Singing some serious blues.

[patrick]

Need to vent so here it comes. Back in July I bred one of my female tarantulas, a Poecilotheria metallica. Adult females go for $600 and one inch babies are currently going for $175. I've watched her steadily get bigger and bigger over the past seven months. Last Sunday I had some company and one of them wanted to see her so into the nursery we went. I grabbed a flashlight and peeked in on her. Holy crap she's dropping eggs! Talk about getting excited. I'm guessing there were around 120 eggs. We quietly left and the high fiving started. Not wanting to count the chickens before the eggs hatch I still did some quick math in my head. I figured there would be some loss and I have a few friends that I would give one to so I went with 100. I was going to sell them for $150 knowing they would move quick. Two weeks and they would be gone--if that long. So I'm looking at a quick $15,000.00. 15 grand for spiders!!! Cloud nine was several stories below me.

I check on her again a couple of hours later and she's wrapping the sac up, everything is looking good. Nine hours after I found her making the sac I checked again before going to bed. First thing I notice is her once fat pregnant belly that was very skinny a few hours ago is now fat again. Oh crap. I look at the front of her and it's true, she's eating the sac and all of the eggs. I'm able to grab the small part of the egg sac that is left and get it away from her. It has maybe 8 eggs total. They are now in an incubator but I have little hope for success. 15 thousand dollars is gone. What a freaking drag.

Thanks for allowing the rant.

If you would like to see some pics and a little more history it's all here: http://atshq.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28256

 

[sicman]

damn sorry to hear that pat. i have a similar story involving getting shorted 500 t.s. plants. if you do the math on that you can see why i was so heart broken. that sucks but shell lay again

 

[romy6]

Man that sucks Patrick . That was a very exspensive meal. I hope she liked it . Any idea what triggered her to do what she did?

 

[Nova]

Thats it, i'm breeding creepy crawlies!

 

[PaulG]

I don't know about tarantulas, but our spiders here create an egg sack
and it sits over the winter outside in a dry spot before the spiderettes
crawl out in the Spring. I'm wondering how long the eggs would have
to be in the incubator?

 

[patrick]

Sorry to hear of your loss sicman. Good luck getting it taken care of.

They do munch a sac now and then but it's not very often. General belief is something wrong with the eggs or the sac construction so mom eats it for the nutes and might try again.

Let me know when you're ready Nova and I'll hook you up with the Aussie tarantula dude.

Paul it's kind of like that with tarantulas except they're better moms--most of the time. When they make a sac they rarely leave it and will spend most of the time either sitting on it, full body style or they'll hold it with the front four legs. Tarantulas are very good moms. With temps around 80F/27C the eggs will become 1st instars within 30 days. No hair and little movement but obviously spiders. Another month or so and the will molt again indo 2nd instars. Most species will get hair at this time with the remaining ones getting their fuzz with the next molt.

 

[Lucky Dog Hot Sauce]

while quite sad for your loss, this entire topic gave me the willies.

 

[Scovie]

They do munch a sac now and then but it's not very often.

Sorry for your loss, but that's just funny.
I don't know jack about spiders, but you mentioned temperature. Could that have something to do with why she ate it?
Let me just say, as a rule I dont like spiders (near me), but it's been very fascinating peeking in on your hobby.
Good luck Patrick, I'm sure she'll lay again.

 

[Cerberus]

Patrick,
Sorry to read of your loss. I had a very neat pink toe a few years back. Had it for ~ 10 years with no issue until it died during molting. She was a beauty, I was really sad to lose her. I can send you a neat green tree python to cheer you up, if you want.
Cliff