Smithi still not moulted...

[Michael Peachey]

Okey so my smithi has been off its food 3 or 4 weeks now and i've not seen out of its hide since i got it...which has been possible a monnth and a half. The moment it went inside, it burrowed itself in and hasnt come out since. I keep the tank sprayed to keep humidity but im baffled...is there something wrong or is it just taking its time to moult?

Its no bigger then 2", colouration looks dark on the legs and dark on the abdomen.

Any suggestions to anything that might be wrong?

Only thing im considering at the moment... is that all of my spiders are on a shelf above my computer...the shelf is raised above by roughly half a meter of so. could they be feeling vibrations from my speakers? I never have them up loud but has this been know to be a problem for anyone?

Its also in a large tank which has been divided off. Could this be causing problems, if so should i re-house or simply just hang it out until its moulted?


Mike

[Anita Pile]

Hi Michael,

Just read about your B. smithi and I can totally sympathise!

We bought a juv. G. aureostriata about a month ago, and we've hardly seen it either!

I posted a question on the T store http://homepage.ntlworld.com/the.tarantula.store/ under 'any ideas why? (Walled in G. aureostriata), and received a number a really helpful replies. Basically to condense it down for you; we've been advised not to disturb her, not to dig her out, not to try anything really, which is fine by us. She's obviously done it for her own reasons and we're sure she'll come out when she's ready! I had one person reply that their T had hidden away for 4 months!

On the same note, a short while after having her and not seeing her, we bought a sub adult B. boehmei, who after a coupe of days did exactly the same thing, we couldn't believe it!! But, after 5 days he came out, has eaten and seems pretty chipper, no evidence of moult, so maybe just settling in? Again, as one of my replies states, they do things for their own reasons, the best thing to do is leave them to it.

Hope this helps!

Anita

[Michael Peachey]

I took a good read through your post, and some very good responses indeed. They have put me at easy, and i shall definatly leave it to it.

Are you feeding yours at the moment? At the moment im putting a cricket in every week or so, see if its interested.

The smithi has burrowed in so far and again like i read on your post it is also sat on the plastic at the bottom having slightly covered it with soil. So no massive chance the cricket is gona go comando style into the hide lol.

Mike

[Anita Pile]

Nope not feeding at all! Like you said, they're not going to go and find her, and as she's not coming out for them there just doesn't seem any point! All we're doing is making sure her water dish is topped up/refreshed every few days just to keep the moisture up. I'm not going crazy with the spraying, as the substrate still seems ok. Have only misted twice since she's been in her new enclosure-one thing that seems common with the Grammostola and Brachypelma is they like it on the dry side, so have been trying to keep it as dry as I dare (a tricky balance when everyone says they need an amount of humidity to moult safely!)

Good luck, and keep me posted, I'll certainly let you know when we have any news on ours!

[Peter Lacey]

From my experience the noise of your speakers may have an implication, however for me its been spiders coming out of their hides and almost dancing - one day I'm going to have to video it.
Remember, Brachypelma, Grammostola and Aphonopelma are notoriously slow at everything.

[Craig Mackay]

If I remember correctly I think someone may have said on this forum before that when they play their guitar loud enough some of the T's start drumming in response.