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My miracle babies

Thistles

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
914
Location
Virginia
Okay, so I know not to count my tarantulas before they're second instar, but I have some pretty special 1i spiders right now. I am thrilled that they made it this far, and this is a big milestone for them. Why? Because they came from this:
image.jpeg

Yeah, that disgusting mess is an egg sac. My female Chilobrachys dyscolus molted in November, I fed her well and when my male matured I was optimistic about the pairing. I paired in February, and the female almost immediately burrowed and stopped eating. What's up with that, lady?

I left her alone for months, but in June my curiosity got the best of me. I carefully pulled away the silk plug and peeked into her burrow. There she was with an egg sac! It looked pretty small, only maybe 1" diameter, and mom is over 5". I was still happy to see it, after months of mom refusing food!

I didn't know when she had made the sac, so I planned to leave it with her for close to a month before pulling it. If the babies hatch out with her, well, it wouldn't be the first time I've had to round up slings in mom's tank.

So my planned pulling day was this weekend. I go to get the eggsac and what do I see but a little wadded up sac in the water dish! Nooooo! Why did I wait?! How could I have let this happen?!

It felt awful. The sac was solid and gummy and damp. I cut it open anyway, and found the mess I was expecting. In the muck, there were also a few EWLs that looked alive. I dug them out of the gunk as carefully as I could, and ended up with 25 that looked like this:
image.jpeg

Maybe you can see that these poor babies still are covered in the slime that was their siblings. Gross, and suffocating! So here I got a little creative.

I washed my EWLs.

I put them in a soft fish net, and gently rinsed them with room temperature dechlorinated water until I got all the muck off them. They dried quickly on paper towel and I put them into a tiny incubator. On Monday I pulled out 8 moldy ones, and another on Tuesday. But! The others had started to darken up! I still saw no movement from them. No wiggling of tiny legs or any sign of life except their slight darkening and continued lack of mold.

Imagine my delight when I found a first instar this morning! When I got home from class, several more had popped! They're still too young to be out of the woods, but the fact that they've come out of such a gross mess, been WASHED, and now they've successfully molted after all that makes me feel like they've got a shot! There are only 16 of them, but that's more than 0!
image.jpeg
image.jpg

Have any of you heard of washing EWLs before?
 
Last edited:

Phil

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,919
Location
UK.
Okay, so I know not to count my tarantulas before they're second instar, but I have some pretty special 1i spiders right now. I am thrilled that they made it this far, and this is a big milestone for them. Why? Because they came from this:
View attachment 18012
Yeah, that disgusting mess is an egg sac. My female Chilobrachys dyscolus molted in November, I fed her well and when my male matured I was optimistic about the pairing. I paired in February, and the female almost immediately burrowed and stopped eating. What's up with that, lady?

I left her alone for months, but in June my curiosity got the best of me. I carefully pulled away the silk plug and peeked into her burrow. There she was with an egg sac! It looked pretty small, only maybe 1" diameter, and mom is over 5". I was still happy to see it, after months of mom refusing food!

I didn't know when she had made the sac, so I planned to leave it with her for close to a month before pulling it. If the babies hatch out with her, well, it wouldn't be the first time I've had to round up slings in mom's tank.

So my planned pulling day was this weekend. I go to get the eggsac and what do I see but a little wadded up sac in the water dish! Nooooo! Why did I wait?! How could I have let this happen?!

It felt awful. The sac was solid and gummy and damp. I cut it open anyway, and found the mess I was expecting. In the muck, there were also a few EWLs that looked alive. I dug them out of the gunk as carefully as I could, and ended up with 25 that looked like this: View attachment 18013
Maybe you can see that these poor babies still are covered in the slime that was their siblings. Gross, and suffocating! So here I got a little creative.

I washed my EWLs.

I put them in a soft fish net, and gently rinsed them with room temperature dechlorinated water until I got all the muck off them. They dried quickly on paper towel and I put them into a tiny incubator. On Monday I pulled out 8 moldy ones, and another on Tuesday. But! The others had started to darken up! I still saw no movement from them. No wiggling of tiny legs or any sign of life except their slight darkening and continued lack of mold.

Imagine my delight when I found a first instar this morning! When I got home from class, several more had popped! They're still too young to be out of the woods, but the fact that they've come out of such a gross mess, been WASHED, and now they've successfully molted after all that makes me feel like they've got a shot! There are only 16 of them, but that's more than 0!View attachment 18015 View attachment 18014
Have any of you heard of washing EWLs before?
Wow, wow, wow. That is amazing. Good luck to all the little ones. I hope you keep these really special babies
 

Thistles

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
914
Location
Virginia
Thanks for the love, guys. They're super cute. I will definitely keep y'all posted. Washing slings is a first for me! I was actually planning to sell their mama and give some of the sac to the guy who gave me their daddy as a freebie when he was just a sling himself. I think plans might have changed given how few of them have survived. I'll definitely keep a few, but I don't have room to keep all 16, assuming they all make it.
 

Thistles

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
914
Location
Virginia
Apparently these are wretched little cannibals. Some of the 1i have eaten a few of the EWLs. I've separated them now. To be fair to the 1i, I don't know if the EWLs were dead before or after they were eaten. They were darkening like they were going to molt, but no wiggling. One had some trouble molting, anyway. I might not have gotten all the goo off, and some had sort of crushed legs. I'm not too surprised that I'm still losing them, given their rough start.
 

Phil

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,919
Location
UK.
That's a shame, but hopefully the sacrifice of the others will mean the ones remaining have a better chance. Even if you get only 1 given that start, that MUST be worth all the effort. Fingers crossed.
 

Thistles

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Messages
914
Location
Virginia
Yeah, not surprised or too disappointed. The ones cannibalized hadn't molted yet, and might not have done so anyway. Like I said, I can't count them until 2i! 8 look really solid. The rest are a bit shaky.
 

Phil

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Messages
3,919
Location
UK.
Yeah, not surprised or too disappointed. The ones cannibalized hadn't molted yet, and might not have done so anyway. Like I said, I can't count them until 2i! 8 look really solid. The rest are a bit shaky.
Everything crossed for you. This is a really interesting story that I hope ends with some good news.
 

Chingz

Active Member
3 Year Member
Messages
124
Location
Indonesia
Oh my glob. Such an experience...
Wow, that was really good news.
Rough start, but they all will be better we are sure!!!
All the love and care and attention wont be gone without nothing...
Keep spirited, don't give up.
 

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