Odd behaviour with my C.Rose and P.murnius..

[Ryan Simons]

My c.rose:

Ok, i have one odd chile rose, she does the craizest things. she thinks shes an aberoal spider as she likes hanging upside down, she chases crickets with no intent on eating them, she has webbed up everything like a p.murnius would ,she is one odd little spider.

Well tonight, she was bunched up into a corner, she had been there for a good couple of hours without moving, so i lightly tapped the floor next to her with stick, and as expected she sprung to life..

But when i moved the stick away, i pulled up a little but of her webbing by accident and it wrapped around a few of her front legs. Then she went all odd again!!
She started stomping her front 4 legs and her pedipalps on the floor, getting progessively harder with each stomp! and kept going for a good 10 seconds. she was really stomping hard as you could hear her from out side my room! -imagine like tapping your fingers on the desk. It was like she was throwing a tantrum because i ruined her nicely webbed floor! lol

Anyone have any idea why she did this? is it perhaps to warn off predators?

secondly
My P.murnius:

She has randomly decided to abandon her coconut burrow to which she has spent the past few months in and has spent the past 3 days hanging upside down on the enclosure roof.. she hasnt webbed anything up and prior to this you would barely see her -perhaps if your lucky you may catch her at 4am when its pitch black! i even give her a nudge last nite as i managed to knock over her water bowl and all the gel balls went everywhere, so i wanted to clear them up, i give her a nudge because she was preventing me from taking the roof off to gain access. -even then she didnt run to her burrow ! :S

Any idea what her problem is! lol.

thanks

[Dan Kennard]

Can you get any pictures at all? Some of the behaviour exhibited by your rosea is similar to that of a mature male. The excessive webbing and clinging to the walls sounds like a dislike of the substrate.

What do you mean by gel balls by the way? If it's bug gel, then it's not designed for tarantulas, and not suitable in the slightest. It should be replaced with an open water dish. The murinus could be acting strangely due to dehydration.

[Ryan Simons]

Yes ill get some pics up later tonite. i have always been convinced its a she tho? As for the gel water balls, i just keep them in there water bowl as well as water as the crickets cant commit suicide with them there.

As for the OBT, what could i do if it is dehydration? i have misted her tank, but i thought they hate wet substrate/ moisture? I have always kept a small water dish in there, topped up. She has not eaten for a month or so now come to think of it, she used to come out at night as if to hunt, but never attempts to catch anything. I think her last moult was about 4 months ago??

[wayne balcombe]

the drumming you describe would indicate the behaviour of a mature male searching for a mate, the easiest way to tell if its mature is to look at the pedipalps if its a mature male it will have small dark balls on the ends called palpal emboli they look like miniture boxing gloves, a mature male grammostola will also have tibial spurs, these are hooks that protrude from the tibio-tarsal joint on the front pair of legs.

as for the P. marinus you should be able to work out when its next due a molt by how old it is and when it molted last, a juvenile/sub adult could be due a molt 4 months after its last where as a mature female will molt once a year so would not be coming up for one now. The action of seeming to hunt but never catching the preay could just be down to a form of territorial behaviour, if the prey item is annoying the spider it may chase it off. P.Marinus are oppertunistic when selecting a hide and are semi arboreal and the behaviour you describe may be due to it trying to select a hide with a little more altitude. Another thing to consider is the humidity and temperature in the tank, if its not at an acceptable level for the spider it may be trying to wonder off to somewhere it likes.

The dehydration issue is one where its usually too late to sort out when a spider is showing clear signs of this, look for things like an inability to straighten all the legs, some legs may be starting to curl under the body, the spiders movements may look jerky and in severe cases the abdomen may shrink and become wrinkled of look "caved in". If any of these signs become visable action should be taken immediately and the spider removed to an ICU setup.

to avoid dehydration in your spiders always have a large shallow water dish filled at all times for spiders with a legspan of 3 inches plus, for smaller spiders you can use a piece of clean sterile sponge kept wet and a light misting a couple of times a week but try to avoid water gel for spiders and keep it for the crickets and other feeder insects.

[Ryan Simons]

the drumming you describe would indicate the behaviour of a mature male searching for a mate......

Well, theres no palpal emboli and definatly no tibial spurs! ill see if i can get a pic of her underneath and upload it. It only stomped its feet after i disturbed it and got web on its legs, as it got a lil tangled up. i was wondering if it was either a warning ,thinking perhaps another spider was near or it was cleaning the web off?

With the OBT, i have noticed how she seems to be sticking to the ventilated part at the very top of the enclosure. i do wonder if this is due to the climate conditions in the tank? She has always had a water dish but its only small and deep. perhaps i need a bigger one in there. I intend on buying a arboreal perspex tank from trantulatank soon and hopefully she will prefer that.

I did think that OBT's prefer to burrow but hate moisture and only choose an arboreal location when the ground is not 100% dry?

I dont think she is having any problems with dehydration now tbh. she is moving her legs fine and her abdomen is a nice size. she is very tame tho,she is even less skittish than my c.rosea and shows no typical 'obt' temperament, which i think is odd. shes always been like that.

Ill get a pic up that i took of her tonite, perhaps you can tell me if she is of an adult or semi-adult size?

thanx

[wayne balcombe]

one of my very first spiders was a P.Marinus and i too thought they prefered to burrow, i kept her on a moist substrata of 70/30 coco fibre/vermiculite mix and she did indeed burrow and i had no trouble with her, her substrate was more or less dry on the surface but fairly humid in the burrow. they will go wherever they are more comfortable as long as the conditions are right so when you do get the arboreal tank make sure it can burrow as well as climb.

[Ryan Simons]

Right, i have dug this thread up to give an update on the p.murinius.

A couple of days after my last post (november) she decided to return to her burrow. And i have not seen her since!

Due to her odd behaviour, i was worried that she had died in her burrow, so i dug a small hole to check, but nope, she is still alive. she left the hole open for a week and sat there almost as if she was looking out of it, but now its webbed back up. I have left a cricket in there for the past 3 weeks now as she has not ate anything in about 4 months! but the cricket is also still alive and kicking. the cricket is so confident in there now it often stands right infront of her burrow, even when the hole was there, practically standing on the obt's front legs!!

What is going on with my OBT!! has it now developed agoraphobia or something?!! or even become a vegetarian!!

[Mark Harrison]

I like yourself ryan am totally perplexed about P.murinus, but after having had 3 slings for a while now i have noticed a few things..

1.They all have built silk webs stretching up the sides of enclosures and deep burrows, suggesting as wayne said that they are a mixture of terrestrial and arboreal.

2. P. Murinus have an excellent appetite and i know my slings greedily accept all food, and when its molting time retreat into hides and i dont see them until a small molted skin is placed outside the retreat.

3. I keep my P.Murinus like all my other baboons (ie hot and dry) on deep substrate. All spiders have a water dish as big as the spider, this keeps the humidity and means i only have to lightly mist once every week/two weeks.

4. P.Murinus start off all timid but that soon changes lol.

These points are all that i have noticed and maybe different to other people's experiences, yet i find some people have more problems with their T's as they disturb them too much (personal opinion).