- Joined
- Aug 17, 2002
- Messages
- 344
I was cleaning out prey remains from my spiderling vials today and I was getting ready to do my A. versicolor's vial next. I like these guys but I can't wait to get them big enough for something larger because they always make a break for it and are about impossible to get back into the vial. Today one of them was rampaging on my leg as I tried to herd it back into its vial when it bolted up my hand and then leapt onto the floor from a height of about 6 inches. Something happened on landing because I discovered it was now moving around with leg II on the right side held up in the air the way you might hold a finger out after jamming it awkwardly catching a hard-thrown basketball or some such. The sling seems otherwise fine, and I added a tiny little bit of water to the substrate in case it needed to replenish lost fluids (which is another thing I'm learning to hate about tiny little vials, either the ventilation is so overdone that any added moisture is irrelevant or the moisture added is so much that the ventilation is irrelevant) but I'm worried about hemolymph loss. Is it safe to assume that if the damage is that serious the spider will toss the leg? It also didn't eat this week which makes me worried that the spider is in pre-molt and has damaged the developing exoskeleton such that when it tries to molt it will die. Anyone had anything similar happen?
Adrian
Adrian