Trichonephila clavipes help/care

treylee687

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Mar 19, 2020
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i received my first golden silk spider in the mail today <edit>. it came early, they gave me a freebee, and a sack of pellets(brownish w/ either white or light yellow.) didn’t open yet, juvenile food maybe? its suppose to be a female medium juvenile. one is significantly bigger then the other abdominal wise and leg span is just slightly different. i have them both in a 12x12x18(LxWxH) exo terra terrarium for now. after a bit they separated, one seems to be spread out on webbing as they would in nature and the other is almost in the corner even tho she has room. i put sticks on the sides for webbing structure, altho the sticks keep falling they seem to be trying. from what i read and seen it would work but they threw me an extra. thinking of getting a large butterfly habitat. also every time i lock it the little one gets scared. can spiders have heart attacks? lmao. any tips or help would be appreciated as i am use to black widows
 

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NYAN

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a sack of pellets(brownish w/ either white or light yellow.) didn’t open yet, juvenile food maybe?
I’m not sure what that is, maybe fly pupae? These eat live invertebrates though. You can’t feed them pellets.

i have them both in a 12x12x18(LxWxH) exo terra terrarium for now. after a bit they separated, one seems to be spread out on webbing as they would in nature and the other is almost in the corner even tho she has room.
I would recommend not keeping them together. You have a chance of waking up to find one fat spider. Besides that, these benefit from having a lot of space to make a web, so having two in one container reduces that.

can spiders have heart attacks? lmao.
I guess that anything with a heart can experience cardiac arrest. Now someone needs to invent ACLS algorithms for arachnids..
 

chanda

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The sack of "pellets" are most likely fly pupae. If so, stick 'em in the fridge so they don't all hatch at once, and toss a few into the enclosure every day. They should hatch out within a few days, providing fresh flies for your spiders to eat. (The pellets may be a mix of fly pupae and some sort of substrate, so look closely at what you're tossing in to make sure you're providing actual feeders and not just the junk the came in.)

These spiders need a BIG enclosure with lots of cross-ventilation and sturdy sticks or other anchor points that don't fall over. If the sticks keep falling, you need to find a way to anchor them. When I had Trichnephila clavipes, I kept mine in a large (roughly 3 ft. by 3 ft. by 18 inch) enclosure that's made entirely of screen - and they made their webs to fill the entire enclosure.

If you keep these spiders together, there's a very good chance that the larger one will eat the smaller one. That was eventually what happened with mine.

The best feeders for these guys are flying insects (flies and moths) because their wings get trapped in the webs. Crickets and cockroaches do not normally end up in the webs unless you put them there by hand - and even then, are frequently able to kick themselves free, so they are not the best choice of feeders for orb weaving spiders.
 
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The Snark

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@NYAN @chanda Spot on on all fronts. I just can't see keeping Nephs. If a person manages to give them the containment they like you have this display piece parked in the middle of the web, usually for less than one year. The only indicator they give that they are healthy and eating the right food in the right quantity is keeping the web repaired. And when they let the web get ragged and unkempt they are in their mate-lay eggs-die cycle.
 

treylee687

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@NYAN @chanda Spot on on all fronts. I just can't see keeping Nephs. If a person manages to give them the containment they like you have this display piece parked in the middle of the web, usually for less than one year. The only indicator they give that they are healthy and eating the right food in the right quantity is keeping the web repaired. And when they let the web get ragged and unkempt they are in their mate-lay eggs-die cycle.
what would be the best orb-weaver to keep in your opinion? i live in Tx only thing ive found worth keeping was a widow. also i’ve heard of people putting them in the corner of their room/house any idea how i could do so successfully? if it makes them more comfortable i don’t mind

The sack of "pellets" are most likely fly pupae. If so, stick 'em in the fridge so they don't all hatch at once, and toss a few into the enclosure every day. They should hatch out within a few days, providing fresh flies for your spiders to eat. (The pellets may be a mix of fly pupae and some sort of substrate, so look closely at what you're tossing in to make sure you're providing actual feeders and not just the junk the came in.)

These spiders need a BIG enclosure with lots of cross-ventilation and sturdy sticks or other anchor points that don't fall over. If the sticks keep falling, you need to find a way to anchor them. When I had Trichnephila clavipes, I kept mine in a large (roughly 3 ft. by 3 ft. by 18 inch) enclosure that's made entirely of screen - and they made their webs to fill the entire enclosure.

If you keep these spiders together, there's a very good chance that the larger one will eat the smaller one. That was eventually what happened with mine.

The best feeders for these guys are flying insects (flies and moths) because their wings get trapped in the webs. Crickets and cockroaches do not normally end up in the webs unless you put them there by hand - and even then, are frequently able to kick themselves free, so they are not the best choice of feeders for orb weaving spiders.
they should really leave a note stating that it’s pupae but thankyou both. in the fridge they went. i was trying not to get a fish tank ha how do you think they’ll do in a large mesh butterfly habitat? worse case i’ll get a zilla fresh air screen habitat but i’d prefer to leave myself room lol
 
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NYAN

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what would be the best orb-weaver to keep in your opinion?
People seem to have success keeping various Nephila, Trichonephila, And Argiope. The issue is that orb weavers are harder to keep in captivity due to the large space, ventilation, and their preferred diet of flying insects.

If I were to keep an orb weaver it would likely be an Argiope or smaller Nephila like species. You can also try keeping species in the Araneus and Neoscona genus, but again, they need a lot of space. Some people have luck allowing them to live in their house but since many of these females come gravid I wouldn’t recommend that unless it’s a native species. Texas has several native Argiope, so you can perhaps try with one of those. You sort of need to make a space for it, release it there, and then hope for the best.
 

chanda

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what would be the best orb-weaver to keep in your opinion? i live in Tx only thing ive found worth keeping was a widow. also i’ve heard of people putting them in the corner of their room/house any idea how i could do so successfully? if it makes them more comfortable i don’t mind
I've had pretty good luck with Argiope argentata and Argiope trifasciata. They will web in my large butterfly pop-ups or large screen cages. The Araneus and Eriophora I tried, on the other hand, refused to web, though a couple of them did lay eggs. Since they wouldn't web and therefore couldn't eat, I released them and put the egg sacs outside. (They were locally-caught, so it was ok to release them.)

The Trichonephila clavipes were probably the best of the lot as far as successfully webbing up the enclosure and keeping their webs maintained. It was the need for flying prey that complicated matters, because I ran into a supply problem where I had trouble getting fly larvae/pupae and the ones I ordered arrived dead. I tried to feed them small crickets with the back legs removed and was moderately successful - but if I try them again, I'll make sure I have a more reliable supply of feeders first.
 

AphonopelmaTX

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they should really leave a note stating that it’s pupae but thankyou both. in the fridge they went. i was trying not to get a fish tank ha how do you think they’ll do in a large mesh butterfly habitat? worse case i’ll get a zilla fresh air screen habitat but i’d prefer to leave myself room lol
You need to get in contact with the seller and/ or read their web site in full. They will tell you how to care for your orb weavers better than anyone else since they raise them. The pellets, as you describe them, look like black soldier fly pupae which is described on their web site. Although black soldier fly pupae is just a guess since your photo is too dark to tell for sure.
 
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basin79

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I have a Nephila madagascariensis. Raised the first 1 from a small juvenile into an adult. After she died I bought another small juvenile and she's moulted a few times and is growing well.

I keep mine in an Exo terra 18" x 12" x12" HxLxW (45cm x 30cm x 30cm). When kept in an enclosure they modify their webs. The usual middle resting spot is made near the top of the web and they'll curve the web too.

With making far smaller webs they seem to prefer to spinning a new one often. My lass will change the position of her web too.

Here are some pics vids to get a better idea.

7BE4362D-6DF7-4CB3-AB7A-0F50CACB45BC.jpeg 7A70AC9E-EE0F-451E-A0CA-6CDD57AD76F1.jpeg 2E98C200-DF58-4947-B9AE-EEE241EEAE6D.jpeg

How I have my enclosure

Long detailed feeding

Quick feeding

Giving her a drink
 

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The Mantis Menagerie

Arachnobaron
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I successfully raised a Trichonephila through several molts (before returning her to a museum for use in a display) in the corner of my room. I set up a triangular string frame, misted frequently, and tossed her moths and black soldier flies every few days. This fulfilled the space requirement, and the humidity requirement. I also have heard that they require a certain amount of airflow wherever they are in order to have the stimulus to build a web, so make sure to get airflow in whatever tank you use.
 
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