August, 2000

August 1, 2000:
The P. formosa was out and about, so it was allowed to resume feeding last night. I'll probably try the V. platyomma today.

Kuni didn't seem as anxious as usual to eat. She actually ignored a cricket the first two or three times it ran by. She grabbed both offered within about ten minutes though. This is very unusual for her, so she may be getting near pre-molt. According to her records, she should be molting sometime in the later half of this month or early next month at the latest.

The G. actaeon was slow to grab its cricket. I think it grabbed it more out of frustration than hunger (the cricket kept pestering it). It is very fat, so I assume it is about to enter pre-molt.

I gave Boots a modest sized roach, and she actually ate it. The cobalt has let a roach live in her cage for a while, and though she's come out of her burrow on occasion, I think she may be going into pre-molt.

The blondi actually ignored a small roach that I offered. I don't know if it doesn't like roaches or if its getting ready to molt. The other day, it was slow to grab crickets, so that might be the case.

Curly #2 is attacking crickets with surprising zeal. It'll race out of its burrow and leap from a distance onto them when it detects their presence.

August 2, 2000:
Sparky made a sperm web today or last night. I found him near the remnants of it this morning. I don't think I'm going to be able to find a mate for him. I'm keeping the search alive, but I'm afraid he's merely going to be a contribution to tarantula taxonomy at best.

It looks like the A. braunshauseni has begun to fast. It's really fat this time around.

One leg on the V. platyomma looks smaller and discolored (I first noticed it while it was molting). I never noticed a leg injury prior to the molt, but I guess that was the case, and it simply regenerated it from scratch.

I've been testing more spiders with roaches now that there's lots of 'em. The baby roaches don't seem all that meaty, but the small T's seem to like them alright (the platyomma, formosa, regalis, etc.)

August 3, 2000:
Well, the guy at Arachnocentric didn't get the purpurea in on time, so that will have to be shipped on a later date, but he's giving me a free one to make up for it! Needless to say, I've been really pleased with his service and all my dealings with him.

I decided to add a centipede to my order from Arachnocentric because he just got in a shipment of Scolopendra heros castaneiceps. They're lovely blue-black centipedes with yellow legs and bright red/orange heads. They can supposedly grow to be about 6-7" and are highly aggressive and voracious predators. Their bite, as with most tropical centipedes, is very painful and can be downright dangerous. I anxious to see this beast in action!

The braunshauseni has started to change color for its molt, so it shouldn't be too far off. The P. cambridgei unsealed both ends of its tunnel today, so I fed it. It's starting to look pretty cool now.

August 4, 2000:
The shipment did arrive today. I was careless when I unpacked the C. cornuatus. One leg III got a bit squished. The leg appears fully functional (the spider wouldn't stop running around in fact), and it only bled a little. I was able to stop the bleeding with some TP (I didn't have any super glue or anything on hand), but it suddenly went on a runabout again, which of course caused the bleeding to resume. The bleeding stopped again when the spider held still, and it doesn't appear to bleed when it moves slowly.

Anyhow, I had to get to work, so I put it in a small cage so it couldn't run around so much, gave it a big dish of water to drink and put it in a dark place. The wound appears to be very small based on the limited amount of bleeding. I don't know if I should try to autotomize the leg or not, and since I've never done it before, I don't know how sucessful I would be at it.

Anyhow, the other spiders are all pretty cool. The B. smithi is tiny, as I expected. The T. gigas is about the same size as the A. avic when I got it. The C. thorelli is darn near an inch, and very "thick" looking. The P. fasciata almost 1½". The C. cornuatus is about 1¾".

The centipede is awesome. It's a bit bigger than I expected, and really insane looking. Better than the pictures I've seen of it. I can't wait to see it eat, but it was still settling in when I left for work and didn't accept food.

Update: Well, the C. cornuatus seems to be doing just fine. It's not happy, but the blood seems to have dried over well and I can't really tell which leg was the problem anymore. It is also a very skitty spider! I had to open the cage to check it out, and to put in some shelter and fill the dish and stuff, and it kept running out, and it was really hard to get to go back in. It was even stridulating at me!

Also, I was misting the P. fasciata, and it ran right out of the cage faster than I could blink (it was at the bottom when I started). I tried to coax it back in, but it jumped off the container, on to my thumb, then went floating through the air down to the floor. Fortunately, it didn't go any further and I was able to contain it. Speedy devil!

I'll try some of the new arrivals with food tomorrow, at least those that seem settled in.

August 5, 2000:
I fed all the new spiders today. The smallest crickets I had were too big for the B. smithi, but I cut off the jumping legs and the little guy showed no hesitation (though there was a bit of a struggle!) All but the C. cornuatus grabbed the crix immediately. I would have normally given the cornuatus a fairly large sized cricket, but I instead gave it a medium sized one sans jumping legs because of its injury. After I threw it in, I noticed it had a thin veil of webbing baracading it inside the cork shelter (it had done some digging too). I've seen some do this during the day, but it's also possible that it's getting ready for an emergency molt. I'll leave the crix in there overnight, and if they're not gone by morning I'll try again in a few days.

The centipede still seems unsettled, and didn't grab the cricket I offered today. I suppose it could be in premolt.

The irminia may be molting or something, but its webbing is so thick, I can't really tell. It's definately not hanging out in its normal spots.

The A. avic seems to have joined the A. braunshauseni in the pre-molt fad. Pretty much everybody got fed. Raul and Kuni are still eating. Kuni resumed her ravenousness. The Grinch has been eating little lately, today she grabbed the cricket very slowly and was surprisingly hesitant to bite (though she eventually did). Seems like she didn't recognize it as food.

Update: I got fed up with wondering about the irminia, and snipped into its web a bit. Sure enough, I was able to pull out a molted skin. The spider was none to happy though! She snapped at the skin as I pulled it out. The molt is in fantastic condition (the best of any molt I've retrived so far). The abdomen was sorta tangled up, but it was easy to untangle, and I was able to determine for sure that she's female. I'm going to assume the molt was today, though it could have easily been yesterday. I guess she wasn't adult before, though she might be now.

August 6, 2000:
I just uploaded a ton of pictures that have been taken over the past few weeks. I took a few pix of speck today, and she was very upset about it.

The P. ornata and P. regalis have both stopped eating (the ornata for a while now). The A. braunshauseni, based on its color, behavioral changes and it's molt record, should molt very soon.

The C. thorelli refused a cricket today, she got two yesterday, so I'll wait a couple days before trying again.

August 7, 2000:
The small spiders (at least those that are eating) got fed today. I skipped the C. thorelli, curly #2 and the smithi.

Seems that crickets are disappearing from the cornuatus's cage... If that continues for sure, I'll let it have something bigger. It has dug a little burrow and stuff, so it seems to be fine.

I think the centipede is on its way to a molt, but I don't know the pre- molt signs for them as well, other than it's not eating. It's still pretty active running around its cage.

Update:
I did see the cornuatus eat this evening. It seems to wait until night to come out. It was peeking out of the back side of it's hide (which is a sorta tight squeeze), and the cricket somehow climbed to a point where it was crawling around on the edge between the lid and the wall of the cage. The spider waited patiently and then grabbed it right out of the air practically. I'll prepare a new cage for it and move it soon. Its current cage is a bit of a squeeze for it to molt in, so I'll be glad to move it into something bigger now that I don't feel the need to restrict its movement.

August 8, 2000:
It's hard to tell for sure with the webbing, but it looks like the A. braunshauseni had started molting right before I left for work this morning.

Update: Ok, I was wrong about the braunshauseni, but it should molt any time now.

I was at a friend's house this evening, and caught the largest wolf spider I've seen around here. It's definately a different species than the ones I've caught in the past. It was willing to eat a cricket almost as soon as I got it home, so I hope it will make a better pet than some of my previous wild caught wolfie's (some of which wouldn't eat).

Also, I arranged to have the balance of my order (the purpureas) arrive on Thursday, so you can expect some pictures of those then.

The centipede actually moved dirt around and sealed itself under the cork slab, so I assume it's molting. I think I'll not disturb it, and just worry about humidity.

August 9, 2000:
I fed most of the spiders today, espescially the smallest ones. Even though I can see the new hairs growing in under the skin of Curly #2, and he's very fat, he ate a small cricket. Similarly, the smithi ate even though it is near bursting. The thorelli also ate, as did the platyomma, Kuni, Speck, the T. gigas, the P. fasciata, Raul and the C. cornuatus. I also tested the G. actaeon, but it seems uninterested. I won't leave a cricket in with it to pester it all night though. I found one exceptionally large and meaty female cricket, so I gave that one to Kuni as a special treat.

The thorelli has constructed an interesting burrow with a webbed entrance, not unlike some of the burrows created by the small pokeys or the P. cambridgei. It is less vertical, but it's the same sort of thing. I'm also considering putting shelters in with the G. actaeon and the B. smithi because they haven't constructed their own. It will be hard though because they're so small, and anything I put in the cage will take up the whole thing.

August 10, 2000:
As expected, the A. purpurea arrived this morning. They're adorable little things. They're about the size of the T. gigas, though they're more pink toe looking in their proportions (fluffy, big feet, etc). They're neat because they're stark black and white (sorta look like a negative image of other Avicularia babies). They're the only pink toe that looks like that (most are pink and black, and there are a couple blue ones; versicolor and laeta).

I'm actually more excited about these than most of the spiders I get. I really love my Avicularia, and if I could keep only one genus, that would probably be it.

Update: One of the purpurea has already built a little web, and is adjusting well. The other was just sitting on its cork. I was able to pull it out and get some decent pictures (spiders so small are hard to photograph).

August 11, 2000:
I tired the purpurea last night with small crickets, but they were totally not into the whole eating thing. Today when I got home from work, I saw the one that hadn't built was working one one, but the other hadn'T. I checked on the other spiders for a sec, looked back and it had grabbed one. There's still one running around in each cage.

MOLT! Also, a pretty major molt occured today - the H. lividum! It wasn't totally unexpected (it had not been eating and it had been sealed in it's burrow for a while), but it did catch me a bit by surprise. It definately happened during the day today, cause I checked the cobalt this morning. I'll be anxious to see how much the pedipalp regenerated. I'm pretty sure there's at least a partial one there, but I'm hoping it's nearly full sized. The colors are sorta surprising, more turqouise or greenish than the usual "blue" color. It's just visible through its webbing, so no chance of pictures. It seems to have grown visibly also.

The A. braunshauseni STILL hasn't molted. It's legs are nearly black (it's pretty hard to see it through the web, but I can sorta see it if I open the lid). I've seen it spinning more and more web over the past few days.

The centipede is looking more "waxy" which I've heard is a sign that they're ready to molt.

The C. cornuatus has sealed its burrow. I assume it's getting ready to do its thing. I wouldn't be surprised if the injury accelrated it into doing so.

Everybody who's eating got fed. The platyomma is still eating, which is sorta surprising to me. Even though the smithi seems ready to burst, it hasn't stopped eating. The thorelli has begun to eat like a good baby spider. Kuni is still going strong, but she's getting so fat she wobbles hilariously under her own weight when she's up on her tiptoes doing the happy cricket dance. She's also slowed a step - she makes sure she knows where she's going, cause once she's headed in a direction, it's hard to reverse the momentum. I'm going to be careful, and reduce her feeding until her next molt.

August 13, 2000:
MOLT! The A. braunshauseni molted sometime last night or this morning finally. It's almost totally changed colors - it's mostly blue- black with red on its abdomen.

Kuni was sitting on her water dish, so I decided to give her a good misting (I rarely mist her anymore), but she started running around and climbing her cork shelter. She's so fat, I really don't want her to fall at all.

The C. cornuatus has formed a second burrow entrance in the middle of the cage, with a big turret and silk veil and everything. It's pretty wild. I'm really gonna have to move it into a bigger cage before it molts I think. The C. thorelli has also made some interesting burrows/webbings. The P. fasciata's created a pretty big mass of webbing and substrate as well.

The T. blondi has started to show classic premolt signs finally, but very subtly (shiny darkening abdomen). Actually it seems like lots of spiders are pre-molt because many are not eating. Bob actually seems to have a shadow on her abdomen, and it appears shiny, so she may be premolt as well.

I decided to add shelters to the cages of the B. smithi and the G. actaeon. It was hard because the containers are so small and the size of the spiders. I'll see if they make any use of them.

August 14, 2000:
I moved the C. cornuatus today. I decided on one of the 2.5 gallon sized pet-pals, and for substrate I switched to potting soil (which I first microwaved for a long time to kill anything in it). Lately, I've had problems with mold and mites in the bed-a-beast, so I thought it's time to try something new. I don't know if it's my lousy sanitation habits or something with the bed-a-beast or time of year or something, so we'll see if a change makes a difference.

I'd sorta given up on the wax worm breeding experiment, but I hadn't bothered to clean out the cage I was keeping them in. Yesterday I noticed what can best be described as "lots and lots" of waxworms of various sizes shuffling around the cage. They've eaten much of the food I had in there for them, as well as some of the waxed paper. They've also spun quite a bit of silk. I'll probably have to add more food for them sometime. Maybe I'll have some waxworm moths to feed to my arboreals.

It looks like Sparky built and destroyed another sperm web. I sure wish somebody would take him off my hands.

I got a bit of a better look at the braunshauseni today. It's mostly black with red on its abdomen, but under good light it has some blue-green iridescense.

The P. irminia seemed to "vanish" a roach that had been hanging out near its web for the longest time. I offered it another today. If it doesn't take those, I'll try crickets tomorrow. It's actually been over a week since its molt.

The centipede has reburied itself, so it should molt soon.

August 15, 2000:
I've done minor updates to many of the spider pages.

Right now, it seems like half my collection is fasting. In fact, that's pretty close to the truth. The A. avic, Boots, Curly #2, the B. smithi, The Grinch, the G. actaeon, Bob, the P. formosa, P. ornata, P. regalis, and T. blondi all appear to be in premolt. The A. braunshauseni and H. lividum are both in post-molt recovery. Also, Kuni is on an enforced diet. That's 14 spiders that aren't eating right now, which is a large chunk of the collection. Also, the A. purpurea have very light diets, and the P. irminia hasn't gotten back into the full feeding mode.

The A. avic has gotten a lot darker and should molt soon.

The V. platyomma is quite fat, but it's just as hungry as ever. It really was voracious grabbing its cricket today.

Raul has grown on me lately. She's always there to be seen, eats well, and always seems happy.

I've considered giving up on the names for the tarantulas (i.e. Kuni, Boots), but have a hard time doing that. As a comprimise, I've removed them from the menu on the left hand side of the screen.

Also, if I were to pick a day that the centipede molted, I would guess today, from what I can see, it seems pale.

I ordered a colony of lobster roaches (nauphoeta cinerea) today. They're supposed to be fantastic feeder roaches. A few people have eliminated their dependance on crickets by running a colony of roaches, so that's my hope. They breed and mature fast, they have no defensive smell (meaning almost anything will eat them), they have a high meat to shell ratio and the babies are small enough for even very small spiders. I'll be anxious to try them out.

August 16, 2000:
MOLTx2! The P. ornata and G. actaeon both molted today finally. The P. ornata is growing SO fast. It's really quite big now, and super leggy. It'll get its own 2.5 gallon soon. The G. actaeon will probably justify a move to a bigger container, but it's not putting on size the way some do.

Also, the P. irminia emerged from its web today, and I was able to measure it at about 5", but couldn't be very sure before it scampered back in its web. It really is visibly bigger though. I gave it a choice of cricket or medium sized roach. The A. braunshauseni has also been out and about, and also accepted a cricket. It also appears to have grown a fair amount. In the next few days I'll subject it to a serious cage cleaning and photo session.

The cobalt has moved its exuvum (or at least most of it), but hasn't ejected it from the burrow yet. It should still have a couple days of recovery time left.

The C. cornuatus seems happy in its new enclosure. It's built a nice burrow in one corner, completely ignoring the shelter provided. It's also eating a steady diet of crickets. It's webbed quite a bit too. The burrow is surprisingly narrow considering the size of the spider. It can just wriggle through it.

August 17, 2000:
MOLT! I knew there were lots of moltings coming up because of the number of spiders not eating. The A. avic molted early this morning before I woke up. When I had last looked at it around 2am, it looked like it was ready to go any minute.

Update: MOLT! Curly #2 molted today, and was still on its back when I got home from work. It seemed to grow substantially.

August 18, 2000:
MOLT! The P. regalis molted today. It's pretty big now. I'll probably give it and the P. ornata each their own 2.5 gallon when they recover. The P. formosa can be a few days off at most. I also moved the A. braunshauseni into cleaner quarters. I think there may have been too little ventilation in the old one as well, it was one of the spice jars that didn't have as many vent holes. The new one should have plenty. I got some pictures while I was at it.

August 19, 2000:
The H. lividum was at the entrance to its burrow today, so I gave it some crickets which it readily grabbed. I was able to observe it doing the cricket dance in its burrow, and could see that it's pedipalp has been regenerated and functional but is pretty small.

The A. braunshauseni hasn't seemed to yet feel at home in its new cage. It's mostly stayed scrunched up and has done no webbing. I gave it a cricket today though, and it snatched it up.

August 20, 2000:
MOLT! The T. blondi molted this morning. It may have part of its old exuvum stuck to it - the old carapace is sitting on top of its abdomen. I'd imagine it would remove that soon. It also seems to want to keep the rest balled up underneath it, though it doesn't appear to be attached to that in any obvious way. I won't worry yet, as it just molted a few hours ago at most.

Update: Ok, the blondi molt was not a good one. I realized after I got home tonight that it was in bad shape. Not only was part of the old abdomen (with the carapace tagging along) stuck, but something on the underside was stuck. Drastic measures were needed.

I anethstezied the blondi by sticking it the fridge for a bit. I was able to fairly easily peel off most of the part stuck to the abdomen to my satisfaction. I tugged a bit at the rest of the molt (which was all still attached at some point), and wasn't really able to move it. The whole time, the T is sturggling (though it was crippled) against my actions. To restrain it, I pinned its carapace with my finger and grabed it between legs II and III on either side to pick it up.

I was able to see that its fangs were still partially stuck in the old molt. I was able to extract one with just a little tugging. It was bent, but it went right back to normal shape in a minute or two. The other was much trickier. I had to break away everything from the old exoskeleton except the chilicerae. I was able to break one off (the one that was free), then broke away the other one bit by bit. Eventually it was all off.

The trapped fang is badly deformed, and the chilicerae may be fouled up as well. Also, one pedipalp is slightly kinked, but looks useable. One or two legs seem to be a bit lame as well.

In unrelated spider news, the G. actaeon and Curly #2 resumed eating today.

August 22, 2000:
The T. blondi is looking OK and is acting more feisty. The fang is still screwed up, and the pedipalp is still kinked, but I think it's gonna make it.

The centipede definately molted, as it regenerated some legs and looks fresh and new (and a tad bigger). It's still not eating, but it ran all over the place when I lifted up its cork. Apparently it ate the shed skin.

The A. avic was hanging out of its shelter, so I threw in a few crickets. I didn't see if it ate them. I also tested the P. ornata with a cricket, and it didn't show immediate interest, but I couldn't see the cricket come morning. Curly #2 has resumed eating as well. Also, the H. lividum is eating with vengance. It took out a big fat roach and even chewed up it's exuvum for some reason (rather than ejecting it from its burrow. I think I may clean its cage one of these days, it's really too webbed up to see anything.

I saw that somebody hatched out a sac of P. rufilata on the petbugs board, so I had to snatch some up. I got a lot of three but will be selling one to a friend. Also, somebody else had A. minatrix and P. pulcher spiderlings for sale, so I had to get those as well. Looks like I'm going to need to make some room. Hopefully Sparky should be going off to do his thing, which will leave me room under my 30 T cap. If I need to get more, Bob and Curly #2 are first in line to get the boot. After that it gets sorta tough. I might have to wait for some to mature into males or suddenly turn boring or something.

August 23, 2000:
MOLT! The grinch molted today, and is looking quite buff. Very robust legs, and lovely velvety appearance. Haven't got to see all of her yet, but she seems to be in fine shape from what I can see (she was grooming herself quite nicely). It's hard to belive, but she hadn't molted since May 30th (nearly three months). She's getting pretty close to full grown. I wouldn't be surprised if she was only a molt away from being mature.

The P. regalis and P. ornata will probably be moved into new cages very soon. Espescially the P. regalis. It seems fine, but I would have been wise to move it a molt sooner. I'll move the formosa after it molts as well.

The blondi is settling in to it's freshly cleaned cage quite nicely. I used a piece of plexiglass as the roof for an artificial horizontal burrow (I've heard they live in abandoned horizontal rodent burrows on hillsides in the wild), and it seems to prefer that to the cork shelter it had before. I expect it to make it now.

August 24, 2000:
MOLTx2! The P. fasciata molted today and really grew a lot. I can't get over how fast the pokes grow. Likewise, the P. formosa finally did its thing.

Bob and the B. smithi are both getting darker. Should molt soon.

I moved the P. regalis today finally. I gave it a medium sized pet-pal tipped up on end. Seems to work quite well. Got some pictures while I was at it.

Had a big feed-fest today, the first in a while. Pretty much everybody that was willing got fed. Raul didn't seem to want the roach that was offered, we'll see if it lasts the night. The P. regalis had no problems eating shortly after the move. I even fed Kuni, but strangely, she refused! I thought she might be sick or something so I touched her with a paintbrush and she did some sort of odd threat posture waving its front legs at me, but didn't want to move. Not typical of Kuni at all.

August 26, 2000:
MOLT! The P. cambridgei molted today. She's looking downright green with her new colors now.

August 27, 2000:
MOLT! The C. thorelli molted today. Looks like it might be stuck to the top of the abdomen a bit, but it doesn't look too bad. I'll give it some time to try to remove it itself.

Also, it's been a week since the bad blondi molt, so today was the day to test it with a cricket. It seemed eager because it got excited when I misted the cage. I threw in a cricket and it grabbed it right up. Seemed to subdue it quite easily. Hopefully it can still process it correctly with the foul fang.

Update: I think I overreacted. She's completely separated from her old skin now. Either it wasn't stuck as bad as I thought and she was able to work it out, or it wasn't really stuck at all. She's surprisingly pretty now, with tigering on her abdomen even.

MOLT! As soon as I turned my back, the T. gigas molted.

Also, I finally saw the centipede eat for the first time since I got it.

August 28, 2000:
MOLTx2! Two more molts today. The B. smithi and V. platyomma both finished molting shortly before I got home today (they were resting on their backs when I got home). I think the B. smithi may have actually shrank.

The P. fasciata resumed eating today. She probably would have been willing to go sooner if given the opportunity. The Grinch and the P. formosa should be ready to go again tomorrow or the next day.

August 29, 2000:
MOLT! Man, everybody's molting! Today was Boots. I was just able to tell that she had molted, haven't got a good look at her. She actually could have molted in the past few days, but I think it was today. Her web is pretty dense. It does look like she's grown a lot.

The P. formosa resumed eating and got moved to a new cage today. It wasn't too much trouble getting her out of the old one, but getting her into the new one was a bear. I must have wrestled with her for half an hour. Anyhow, I got some pix.

August 30, 2000:
The A. minatrix and P. pulcher arrived today in good shape. I got some pictures and will hopefully be posting them shortly. I also have lots of pictures of other spiders taken over the past few weeks to be uploaded.

Update: MOLT! When I got home, Bob had spun a massive silk mat under her shelter. She flipped on to her back sometime around 11:00pm, and has just started to flip her carapace around midnight I write this.

August 31, 2000:
I woke up about 5:30am for some reason, and Bob had his legs about two thirds of the way out. When I finally got up in the morning he was done and just cleaning and stretching out. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. Anyhow, Bob is now clearly a he, complete with bulbous pedipalps and tibial spurs. When he's recovered well enough to move around, I'll get detailed pictures of those. Anyhow, I'm recording it as happening today.

Also, the new spiders accepted food. The A. minatrix is pretty tiny, about the same size as the A. purpurea. I had to give it a cricket minus jumping legs because I'm out of really tiny ones. The P. pulcher is proabably almost an inch and a half, so it had no trouble. It also started building a web.

The P. rufilata should arrive today.

Copyright ©1999-2010 Thomas Schumm