
○ 1 water only
○ 3 fed and watered
04:37.89 - Feed Shelf 4D
• 4 specimens
○ 4 fed and watered
05:59.40 - Feed Shelf 4C
• 4 specimens
○ 1 water only
○ 3 fed and watered
07:33.82 - Feed Shelf 4B
• 4 specimens
○ 2 water only
○ 2 fed and watered
04:20.04 - Feed Shelf 3D
• 4 specimens
○ 4 fed and watered
06:25.95 - Feed Shelf 3C
• 4 specimens
○ 2 water only
○ 2 fed and watered
07:43.47 - Feed Shelf 3B
• 4 specimens
○ 1 water only
○ 3 fed and watered
05:17.52 - Feed Shelf 1A
• 1 specimen
○ 1 fed and watered
04:20.73 - Feed Shelf 3A
• 2 specimens
○ 2 fed and watered
04:46.10 - Feed Shelf 4A
• 2 specimens
○ 2 fed and watered
12:19.96 - Cleanup
• Return roaches to colonies, clean feeder bowls, store molts, clean utensils, throw away trash.

Total time for all husbandry in the facility for a week: 4 hours, 46 minutes, and 19.33 seconds.

Total specimens cared for: 212

1.35 mins per specimen per week on average. Not a bad ratio at all, considering how many molts had to be collected this time and stored properly to be accurately sexed in the future.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Total time for all husbandry in the facility for a week: 4 hours, 46 minutes, and 19.33 seconds.

Total specimens cared for: 212

It takes me that long for 15