Ephebopus Murinus and Poecilotheria Metallica behaviour

[Richard Harper]

Yes I did, Thanks a lot for the advice Peter and everyone else who contributed. I covered the substrate with moss because she keeps webbing it up and then dragging it around her burrow then webbing it down, so I thought I would give her a bit more to work with.

Quick question, if (when I say if I mean when xD) I get more tarantulas, would it be wise to transplant some of the substrate from one of their vivs to the new tarantula's viv? Asking because I'm pretty sure tarantulas do some form of marking their territory so that males for instance can find them.

[Peter Roach]

When a T has established itself in a new home it will lay down silk 'lines', so if and when you move it the silk will be destroyed so it doesnt matter either way. I dont bother as they will rearrange the tank as they like it and will lay new silk as and where they want it.

[Richard Harper]

So I was feeding my T's the other week and my P. Metallica did something quite interesting, have been kicking myself for not having my camera at the time. I dropped the red runner at the entrance of her hide and it ran inside, she then quickly snatched it up. Normal behaviour I know, but here is where it gets interesting, instead of 'stilting' and munching away on her nice chubby red meal, she proceded to run around her hide like a lunatic, up and down, round and round, then she ran out of the hide and went berserk charging all over her viv, knocking stuff over, jumping from wall to wall, digging up substrate and moss, and then after about 30 seconds to a minute of doing this, she charged back into her hide and then decided to return to normal behaviour and ate her meal. All the while I was staring like :O what the hell just happened.

[Adam Beynon - Jones]

So I was feeding my T's the other week and my P. Metallica did something quite interesting, have been kicking myself for not having my camera at the time. I dropped the red runner at the entrance of her hide and it ran inside, she then quickly snatched it up. Normal behaviour I know, but here is where it gets interesting, instead of 'stilting' and munching away on her nice chubby red meal, she proceded to run around her hide like a lunatic, up and down, round and round, then she ran out of the hide and went berserk charging all over her viv, knocking stuff over, jumping from wall to wall, digging up substrate and moss, and then after about 30 seconds to a minute of doing this, she charged back into her hide and then decided to return to normal behaviour and ate her meal. All the while I was staring like :O what the hell just happened.

That is quite odd! Has it been a while since she fed? I wonder if, as they are opportunistic feeders, she was hunting around for more? I guess that's possible as in the wild quite often swarms/hatches of insects occur in short spaces of time, so opportunistic feeders make the most of these situations... I have occasionally noticed behaviour when feeding as if they are on the look out for more, but nothing like the extremes you describe here...

But on the other hand it could be something completely different! Maybe something about it gave her a fright, no idea! Interesting, I wonder if anyone else has experienced this/can provide an explanation?

Maybe your spider is just insane, hehe

[Richard Harper]

It's possible that she may have been looking for more, or for some reason she got spooked, I had the lid off but was surprise she didn't try to escape or even leave the inside of the viv.

If not she may just have been insane for that moment. Never seen it happen before, would have been awesome to have made a video, maybe next time she will act the same, I'll have the camera ready in case. :P

[Adam Beynon - Jones]

Hmmmm, that would be interesting to see, although was there a blue moon that day? Be just typical if it never does it again!