my pet spiders - adansoni jumpers

[valkyrie76]

i have 7 adansoni jumpers, 2 adults - munster and sonic, 5 babies - minimun, maximun, flynn, poof and missy. my shots are nothing like the beautiful ones in this forum, and i'm only shooting with a ricoh gx100, but i'm quite inspired to share pics of my spideykids after looking at all the spider pics here.

this is my princess, munster:





and this is one of her bubbas, minimun aka min:



at 100%




that's min at infant stage. she'd just emerged from munster's cocoon then, before her first hunt/meal. i'm documenting min's growth after each moult, to track her progress into an adult. she's getting harder to handle as she gets bigger and stronger (about to do her third moult now), so if i'm going to need lots of luck and steady hands (one for min to walk on and one to handle the camera).

apologies for the quality of the pics... i hardly see anyone posting pics that aren't SLR-shot, so am not sure if these will be appreciated. i have like a gazillion pics of my pets and will share more if people enjoy them.

am in awe of all the spider-shooters here! can anyone tell me where to catch a hyllus diardi?

[thesleepingforest]

wow very nice!!! and min is really cute lol...damn i've been hoping to get a pet mantis but search have been futile so far lol

[night86mare]

very interesting shots!

doesn't matter about dslr or what, still very good, i like the last two, the finger does indeed give a sense of scale

[vespa_bicolor]

http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guideb...lus_diardi.htm

Says it can be found in mangrove swamps and occasionally wasteland. Note that most mangroves in Singapore fall within protected areas or nature reserves, and catching things from this areas is prohibited. I'd suggest searching wasteland instead.

Thanks for sharing these interesting shots! Just wondering, how did you obtain the babies? Did you breed them yourself?

[nyxx88]

cor!! care to share more about your hobby? how do you care for them? and house them?

you trying to catch heavy jumpers as pets now? you should be able to find them quite easily rite?

[valkyrie76]

thesleepingforest: thank you very muchly! min always steals hearts. mantis can be a very cute and intelligent pet as well... i hope you'll find one soon! here's a vid of a cute one-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik9UYQPPHCQ

night86mare: thank you for the compliments! i was a little self-conscious about posting these but now i feel better. i was lucky that min decided to sit and rest between my fingers at that point... i think she fell asleep then. i had to nudge her back into her cage!

vespa_bicolor: thanks for the compliment and link! i kinda knew those were the areas to find the hyllus diardi but i thought since so many people have managed to shoot pics of them here, there might be alternative areas where i can try my luck. how my whole spider-hobby started is a long story, but if we narrow it down to how my adansoni-hobby started, i caught my princess, munster, a few months ago. i'd made friends with people at the spiderlab (bio-science dept) and was given a male (sonic) to mate with munster (he was caught jumping around their computers). hence... babies! i kept 5 and let the rest go.

nyxx88: i keep them in jars which have been made into spidercages, kindly given by the spiderlab. these are simple contraptions made out of an inverted jar with a wired mesh air-vent in one spot and a corked hole (for feeding). bottom (on the cap) is a hole through which is poked a cotton tube (looks like a ciggie filter) that leads out below into a cup of fresh water.

maintenance is very easy for the adults and slightly trickier for the babies when they were still very young. they don't create much waste (just very small spots at the bottom of the jar that can be wiped off once in awhile). food shells of insects need to be cleared though, or they'll get mouldy. munster and sonic will hunt just about anything up to a max size of slightly bigger than themselves. munster favours queen (flying) ants. apparently normal ants are not advisable as they can hurt spiders. even the small ones. munster ran away from kitchen ants that were like the size of one of her fangs!

because the babies are so small, they're restricted to fruit flies at the moment. i've gone from tarbao-ing flies from the lab, to creating fruit-fly traps, to starting my own fruitculture to breed them in one jar, so i have a constant supply. i started min and max on aphids first, before letting them hunt fruit flies. just to give them a head-start. some of the babies took a longer time to start hunting bcause it can get a little daunting - the flies were actually bigger than them when they were infant-size.

i carry containers in my bag all the time to nab insect-meals whenever i see any when i'm out. sometimes i prowl the neighbourhood, peering at walls that appear to have nothing on them. my neighbours think i'm a loon.

if you're interested in long-winded ramblings about my spiders, you're welcome to check out my journal @ drag0nette.livejournal.com. please excuse the quality of the pictures there, they're made into collages in a hurry with hardly any sharpening. i believe the entire spider thing started end of june. that was when i knew nothing about spiders. i was even scared of munster!

thank you everyone for your kind words!

ps. almost forgot. nyxx88: i'd like to have a hyllus diardi after i was shown a pic of a plump little female by a friend at the spiderlab. i think she looks like a little devil cow. but i haven't come across any, so am asking around for good locations.

[falconite]

Great shots.. do share more... wonderful!!

[valkyrie76]

thank you, falconite!

[sprintist]

wah this is so cool, i think the fly hunting and breeding part seems difficult to maintain! what's the life span of these spiders?

[valkyrie76]

hi sprintist!

thank you for the kind words! life span is about 2-3 years. i have no idea how old munster is though... i'm hoping she's not too old and about to leave me yet.

fly-hunting can be fun and frustrating at the same time. my mother finds it very fun and has been helping me catch flies - i think she's more enthusiastic about it than i am (but dad is not amused)! breeding them is much easier... just set the fruit out and let flies lay their eggs, enclose before the flies pop out from the pupa... and the cycle begins. just have to put up with the funky smell.

[tchuanye]

Very interesting. Do keep us updated.

I have kept a anderson house jumper before as it came into my house. kept it for weeks and moulted once. Let it go in the end.

[valkyrie76]

hi chuan yean!

thanks for your interest!

i've fallen off my chair while browsing your galleries. you have an amazing number of incredible spider pictures! definitely interested in your coffeetable books. are they out in stores?

was your adansoni a male or a female?

[sprintist]

Originally Posted by valkyrie76 hi sprintist! thank you for the kind words! life span is about 2-3 years. i have no idea how old munster is though... i'm hoping she's not too old and about to leave me yet. fly-hunting can be fun and frustrating at the same time. my mother finds it very fun and has been helping me catch flies - i think she's more enthusiastic about it than i am (but dad is not amused)! breeding them is much easier... just set the fruit out and let flies lay their eggs, enclose before the flies pop out from the pupa... and the cycle begins. just have to put up with the funky smell.

i wish your spiders all the best!~ Just hope they dont get out of hand or rather, out of their 'home'! haha later u got a problem looking for them

[valkyrie76]

heh. the only way they will go anywhere is if they get 'out of hand' - if they literally jump off my hand when i'm shooting. otherwise, they're very secure in their homes.

i've once lost 2 babies during a little shoot, and they popped up in front of me 2 days later. so back home they went. i don't mind if anyone escapes, except for my favourites, min and munster. would be nice to see the rest jumping around in the house. the only thing i fear is lizards eating them. because they've been 'domesticated', they're less aware of such dangers, and are less skilled at hunting (jar-hunt is very very easy)...

[cichlid]

Originally Posted by valkyrie76 heh. the only way they will go anywhere is if they get 'out of hand' - if they literally jump off my hand when i'm shooting. otherwise, they're very secure in their homes. i've once lost 2 babies during a little shoot, and they popped up in front of me 2 days later. so back home they went. i don't mind if anyone escapes, except for my favourites, min and munster. would be nice to see the rest jumping around in the house. the only thing i fear is lizards eating them. because they've been 'domesticated', they're less aware of such dangers, and are less skilled at hunting (jar-hunt is very very easy)...

very interesting, can post a pic of your jar?

[raptor1988]

very nice pics! clear and sharp!

[tchuanye]

Originally Posted by valkyrie76 hi chuan yean! thanks for your interest! i've fallen off my chair while browsing your galleries. you have an amazing number of incredible spider pictures! definitely interested in your coffeetable books. are they out in stores? was your adansoni a male or a female?

Glad you like the book! The book is a print-on-order type so its not a published book. Will PM you more details if you like.

Regards to the spider, I am not too sure if it was a male or female.

[valkyrie76]

hi cichlid!

if you scroll to the middle of this journal entry - http://drag0nette.livejournal.com/130873.html - i've a coupla pics of the spidercages.

raptor1988: thank you!

chuan yean: was it black with white markings, or brown with black markings? black ones are male, brown ones are female. i personally prefer the girls... they're cuter and fatter.

[giantcanopy]

a very fascinating hobby indeed

Ryan

[valkyrie76]

ryan: yes, i'm enjoying it immensely.