Australian Tarantulas - One Australians Journey

[Dave Jay]

Not a tarantula, but one of my favourite spiders, she lives above our toilet. She moulted recently so I thought I'd take some photos.
Badsumna insignis I assume .

 

[Dave Jay]

24th Feb, all fed one small cricket. Stents 2 and 3 took theirs in minutes, S.plumipes took half hour ,Number 1 took an hour or so, took it now while I was typing.

Note to other members,
I'm not planning to go to so much detail later, but I want to record how many feeds before moulting, particularly in between moults as I don't know when they moulted last, and how long between refusing food and the actual moulting. It will be useful for others when acquiring these species I believe.

 

[Dave Jay]

"

"Psst , dude, your arse is hanging out "
P.'stents' Number 1 eating his cricket where I can't see him.

 

[Dave Jay]

P.'stents' Number 3 looking nonchalant as the cricket explores his enclosure.

 

[Dave Jay]

26th Feb - the plumipes out all day so I fed a medium cricket, it took it immediately. The stents were not seen today but I gave each 1 small cricket. Not eaten after 2 hrs.

Update - stents 2 and 3 ate their crickets the next afternoon 27th, I took the cricket out of number ones enclosure on the 28th

 

[Dave Jay]

I ordered more slings last night. I ordered-
6 Selenotypus sp. 2,
3 Phlogius (or Phlogiellus) pq118 "Blue Leg " and
1 Phlogius strennus.
Then he said he had 'borrowed' 2 Phlogius sp. 'stents' from a mate to replace the doa stents so they are coming too! So I'm expecting 12 slings on Wednesday! Bleepin' hell!
So I'll have a total of 16 slings! Not bad for two weeks in the hobby! Lol! I might have to offload some scorpions and centipedes I think, I just counted, I have 33 tanks with scorpions alone! Not to mention another 10 scorps in divided trays. Then there's 3 centipede tanks plus more than a dozen centipede tubs. I think my wife might have a point about me getting carried away!

 

[Dave Jay]

Happy about the Phlogius 'blue legs' being available, I thought he meant he was substituting 2 blue legs for the 2 doa stents so I ordered another to give me a chance at breeding when they mature, but when he gave me a list of what he was posting the stents were on there as replacements and I was paying for all 3 blue legs, so it blew the budget a bit, I was pushing it trying to pay for the rest but by then I had researched blue legs and liked them so I thought what the hell, who needs food anyway lol!
The blue legs are mostly arboreal as slings which is unusual for Australian T's, some say they are arboreal as adults too and that they are the only known arboreal Australian Tarantula, others say some are arboreal and others are opportunistic burrowers. I guess I'll find out! They'll be a good addition to my collection, not just another 'pet hole'.

 

[Dave Jay]

Plumipes going crazy, looks like it's gonna pop. It sat still in the front corner for half an hour or so , then I adjusted the light, it came loose so a few clunks on the shelf up. It ran, then came up and threatened me through the tank! I am sitting approx 2' or more away , but it can see me. Got the ****s on real bad!!

 

[Dave Jay]

Phone pic, but this weird behaviour is to do with moulting huh?

 

[Dave Jay]

Never seen it climb before

 

[Dave Jay]

Was sitting right up the top, I made sure the tape was secure and again she ran, only to come back and attack through the front of the tank again! At just over an inch legspan, she's gonna be a sweetheart.

 

[Dave Jay]

The plumipes attacked one last time before she went down her burrow. It became obvious that the running then swinging around and attacking was a style of defensive attack, possibly a tactic to take an opponent by surprise and lure them into strike range, after all , I wasn't chasing her, or even moving, yet 3 times she made the same run and swing manoeuvre. Unbelievable aggression from such a small spider just because I was watching her.

 

[Dave Jay]

Before I write about the new tarantulas I received, here's pictures of the Selenotypus plumipes the night she went a bit mental. Since then she has blocked her burrow and extended it horizontally .

 

[Dave Jay]

On Thursday the 1st of March I finally received my order, 4 days in the post again, for years it's always been 3 days no matter where in Australia it's posted from so it's always a worry if they don't arrive on the third day, especially seeing I had DOAs in the last order. I needn't have worried though, everything was fine.
The Selenotypus sp.2 were nice and plump little grey slings, not like the phlogius slings in colour at all. There were 6 of them, all plump and healthy.
The Phlogius sp.'pq113' were around an inch as expected and a healthy weight but not overly plump. There were 3 of them.
The Phlogius strennus was about an inch and looked healthy.
The replacements for the doa Phlogius sp. 'stents' were much larger than expected, he really went all out to apologise for the doa and the small ones in the last order! Over 3" for sure! Too big for the tanks I had ready really, after the next moult they'll have to be moved for sure ,but I might move them in the next couple of days before they settle in too much. I have tanks that are a good size for them but I didn't want to rush organising the ventilation and lid security and have an escape or a poorly ventilated enclosure.
Unfortunately when I received the package and picked up the camera it was dead flat and turned itself off, it takes an hour or more to recharge so I just unpacked and got what photos I could later that day.

 

[Dave Jay]

These are the tanks I set up for the Phlogius sp. 'pq113' Blue Legs. I read that they might be arboreal from a few sources but a friend said his research shows that they are just opportunistic and will make a home above the substrate if nothing is suitable on the ground, but the arboreal label is wrong. With these setups the only difference between the ones I set up for the other species and these is that there are anchor points up higher just in case they do want to use them. I'll wait and see.

 

[Dave Jay]

These are the tanks I set up for the Selenotypus sp.2, and a picture of sp.2 number 3, they are all this plump.
The tanks are 4"x3"x6"

 

[Dave Jay]

You may notice that I have made these little tanks with a sort of false bottom. I watched a video by Tom Moran showing how to set up sling enclosures and while he didn't actually use a false bottom he used the principal involved. At the bottom of the tub he puts a very moist layer of coir peat then adds drier peat on top of that. He uses a paint brush handle to make holes down the side of the tub and uses a pipette to apply water to the bottom of the substrate rather than the top so that the deeper the spider digs the wetter the substrate is. I added a layer of small polished aquarium pebbles on the bottom, stood a thick skewer in the corner then packed the peat. I didn't use anything between the pebbles and the peat. Once the enclosure was set up I replaced the skewer with a drinking straw cut to fit, the bottom cut at an angle, and added water with a syringe, it worked perfectly. If the sling reaches the pebble layer I doubt it will be a problem, it's only smooth polished pebbles . This way I can add a measured amount of water to each tank.

 

[Dave Jay]

The Phlogius strennus. I couldn't get a good photo as by the time the camera had charged it had settled into quite a thick web home at the back of the tank. I managed one picture when I spotted it moving around.

 

[Dave Jay]

The Phlogius sp. 'stents' that were sent as replacements. Both are over 3" which means that they are a bit big for the tanks I had ready really.

 

[Dave Jay]

Missed one, this is stent number 5, one of the replacements