loopy L Para lost the plot

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi All
My L Para seems to have lost the plot any thoughts ?
1/ refused food for most of Dec as the was in pre moult i can live with that.
2/ since moult on Jan 3rd will only eat pre killed food crickets etc or garden worms and runs away from anything moving in her viv ( we are talking L Para 7" at the moment) and she never did that before. ok i can live with that for now even if she has turned into a whimp
3/ the oddest one yet have just looked in her viv and she has covered everything in site with web not just the floor but the walls as well with very pretty web criss crossing all over the place side to side and end to end top to bottom through the air space even the water bowl has been covered her hideaway log is festooned with web

it all looks very pretty but i'm sure if she had a tree she has gone arboreal !

everything seems normal in the viv original substrata, temp about 80deg, humidity 60% at one end and rising to 80% at the other end like always no other changes to her home she has just gone odd since this moult

Any thoughts out there i thought L Para didnt web much and she never did before

And definatley a girly spider so its not sperm webs after last moult


Clinton

[Oli Dodds]

You'd be suprised at the personality changes after a moult Clinton lol.
For example, my P.Pederseni was 6" pre moult and i was handling him, now he moulted into mature male, around 7" and if i try to open the tank it tries to rip my hand off!
And as for my G.Rosea? Pre-moult didnt mind handling, disturbance etc... Post-moult first time I tapped her back legs with forceps and she bit them.
Moults can change a spiders mentality it would seem!
Hope this helps,
Oli

[Clinton Hogben]

Cheers Oli
It just seemed strange for a large spider with this rep to run away from a little cricket
And the web looks fantastic all over the place ( for halloween) but i need to change her water so i will have to remove some of it

spiders eh why do we do it ???

Clint

[Oli Dodds]

Ive never heard of a parahybana webbing much though, mine doesnt web at all
And what reputation are you talking about, I think parahybana's are pretty docile
Oli

[Mark Pajak]

I have an L.Para in a 25" x 15" x 18" tank which is heavily planted - before and after the moult she webs everywhere - every corner and also the top walls. She definitely thought she was arboreal at one point and layed down a shedding mat up in the foliage - this was terribly precarious and the plants bent under her weight so much that she had to give it up and start again on the ground.

She has settled down a bit now, but she has a route around the tank which she walks laying down thick web right up the sides and even up under the lid.

I think they lay down web when happy to mark out 'safe' areas in the tank, then when they come across these areas again they lay down more to reinforce the fact and so after a while the favourite areas are all heavily webbed. This is just part of the house work for an L.parahybana, and its fun to watch too!

Then again each spider has its own habits which can change in-between moults per individual - thats a lot of spider personalities!

[Mark Pajak]

Here are some images of Shakira (the arboreal(??)) L.parahybana!

[Oli Dodds]

Here are some images of Shakira (the arboreal(??)) L.parahybana!

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Wow, very impressive terrarium Mark!!
I WANT IT!
Oli

[Clinton Hogben]

Ive never heard of a parahybana webbing much though, mine doesnt web at all
And what reputation are you talking about, I think parahybana's are pretty docile
Oli

Hi Oli
L Para has the reputation for eating everything in sight constantly including the kitchen sink, But mine goes through stages of pigging out then dieting
(dare i say typical female no better not) naughty boy smack on wrist
Mine is usually pretty docile as well she has never had a go at me yet just the occasional hair flicking session if i move her to clean out the viv etc.

Hey Mark at least its not just mine that goes mad with the web.
I like the viv is she ok finding her food in the jungle it does look great !

Watching her is fascinating she seems to just trail web after her everywhere. tried to get photo of it but its not the easiest subject matter next time i mist the tank I will try and post some pics



Cheers for putting my mind at rest guys

Clint

[Mark Pajak]

Hi Oli

Hey Mark at least its not just mine that goes mad with the web.
I like the viv is she ok finding her food in the jungle it does look great !

Hi,

She never has trouble finding the food and will immediately start probing the vegitation around her after a disturbance.

Admittedly some crickets last longer than others - seriously there was this one cricket who thought he was Indiana jones! It literally ran up to the top of one plant to escape, then grabbed hold of a swinging dangly bit of plant and catapaulted iteslf to safety - absolutely hilarious, though one shouldn't laugh as the poor little bugger met his end sooner or later.

[Tracy Sherwood-Farnfield]

Your viv is very impressive! When my little Chile rose is a bit bigger and I move her to larger accomodation I would love to include some plants, what plants have you used and where did you find the info to know which ones were suitable. My local garden centre looked at me blankly?

[Colin D Wilson]

For your G. rosea i would use plastic plants Tracy, the watering of the living plants to keep them alive and well will make the enclosure too humid for it leading it to be quite unsettled.
I speak from my own (and a few others) experience with this scenario.

[Kate Arbon]

To those with L. paras, if you've had them since slings, did they used to burrow a lot? I got a 0.5" sling a couple of weeks ago and after about 3 days it's buried itself and I haven't seen it since. There's about 3 or 4 holes in the dirt so it must have built itself a nice network of tunnels. Every now and then I put a prekilled cricket in and it disappears so I guess my T is ok, just never heard of them being burrowers.

[Tracy Sherwood-Farnfield]

Good point, hadn't fully thought that one through! Perhaps if I go 'tropical' in the future I shall consider plants, the planted terreria I have seen look so effective. An incentive to increase my collection there I feel.....