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Hi everyone. This is my first post. I've been in the T-keeping hobby since yesterday, when my G. pulchripes, L. parahybana, P. regalis, and P. murinus slings arrived. I gave them the night off after unpacking them into their deli-cup habitats--a tennis ball can for the Indian ornamental, and went back to them today to give them each a pinhead cricket. The P. Regalis is already about 1.5 inches in diameter, so it took the cricket easily. I killed the crickets for both the LP and the GP, and the GP had found its shortly thereafter. Well, those well-behaved T's left me totally unprepared for the OBT. Oh, I had read that they were fast, but nothing prepared me for the experience. In the time it took to try to slip a cricket in the little deli cup, this little 1" OBT with lightning speed jumped through the crack and took off, jumping off the table and hitting the floor running. I caught it and got it back in the cup. I decided the heck with this tiny cup, I'm putting it in the bigger 4" tub the breeder sent me. I put substrate in the bigger tub, put a cricket in there beforehand, then put the small cup in the tub and took the lid off with tweezers. So far so good, I thought, but the next thing I felt was this OBT magician crawling up the side of my arm I couldn't see. I would have sworn he was still in the deli cup. Of course I jumped like the newbie I am and am probably lucky the people in the suites around me didn't call the police--I would hate to hear the yell that left me played back on tape. I stripped off my clothes, just in case. But I saw nothing and decided the whole thing must have been my imagination. All the dirt was dumped out of the small cup into the larger cup, so I started rolling the cup around to find the OBT in the dirt pile. Nothing. My pulse hadn't had time to slow down, and now it started climbing up again. I started going through the little pile of my clothes I'd just thrown off. As I was doing this, I caught a glimpse of the OBT out in the hall, staring at me from the floor. I caught it again with the smaller cup, and now the smaller cup (OBT inside) is upside down in the bigger tub, lidless and with the OBT inside. I decided that was a good place for it for now while I settle down and get ready to try again later. I sauter-melted some more breathing holes in the top end of the little deli cup, managed to get both a cricket and the OBT in the same deli cup, and sealed the whole thing in a tub. I even put the tub in a critter keeper for good measure.
WOW. The OBT appears to be uninjured--at least all the legs seem ok. If there is a crack on the abdomen or thorax I can't see it. Right now I'm trying to figure out a way to take the small cup out of the bigger tub without it escaping again.
HOW do you open the lid to feed/water/whatever without the OBT sling escaping? I've never seen a spider this fast or this good at getting away. As soon as it feels the lid pop, it's jumping for the surface to try to get out. Surely the bigger it gets, the easier it gets. At least I hope so.
All advice appreciated!
WOW. The OBT appears to be uninjured--at least all the legs seem ok. If there is a crack on the abdomen or thorax I can't see it. Right now I'm trying to figure out a way to take the small cup out of the bigger tub without it escaping again.
HOW do you open the lid to feed/water/whatever without the OBT sling escaping? I've never seen a spider this fast or this good at getting away. As soon as it feels the lid pop, it's jumping for the surface to try to get out. Surely the bigger it gets, the easier it gets. At least I hope so.
All advice appreciated!
