help for a newbie

[Fiona_Mckay]

Hi there, I'm very new to this hobby, I was given a Chilean rose as an unexpected gift in October.
She seems pretty happy, and well settled. I was wondering if it is normal for her to burrow holes all over her tank, resealing and changing them every few days???
Today she has made a webbed crater, I think she must be getting ready to molt. She is still eating etc, should i stop feeding her?

Also A friend gave me a pink toe that he wanted rid of. Again she seems fairly happy. Not very active mainly staying in her web.
She has stopped eating and not left her web in 2 weeks. I have read this is pre molt behaviour, should i be concerned?

Any help/advice would be amazing.

[Eleanor]

Hello and welcome to the hobby!

Your spiders sound normal to me and you've got nothing to worry about. I should think your Chile rose is just enjoying making a mess of her tank and arranging things to suit her. If she's eating then she's not about to moult. The pink toe may well be about to moult but in any case the behaviour sounds normal for a pink toe.

It's not unusual for spiders to spend some time hiding away, and also they can go a long time without feeding. In fact they don't need large quantities of food at all - my adults will all get fed anything from once every two weeks to once month, or maybe even longer, depending on how fat they look and whether they're coming out to look for food or not.

One thing that occurs to me is that if your chile rose is still eating but has made what you describe as a webbed crater, if she's wild caught there is just a possibility that she may be going to make an egg sack. Don't panic though - leave her to it and see what happens. If she does produce an egg sack advice can be given then, but if not, no need to worry.

[Fiona_Mckay]

Thank you for your help.
you have put my mind at ease. Although egg sack does sound scary!!
As she was a gift, she was pet store bought and i do believe wild caught.

One other thing, I am going away for Xmas So they will be unattended for 2 days. Will they be Ok with out fresh water for this time?

[wayne balcombe]

hi Fiona,

your spiders will be fine if left for a few days as long as the temperature is within an acceptable range (20-22 degrees is fine for the two you have).

as far as the water goes, if you put fresh water in before you go away it will be ok for a few days, spiders in thier natural habitat dont have constant access to "fresh" water so i should not worrie too much about not being able to replace it for a day or two.

[Eleanor]

I have left my spiders alone for as much as 2 weeks at a time, so 2 days is definitely ok. They have fresh water when I leave and when I get back, and are fine in between. Usually I find the water is still there and still quite clean when I come back. But if one did happen to tip its water bowl upside down and empty it, it's not a disaster as they can go without water for that length of time with no issues at all.

[Fiona_Mckay]

Thats great!
Thank you both.
Hope you have a lovely Christmas

[wayne balcombe]

Merry Christmas Fiona and welcome to the hobby.

[Fiona_Mckay]

Ok. It seems it is a egg sack! More than abit worried, anything I should do for her?

[wayne balcombe]

What do you mean it is an egg sac? has your spider started laying eggs in the webbed crater?

[Fiona_Mckay]

She webbed the crater, and thats the last i saw before i went to work.
When i got home, she had balled the webbing, and was hovering over it, she was walking about with it and has spent the night guarding it.

[wayne balcombe]

yep thats an egg sac lol.

this is where it may get a little tricky and some peoples opinions vary, but you will have to decide wether to leave the egg sac with mum of remove it and incubate it your self, i would advise for the moment to do nothing and just observe.

its important at this time that the spider is not exposed to alot of noise and has somewhere hide away if it wants to.

I dont have a massive amount of experience with this species so hopefully someone on here will be able to advise you better with regard to its behaviour and feeding habits whilst she's protecting the sac and also give you some idea of how long it will take before the spiderlings emerge, there will be hundreds lol.

If having hundreds of spiderlings crawling round in a few months doesn't apeal to you, there maywell be someone who could come and take the sac from you and incubate themselves etc.

[Eleanor]

How exciting! Like Wayne I can't offer specific advice but I expect someone will. Whatever you decide to do with the egg sack, I'd leave her alone with it initially anyway. She knows what she's doing.