Molting question

[Megs]

My son has an arizona blonde. Her abdomen went from light tan to black over night the other night. Does this mean she is getting ready to molt or should I be concerned?

 

[Entity]

might be getting ready to molt. unless she is acting weird, souldnt be anything to worry about. just make sure she has water available and see what happens. i wouldnt be concerned.

 

[Megs]

Ok thanks! I figured that's all it was but wanted to be sure. She's acting just fine so we'll just leave her alone.

 

[Megs]

OK so, she finally molted!! YAY! Everything looks good! The only question I have is, will her color go back to her normal light tan (blonde) color? She is almost completely out of her molt but she is now completely black. Just curious

 

[MassExodus]

Completely black? A chalcodes? I don't own any of the species, but I know mature males have a much darker color than the females..Does it have tibial hooks now? How large is it? It sounds like a mature male...

 

[Megs]

No, it's still really young. It's only maybe a little over an inch long including the legs. No hooks.
The breeder we got it from said that when he checked her last molt he was almost 100% sure it was a female. She had a good molt yesterday but I'm not sure what to look for to be able to tell.

 

[Chubbs]

While it's not exactly impossible to sex a sling that small, it is pretty difficult to do so with slings under 2 inches. That's why I'm a bit skeptical that this guy could be 100 percent certain that it's female.

When sexing a molt, you'd be looking for the presence or absence of spermatheca. However they're gonna look different depending on the species, so your best bet is to search the internet and see if you can find some images. You're gonna need a decent microscope or magnifying glass.

 

[MassExodus]

No, it's still really young. It's only maybe a little over an inch long including the legs. No hooks.
The breeder we got it from said that when he checked her last molt he was almost 100% sure it was a female. She had a good molt yesterday but I'm not sure what to look for to be able to tell.

Ok, just checking. Like I said I don't have any chalcodes, it just seems strange to hear its black..I know the mature males look like my native Texas aphonopelma, the anax and hentzi. Good to hear it molted cleanly. I'm going to look up some chalcodes slings, you have me curious now

 

[Megs]

Male Arizona blondes do tend to be all black but the females are the blonde color. She WAS the blonde color before she molted so who knows! They are great spiders though. Very docile and even slower moving than our rose hair. They're just hard to find. We got ours from Bryan's creepy crawlers. Bryan is a T breeder here in the Kansas City area.

 

[Chubbs]

I wouldn't say they're hard to find. I see them all the time on Ken the bug guy's site as well as Swifts inverts, Paul Becker's site to name a few

 

[Megs]

OK cool! I'll keep those in mind! The next one I want is a smithi but I heard they're hard to breed. I never see any at the expos.

 

[Chubbs]

OK cool! I'll keep those in mind! The next one I want is a smithi but I heard they're hard to breed. I never see any at the expos.

From what I understand most Brachys aren't the easiest to breed. Smithi is easy to find, but like bohemei, they don't go for cheap unless you buy a sling, and they take forever to grow.

 

[Megs]

Just went in and checked on her this morning. The hairs on her legs are slowly turning a blonde color! Crazy cool!