The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The joys of breeding often seem a mix of joys and deflation. When you think you've got it right and you're encouraged by your successes its easy to believe your success will continue.
Likewise its easy to think that when you've failed and its time to concentrate on something else, success seems to appear from nowhere. And so, here are my stories so far this year.
In reverse order - The Ugly
Last year I mated P. pederseni
The sac was evident this year and as I had a visitor buying some CP OBTs from Aug 10 I decided we both should have a sneak peek. That was on Tuesday 21 Jan and the sac looked fully rounded and browning due to turning, on 23rd when I went to pull the 6 weeks sac I found this:
I decided to keep up hope and at least try to get some slings despite the rancid smell coming from the sac. Unfortunately it failed which really kicked me where it hurts as this was a special mating for me, from a female gift courtesy of Colin Wilson.
The Bad
In April/May of 2010 I purchased a MM L. violaceopes to mate with my females. Unfortunately I lost the first female, she became sac-bound and died despite trying to rehouse her into a 30x30x18 Exo. The 2nd female ate the male after a short time but as she was more mature (lost her blue sheen) I thought there might be more hope. I'd given up with her showing success but as another MM presented itself recently I thought there might be a slim possibility of attempting a breeding. But I decided she needed to be moved into a larger enclosure. She did NOT want this. She held her ground and struck at least 10 times on the ruler. She was a Badass!
I eventually got her into the Exo, still in strike stance for another 40 minutes. Lights off and off to bed for me. In the morning I was more than a little surprised to see a sac and 2 weeks later she's still holding it. \o/
The Good (understatement!!!)
The female P. striata that I took to BTS in May for entry into Best Asian Arboreal had recently moulted so looking rather colourful. I decided to look for a male during the year and by the latter part of the year it seemed obvious she was either gravid or glutting herself on the extra food. At the start of November I noticed a sac and by mid January slings were pouring out, success, in quantities of over 100.
Last year I was lucky enough to find a subfusca MM lowland, unfortunately it was holiday time soon after he matured so I took the gamble of putting him in with my 2 adult females. The male was dead by the time I returned mid August so I expected it was a failed relationship
SEAS gave me the opportunity to pick up another MM that came from JMV via M Scheller. I was ready to put them together if I could only separate the 2 females. At the weekend that's exactly what I planned but to my amazement I could see what looked like a sac at the bottom of one of the tubes. The more I looked the more undecided I became. Last night she made the decision for me, she left the sac so I scared her into the other tube, pulled the sac and opened up. Its the strangest sac Ive ever seen. It looked completely empty, hollow, so I discarded it as a phantom sac. I took a look through the substrate attached to it and found lumps that were not part of the substrate. Thankfully I hadnt chucked it because I found eggs which I poured into my incubator. They're not all good, at most 50 including some suspects, but at least 10 ewls. Obviously I'm fingers crossed this will go all the way.
So far, so good. wish me luck
The joys of breeding often seem a mix of joys and deflation. When you think you've got it right and you're encouraged by your successes its easy to believe your success will continue.
Likewise its easy to think that when you've failed and its time to concentrate on something else, success seems to appear from nowhere. And so, here are my stories so far this year.
In reverse order - The Ugly
Last year I mated P. pederseni
The sac was evident this year and as I had a visitor buying some CP OBTs from Aug 10 I decided we both should have a sneak peek. That was on Tuesday 21 Jan and the sac looked fully rounded and browning due to turning, on 23rd when I went to pull the 6 weeks sac I found this:
I decided to keep up hope and at least try to get some slings despite the rancid smell coming from the sac. Unfortunately it failed which really kicked me where it hurts as this was a special mating for me, from a female gift courtesy of Colin Wilson.
The Bad
In April/May of 2010 I purchased a MM L. violaceopes to mate with my females. Unfortunately I lost the first female, she became sac-bound and died despite trying to rehouse her into a 30x30x18 Exo. The 2nd female ate the male after a short time but as she was more mature (lost her blue sheen) I thought there might be more hope. I'd given up with her showing success but as another MM presented itself recently I thought there might be a slim possibility of attempting a breeding. But I decided she needed to be moved into a larger enclosure. She did NOT want this. She held her ground and struck at least 10 times on the ruler. She was a Badass!
I eventually got her into the Exo, still in strike stance for another 40 minutes. Lights off and off to bed for me. In the morning I was more than a little surprised to see a sac and 2 weeks later she's still holding it. \o/
The Good (understatement!!!)
The female P. striata that I took to BTS in May for entry into Best Asian Arboreal had recently moulted so looking rather colourful. I decided to look for a male during the year and by the latter part of the year it seemed obvious she was either gravid or glutting herself on the extra food. At the start of November I noticed a sac and by mid January slings were pouring out, success, in quantities of over 100.
Last year I was lucky enough to find a subfusca MM lowland, unfortunately it was holiday time soon after he matured so I took the gamble of putting him in with my 2 adult females. The male was dead by the time I returned mid August so I expected it was a failed relationship
SEAS gave me the opportunity to pick up another MM that came from JMV via M Scheller. I was ready to put them together if I could only separate the 2 females. At the weekend that's exactly what I planned but to my amazement I could see what looked like a sac at the bottom of one of the tubes. The more I looked the more undecided I became. Last night she made the decision for me, she left the sac so I scared her into the other tube, pulled the sac and opened up. Its the strangest sac Ive ever seen. It looked completely empty, hollow, so I discarded it as a phantom sac. I took a look through the substrate attached to it and found lumps that were not part of the substrate. Thankfully I hadnt chucked it because I found eggs which I poured into my incubator. They're not all good, at most 50 including some suspects, but at least 10 ewls. Obviously I'm fingers crossed this will go all the way.
So far, so good. wish me luck
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