Is My B. Albiceps in Pre-Molt??

[boreece27]

Hey!

Just need your alls good knowledge since I’m new. Does it look like my B. Albiceps is in pre-molt? I have had a few molts with my others but they’ve all been much smaller than this one. I purchased it on Dec. 11th and the breeder said it was in pre-molt. What do you guys think? Thank you in advance for your feedback. Believe me, it’s much appreciated.

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

Pre-molt or not, that T is not going to be very happy without a deep substrate to dig in. It's hard to tell from the pic, but it sure looks like you need some deeper dirt in that enclosure. How many inches of substrate do you have in there?

 

[boreece27]

Definitely, need more. I appreciate that feedback. I will add more and hopefully make it happy.

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

I will add more and hopefully make it happy.

Cool. You're being a good spider momma. These guys like to dig burrows with lots of separate tunnels so having deep substrate is important for their quality of life (assuming that T's even experience quality of life, of course).

Sorry to use 2,000 words in this reply but your question about it being in pre-molt is a little complicated for this species.

B. albiceps is sort of the weird Cousin It of the Brachypelma family. It's not even certain if what science calls a B. albiceps and what the hobby calls a B. albiceps is even the same spider. In fact, there might actually be three or four different species plus a few weird hybrids running around under that name. Take what breeders tell you and what you read in care sheets for these guys with at least one grain of salt because you really can't tell exactly what you have.

There's definitely at least two separate wild populations of B. albiceps - one that lives in the lowlands of the Balsas River Valley south of Mexico City and one that lives in the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur above Acapulco. The ones in the river valley live next to other Brachypelma species but the ones in the mountains live next to Tliltocatl species so go figure. Nobody I know of has ever taken a hard look at whether the two populations are actually the same spider or not. It's almost certain that individuals from both populations have ended up being exported to the US and sold as B. albiceps so husbandry for these guys can be significantly different depending on who/where you get them from.

It's also not clear if B. albiceps really should be in Brachypelma at all. It looks much more like one of the Mexican "red rump" species (which are now separated into the genus Tliltocatl). Morphologically and genetically, though, it's properly a "red leg" species like the rest of Brachypelma even though it doesn't have red legs. Again, it's entirely possible that there are more than one species of spider people have been calling B. albiceps and everyone is just confused about what they're looking at.

So what's happening with your little one? It's hard to tell from a picture - especially in young specimens - and doubly so in what somebody labelled a B. albiceps where you're never really sure what you're looking at in the first place.

B. albiceps normally have a nice thick bit of shrubbery on their rumps that yours is certainly lacking. That can be a sign of pre-molt, a sign of stress, or just a sign that your spider is still too young to have really developed it. It's not really helpful.

Pre-molt also normally results in a darkening color of the abdomen as the old exoskeleton separates from the layers underneath, but also sometimes not, especially in slings. Yours looks to have a pretty normal color for a young B. albiceps so maybe it's in pre-molt and maybe it ain't.

That black toupee on the rump looks to be the characteristic dark patch of urticating hairs in Brachypelma so that doesn't tell you much either.

So is your T in pre-molt? Who knows? The only way to tell for certain is to give it some extra substrate to excavate and see what happens. If it's getting ready to molt it'll stop eating, bury itself, and you won't see it for a long time until it suddenly pops back up at twice the size it was before but acting like nothing ever happened. If it's not getting ready to molt it'll do the same thing except that food you put in the enclosure will magically disappear from time to time when you're not looking and it'll stay buried for even longer.

Wherever it's at in the molt cycle there's nothing you can do about it except sit back, be kind to it, and enjoy the ride. Molting is driven by hormonal signals so it's gonna happen or not regardless of what you think or do. Lots of people believe that they can easily tell things like pre-molt or sex from just a picture. That's really like playing the lottery, though. Those people only remember (or admit to) the rare occasions when they were right and quickly forget about all the wrong guesses they made. Just let your T do it's thing and have fun watching the performance. You'll both be much happier and less stressed out that way.

Good luck!!!

 

[boreece27]

Cool. You're being a good spider momma. These guys like to dig burrows with lots of separate tunnels so having deep substrate is important for their quality of life (assuming that T's even experience quality of life, of course).

Sorry to use 2,000 words in this reply but your question about it being in pre-molt is a little complicated for this species.

B. albiceps is sort of the weird Cousin It of the Brachypelma family. It's not even certain if what science calls a B. albiceps and what the hobby calls a B. albiceps is even the same spider. In fact, there might actually be three or four different species plus a few weird hybrids running around under that name. Take what breeders tell you and what you read in care sheets for these guys with at least one grain of salt because you really can't tell exactly what you have.

There's definitely at least two separate wild populations of B. albiceps - one that lives in the lowlands of the Balsas River Valley south of Mexico City and one that lives in the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur above Acapulco. The ones in the river valley live next to other Brachypelma species but the ones in the mountains live next to Tliltocatl species so go figure. Nobody I know of has ever taken a hard look at whether the two populations are actually the same spider or not. It's almost certain that individuals from both populations have ended up being exported to the US and sold as B. albiceps so husbandry for these guys can be significantly different depending on who/where you get them from.

It's also not clear if B. albiceps really should be in Brachypelma at all. It looks much more like one of the Mexican "red rump" species (which are now separated into the genus Tliltocatl). Morphologically and genetically, though, it's properly a "red leg" species like the rest of Brachypelma even though it doesn't have red legs. Again, it's entirely possible that there are more than one species of spider people have been calling B. albiceps and everyone is just confused about what they're looking at.

So what's happening with your little one? It's hard to tell from a picture - especially in young specimens - and doubly so in what somebody labelled a B. albiceps where you're never really sure what you're looking at in the first place.

B. albiceps normally have a nice thick bit of shrubbery on their rumps that yours is certainly lacking. That can be a sign of pre-molt, a sign of stress, or just a sign that your spider is still too young to have really developed it. It's not really helpful.

Pre-molt also normally results in a darkening color of the abdomen as the old exoskeleton separates from the layers underneath, but also sometimes not, especially in slings. Yours looks to have a pretty normal color for a young B. albiceps so maybe it's in pre-molt and maybe it ain't.

That black toupee on the rump looks to be the characteristic dark patch of urticating hairs in Brachypelma so that doesn't tell you much either.

So is your T in pre-molt? Who knows? The only way to tell for certain is to give it some extra substrate to excavate and see what happens. If it's getting ready to molt it'll stop eating, bury itself, and you won't see it for a long time until it suddenly pops back up at twice the size it was before but acting like nothing ever happened. If it's not getting ready to molt it'll do the same thing except that food you put in the enclosure will magically disappear from time to time when you're not looking and it'll stay buried for even longer.

Wherever it's at in the molt cycle there's nothing you can do about it except sit back, be kind to it, and enjoy the ride. Molting is driven by hormonal signals so it's gonna happen or not regardless of what you think or do. Lots of people believe that they can easily tell things like pre-molt or sex from just a picture. That's really like playing the lottery, though. Those people only remember (or admit to) the rare occasions when they were right and quickly forget about all the wrong guesses they made. Just let your T do it's thing and have fun watching the performance. You'll both be much happier and less stressed out that way.

Good luck!!!

Hey!
Don’t apologize for the lengthy response. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to educate me. This is why I joined this forum and maybe one day I can help educate newbies like me.

 

[boreece27]

So, took the advice of more substrate. It’s a good 3-3.5” deep now. I’ll keep you all posted

Thanks again!!

 

[boreece27]

Here’s the new set up. Thank you all for your input. It’s already doing some new excavating.

.