after some complaints in one or two other threads, this thread has been made.

to continue that conversation..




well i guess its fine, but i'm just saying that because they are nocturnal. though mine all get as much light as i do during the day and some at night, so its not like they can't deal with it.

haha yea its fun to watch them eat. they are lazy bastards a most of the rest of the time, but you still will catch them doing some odd things, or just reorganizing the substrate or decorations if they can.

be sure to keep an eye on the tank of feeders. clean out dead ones and try to give it a cleaning when you can. too many dead remains can lead to mites infecting your feeders. they are pretty small too, so you may not notice them when you feed them to your spiders. i've had them on a few. if you do get them..just let the substrate go completely dry except the water dish, then take the spider out, dump the substrate, clean the tank, and set it up again. there may be a few stragglers, but they will die off if you keep it dry in there. if it somehow doesn't go away, you can buy a species of predatory mites that will eat the parasitic ones and won't harm the spider.

other than that..one of my spiders just molted into a mature male and will be meeting the lady i have once he is ready to go.

what he looked like before:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0953s.jpg
later:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_3943s.jpg
now, lost some of the greenish coloration, and all of the orange on the abdomen:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8059s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8066s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8069s.jpg
close up:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_8065crop.jpg
next to ruler, about 4.5" (11.4cm) in leg span:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8058s.jpg
kinda hard to tell cause he is sideways, but this is the first threat pose i've ever received from a larger sized spider:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8040s.jpg
spider "balls"
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_8025crop.jpg
and last, the female (these pics i posted in the recently bought shit thread):
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6550s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6552s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6546s.jpg
shes a bit bigger than him, i almost feel bad for the guy. unfortunately, he only has about 1.5-2 years left of his life, so i basically mate him and maybe he dies, or he just dies.

Awesome thread, I love to see all this shit. I only wish I could buy some spiders but my mom would kill me if I did.

haha, just do it.

grafcore; mating them seems a very interesting project to take on, but what the fuck do you do with 100 new spiders??

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I have 6 blue tounge lizards now. I had a gecko, turtle, some tree frogs, etc, but had to sell and give them away. Also have some yabbies, my biggest one is about 25cm long claw to tail.
Blue tounge lizards and yabbies are cool because you dont need to do much to look after them. The lizards are tame as fuck and are so timid.
Never really was interested in spiders, mostly because I wouldnt pick one up or anything. Those photo's are pretty cool, xgrafcorex

Wow this thread has doubled in posts since I last looked at it (boring)

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req - hah yea my parents don't like them either really..but i didn't even think of owning any when i lived at home. if you had a small one, they might not even notice depending on what your room looks like and how your parents are.

doc - well if i just do it, he won't have any sperm in his bulbs ( the spider "balls" pic) and won't knock her up. yea, the mating is pretty interesting to watch. my one roommate thought they were fighting when she first saw it happen....it can quickly turn into a fight too, so you have to stay on your toes with something to get between them to bail the guy outta here. sometimes its all too fast though and theres nothing you can do. thats why i'm feel bad for this guy..the female has a decent amount of leg span and bulk on him.

insert - sounds cool man..i've only kept a few snakes as far as reptiles go, i've thought about some leopard geckos..they look pretty funny. so far i've never held most of them...just a few that are more relaxed get to climb around on me. putting these two i just posted about together will be interesting though..they are really quick, and one might end up on the run, or running onto me all of a sudden trying to get away from the other spider haha. what are yabbies? thats cool they are calm..all the lizards in the wild here are crazy nervous..they run as soon as you get anywhere near them. heh we even have wild iguana here..though it was thanks to a bunch of people releasing their pets, or else someone came here by hitching a ride in a shipment of something or other and nobody noticed.

dystopia - if its boring...theres no reason for you to return.

and what about the nymphs? do you keep em all together?

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well i've yet to have an actual hatch out, just one egg sack that wound up being eaten by the mother. now i've got a jumping spider egg sac..and i am pretty sure the other jumper female just started building a hammock structure last night to start laying eggs in...its getting hard to see in there.

but yes, i would keep them together at first. while they are still in the egg sac, they are "eggs with legs" basically. then they molt into 1st instar spiderlings which can move but don't disperse from the sac or mother. they have a food reserve that they are born with that will last them to their next molt. after that molt, they begin to spread out and thats when people start to seperate them. if you don't seperate them, they'll make lunch out of eachother.

some people do that on purpose though. when breeding anything in the genus Lasiodora, which have an average of 1000 - 2000 (i think..i know its over 1000) per sac, people simply don't want to or can't take care of that many. so they let them feed off each other until their numbers have dwindled to a more managable amount. i'll probably wind up doing this to some extent. i'm going to offer the jumpers up for free, just have people pay shipping. that way people will take them off my hands faster and i won't have to keep them around too long. if the cambridgei sac works out, i'll probably let the slings go for $5 each + shipping.

some of them you can leave together..people often try communal tanks by raising slings from the same sac from Poecilotheria, Holothele, Avicularia, and sometimes, but rarely, Pterinochilus..maybe others that i'm not aware of. most of the time, people wind up with one fat spider..but sometimes it works. i think most of the people that do try it, are only trying it because they have several hundred of them, so why not?

I used to own two red belied newts, one man and one female. I had them for around six months until my younger brother got a hold to them. He flipped the plastic aquarium over that they were living in. I manged to find the female, but the male was no where to be found. Several, weeks later she died, she would not eat anymore or do anything. She only sat there on the rock which was above the water surface. I'm not sure if she had injures or wanted to die because she was lonely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bellied_Newt

I also owned a North American tree frog, for three years. The same fate happened to it. My younger brother got a hold to it. I envy him, so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agalychnis

I had an Iguana but I don't fell like talking about him now.

Yabbies are kind of like mini lobsters, as it takes a lot more effort to get them to grow as big. The real small ones get used as live bait sometimes, and the big ones can be eaten(by people who cant afford lobsters, I guess). Anyway, I went through a big phase of them a couple years ago, and I got given and caught like 12 of them. I had so many little tanks, and eventually I had to get rid of them all. A couple killed eachother, one escaped. I gave some away and released the rest into a creek. I kept the youngest one and put it in the biggest tank I have, which is like 1.3 metres long or something. Eventually I was given another one, but I had no tanks left. I put a glass divider in my big tank and they lived happily next to eachother for ages.

One night, the glass fell down and I found them in the same tank. Was shocked to see one of them wasnt in pieces. A few weeks later, I noticed one was pregnant. Its pretty cool when they get pregant( I wish I kept photo's) as they keep their eggs under their tail. There was around 100 eggs or something, and they stayed under her tail for a few months. Then, one morning I noticed the eggs had hatched and there were hundreds of the little fuckers everywhere. Now, I have that mother still(she is getting really old, over 6 years!) and one of the babies,(the rest of them killed eachother). The one I kept was the mackdaddy of the tank.
Anyway there ar different types of yabbies, some are small and brown, others are big and blue. Mine are 'Cherax destructor', and look like this one only bigger.
Cherax destructor
Again, they are pretty docile. I used to pick them up and let them bite me for fun. I did that again a little while ago and it cut the skin between my middle finger and pointer finger in two.

I used to own one of those things. They are jumpers, we had them in a fish aquarium with no top. So we kept the water surface around 5 inches below the top of the aquarium. Little did we know, that it could still get out. We saved it once, but the other time it couldn't survive the fall.

Heh, that happens. One made it halfway down the stairs, another got trodden on by a friend.

I really want a Tegu, but they get so damn big. I know my mom wouldn't let me have one. Have any of you ever owned one, or known someone that has or had one?

For those who don't know what a Tegu is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegu

Tomorrow, I'm going to the local pet store and search for some Bearded Dragons. If i get one it will be a female. I just asked my mom about getting one, and she said "Yes". WOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

that newt and frog look pretty cool req. especially that frog. i like the red eyes....been looking at some frogs, but not sure i want to branch out much more...i have plenty mouths to feed haha. sucks about the newt. the other one probably crawled off and dried up. we had some in one of my old elementary classes and one got out and was found somewhere in the room all dried up.

thats a pretty nice looking lobster too insert. never seen one with that many colors. i was really close to setting up a salt water tank one time, i gave up on the idea and wound up with an empty aquarium and thought..what else can i put in this thing...looked around online and came across tarantulas.

i've always been into nature/snakes/spiders and whatnot but never that seriously. got my first spider and was pretty hooked...now i have over 20..and i've had over twice that at one time. lost some babies i received from someone which thinned out my numbers a bit. they smaller they are, the harder they are to keep alive..especially certain species.

req - i've never kept any lizards..but i've seen some tegus at the store. i think some of those frogs are a bit nicer looking, but i guess they take a little more work to maintain. tell your parents not to worry about spiders haha. get a Grammostola rosea. they are the most common species in the trade. cheap and docile for the most part. you know that movie raiders of the lost ark? that scene in the bigging where his back is covered in big ass spiders, those are all G. rosea.

bearded dragons look cool. i've never kept any though. i've seen some fiesty ones heh, but i'm sure there are some really chill ones too.

I may be mixing up my genus' here, but aren't Bearded Dragons the lizard that squirts a stream of blood out of its eye when its scared or agitated? Maybe not, but whichever do I want one with AIDS.

...

me too

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so grafcore, give us a list of all your animals

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darko - i don't think that is what the bearded dragons do..or at least i've never heard of it. granted i know little about them other than general care. sounds pretty cool though..no so sure i'd want one with aids most likely, the main care giver would be the one receiving the spray of blood.



doc - according to my roommates "too many!"

0.0.0 = number of males.number of females.number of unsexed, and just so you know, i'll list them Genus species (and in some cases theres a third part of the name which is the subspecies.) and then if its the same genus, i'll just abbreviate it.

in no particular order:

spiders

tarantulas
1.1.0 Psalmopoeus cambridgei "trinidad chevron"
0.1.0 P. irminia "venezuelan suntiger"
1.2.0 Grammostola rosea (both females potentially expecting) "chilean rose hair"
0.1.0 G. aureostriata "chaco gold knee"
1.0.0 Brachypelma vagans "mexican redrump"
0.0.1 B. emilia "mexican red leg"
0.0.1 Avicularia versicolor "antilles pink toe"
0.1.0 Aphonopelma seemani "costa rican zebra"
0.0.2 Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens "green bottle blue"
0.0.1 Xenesthis sp. "white" i don't know of any common name for this one yet
0.0.1 Cyclosternum fasciatum "costa rican tiger rump"

jumpers
0.2.0 Phidippus johnsoni (both females are currently sitting on egg sacs) "desert red jumping spider"

scorpions
0.0.1 Pandinus imperator "emperor scorpion"
3.1.0 Centruroides vittatus "texas bark scorpion"
0.0.1 Opistophthalmus wahlbergii "african tri-color scorpion"

snakes
0.0.2 Elaphe guttata guttata "corn snakes"
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula californiae "striped king snake"

i have pictures of them all and some older stuff i had in my photobucket, but i didn't feel like posting those all right now.

graf- I counted 25, correct me if I'm wrong. Around how much do you spend monthly on the, food, accesories, and equpiment? PICTURES!!!!! NOW

i counted 26 actually

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I did too, on the third time, counting.

25 is right..but i was wrong and didn't put down 2 corn snakes just one. it probably hates me for forgetting about it. but thats ok cause the little bastard already hates me. so its really 26.

for food i spend about 25-30 bucks a month. i get 4 sizes of crickets, and a baby mouse for each of the 3 snakes. i don't really spend much a month on the rest of the stuff. i buy or find/recycle containers as i need them, same with substrate and decorations. it all adds up though..i'm not sure how much i've spent in total.

haha and since i'm bored at work with nothing to do but work, here are some pictures in the same order i listed them above.

P. cambrigei male
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8066s.jpg
female - http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6546s.jpg

P. irminia female
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8011s.jpg

G. rosea male
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7888s.jpg
females
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0951s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0294s.jpg

G. aureostriata female
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_5081s.jpg

B. vagans male
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_5520s.jpg

B. emilia unsexed (will look nothing like that as an adult)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7496c.jpg

A. versicolor unsexed (also will look very different as an adult)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6689s.jpg

A. seemani female
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0459s.jpg

C. cyaneopubescens unsexed (these too will be very different looking as adults)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0570s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_5048s.jpg

X. sp. "white" unsexed (i'm really hoping its a girl)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7892s.jpg

C. fasciatum unsexed
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6123s.jpg

P. johnsoni female (didn't get a pic of the other one, it just hid and has stayed that way since)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c.../IMG_7932s2.jpg
making or with egg sac..kinda hard to see in there
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_8110s.jpg

P. imperator unsexed
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_3281s.jpg

O. wahlbergii unsexed
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...ex/IMG_2252.jpg
same scorp under a uv light
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4272s.jpg

C. vittatus female
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4145s.jpg not sure what that orange thing is..but its gone now.
males
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4141s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4135s.jpg
the other male with a female i used to have http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_2610s.jpg

okeetee corn snake getting a piece of dat ass!
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6445s.jpg
anery corn snake
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_5575s.jpg

striped king snake
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_6167s.jpg

those are all of the critters that share my bedroom with me. if any of the spiders have babies, i'll have hundreds more and will be looking to give them away pretty much. the jumpers i will just give out if people pay shipping (and aren't just going to squash them or whatever), same with the G. rosea, but for the P. cambridgei (i haven't even mated them yet) i would likely charge 5 bucks a piece or something..i'd still give some away as freebies with a purchase of one just to get the numbers down. it will be quite a chore feeding all those little bastards!

those cambrigeis look awesome, really nice shade of grey.

and your vagans looks a lot like mine, so i guess mine will be a male too

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yea, i agree..i think cambridgei is my favorite species.

not true about your vagans as far as i know. i don't think there is any color difference between sexes of that species. for the most part, the differences in coloration between sexes only show up once the male matures. just like that cambridgei. up until its last molt, it looked just like the female only a lot smaller.

there are some spiders that look different according to sex from an early stage..like Nephila clavipes http://www.floridanature.org/specie...ephila_clavipes these things are all over florida. the females get really big and have nicer coloration. the males are much smaller and kinda dull looking in comparison throughout their life...maybe not when they are really young, they probably all look the same then.

They are freshwater, and all they need is purified water. So rainwater or out of a water purifier. They dont need much, mine just has a water filter pump thingo. Change the water once a year. I'll take some photo's of it soon.

heres tha plan.
get like 200 extremely poisonous wild spiders.
Hide them in the kitchen and bathtub n shit.
when she fucking flips, tell her you love them and youll get rid of them if she just buys you one pet one.

kind of like asking for a thousand dollars when you need 500

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I've had an eastern long-neck turtle (Chelodina longicollis) for a few months. My girlfriend gave it to me for a bday present. It's pretty cool pet, a lot more active than I thought it'd be and a bit vicious(for lack of a better word). It's gone through about 20 small fish and taken bites out of goldfish over a third its size

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yeah you mention spider hunting before. do you actually have tarantulas in your (so to speak) backyard?

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thats cool..i've thought about a turtle..but i guess they need a fairly large tank once they are adults. plus i'm not really experienced with aquatic animals. my little brother has a turtle...not sure what kind it is though.



hah i wish. the things that are everywhere are those N. clavipes.

theres supposed to be an area of old citrus groves in central florida where someone released some vagans and they wound up doing well there and building up a population. since florida has such a bad history with invasive species, they tried to kill them all off. i got the location info from a guy who is a taxonomist for some department of the state of florida and i went there, but i didn't find anything. i plan on going there again sometime, but its kinda disheartening to make an hour and a half drive one way to a place you failed to find anything. i should probably go at a later time of day when its darker.

Man, Papa Rezendes is gonna be so pissed when he finds out you people are talking about reptiles. I'm gonna clear out!

check out my regalis eating a nice big grasshopper (cant actually see it, but its a nice pic anyway)

http://www.menno.satanist.nl/spin/regalis/eating.JPG

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Agalychnis is a South and Central American genus. Native North American treefrogs are primarily Hyla, Acris, and Pseudacris. There are a few extra treefrogs that have been introduced into Florida, most notably various genera that end in "dactylus" and Osteopilus septentrionalis.



I spend anywhere from $10 to $15 a week, usually just under $13. Three medium rats, two mice, and one pinkie mouse.

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when my friend gets rats for his snake, the store puts the dead rats in chinese food take out cartons.

just thought id mention it............its kinda funny

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what kind of snakes do you have?


doc - thats a kick ass spider know when her last molt was? or at least roughly?

3 rescued adult Python regius, 2 of their 5-6 month old offspring, and one wild caught baby Lampropeltis t. triangulum that I was lucky enough to induce into feeding.

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cool, those are all pretty nice looking snakes. rescued them from where? people wanting to get rid of pets? i've seen on kingsnake.com they have some animals for adoption, but i imagine nothing too crazy gets put in that section..and anything good gets snatched up real quick.

so far, the only trouble with them feeding i've had is with my king snake. it will eat fine, but its very reclusive and will always wait till its dark and nobody is around for some time, or after i turn out the lights and go to bed...wake up and the food is gone. other than that, we caught a baby black racer (don't know the scientific name) in our front yard. we kept him for a little bit..a fiesty little one for sure! but he wouldn't eat anything, we tried pinkies, brained-pinkies, and crickets...nothing. so we let it go rather than keeping it and potentially starve him. that snake hated us all though, just coming near its tank, it would get very alert and ready to strike, and would strike too heh. maybe it didn't hate me though, i never got bit once, my roommate did though..of course i didn't hold him as much as she did.

it just molted before i bought it, so that would be uhm.... about three weeks ago. She's two years old so im not really sure how much bigger shes gonna get. i guess not very much, because she already is the size of my hand

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ahh just wondering..right after they molt is when they look their best. yea, it looks like shes pretty much full grown. i really want to get a "pokie" (thats what people call them for short..with various spellings...it just gets to be a pain to type Poecilotheria every time in a casual discussion)..one of these days. i had male ornata, and a tiny ass regalis, but they both kicked the bucket. i think i mentioned.. the ornata was about 4" in legspan, so i figured it was pretty well established..but somehow it got mites, and i cleared that up for the most part..save a couple stragglers..but the spider refused to eat. i kept giving it water to drink but it didn't work out. heres a couple pics of him
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_2311s.jpg not sure what he's trying to do here.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...ex/IMG_2336.jpg same day..just with lights off and a flashlight
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_0821s.jpg when i first got him.

the regalis i wasn't ever able to get any good pics..it was pretty tiny. i counted that one as being just a small ass spider. they are fairly delicate at that size. i guess thats why they have so many babies per egg sac.

hate to say it..but i think towards the beginning i got a little over zealous in obtaining different species and wound up with a little more than i was ready for. so i experienced some losses of smaller spiders. it still doesn't make sense to me though since i keep them all in the same conditions and some thrive, and some have not. i know they come from different areas, but i try to take that into consideration with certain species..especially if i've read about problems with raising some species. now i pay more attention to the smaller ones as far as feeding more often and sometimes giving them some moisture in the substrate in case they need some liquids. also i am trying to avoid the smallest babies, and get something at least somewhat established.

yeah i guess im really lucky with buying an adult regalis that cheap. i bought a nice piece of half-hollow bark and shes sitting in there the entire day. pretty boring now HAHAHA

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haha more boring yes, but shes happier now. also, it makes it that much cooler when you catch her out randomly, feeding time or at night.

edit...a little something for you australians http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6282075.stm

i guess you all are having a drought and snakes are moving into more areas populated by people to find water. a few people died from bites, but not many compared to how many snake bites there were. you guys do have some pretty venomous snakes over there.

Rescued as in- stupid fuck buys snake because he thinks it's cool; stupid fuck doesn't know how to properly care for said snake; said snake languishes in captivity under poor diet, improper heating, unclean conditions, parasites, etc.; when the snake is near death, stupid fuck brings snake back to wherever he bought it; pet store contacts rescue worker. I gained a lot of experience under a sort of informal apprenticeship under a rescue worker. I worked both with the rescue animals (all sorts of reptiles and amphibians, no invertebrates) and her personal pets as well. I inherited two of her snakes that she didn't have any room for.

The one I've had the longest was relatively heatlhy, but she hadn't eaten in at least 8 months beforehand (that's just in the 8 months this lady had the snake, who knows how long it hadn't eaten before it was brought in). I got her to eat just fine, she's still my pickiest feeder, but she's at a healthy weight. The other was an intermediate case. She was underweight, dehydrated, and had several layers of retained shed. She is my best feeder, and, in fact, when the other snakes won't eat, sometimes I will toss rats in the middle of rigor mortis in with her.

The last one, the male, wasn't in very good condition when I got him in from someone who found it abandoned in a tank in an apartment building basement. He was dehydrated, had layers of retained shed, rat bites all along his spine and back, and his belly had been burned so extensively that he was missing many scales and oozing some sort of fluid in many areas. I remember his cloaca, around where the damage appeared the most extensive, just gaping open with the hemipenes falling out a couple of times. I assumed he would never be able to mate. Then he knocked up my ladies and I'm now buying two of his kids dinner every week. He himself fed well from day one.



Racers are generally Coluber constrictor, and all forms of that species, including the Coluber c. constrictor that is relatively common around where I live, are irrascible beasts that abhor human interaction. They never quite tame down, and you are very lucky if you get one to feed on a consistent basis. Due to their level of activity, they require much larger caging than other large snakes. I had some minor success by keeping a 48in. long adult in an enclosure where he couldn't see people walking by and in an area where vibrations from foot traffic was minimal. Routine maitenance still caused him to flip out, and cleaning was a pain in the ass. I've kept other species of hostile snakes, most notably Nerodia sipedon, and they were much easier to manage than Coluber.

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i used to have two identical snakes. small though. my step dad told me to feed them pieces of fish. so i did for a long time. it was so freakin fun feeding them shreds of fish at the end of a stick. haha! they would sort of stand up with their mouths open, waiting for me to put it close to their face. reminded me of how birds do that. eventually, one of them died, and i let the other go near a lake. funny little things.

thats cool you got the snake from those arseholes then chris. i hate seeing animals kept in crappy conditions at pet stores..let alone in someones home.

time, you ever think of getting another snake? they are funny little bastards.

i just fed my snakes tonight..and for the first time i was able to see the king snake eat without waiting for me to turn out the lights and leave or go to sleep.

king snake choking out a fuzzy mouse
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8196s.jpg

exiting the cup i put the mouse in
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8199s.jpg

corn snake feeding
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8197s.jpg

got a couple pics of one of my jumpers today. she had been hiding since i got her with her egg sac. i guess she wandered out to get something to eat or some water, so i tossed in a small cricket for her.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_8194s.jpg

kinda blurry shot of her
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_8192crop.jpg

and last but not least..the P. pederseni
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8209s.jpg

they had another species of Poecilotheria..but it was sold out before i knew it, and they only had the common name listed after it was gone, so i don't know what species it was. they had some others..but i either had them or didn't feel like waiting YEARS for them to grow. they had another that was tempting..a possible female Pterinochilus murinus, but i am getting a few in the mail this weekend they are a fiesty african tarantula that hates everything and shows it! some pet stores will sell them in the tank they are in just so they don't have to capture them and put them in a small plastic container they sell the rest in heh.

haha, aggresive spiders galore!

about the jumpers, how long does it take for the sack to hatch? and how does the spider behave during 'pregnancy', more protecting?

my regalis has been in her shelter for the entire week, not sure if she came out at night but i cant be sure. i put a grasshopper in the tank last evening but pockey didn't go out and hunt. curious how long it will take.

and here's a pic of my vagans sitting in a cool pose

http://www.menno.satanist.nl/spin/vagans/pose.jpg

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i'm not completely sure..i had asked someone that has bred them, but so far no reply. i figure a few weeks to a little over a month. so far i haven't really noticed any defensive behavior, i haven't tried testing them though..just letting them do their thing. its the first time i had seen that one sing i got them rehoused a couple weeks ago. her abdomen was small (mostly from laying the eggs, but party cause she hadn't eaten) so she came out for some food i figured. i know tarantulas can get pretty defensive about their egg sacs..some of them can be down right nasty about it too.

she probably came out of there at some point at night...some are more reclusive than others. one good way to tell is by looking at the water dish. fill it up and put it down so no substrate is in it. usually you'll see some in it the next day or a day or two later which means she was there...unless the grasshopper was still in there. how often and what do you feed her? its fun to watch them feed, no doubt..but unlike fish or dogs and cats, they really don't need to eat that often. adults in my house get fed one or two adult crickets a week..and depending on the situation, even a little longer.

when i went to italy last year, i fed them all, topped off the water dishes, and left for 13 or 14 days. i did lose one or two, but they were tiny little ones. the rest, even slightly larger were fine. adults can go without food for much longer than that. some species..particularly G. rosea can go for months without food, and not even before a molt, which can be pretty stressful for people...but the spider will be fine. so just be patient..she'll come out of there. thats one thing tarantulas teach us..patience.

cool pic of the vagans. you ever try looking at its molt to tell if it was a female or not?

nah it was pretty small and broken, i'll wait till the next one.

and the regalis just snatched the grasshopper. just when i wasnt looking for a second, haha. Anyway, i feed her 2 big grasshopper (2 inches long) a week and the vagans gets 3 small crickets. i was wondering if i should get those vitaminpowders for extra nutrients though.

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ahh that sucks..i hate when that happens. oh well, it will be that much easier with a larger exuvium.

no..they won't do any good..the best way to give the spider extra nutrients is to gut-load the feeders. spiders don't eat the exoskeleton of the feeders, so all the powder on the outside would likely be shaken off or just remain in that ball of remains. i guess some MIGHT be taken in..but there are a bunch of fine hairs surrounding the mouth that could filter the powder out.

you can feed the prey items anything really. i buy these orange cube things for crickets from a company called flukers. not cheap as other alternatives..but the jar lasts a while. some people just feed the crickets/roaches/etc. fruit..they love it, and it will provide the spider with all the nutrients once it eats the cricket.

i'm not exactly sure how much is known in regards to what nutrients in particular benefit spiders though..so maybe even a varied diety of fruit and vegetables would be best?

anyone know anything that contributes to cuticle growth?? maybe thats a good question for the science thread.

having said all that..there are many who just feed their crickets crushed dog food(very cheap! and has plenty of nutrients) and some that don't feed their crickets anything..just right to the spiders. their spiders do just fine with that..but i would think gut-loading them with good food certainly can't hurt.

yep, i think i'll change the letuce with some fruit then

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Hey! Just noticed this thread. I've been collecting invertebrates since about the age of five when I got my first spider. I grew up in a house with maybe thirty snakes or so, so never really developed an interest in them. At one point I must have had a total of almost a thousand spiders, centipedes and scorpions, with a few other bugs like mantids dotted around. This figure is accurate, and does include various life cycles etc, and when you take into account I'd get maybe 100 baby spiders per eggsac it shouldn't seem like a bullshit statement. I've kept allsorts over the last 15 years, so is good to see other people with similar interests etc

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wow, more details, pics, stories, etc.

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yes, pictures and info por favor. thats a lot of inverts! what kind of spiders?

i've only been into keeping inverts..mainly tarantulas, for a year and a half now..two years this summer. fairly recently got into breeding attempts..so far nothing much, but its just the beginning.

100 an egg sac? not too bad..there are some tarantulas that have over a thousand! needless to say..that deters a lot of people from breeding those species. luckily some are still brave enough to do it.

I once had a website etc with it all on. Yeah over the last ten years I've mainly kept Theraphosids ('tarantulas') and have bred quite a few species. Yeah, I got 40 spiderlings from a Haplopelma lividum sack about 6 years ago, but later on got around the 200 mark from the Grammastola rosea. It'd take me ages to list the species etc I've had, but I do have loads of pictures I can share etc.

Here's a few off the top of my head I can remember having. Apologies for the scientific naming if it means fuck all to you ha
-Acanthoscurria (geniculata, juruenicola, chacoana)
-Aphonopelma (seemani
-Avicularia (metallica, avicularia, versicolor, purpurea, geroldi)
-Brachypelma (vagans, boehmei, emilia, albopilosum
-Ceratogyrus (bechaunicus, meridionalis
-Citharischius crawshayi
-Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
-Davus pentaloris
-Ephebopus (murinus, cyagnathus)
-Haplopelma (lividum, schmidti, aureopilosum)
-Hysterocrates gigas
-Lasiodorides polycuspalatus
-Megaphobema (velvetosoma, robustum)
-Nhandu coloratovillosum
-Poecilotheria (regalis, rufiliata, pederseni, formosa, ornata
-Pterinochilus (murinus, lugardi)
-Psalmopoeus (irminia, cambridgei)
-Theraphosa blondi

And a long list of other 'exotic animals', if I made a list it'd probably just come out as if it's bullshit, but keep in mind why would I brag about something nerdy like pets on a metal guitar forum.

But yeah... Even that list seems under half of the size of the ones I can remember typing up back in my nerdy days. Still have a load of pictures but none are really online. Did used to have one called 'the hatchery' but it's no longer alive due to registration fees etc and no time

My interest diminished a bit last year as I left for uni though and retained only about 20 spiders, of which most I progressively sold. I now have a measly 6 spiders with me at uni now... Weak I'm back in the hobby of it all etc, just dorment for the time being, hah.

But yeah... As far as spiders and bugs go I've had them all my life. Spiders are the reason I'm at uni doing a chemistry degree etc. I've a fair bit of experience/access to knowledge etc, so if you have any questions or need help with stuff I can probably help

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cool man..those are some kick ass spiders. haven't even heard of a few of the species you listed. which 6 did you wind up keeping?

hah i'm just getting even more nerdy with my hobby. used to read about the shit all day for a while when i was first starting, now i'm just reading more in depth things. i've even gone out hunting for tarantulas, other spiders, scorpions and centipedes. no luck on the tarantulas or centipedes though. there aren't any naturally occurring species here in florida, but there was a population of B. vagans in central florida in some citrus groves.

supposedly a pet dealer or something released some there and i guess there were some gravid females or they just wound up mating out there. the state govt had some people go out and check it out and collect some specimens, then they sent in a crew to kill them all off. (this state has a problem with non native species establishing themselves) i didn't find any, but i was there during the day..want to try again at night. there are still rumors though that they have spread further west, but i got the location from a biologist that was involved in the original team that collected some and had them identified.

haha hows that for nerdy?

Mozart is getting one of his penises amputated.

haha damn thats pretty crazy. poor mozart.


got my box o' spiders from a member of this forum that is mainly about spiders. i like buying from other users because the prices are usually pretty good. i ordered a ~2.5" female Brachypelma albopilosum initially..but since it was cold, i used overnight shipping with a heat pack..so i asked if he had other spiders for sale to kind of spread out the shipping bill. i wound up getting a 2" Theraphosa blondi, and 3 small Pterinochilus murinus. i ordered two of the P. murinus, but he just threw in an extra for free since he has about 100 or so of them left from a successful breeding.

the whole crew in their new homes
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8227s.jpg

one of the P. murinus..these guys are gonna be pretty feisty when they get older, and will be a nice golden/orange color.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8222s.jpg

B. albopilosum female. she was pretty calm while i scooted her into her new home...she'll probably be a good spider to take out of her container every now and then.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8235s.jpg
close up
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_8240crop.jpg

T. blondi. this pic took me a while to get..because every time i tried to take the lid off, it would run into that flower pot hide. certainly has some attitude...these things are notorious for flicking the hairs on their abdomen, which itches a lot. this is also the largest known species of spider in the world..maxing out at 12" in leg span. some are smaller, some are a little larger. they need higher humidity to thrive, so to combat the possibility of a mite infestation, i'm gonna find some "rolly pollies" don't know the scientific name..i guess they are also called pill bugs? they are the small grey bugs that curl up into a ball when they feel threatened. they'll eat all the left over food remains that would otherwise sit and attract mites.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8283s.jpg

finally put all my Centruroides vittatus together in a communal set up. there are 3 males and one female. i tossed in a few crickets so they could eat if they wanted to. they should be fine, but occasionally they can be cannibalistic. generally, as long as they are fed well, there are plenty of hiding spots and overall room, and they are all about the same size..they will do alright. heres a couple pictures.

complete view of set up.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8293s.jpg

close up of one of the males exploring his new crib.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_8294crop.jpg

and since i was messing around with the scorps..i gave taking another uv photo a try. this time, instead of manually pushing the button, and causing the camera to shift a little, i used the timer function so the camera wouldn't really move at all. it came out a little more clear..but i think if i tweak some things, i might be able to get something a little better looking.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c.../IMG_8300s2.jpg

How big are those scorpians?

Hah, talking about 'getting the albopilosum out now and then' here's a real old image of mine, taken in Feb 2003. It seems with the majority of spiders that they lose instinct when placed in this position.

Holding spiders is something I never really did unless I wound up with a spider on me, or for crude sexing purposes based on morphology... Oh and the occasional arty shot

As for the blondi... I've done my time with that species, and reactions to the urticating hairs just got progressivly worse over a period of seven years or so. I had a huge female we dubbed "War Bastard" and she had an abdomen the size of a tennis ball. In the genus though, Theraphosa apophysis is debatedly known as 'the largest spider' due to the leg spans they can attain, but blondi holds the title based on factors such as sheer bulk, availabilty, and how prominent/cliché they are in the pet trade and the media

EDIT: I just found a few more pictures etc that have reminded me of some of the other stuff I've had over the years. Here's a picture of a big Deroplatys desiccata I had for a few years, got a couple of hundred nymphs from her. There's also a picture of my Scolopendra alipes, the favourite the centipede I had. Also attached a picture of a regular male Tegenaria gigantea (our British 'house spiders').

Attached Images

	albo.jpg (93.2 KB, 109 views)
	deroplatys_desiccata.jpg (73.8 KB, 121 views)
	alipescolourBWselect.jpg (58.8 KB, 117 views)
	spidercloseonleaf.jpg (76.4 KB, 123 views)

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darko - they are fairly small..from "head" to tail, i would say they are 2.5" all of the scorps in that genus are pretty small as far as i know. checked on them this afternoon(morning for me hah) and 3 of them were all hanging out under the same piece of cork bark..the other was just chilling out on another piece on the other side of the enclosure. it looked like one of the males tried to mate with her last night...but it was a very tight/awkward position, and there was another male somewhat in the way. its fairly easy to get young from these scorps though..i think i'm all but guaranteed to have some babies one of these days, just by keeping them together. i just hope they don't start fighting over who gets that scorp puntang.

deifiler - i've seen some other pics of a tarantula "playing dead"..pretty funny looking. i've never even attempted to try it before. i don't take them out too often..just here and there with only a few of them. i just try and gauge how their behaving and try to get them to crawl onto me by putting my hand at the edge of the top of their container and just let them keep walking till they are all the way on board..then move my hand away from the tank. my male G. rosea is a different story though..hes the most laid back spider i've ever had, and will 9 times out of 10 just let me scoop him up. once he kinda backed away so i left him alone that time.

thats a pretty cool looking mantid..looks like a bunch of leaves kinda. good camouflage. i've never kept any mantids before.

yea i'm not sure about blondi vs. apophysis. i just always assumed anything in that genus to be pretty much the same size. but you are right..blondi is leagues ahead of apophysis in the pet trade. even two of the reptile stores here have a few blondi. ever see a mature male apophysis? i just saw a picture of one the other day..they get a nice metallic purple/blue coloration to them. very nice looking...it just sucks that their time is so limited at that point.

them blondi's look really sick with their large abdomens. I really want one of those as my next spidy.
i noticed she had a bald spot; when/how do spiders lose their hairs? flicked to many?

and to come back on the feeders, grafcore, i just fed my crickets fat with fruit and vegies, and now they look really really swollen and cant walk. looks really funny in way, and im sure they're nutricious

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they are nice looking spiders..i used to just think of them as a big dull brown spider...but they grew on me..and now i like the brown. kinda velvety looking. i'd consider blondi a moderately difficult species to keep. they aren't insanely fast like Poecilotheria or pretty any arboreals..but they can kick up a big storm of urticating hairs, and they require higher levels of humidity. the higher humidity coupled with any left over food remains is a perfect invitation for parasitic mites. make sure to clean up all the food leftovers you can, and occasionally check for mites with a flashlight in the dark. just shine the light right over the top of the substrate and you should be able to see them (if they are there) moving around..they are just small little round looking grey/white bugs. i've had some before and didn't even notice with my eyes, but realized it after taking some close up photos and looking at them on the computer. then i could see them while looking for them, but until then i had no clue. oh.. and with the higher humidity, you want some good ventilation too.

yea, the bald spot is from kicking the hairs off as a defensive mechanism. i guess some of them could rub off the spider rubs its abdomen on something..or is digging a burrow etc. the hairs (the small ones, not the longer more prominent ones) are only hanging on to their abdomens by a small "stalk" (not sure what the word for that part is)..so it doesn't take much for them to become seperated from the abdomen. one other thing about the hairs..only spiders from the new world, NA/CA/SA, have the hairs..but there is at least one genus from south america that doesn't have them..theres been speculation about them being related to some of the tarantulas from asia that were seperated when continents drifted apart. all the spiders from the old world do not have them..so your regalis can't flick itchy hairs at you..the only thing she could do is run, give you a nice threat pose..or bite you.

sounds good about the feeders..as long as its not: they can't walk because something is wrong with them. but to me it just sounds like they are stuffed and nice and fat. i asked some people on the american tarantula society boards about nutrition for spiders, but it seems not much is known about specifics. there isn't a lot of money in the world of studying spiders unfortunately. the general answer i got though, if you really want to ensure a very healthy spider, offer a variety of food so that it should be able to get different nutrients from various sources. on the other hand, i'm sure there are a LOT of people who only use crickets. i am pretty much one of them hah. though i have though of starting up my own roach colony so i don't have to drive to the pet store every week.

in the end, i'd say it sounds like you're doing a fine job taking care of them.

thanks, im really diggin it.

im doubting my way of taking care of the feeders though. I have an extra tank in which i put my small crickets (they grow faster and hardly die). but i also put my grasshopers in there, they really seem apathic and already 4 have died in 2 weeks. The small crickets eat the carcasses (which is a good thing i suppose) but it all gets really smelly and the bottom is covered in shit. just a failed experiment i guess.

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ehh feeders die all the time. if i get crickets..i put some food in for them..then about 4 or 5 days later..any that are left are likely dead. i would try and give it a good cleaning when you get new feeders though. if you leave all the dead ones in there mites could likely infest your feeders..then if you don't notice them on the feeders (it happens) and you feed them to your spiders..your spider will wind up with mites too.

i keep my crickets in those "kritter keepers" the plastic containers with snap on lids and a hindged clear door in the top of the lid. the feeder ones have black tubes going down into them for the feeders to crawl in..they like the dark.. and i just shake them out until there is one or two left and then fling them into the enclosure with the spider. once i run out of that size of crickets..i give the whole thing a nice rinse in some hot water, then wipe it dry with some toilet paper. (since its there in the bathroom where i rinse them out)

you don't have to go crazy and clean it everytime theres a dead feeder..but try not to let it get too nasty. and yes, CRICKETS FUCKING STINK!!!!!!!! ..thats actually one of the main reasons i want to eventually switch to starting a roach colony. easy to maintain, don't stink, they don't chirp (some make hissing noises i guess), and depending on the species..don't climb, fly, or jump.

well this morning i found some little bugs in one of my jumping spiders enclosures.

P. johnsoni and crew
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_8452s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_8454s.jpg

so far i've only counted about 12 at most. was annoying trying to count them since they kept moving around. could be more in there i didn't see..they are small and would be almost impossible to see on the substrate. i'm not sure what the average number of eggs they lay.

edit..this morning i see there are quite a few more that have emerged..about 50 in total...plus or minus a couple..they don't all sit still for counting ease.

I have an iguana named Lizilia. I'll post pics later.

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Very nice!

i'm having trouble with feeding my regalis..........i cant fetch the last fucking cricket! , as you know, ive put them all in a larger tank so they could grow, and theres one left who just keeps jumping away, haha i feel dumb

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hah yea sometimes they are a real pain in the ass. what are you using to catch them? i just have this little plastic cup and drop it over the cricket and slide a piece of cardboard or something underneath and just lift it up and drop the cricket into the enclosure with the spider. of if theres just one..tilt the whole thing and just make it slide out into the spiders tank, or just into something else you can easily dump the cricket out of to get eaten.

ill try that, im using my bare hands now

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hah i would try using something else..i just scoop them up with a pen cap for the smaller ones..or something a little larger for the adults. well besides the tubes in the plastic container they are in. some people use forceps but i've only done that once..it takes some getting used to to grab them without crushing them.

easiest way for me, besides the pre made tubes, is just to corner the cricket in the container so that its got nowhere to go but in whatever you are trying to get it in. sometimes they'll jump over or whatever..and it can be a pain in the ass..but it is pretty easy most of the time.

im starting to get handy at this...

cool, the regalis has exposed herself for quite a time yesterday. At first when i fed it and then when i woke up...it still didnt go to bed

And my vagans seems to have settled too, he/shes really walking around and sitting at cool places shes never sat before (ie up against a rock). Once again i have to say: awesome new hobby

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cool...yea once they get settled in, they'll start making themselves more visible. you gotta remember, though they aren't nearly as intelligent, they each have their own personality regardless of species. generally each species has the same behavior across the board..but there are always exceptions. sometimes their personality has been noted (by hobbyists, never seen this in a published journal) to change after a molt. sometimes though, you could wind up with a display species (meaning its out in the open mostly) that winds up being a pet hole (see genus Haplopelma heh).

vagans are generally out a bit more often..i know mine is. it has been since it was small. have you ever seen yours kick hairs?

glad to hear you're liking it. i got hooked pretty quick haha..i had one..then i ordered 2 and got a free one as well. before i knew it, i had over ten. just watch out..cause at first its easy with just a couple..but after a while it becomes more of a time consuming thing. i just spent about an hour or so catching baby jumping spiders and putting them in these small containers by themselves. kinda surprised i didn't get bit once..but they were not as quick to disperse from their containers as i thought they'd be, so it was pretty easy..just took a bit.

here is most of them from one female...i have another one that should be adding to the pile of deli cups soon. if it wasn't so damn cold everywhere i'd offer to send some to any of you for just shipping cost. its a bit too cold, and it wouldn't be worth buying a heat pack for each of these little bastards.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_8536s.jpg

also caught this little spider while catching the jumpers...i thought it was one of them that got past me at first..don't know what it is unfortunately...my guess is some wolf spider...Lycosa or Hogna maybe...its still too small for me to tell..thats as far as i can zoom in with my camera.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...n/IMG_8541s.jpg

Are there any spiders which can survive purely on fruit or easily available meat ( ie not insects) ?

how long can a spider survive without eating/drinking (if spiders even drink ???)

my girl trapped one under a cup and when she came back from uni like 3 weeks later it was still alive somehow

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none that will eat fruit that i know of, but you can also feed them lizards, baby to small mice, i've also seen pics of one eating a small bird, a frog, and even a piece of raw chicken. (i think it was chicken) i guess thats all i can really think of right now. in the uk i know its illegal to feed vertebrates to invertebrates, so you'd be pretty much stuck to inverts.

i just stick with normal invert prey items..though once when i had a pinky mouse that a snake wouldn't eat, i tried feeding it to some of my larger spiders...it was weird. one all but bit it...stood right over it where the spider could just bite without even grabbing it first..but nothing. the next one attacked it, but left it alone after biting it at least once. the last one i tried just ignored it..but the mouse was dead i am pretty sure. i was surprised since i figured they'd snap it right up. would've snuffed out the mouse faster had i known it was gonna just lay there and die like that heh.

after that i would only give them to my old adult centipede..that thing would chew right through those mice like butter.

edit..




they can generally go for quite a while..some species are more dependent on humidity so they wouldn't last as long..but some are living in the desert. sometimes they'll fast for months without eating..i think they drink if they can during that time though. honestly can't say..and i wouldn't want to find out with one of mine heh. they get a good deal of moisture from eating..but i am not sure how long an adult desert tarantula could go without eating or drinking. would have to look into that.

tarantulas drinking:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8524s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_2313s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_2327s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8521s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4261s.jpg

are centipede's dangerous to humans?
they eat mice?! never knew that...got any vids of yours feeding?

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some of them are. if the adult i used to have would've bit me..i'd probably have gone to the hospital just in case. as far as i know, there haven't been any recorded deaths..if there have, it was either related to small children, old people, or otherwise frail people.

no videos of anything really..i don't have a video camera. heres a picture of the largest one i've had drinking. it was about 7" long (a little under 18cm).

Scolopendra subspinipes
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...x/IMG_4760s.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_5400s.jpg
close up
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_5390crop.jpg

they'll easily eat scorpions, adult tarantulas, mice, small birds, frogs, whatever else that isn't too large. they won't win every time, but they have fairly strong venom for smaller animals which really helps them come out on top most of the time.

i posted this at least 3 times here haha but here it is again..i love this fucking video. this is the largest known species of centipede Scolopendra gigantea catching a bat in mid flight. somewhere in south america.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgLmUb5P_Ws

wow! cool vid, that thing is creepy.
i love bats poor little guy.

i really fucking hate spiders, scorpions, centipedes etc but they're seriously interesting.
could never keep any but it is an awesome hobby

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savage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f5g...related&search=

edit:

urgh, check this shit out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoXf...related&search=

thats pretty nasty

that mouse did not stand a chance

edit2:

that looks painful...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RJ9...related&search=

man, you tube is full of stuff like this, facinating to watch

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yea, they are nasty fuckers! just for the record, that was one of the most docile species of tarantula they could find hehe. Brachypelma albopilosum. not to say they aren't vicious towards their prey or possible predators.

when i lived in hawaii for a couple years, i went out to open our garage door (manual style) and didn't have any shoes on. i stepped on a centipede in front of our garage at night..couldn't see it but felt it wrap around my foot and bite the shit out of me. hurt like a bitch..granted i was in 6th or 7th grade..but i can't imagine it feeling much better now that i'm older. luckily i don't think any of the more dangerous types are out in hawaii. i think they are more common in south america and asia.

hell yea! was doing some feeding last night and noticed my Theraphosa blondi has a very dark abdomen.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9242s.jpg

basically that means its going to molt any time now. this species..probably genus as well, are somewhat known for molting complications. not something that happens to all or most, but its definitely not unheard of. if i can catch it in the act, i'll take a sequence of pictures as it goes, but otherwise i'll just be able to get pictures after the fact, and hopefully be able to tell what sex this fucker is.

heres what the abdomen looked like when i got it.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8283s.jpg

and heres another where you can see how light it was in the upper left corner, but the photo was more to show the webbing.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_8517s.jpg

That's one big, black ass!

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haha, hot chubba ebony bitch!


so how have the jumping nimphs been coming around, graf?

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so so...had some losses which was expected with so many tiny ass spiders.. i am not sure but i think some might've been able to slip out of their cups. i can see traces of substrate all the way through where the lids clamp down on those cups. the second egg sac has been hatched..but the babies just started dispersing this morning.

the blondi hasn't molted yet..but i'm hoping it will tomorrow..otherwise i'll probably be at work.

figures..that bastard sat around all weekend doing nothing. now that i'm back at work, it has decided to get down to business. it was on its back and not moving when i went home for lunch..so i'm hoping i still have a chance to catch it molting. if i do, i'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and post some sort of sequence here. if i don't make it..i guess i'll just post a pic or two of how it looks post molt. heres a pic i took while eating lunch today.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9769s.jpg

in other news...i came across a cheap mature male Psalmopoeus irminia ("venzuelan suntiger" aka jet black with some orange highlights) so i bought him to pair with my adult female, and another smaller tarantula since i was paying shipping anyway, might as well get another one haha. the other spider i ordered is a (gonna have to look up this spelling..) Tapinauchenius purpureus (don't know a common name) http://www.birdspiders.com/archive/...0EE86780DE.html

looks pretty hostile!

my spiders are doin good, the regalis isnt too active, just when eating and the vagans got sick n tired of the light and covered up half the glas with a big slope, looks pretty rad and it was cool to see it work really hard for two days

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glad to hear they are doing alright. a happy spider is one that isn't very active heh. thats funny about your vagans. Brachypelma are often some serious bulldozers. my vagans just likes to mess around with his water dish...flipping it over, filling it with dirt, or burying it completely.

well i missed the molt..but i took some pictures.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9775s.jpg
this is what i came home to see

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9777s.jpg
a piece of the last exoskeleton was stuck to the abdomen...luckily it wasn't on there very good and came right off.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...MG_9815crop.jpg
crop of its abdomen, you can see some urticating bristles because of the flash. it only kicked up a small cloud of them when i removed the piece of exoskeleton from its abdomen.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9824s.jpg
stretching out a bit

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_9848s.jpg
it rolled up a ball of substrate and was rubbing its fangs against it and carrying it around a little.

they sure look a lot different after a molt than their usual brown.

that last pic ownes!


i was going by the reptile-store and the guy showed me a couple of juvenile snakes they just recieved; they werent too expensive and i would really want a snake, but ofcourse it will grow large so im thinking of trading my regalis+tank for the snake (them red ones) + adult tank. would this seem reasonable?

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do you know what kind of snake it is? theres a few red ones. and also how big they are. if its a corn snake, especially the regular color form, i would think the adult female regalis and tank would be. at the same time, you paid less for the spider than i would've, so the prices for snakes could be different there too. if the snake is a juvenile or adult i would say its a fair trade..an adult snake might even make the snake and tank more valuable.

the redish corn snake i bought was $50, the black/grey/white corn was only $20, and the black and white striped king snake was $40 but was larger than both the other snakes. none came with a tank or anything. they were all at most a year old i think. the smallest one was maybe 18" or something around there.

my snakes are all more active than my spiders. the king snake i have is somewhat secretive, but i still see it everyday except when its shedding or just after a meal. just like spiders though, they are each individuals with different attitutudes/behavior. but in general they are more active. chris could help you out a lot more with the reptiles than i could. i've only had the 3 snakes i have for a year at most.

the snakes are pretty tiny, still living in a take-awaymeal-box. Just out of curiousity, an adult female regalis would be worth about $80 right?

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well i just found three places i could buy a female regalis. one has a 5" female for $125 and is a reputable and well established arachnid dealer. the second i found has 3" females for $64 and isn't quite as reputable or popular/established. the last has females for $135 and is one of the larger dealers in the country just like the first one. he didn't mention the size..just said adult so 5 or 6". that was supposed to be a "clearance sale" price though.

averages out to $108, but generally the prices for inverts are a bit less over there in europe, so their "value" probably doesn't translate literally. that is because the invert keeping hobby is larger over there or has been around longer, or both. the only thing we get better prices on are native species..unless they are already being captively bred in europe.

i was thinking of getting a bearded dragon (maybe 2) soon.

Im wondering what they are like... good for a first go with reptiles? how messy/smelly can they be? what about salmonella?

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i've never kept any and am limited in experience with reptiles. beardies seem like a fairly decent first reptile. i'd get a small one and raise it. that way you can deal with the little one and learn its behavior and what all you have to deal with as it grows. give it some sand, water dish, a hide, and a basking spot under a heat lamp on one end of the tank. i guess you could use a heat pad instead of a lamp, but i think the lamp is more commonly used with them. i guess you'd feed them adult crickets either gut loaded with vitamins or dusted with vitamins..or even both. you will also need a decent sized tank for an adult i think.

as far as smells go..i'm sure their shit stinks...though tarantulas shit doesn't stink. i feed mine almost exclusively crickets. my snakes shit on the other hand is terrible. the difference though is that i feed the snakes whole mice, bones and all; while crickets have no bones. so maybe bearded dragon shit doesn't smell as bad if you feed them just inverts? i'd recommend doing a bit of reading before you buy one. edit...i guess i forgot to mention that crickets fucking stink on their own. nasty fuckers...makes me want to switch to roaches.

yay, just bought me a new bug!

a semi-adult aphonopelma seemani female, the brown version. It's a pretty cool spider; not aggresive but extremely nervous though. Even a short breath in the tank sets it off into a furious sprint around, pretty funny actually.

No pics yet, but ill take my dads camera with me next week.

And it has a bold spot on the abdoman (like you goliath, graf). I noticed many spiders have it but im clueless on the reason and if it's a sign of ilness/moulting whatever

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cool...i'm not really familiar with the brown form..but they are pretty cool looking spiders. i have the regular A. seemani..same attitude really. not crazy pissed off..but not welcoming either.

the bald spot is fine..its from flicking the urticating hairs..or else just having them rub off onto something. they come off very easily so they get rubbed off fairly often. once she molts, the spot will be gone. a good indication of an upcoming molt though is to look at that bald spot..when it turns dark or black, a molt will be around the corner. longer wait for larger ones..but it should be relatively soon once the abdomen is dark like that picture of the blondi i posted.

also, Aphonopelma are known to have pretty slow growth rate. you can speed up the rate by feeding more often and raising the temperature in the room. an example of their slow growth rate is my 4-5" female that i've had for a year and a half....she hasn't molted once! not really any sign that its coming up anytime soon either.

how do you have her set up? they like to have a burrow, but if you give them enough to dig through, they'll make their own. i premade a large burrow for mine in its old tank..but i have since moved her into something much smaller. it was cool though..the burrow had a narrow entrance that was angled about 50 degrees, then there was a larger chamber at the bottom against the corner of the glass so i could see. after she finally took to the burrow..it didn't take long before she had dug a separate entrance all her own..i think hers was easier for her to use since it was rare that i would see her using mine after she made hers. i think the angle was a bit steep..and where it met the chamber was a little awkward compared to how they build them. i took a bunch of pics of the burrow making process if you want to see them or i can just type it up.

if you give her something to start a burrow...just a depression in the surface or something...she'll likely pick up where you left off and make a nice burrow.

i put a halfround piece of fake bark in it and i also made a 4-5" substrate hill, now it's just waiting which she prefers, she's only been in there one day.

i'm still waiting for my vagans to molt; he/she's been living very passively for the last two weeks, just sitting in her burrow doing nothing, pretty strange compared to the extinsive nightwalks she used to take. she still eats though, but she lets the bug virtuall crawl over her before she takes it.

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I don't know if it's been posted in this thread yet, but me and my friend got in a long discussion about spiders and we got in an even longer discussion about the camel spider.

It's not really a spider, from what I heard it's more related to the centipede beacause it has more than eight legs. From what I've seen in pictures, it looks bigger than a goliath spider.

Camel Spider eating a lizard.

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that bitch looks fucking scary

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that bark sounds good...you could even try burying part of it so there is a closed in cave basically with just the front entrance. the spider will most likely expand on that and make a nice burrow. if shes only been in for one day, i wouldn't expect much of anything just yet. some get right to work redecorating..others are lazy and want to relax for a bit first hah.

sounds like a molt is on its way for the vagans. they are normally bottomless pits as far as feeding goes..so a good indicator of a molt is being lethargic and not pouncing right away on food. Brachypelma are also known for growing slow..but not as slow as Aphonopelma...also vagans is said to be one of the faster growing Brachys. i think i got my vagans in the same order as i got the seemani, and the vagans was only 0.5" but is now about 4" after about a year and a half.

they are pretty interesting critters...but you are mistaken about the relation to centipedes vs. spiders. they aren't true spiders for several reasons, but they are arachnids which makes them related to spiders. centipedes and millipedes are myriapods which are related to spiders because they are both arthropods, but that is pretty much where their relation ends.

also the "camel spider" or solifugid has the same amount of legs as a spider (one of the reasons it is an arachnid) but it looks like they have an extra set of legs. that extra set is something spiders have as well..they are called pedipalps. on spiders they are much smaller and less noticable, while they are pretty large on the solifugid. they look a lot like legs, but they are more like arms and are used to grab prey or stabilize themselves while climbing around.

i've never kept one, and thats about where my knowledge of them ends, but i do know they are relatively tough to keep in captivity for long periods of time. a pet store here sells them..but i kinda shy away from them as i've heard they are tough to keep alive, and i already have had bad luck with centipedes, so thats why i haven't gotten into them.

and it's ugly, hahaha


i'm taking the cricket out of the vagans tank and hope she'll molt withing now and two days

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