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Now that my egg sac competition has finished and the number of eggs has been revealed, I thought I would share my experience with you all. I bought a Haplopelma lividum breeding pair last year. After 3 pairings I managed to get an egg sac from my female which she ditched on day 25. So I was determined to succeed this time around.
Females last moult: July 15th 2011
She took her first meal after moulting on July 30th. I fed her approximately once a fortnight up until I started pairing her at the end of November. I fed her on Blaptica dubia roaches. I didn't overfeed, or powerfeed her like a lot of people recommend. Her abdomen was in great shape, not overfed at all when I came to pair her. I did however feed her 24 hours prior to each mating.
Pairing dates: 26th November 2011 - 4th December 2011
I only paired her twice. The male I acquired was on loan so I didn't want to keep hold of him too long as there were other people waiting to use him. Both pairings went smoothly. The male was in superb condition (2 months mature) and was in and out in 5 minutes, making insertions on both occasions. The female displayed the typical vigorous cleaning act after both pairings. She was very receptive and I was fairly confident that the job was done.
Egg sac laid: 21st January 2012
I continued with my feeding schedule, once large roach fortnightly. I had the luxury of being able to see right inside her burrow without disturbing her as the burrow ran right down the side of the faunarium. I noticed she had gained a lot of weight. A couple of days before the sac was laid she lined the floor with a lot of silk. I predicted she was about to lay a sac. I managed to watch her as she wrapped the sac up a couple of days later. She nursed the sac for 30 days before I decided to remove it. It was about the size of a golf ball. The picture below was taken 5 days after she layed the sac.
Sac pulled: 20th February 2012
I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether or not to pull the sac. I understand there are pro's and con's either way. But I felt confident that I could incubate the sac myself. The sac contained a whopping 165 eggs! There were about 10 obvious bad ones, and about a douzen of them had already developed into eggs with legs. I felt that I pulled the sac at the ideal time. Over the next couple of days, nearly all of the eggs had sprung legs. I kept the humidity above 80% and the temps at around 23 - 25 degrees.
I incubated the eggs for about 4 weeks, tossing the odd bad egg every now and then. Only 115 developed into eggs with legs. The other eggs gradually went mouldy and I threw them out. After a few days I realised I had the eggs too close together. One of them had rolled over and was actually feeding on one of the other eggs! (See photo below)
One other problem I had as you will see from the photo, was the material I used for the incubator floor. The gaps in the fibres were too big I think and some of the eggs began to stick to it. I made the decision to transfer them all to another incubator with better flooring. I used a pair of womens tights. This was much better.
1st Instars: 25th March 2012
It took them just under 5 weeks to moult into 1st Instars. About a week before they moulted, they started to darken. The tips of the legs turned a lovely neon blue. I took the opportunity to photograph one of them using my digital microscope 24 hours prior to moulting. See below. The images are photographed at 20x magnification.
I understand that they could probably have done without the intrusion, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to take such a detailed photograph. Quite amazing I think you will agree.
I made the decision to seperate them at this stage. I am currently waiting for them to moult into 2nd Instars. The majority of them have darkened considerably and I'm expecting 2nd Instars any day now. Here is a photo about a week before I decided to seperate them.
114 made it to the 1st Instar stage. I will update this thread when they have moulted. Thank you for reading.
Jamie
Females last moult: July 15th 2011
She took her first meal after moulting on July 30th. I fed her approximately once a fortnight up until I started pairing her at the end of November. I fed her on Blaptica dubia roaches. I didn't overfeed, or powerfeed her like a lot of people recommend. Her abdomen was in great shape, not overfed at all when I came to pair her. I did however feed her 24 hours prior to each mating.
Pairing dates: 26th November 2011 - 4th December 2011
I only paired her twice. The male I acquired was on loan so I didn't want to keep hold of him too long as there were other people waiting to use him. Both pairings went smoothly. The male was in superb condition (2 months mature) and was in and out in 5 minutes, making insertions on both occasions. The female displayed the typical vigorous cleaning act after both pairings. She was very receptive and I was fairly confident that the job was done.
Egg sac laid: 21st January 2012
I continued with my feeding schedule, once large roach fortnightly. I had the luxury of being able to see right inside her burrow without disturbing her as the burrow ran right down the side of the faunarium. I noticed she had gained a lot of weight. A couple of days before the sac was laid she lined the floor with a lot of silk. I predicted she was about to lay a sac. I managed to watch her as she wrapped the sac up a couple of days later. She nursed the sac for 30 days before I decided to remove it. It was about the size of a golf ball. The picture below was taken 5 days after she layed the sac.
Sac pulled: 20th February 2012
I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether or not to pull the sac. I understand there are pro's and con's either way. But I felt confident that I could incubate the sac myself. The sac contained a whopping 165 eggs! There were about 10 obvious bad ones, and about a douzen of them had already developed into eggs with legs. I felt that I pulled the sac at the ideal time. Over the next couple of days, nearly all of the eggs had sprung legs. I kept the humidity above 80% and the temps at around 23 - 25 degrees.
I incubated the eggs for about 4 weeks, tossing the odd bad egg every now and then. Only 115 developed into eggs with legs. The other eggs gradually went mouldy and I threw them out. After a few days I realised I had the eggs too close together. One of them had rolled over and was actually feeding on one of the other eggs! (See photo below)
One other problem I had as you will see from the photo, was the material I used for the incubator floor. The gaps in the fibres were too big I think and some of the eggs began to stick to it. I made the decision to transfer them all to another incubator with better flooring. I used a pair of womens tights. This was much better.
1st Instars: 25th March 2012
It took them just under 5 weeks to moult into 1st Instars. About a week before they moulted, they started to darken. The tips of the legs turned a lovely neon blue. I took the opportunity to photograph one of them using my digital microscope 24 hours prior to moulting. See below. The images are photographed at 20x magnification.
I understand that they could probably have done without the intrusion, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to take such a detailed photograph. Quite amazing I think you will agree.
I made the decision to seperate them at this stage. I am currently waiting for them to moult into 2nd Instars. The majority of them have darkened considerably and I'm expecting 2nd Instars any day now. Here is a photo about a week before I decided to seperate them.
114 made it to the 1st Instar stage. I will update this thread when they have moulted. Thank you for reading.
Jamie