December, 2000

December 3, 2000:
MOLT! A. purpurea #1 molted right on schedule. Not too much else to report. Crickets are low again, so a new batch of those are on their way.

December 5, 2000:
Not much news. The Cobalt blue is looking gravid, but she's hard to see in her burrow, cause she's done lots of webbing. Also, last night I fed out my last 3-4 large crickets to those spiders who I felt could best make use of them (the s. g. robusta got one too). The new order of them should come in today. There ougt to be some hungry spiders, some have gone nearly a week without food (I really spoil them).

December 6, 2000:
MOLT! The G. actaeon molted yesterday, and from looking at the skin I'm guessing it's female. It's a little on the small side though.

Also, the B. smithi is getting dark and should molt soon. You can actually see that the new colors coming in underneath are brighter.

I combined Tick's old page and A. versicolor #2's page and did the same for Curly #2 and Ambush. It makes the page a bit more compact and less redundant.

And the big news for the day is that I recieved a number of tarantulas from Arachnocentric - breeding groups (various sizes and sexes) of A. geniculata and C. cyaneopubescens, and also a little pinktoe spiderling. I'll update on the specific sexes and sizes later tonight or tomorrow after I have them all unpacked and in cages. After experiencing breeding with the Cobalt blues, I really got excited about the opportunity to do some more breeding, and jumped at the chance.

Update: MOLT! The P. pulcher FINALLY molted today.

A few very quick notes on the breeding groups... The A. geniculata included one large immature female (a tad smaller than Kuni) a big immature male (a tad bigger than Kuni) and two males and an unsexed in the 2-3" range. The C. cyaneopubescens include two adult females (one pretty beefy one), and two smaller males (different sizes). Together with Speck, they should make a nice staggering of matings. I'll have to slow down (cooler temps and less feeding) the big male geniculata to give Kuni and the other female time to catch up, but the gap is small so it should be easy to make up.

December 8, 2000:
MOLTx2! H. gigas #1 molted yesterday, and #2 molted early this morning. According to my upcoming molts predictions, I've got a ton of molts coming up, starting this weekend. Should be pretty exciting. I don't expect The Grinch to go very soon (as with Raul, she should be very late), but Raul may finally molt, and I may look for a male for her when she does.

Update: MOLT! The B. smithi molted late this evening. It actually looks really like a B. smithi now.

December 9, 2000:
MOLT! The molts are starting to pile up now. Today was A. purpurea #2. Also, the A. huriana has suddenly darkened up, so it will be not far off. We may have some more before the sun sets on this snowy Saturday.

December 10, 2000:
MOLT! The T. gigas did its thing today. It looks quite orange!

December 11, 2000:
I'm sorta worried about the A. urticans. It has only eaten one or two crickets since its molt, and isn't getting nice and fat. It's not really all that skinny, but it's not eating much at all. It shows no other signs of problems though. Perhaps it will act normal after another molt.

The G. actaeon took a huge drink when I filled up its water dish. I don't know how it got dehydrated, but it has grown out of its current cage. I'll have to move it before its next molt, or it won't have enough room.

The cobalt is downright obese. She's hella-fat. I wish I could get a picture, it's pretty comical. Can't wait for her to drop her sac, but it will probably be a while still.

There was a large roach that I had left in the P. ornata's cage. It hadn't shown much interest in it (though it was still eating crickets), but I let it stay because it wasn't doing any harm and occasionally would clean up some leftover cricket bits. Well, today the P. ornata finally caught it and is getting really fat off the fat fat meal. Mmmm, tasty.

December 12, 2000:
MOLTx2! The A. huriana molted while I was at work, and Raul is on her back! I may be able to get time sequence pictures of the process.

Also, the P. cambridgei has done some substantial new webbing, presumably in preparation for its molt.

Update: Well, Raul had no trouble of course. I got some decent pictures of the process, but she was in an odd spot so she's partially obscured. Her molt was nice and fresh so I was able to get some good pictures of her dodads and hoohas for the sexing article. Also, I think I was fairly conservative in my guestimate of her pre-molt size, she was not far from 5". I'm gonna keep an eye out to see if somebody has a male available and will get her a boyfriend. I'm not gonna bother trying to guess her next molt, this last intermolt period was about 6 months, so she'll probably be just about on an annual schedule now.

December 13, 2000:
A friend was putting together an order from Pet Center USA, so I picked up a couple I had my eye on. They included a Brazilopelma coloratovillosum, Nhandu carapoensis and Citharischius crawshayi. I also got an A. avicularia as a gift.

Update MOLT! Well, the P. cambridgei molted by the time I got home. I fouled up the shed, so no definate sexing, but I'm fairly certain it's male. I see nothing to indicate it's female, and based on the tremendous speed of growth (especially over the last few molts), I'd have to say that points towards male also. I measured it roughly, and realize I've been seriously underestimating it's size also.

Raul has stretched out more today, so I got a rough measurement, and she's really not much under 6". Also, the C. thorelli was out and about and looking good.

December 15, 2000:
MOLT! The A. minatrix molted yesterday.

Also, the new spiders all ate, except I think for the King Baboon. It was tricky finding crickets small enough for them, as they're all pretty tiny (the N. carapoensis and B. coloratovillosum are each only about ¼", and the C. crawshayi is hardly ¾"). I've uploaded pages and inital pictures for them, though the pictures are pretty non-descript and there isn't much to say about any of them yet.

I've ordered another batch of A. metallica spiderlings, since I believe Boots to be a male, and I eventually want to have a female and also to breed the species in the future.

December 18, 2000:
MOLTx2! A. avicularia #1 and P. rufilata #1 molted yesterday. I screwed up the molt for the A. avic, so I wasn't able to sex it very well. I think it's male though. I think the 99% alcohol I'm using is actually sucking more moisture out of the shed skins and making them more brittle. I'm gonna try a lower concentration mixture in the future. I also was not able to retrieve the molt from the rufilata (it was too thoroughly stuck in the web and I didn't want to disturb the T that much).

Update: MOLT! The N. carapoensis was in the middle of molting when I got home. It did grow, but not much.

December 20, 2000:
MOLT! A. versicolor #2 molted yesterday. Looks as pretty as ever.

Raul should go back on feed pretty soon. Didn't show much interest in the crickets offered yesterday though.

December 22, 2000:
MOLT! The H. maculata molted yesterday.

Also, last night and this morning, I noticed that A. avic #1 just doesn't seem right. Can't place my finger on it, but it's cage is pretty dry, and could use a good cleaning too. Anyhow, I moved it into an "ICU" with a water dish, so if it's dehydrated it will have the option to fix that. I'll see how it's doing when I get home from work, and clean and refurnish its cage.

Raul seems to be eating again. I'll start looking for a mate for her pretty soon, but it's too cold right now.

I think I might give names to all the breeders for the sake of record keeping (would be much more interesting then calling them #1, #2 etc). I've already taken to calling the cobalt monikers like "Mother" and "House". I've got a theme on which to go on for the others (which I've already used in the past for Kuni and Raul.)

Update: Well, the a. avic seems fine now. I may have been imagining things, or the ICU may have helped it rehydrate. In any case, I got it back in its cage and took some pictures while I was at it. Also, I was able to get a rough measurement, at it is actually close to 4" already. I'm going to make a safe guess at 3½" cause I know it's at least that big, probably over 3¾" even.

December 27, 2000:
Surprisingly few developments over the holidays. My cricket supply is running low, and I have almost no crickets small enough for a few of the spids (though many seem to cheerfully take disabled or dead crickets). I've been trying out the lobster roaches with mixed success. There are tons of them now, so I can start feeding them off some. Cricket shipments have been delayed by the holidays and bad weather, so it may be somewhat lean times for the spiders (compared to my usual over-stuffing.)

Update: Ah, the crickets finally came. Also, MOLT! The C. fasciatum finally went.

It seems that lots of molts have been delayed... I think I may have changed the setting on the heater in my closet or something, and that's slowing them down...

December 28, 2000:
My brother was in Australia and ran across a Holconia (Isopeda) immanis, a large (5-6" legspan) huntsman spider. He was able to take a picture and I posted on the recent pictures section today
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