After egg sac, how "hands off?" & Dwarf White worry- please help!!!

[Hagraven]

Hi friends,

I paired my Chilobrachys Huahini female October 27th. No sac yet, but she is eating really well and I have high hopes!

Question 1:
I've read that once an egg sac is spotted a keeper should not trouble their spider during those important days before the sac is pulled from the enclosure- but how hands off should one be?
I am wondering if keeping up with the water dish and enclosure humidity as normal is not advisable, under the circumstances.

Not to say that I would completely abandon that aspect of enclosure maintenance, but should I be a little less attentive (so as to offer a more peaceful environment) until the sac is pulled?

Question 2 (please help!!!):

I have had dwarf white isopods (and springtails) in her enclosure for months now (since September 12th), though I have not actively fed them, as I had wanted to keep their numbers down...well, recently I heard that these little beasts will possibly not only harm a molting spider, but also, an egg sac!

(I've also heard this is a cause for debate, but I am prone to worrying and am so proceeding under a "worse case" scenario mentality, trying to preemptively address a potential problem rather than hoping for the best and taking a chance. And please, if you have success with dwarf whites and tarantulas I think that's awesome! and don't want to say I know better (I definitely do not!)

Upset at myself to learn this wayyy too late, I am not sure what to do to keep the egg sac safe (I am going to rehouse my big girl later on and am not worried at present about her molting).

I can think of a few options to keep the sac safe:

1. Rehouse her now into an enclosure without the threat of Isopod predation (but will a rehouse event stress her out enough to interfere with the production of an egg sac, this far along (over a month now) from the pairing date, I wonder?)

2. At the first sign of the sac, I might feed the Isopods in hopes that they will go for the easy food instead of the egg sac?

I want so much to see her and her potential offspring healthy for years to come.
Now that I've gotten myself into this tricky spot, I can't thank you all enough in advance for any advice on how to keep my girl and her maybe-babes safe!!!!

 

[I just need all the T's]

After pairing. Do you have her in a cool down period? Or do you have a idea as to possibly trigger her to lay a sack?
How many times did you pair them?
And yes once you see she has laid a sack, note the day you found it count back to the last time you looked in and she hadn't laid one. And you can roughly start counting down the 30 35 days you intend to pull the sack.<<< Recommend if your set up with nursery pots and stuff.
"For chilobrachys"
Can't tell you anything about the isopods.
I use them in bio's but they are a native plain type and I have had zero problems other that I thought those orange ones were cools,but the native ones wiped them out.

Fingers crossed for you!

 

[I just need all the T's]

After pairing. Do you have her in a cool down period? Or do you have a idea as to possibly trigger her to lay a sack?
How many times did you pair them?
And yes once you see she has laid a sack, note the day you found it count back to the last time you looked in and she hadn't laid one. And you can roughly start counting down the 30 35 days you intend to pull the sack.<<< Recommend if your set up with nursery pots and stuff.
"For chilobrachys"
Can't tell you anything about the isopods.
I use them in bio's but they are a native plain type and I have had zero problems other that I thought those orange ones were cools,but the native ones wiped them out.

Fingers crossed for you!

I forgot to add. Once I see a sack I do not at all touch the enclosure until the day I'm pulling the sack. Even if I intend on letting mom hatch them out,I still don't touch the enclosure until roughly 30 odd days. If I'm pretty confident about the date she laid a sack I'll go 35 days.
With the fumosus I can pretty much know I'll have ewls.

 

[Hagraven]

After pairing. Do you have her in a cool down period? Or do you have a idea as to possibly trigger her to lay a sack?
How many times did you pair them?
And yes once you see she has laid a sack, note the day you found it count back to the last time you looked in and she hadn't laid one. And you can roughly start counting down the 30 35 days you intend to pull the sack.<<< Recommend if your set up with nursery pots and stuff.
"For chilobrachys"
Can't tell you anything about the isopods.
I use them in bio's but they are a native plain type and I have had zero problems other that I thought those orange ones were cools,but the native ones wiped them out.

Fingers crossed for you!

Thanks! I had only a single successful pairing, afterwhich my male hid himself away for days and from that point on made no more sperm webs. He is very old as far as I can tell and I think in the short time I've gotten to care for him he's given us all he can and now just has to deal with my endlessly photographing him lol.
The change of seasons lined up really well with the timing of pairing and the weather outside naturally has gotten colder and colder. Even with the heat kicking on in the spider room it is still a few degrees colder, especially at night, than during the weeks prior to pairing. Lots of guess work on my part but I am hoping it will be sufficient to encourage her.
And thank you for your advice on leaving her be after spotting an egg sac. I'll make sure the water dish and enclosure humidity are well and set when I see the sac and then I'll leave her alone for that time.
The Dwarf Whites are definitely my biggest worry. My partner and I had wondered if offering the critters food, only to remove it (with them onboard) might very slowly cut down the isopod numbers, but what of the ones I'll miss? And what of the ones who eat and then go on to repopulate, making the culling endeavor fruitless? It's a simple problem with way too many moving parts (again I'm kicking myself).

And again, I'd be fine to now rehouse her temporarily, but would the stress of the move bother her enough to interfere with the healthy development of an egg sac?

Have you had your Isopods in with a gravid female? Did they seem interested in her egg sac? And if so, had you been offering them food in the days prior to her cultivating her sac?

Thanks for your time!

 

[I just need all the T's]

Thanks! I had only a single successful pairing, afterwhich my male hid himself away for days and from that point on made no more sperm webs. He is very old as far as I can tell and I think in the short time I've gotten to care for him he's given us all he can and now just has to deal with my endlessly photographing him lol.
The change of seasons lined up really well with the timing of pairing and the weather outside naturally has gotten colder and colder. Even with the heat kicking on in the spider room it is still a few degrees colder, especially at night, than during the weeks prior to pairing. Lots of guess work on my part but I am hoping it will be sufficient to encourage her.
And thank you for your advice on leaving her be after spotting an egg sac. I'll make sure the water dish and enclosure humidity are well and set when I see the sac and then I'll leave her alone for that time.
The Dwarf Whites are definitely my biggest worry. My partner and I had wondered if offering the critters food, only to remove it (with them onboard) might very slowly cut down the isopod numbers, but what of the ones I'll miss? And what of the ones who eat and then go on to repopulate, making the culling endeavor fruitless? It's a simple problem with way too many moving parts (again I'm kicking myself).

And again, I'd be fine to now rehouse her temporarily, but would the stress of the move bother her enough to interfere with the healthy development of an egg sac?

Have you had your Isopods in with a gravid female? Did they seem interested in her egg sac? And if so, had you been offering them food in the days prior to her cultivating her sac?

Thanks for your time!

Myself with the native type isopods I use I have had no issues with them getting to an egg sack and I've really leaned hard into bio active enclosures the past couple years for lots of different reasons.
I honestly can't say if a rehouse would make her not drop a sack,but I certainly would think it may prolong it until she gets home made.

Once I'm done pairing even if I'm not sure if it was successful I still go with the same methods to try and trigger them to drop. Slowly drop temp and let the enclosure start to dry and hope for the best. If it seals off it's entrance I stop feeding and only check on her once a week until I see the sack and if I do I absolutely do not touch her enclosure until the very day I decide to pull it.

You'll be able to tell something is different. The webbing will be heavy and thick not the usual day time curtain webbing.

 

[Hagraven]

Myself with the native type isopods I use I have had no issues with them getting to an egg sack and I've really leaned hard into bio active enclosures the past couple years for lots of different reasons.
I honestly can't say if a rehouse would make her not drop a sack,but I certainly would think it may prolong it until she gets home made.

Once I'm done pairing even if I'm not sure if it was successful I still go with the same methods to try and trigger them to drop. Slowly drop temp and let the enclosure start to dry and hope for the best. If it seals off it's entrance I stop feeding and only check on her once a week until I see the sack and if I do I absolutely do not touch her enclosure until the very day I decide to pull it.

You'll be able to tell something is different. The webbing will be heavy and thick not the usual day time curtain webbing.

It's been nearly 2 months now and I've been looking in at her every day. I love watching her put down webbing, but like you said, no super thick webbing yet. I have stopped worrying too much and am just along for the ride at this point.
Later on before she molts again I will clean out the isopods, just in case. For now she is comfortable. Next set up I will try and encourage her to burrow more; she has depth of substrate (and it's moist too) but still spends so much time webbing on the surface- I had heard Huahini will not burrow as eagerly as their counterparts, but I'm looking forward to trying to further encourage the behavior in the future.

 

[I just need all the T's]

It's been nearly 2 months now and I've been looking in at her every day. I love watching her put down webbing, but like you said, no super thick webbing yet. I have stopped worrying too much and am just along for the ride at this point.
Later on before she molts again I will clean out the isopods, just in case. For now she is comfortable. Next set up I will try and encourage her to burrow more; she has depth of substrate (and it's moist too) but still spends so much time webbing on the surface- I had heard Huahini will not burrow as eagerly as their counterparts, but I'm looking forward to trying to further encourage the behavior in the future.


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It been my experience keeping them as far as burrowing. Once mine hit around three inches raised from slings to every adult never really dug much other than a spot in the corner but still webbed the surface heavy. I've got a few to start using a hide but it's sorta like if they are in the mood else they are under their webbing over to one side or the other. I still keep one end with the substrate seven or eight inches deep they never ever even molting have dug down.
I've got six of the chilobrachys species currently.
All are shy as in it's got to be early and super quiet to catch them out. C.Huahini totally different behavior. I have not tried breeding them yet but I'm pretty sure with some of the others it went as far as 3 months to get a sack.

 

[Hagraven]

It been my experience keeping them as far as burrowing. Once mine hit around three inches raised from slings to every adult never really dug much other than a spot in the corner but still webbed the surface heavy. I've got a few to start using a hide but it's sorta like if they are in the mood else they are under their webbing over to one side or the other. I still keep one end with the substrate seven or eight inches deep they never ever even molting have dug down.
I've got six of the chilobrachys species currently.
All are shy as in it's got to be early and super quiet to catch them out. C.Huahini totally different behavior. I have not tried breeding them yet but I'm pretty sure with some of the others it went as far as 3 months to get a sack.

Yeah I've noticed my big girl really appreciates quiet and gentleness when I'm moving or working around her but I regularly find her out and about, which I can't argue with!

She'll ignore her hide but seems to favor her own silk constructions when looking to step out of view. I too hope to have a few other Chilobrachys species (so many are so pretty!) but I know I lucked out with this one
: )