What makes this species so fragile?

Ratmosphere

Arachnoking
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
2,294
What makes Zoosphaerium neptunus so hard to keep? I hear they're super hard to keep alive. Anybody have experience in raising these?
 

pannaking22

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
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4,226
Far as I can tell, they're super super sensitive to changes in temp and have very specific keeping requirements. Keep them above ~70F and they will stress and die. They also need a wide variety of rotting things to eat and won't just eat one thing, with mosses sounding like they're popular. They also overstress very easily during shipping, so they could all already be half dead when they arrive because of shipping stress.

From what I've heard, the Tanzanian species are a bit more hardy, but I think that's probably just relative to those from Madagascar.
 

pannaking22

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
4,226
I've seen them pop up once or twice over the last couple years, but it always seemed to be singles and even those probably died shortly after being bought. I believe there is actually a US species as well, but it hasn't quite made it into culture yet (though I think one or two people have them now).
 

Marika

Arachnoangel
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
777
From what I've heard, the Tanzanian species are a bit more hardy, but I think that's probably just relative to those from Madagascar.
I keep Arthrosphaera cf. brandtii. They seem to be sensitive to shipping stress, that's probably what killed most of mine, but if they survive that, they are not that difficult to keep. I have two left, I've had one for 1,5 years and the other for 9 months. I keep them at room temp like my other pedes and even witnessed some mating behavior in summer.
 
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