Back, again...

Once again, I am back and I find myself apologising for not posting in several months.

Truth be told though, there really hasn’t been much to report. Moults are really slowing down now, I’m lucky if I get five in a month! Before it seemed like five a week. Plus I haven’t been too healthy recently as I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease about a month ago, which isn’t very pleasant, and because the doctors took so long in diagnosing me, disease got worse than it should have been allowed and I now have a lot of secondary problems from it. A tleast I get some time off work though!

There have been a few new additions, I just cannot stop (what can I say, the BTS Show corrupts me)!

I have added a total of five new spiderlings and three new juvies / sub-adults / adults since the last update.

Spiderlings:
Ephebopus murinus
Ephebopus cyanognathus
Hysterocrates murinus (x2)
Pterinochilus lugardi

Others:
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
Brachypelma albopilosum (My Dad couldn’t wait for my sling to grow up!)
Thrixopelma ockerti

We’ve also had brief forays into the world of tarantula breeding! My Dad’s Grammostola pulchripes matured several months ago and we found him a girlfriend who luckily lived five minutes away from us. She will hopefully be dropping an egg sac in the coming weeks, so there should be the pitter patter of tiny feet pretty soon.

Everything is miraculously still alive, and it has now been a good 18 months since I started this little project.

All quiet on this front

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Its been very quiet here. Nothing has really happened on the sling front since my last update. Everything is eating, nothing has molted (G.pulchra and E.vulpinus are now approaching five months without a molt!).

Unfortunately my Dad's A.geniculata died a few days before Christmas which took us by complete surprise. It was gearing up to molt but we found it dead one morning. Whatever process control molting internally must have gone wrong, as she was not in a death curl or anything. He is now on the look out for another T.

I am a little concerned with my B.emilia at the moment however. She seems very reluctant to move. Normally when I drop a cricket in she runs a mile before capturing her food, however the last two feeds she has done nothing, remained completely lifeless, and remains in the same spot all the time. The food is going, but it just seems quite strange. Her molt records would suggest she isn't due for another few months.

Kurt out.

And here are some pictures

So here are the pics I promised. A couple of my newest arrival, T.apophysis as well as my other new arrival T.blondi. Also chucked in a handful of my sub-adults that I took pictures of as well as an ever willing G.rosea and post-molt C.marshalli!

Theraphosa apophysis



Theraphosa blondi



Brachypelma smithi



Brachypelma boehmi



Grammostola rosea




Ceratogyrus marshalli

Another addition...

Ok, this is the last one! And I mean it this time.

However, I think you will all understand. A couple of weeks ago, a guy on RFUK was selling some Captive Bred Theraphosa apophysis spiderlings. Unfortunately I missed out on one because there was a huge demand for them, and he also wanted to keep a few for himself.

Since then, as mentioned in a previous blog post, I acquired a wild caught Theraphosa blondi, which molted not long after I bought it and it appears to be male.

Anyway, two days ago the guy who was selling the T.apophysis slings decided to put them back up for sale so I immediately messaged him and I purchased one, in the hope it would turn out to be female and by the time it gets big enough, the male T.blondi will be on its travels and I will have a spare 3ft tank again! Plus, it’s not every day that CB T.apophysis slings come onto the market!

Anyway, it has arrived this morning. It molted into a sling about four weeks ago apparently, so it is still very young. However, it is possibly the largest sling I have, measuring at about 1.5” leg span!

No pics yet, as I my camera has a dead battery and and I want to leave it settle in for a while.

Oh, and those other pictures are coming, I promise.

A little update

Contrary to my last but one post stating that I was not going to be getting any more T’s, I have!

I have acquired a Theraphosa blondi (not a spiderling, about 5-6” leg span) and a Aphonopelma chalcodes (again, not a spiderling, perhaps 3-4” leg span). The former was my combined early birthday and Christmas present, although part payed for by me as I got rid of my Emperor Scorpions to help pay for it. The latter was a combined anniversary and Christmas present for my Dad!

On the spiderling front, I have had two moults recently. My H.lividum and C.marshalli have both moulted in the last two weeks or so. The H.lividum is living right at the bottom of its pot, so photo opportunities are completely impossible, and I have taken some pics of C.marshalli, which if I can find my camera I shall upload tomorrow! I’ve also been practicing some different methods of photo taking so there may be some other photos as well!

An interesting fact for you all though! Two of my slings, G.pulchra and E.vulpinus have not moulted now for five whole months! G.pulchra is just eating and eating and eating, and E.vulpinus has finally gone off its food so I’m hoping it has gone into pre-moult. I don’t really like all this waiting around for slings to moult!

Rehoming done, first set of pics

So, after a very stressful day which started at 10am when I attempted to catch my first sling, till about 7pm when I caught my last (interrupted in between by a visit to my Nan's and Pets at Home), all my little T's have been re-tubbed.

Unfortunately, due to the majority of them taking up precarious positions either on the lid or right at the top of the pots, and the terrible weather we are having at the moment affecting light quality, I only managed to picture a handful of spiders.

As with my previous photos, you can click on them to enlarge them!

Brachypelma emilia


Grammostola pulchra


Brachypelma albiceps


Cyclosternum fasciatum


Grammostola rosea


Nhandu chromatus


B.emilia, C.fasciatum and N.chromatus are literally all freshly moulted and haven't been fed since, hence their somewhat underweight appearance!

Keep a look out in the following days as I will try my best to photo the rest.

I'm back.... again...

Hey everyone.

It has been a very long time since I posted any sort of update.

Basically, not long after my last post I got a job which required me to get up very early in the morning and subsequently go to bed quite early. Any free time I had was spent keeping my T’s and other pets going and there really wasn’t any time for updates.

But unfortunately over the past few weeks I was made redundant and I have to decided to start work again on this blog. Hopefully when I get another job it won’t be so time consuming.

Anyway, since my last update I added two new additions to my collection, a Haplopelma lividum (Cobalt Blue) and a Brachypelma albopilosum (Curly Hair). I was quite content with my collection and decided to end my interest in acquiring any new ones.

However, a couple of weeks after I obtained my B.albopilosum I was asked if I would take a Poecilotheria regalis (Indian Ornamental) as the owner no longer wanted it. Not one to see unwanted animals kept, I said yes. I am now happy with my collection and will definitely not be adding to it, unless anything on my wishlist pops up (found to the right).

So far everything is eating well and growing nicely. In fact I have come to a stage now where I guess certain individuals are no longer spiderlings, they are in fact juveniles.

So, tomorrow I will be rehousing everybody (apart from H.lividum because it was rehoused recently) to upgrade to the next size pot / tank. So expect a picture-fest tomorrow at some stage!