For Ray Gabriel

[Michael Mullen]

I have a Costa Rican Zebra possibly gravid i bought her in this condition,
she has started burrowing so been checking on her see how she is and this is my first time with this sort of stuff and got no-one near by that i can call for help on this matter so resorted to this. I dont know if im doing out wrong, i bought her on the 14/12/04 and the petstore told me she might be gravid first time i heard the word so told me she might be pregnant and now she is very protective of her burrow. I had her a week before she started burrowing, i thought thats strange because i got a cobalt blue that only started burrowing two days after getting it as you can tell im new to this and ive got 12 t's all together they are all in front room at the moment because thats the warmest part of the room at the moment with heatmats under each aquarium + got 6 spiderlings in deli type containers in front well not exactly in front but near enough a holigen heater 800 watts on 24/7 at the moment.

[Graeme Wright]

Not all terestrial spiders will burrow straight away in captivity and sometimes you have to start a burrow for them. The reson why your A seemani is probably a bit on edge is she is protecting her burrow. It doesn't mean she is gona lay a sac. It may also just be possible that she is just fat as seemani are not easy to breed unless it's wild caught then the chances of it being grivid could be good. You will find however that in captivity once a spide as constructed it'self a retreat it's temprement usually becomes a little aggresive depending on the specis as it then has a home to defend. As for you heating place the heat pads on the sides of the tanks not underneath as this dryes the soil out from the bottum , up and in the wild when a spider burroes the deeper down it gets the more moist the soil would become and if you have the mat unper it it will be the oposite and this can sometimes stress the spider out.

Regards

Graeme Wright

[Ray Gabriel]

Hi Spiderman,

>I have a Costa Rican Zebra possibly gravid i bought her in this >condition,


If i understand youcorrectly you are interested in hopefully getting a wild caught eggsac?

>she has started burrowing so been checking on her see how she is

That is a good sighn, how deep is her substrate?

>and this is my first time with this sort of stuff and got no-one near by >that i can call for help on this matter so resorted to this.


This is one of the functions of the BTS website, to try to get/give help when needed.

>I dont know if im doing out wrong, i bought her on the 14/12/04 and the >petstore told me she might be gravid first time i heard the word so told >me she might be pregnant and now she is very protective of her burrow.


sounds very promising, i have only had one eggsac from a wild caught seemani, laid one day eaten the next. She dug down after a few days and made her eggsac, she was in around 5cm of substrate under half a flower pot, in a small Pet Pal. but i disturbed her to much.


> I had her a week before she started burrowing, i thought thats strange >because i got a cobalt blue that only started burrowing two days after >getting it


Most Aphonopelma species will burrow if given the depth of substrate and a night time drop (North Ameerican sp mostly) Central American Aphonopelma sp do need the temperature to go down as much unless they are from Higher altitudes. A. seemani seem to be very widespread and if i remember correctly most of the A. seemani which reach the hobby come from Guatamala or Nicuragua not from Costa Rica.

Both Guatamala and Nicuaragua have distinct wet and dry seasons. If she is wild caught and recently been imported then she should be comming to the start of the rainy season, this is good as this is when most females will produce thier egsacs rainy season = more insect food = best time to hatch an eggsac.

>as you can tell im new to this and ive got 12 t's all together they are all >in front room at the moment because thats the warmest part of the >room at the moment with heatmats under each aquarium + got 6 >spiderlings in deli type containers in front well not exactly in front but >near enough a holigen heater 800 watts on 24/7 at the moment.

I would try not to disturb the female, but offer her food and if in shallow substrate give her more, as muchas the container can safely allow. The deeper the substarte the more secure she will feel = better chance of holding onto the sac if she lays one.

If you see the burrow enterance being filled up with a mixture of substrate and web then i think there willbe a good chance of you getting an eggsac. if she fills up the entrance of her burrow with varying amounts of silk only then possibly a moult.

If she is established in her burrow and she moults, then try to get a male for her, it is much easier to get females to mate if they have established burrows.

Any other questions or help you require please dont hesitate to ask.

Hope this helps

Ray

[Michael Mullen]

re: Ray Gabriel

the petshop said also they were pretty certain that she was wild caught because of her size also if its a molt coming on where would i get a mature male from to mate with her + she is in a medium pen pal and would say the substate is about just under half way with a cork bark over burrow thanks ray.

[Michael Mullen]

ray just noticed it has enclosed itself in burrow so there is no gaps beween the cork bark and substrate is that a molt coming on because it has a bald patch on abdomen but its not gone black and thought that is when they molt when it has gone black might be wrong colour of bald patch is a dull pink colour at moment.

[Graeme Wright]

ray just noticed it has enclosed itself in burrow so there is no gaps beween the cork bark and substrate is that a molt coming on because it has a bald patch on abdomen but its not gone black and thought that is when they molt when it has gone black might be wrong colour of bald patch is a dull pink colour at moment.

If she is going to lay a sac sealing herself in her burrow is perfectly normal

[Michael Mullen]

If she is laying an eggsac when shall i go in to get it.

[Graeme Wright]

If she is laying an eggsac when shall i go in to get it.

No just leave it alone with teh female untill it hatches. you only remove sacs and incubate them yourself if the female has a reputation for eating them or if there is a problem.

[Michael Mullen]

thanks for info ill keep you updated with her.

[Ray Gabriel]

If it is an eggsac you could remove it after 14 days. lets see what happens and take it from there.

the substrate depth etc sounds OK to me.

It is either a moult 70% or an eggsac 30%.

Keep the thread updated.

MARK is it possible to put my artificial incubation article on line???

If there is an eggsac it would be very handy.

Ray

[Graeme Wright]

Ray if you can't find yours guy has a good one on his site

http://www.giantspiders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75

[Michael Mullen]

Graeme i think ive spelt your name right if not sorry, can i copy that info to my hard-drive just incase it is an eggsac if not future info. Thanks Michael.
P.S. ill be in touch after new year.