# Miscellaneous Herp Interests > Invertebrates >  venturing into Ts

## threezero

So I posted a thread awhile back about having an empty tank. Got alot of suggestion for T and that really spark my interest in them. I still havn't completely overcome my fear of spider but I think it will really help my fear if I can raise a spider myself. So after doing research I've decided i wanted one that will mature to be big body and have no problem coming out to explore. I absolutely love love love the p.metallica, its almost love at first sight. However I'm not sure I want to pay $150 for a 1/2" sling and have it die on me cause of my inexperience.

Having said that I find the price of adults for other species a little hard to swollen. almost all of them even the most common rosea cause $75 and upward for a sexed adult (i live in canada). I think instead of getting an adult I will get 3 slings A.geniculata rose and p.murinus that range from 3/4" to 1 in size and all three will still cost me around $100 shipped to my door, quite a bit on money to spent on 3 very very tiny bugs.

My question is how hard is it to raise slings? keep in mind i have never keep any kind of invertebrates before. I have done my research seems like all i need to go is to find the correct size prey for the sling. keep it at room temperature around 23-30C, give it the appropriate humidity or find a specie that doesn't have picky humidity requirement and keep it in container appropriate to its size. However spider don't strike me as hardy animals.

I'm way over my head trying to raise slings for my first time? or some i just go for and adult?

I can't stop watching video and picture on Ts now I have a feeling i'm getting addicted....

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## Anatopism

For somebody who is getting over their fear of spiders and wants a tarantula that will come out to explore, I strongly advise against your first spider being a P murinus or a P metallica... or any other teleporting-fast or murderously aggressive tarantula.. unless you're fully prepared to rehouse them/move them into new homes as they get larger. I'm not certain of the temperament of P metallica specifically, but be prepared for a quick animal. P murinus will wish you dead. Look at them funny and they'll start taking notes on your loved ones to hold hostage later. There is a reason baboons have the alternate abbreviation of OBT (Orange Bitey Thing). They are hardy, but be prepared for a pissy spider.

My understanding of the A geniculatas are that they can be defensive much like a b vagans, but I don't believe they are aggressive or bitey, just a greater chance of flicking hairs - there are of course differences between individuals. Would probably be the best of the ones you mentioned specifically to start with. 

My personal recommendations for hardy/robust AND docile slings to start with would be a G pulchripes, or many other Grammastola sp., B vagans (keeping in mind the behavior note above), and a few other Brachypelma sp. There are many hardy avics you can get as slings or a little larger, as great starter 'arboreals' that are more forgiving than some of the more expensive animals, and who tend to be known for their friendly temperament - They can be quick and many will jump between your hands. I've interacted with quite a few avic avic, but own only a single A diversipes right now as a sling - more demanding than my terrestrial slings (G pulchripes and G pulchra, but not by much). 

I do not recommend a G rosea as a first spider, ever. They go on fasts at times, and many of the caresheets you find on non-spider websites or in pet stores are just plain wrong. Some are plain evil, some are so docile or shy they'll die before they ever eat.

Slings all have their challenges, and some more difficult than others, but I enjoy starting them out as slings. Biggest thing is humidity. It isn't terribly difficult to keep them at the proper temperature. There is always the chance of having a sling that dies despite doing everything right with husbandry. 

They're primitive animals, but they do vary between individuals. I like getting a 'feel' for an individual spider as a sling as it grows into an adult, rather than starting right off as an adult most of the time. I do handle my Ts on occasion, to clean/tidy up the cage mostly, or for photos, and most of my friends who see them for the first time are willing to handle the terrestrial slings because they are less intimidating. I do not handle the avic sling - he's simply WAY too fast, and the risk of harming the little guy is way too high.

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_3skulls_ (03-05-2013),medicinhed (03-20-2013),Poseidon (03-05-2013),_threezero_ (03-05-2013)

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## threezero

Thanks for the input. I'm not really looking to pick up and handle the T much, I would much rather it be an interesting display animal and hardy. i'm having second though about having the slings shipped. I found some b.vagans slings locally and also a P.irminia juvenile (I love the way this specie look and i was told handlablity aside they are great starter Ts?)

would these two species be better choices? one of the main reason i wanted the 3 original species i listed is that they are suppose to be hardy and very hard to kill due to owner errors.

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## AngelOtter

If you want something that is out often and is not easy to kill I would recommend B. Smithi, they are pretty, out a good amount of time, are fairly hard to kill, and they get fairly large. They don't have a bad temperament, although they can fling hairs. Also getting an adult shouldn't be too expensive. B. Vagans is another good option, but I wouldn't say a sun tiger( P. irminia) is a good first T... their bite is pretty bad, and they are skittish and defensive. 
 Slings can be hard, as with most things, the younger you buy them the more likely they are to die. I tend to say that if it's your first T an adult is probably the best way to go.

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## threezero

Thanks guys i guess I'm bring home a b. vagans than. $35 for a 3"+ juvenile sounds great and just big enough to not be fragile. Now I need to setup his/her enclosure. my guess 10g would be too big for it atm?

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## ludedor24

Yes , even a 5 gallon is fairly big. I usually dont allow more then twice the legspan in height , due to falling.

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## AngelOtter

Just fill it up with substrate, both my Ts are in 10 gallons, my red knee was in a 5g until about a week ago, and it was large enough. Just make sure it isn't too far a fall if it does climb, and give it a few hiding places.

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## Anatopism

B vagans is a great starter  :Smile:  Mine is one of my favorites (who am I kidding, they're all my favorites except the P murinus, but screw him). I put mine in 'Really Useful Boxes' of appropriate size, which I buy from Office Max or I think Staples as them as well. The lids lock on, but come off easily and the boxes are mighty sturdy. I don't ever trust myself with the softer plastic deli containers lots of other T owners keep them in. The 'Really Useful Boxes' are also stackable, which saves me space  :Smile: 

My vagans is absolutely a burrowing spider, and she has a tunnel that stretches down both lengths of her cage, that I can see from the side like ant farm. she is slightly larger than my palm, with legs stretched out in all directions, and her cage is aprox. 1 square foot, with about 5 inches of substrate. I keep her dirt moist enough for her to be able to build tunnels with, but once she's built a good tunnel, the whole mound of dirt seems to be covered in webbing to keep it in place. She comes out and explores at night, but I rarely see her in the day, without looking at the side of the glass an into her tunnel. She gets a tiny condiment cup for water. Make certain whatever you use for water is plenty smal enough for your spider to not slip into, or get stuck and drown, but that water is always available.

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AngelOtter (03-05-2013)

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## threezero

just pick up my b.vagans :Smile:  the breeder said its a possible female

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## Herpenthusiast3

I just got into tarantulas myself and I'm trying to raise a spiderling as well. I bought a brachypelma vagans.( Mexican red rump). The spider seems to be doing well and readily eats. b vagans is one of the fastest growing brachypelma T also. So it won't stay small for as long.  :Smile: . Hope this helps. This is his setup. He has a little cave under the coconut bark.  :Smile:

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## threezero

^ did you get this from jamie's tarantula? is that more for arboreal species? I'm already looking for a reasonably price display enclosure.

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## Herpenthusiast3

yeah I got it from Jamie's tarantulas. It's a spiderling terrestrial setup. When they are really small they are more about burrowing so the depth of the substrate is important.  That I enclosure is only 2.25inx2.25inx4in. So it's small but it works well for spiderlings.

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## threezero

Your right, the arboreal has the vents on the side  :Razz: I really like the acrylic style of caging, how fast do B.vagans grow, how soon so i expect them to be big enough for the full size terrestrial enclosures?

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## 3skulls

Here is a B. vagans that i have had for about 5 months . Give or take. Steady amount of roaches, in a room kept at 82*
They are not fast grower but not as slow as a G. rosea. 


They will burrow when small. These are my first vagans so I'm not sure how long it takes for them to reach adult size.

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## threezero

wow its still so small but i'm sure i will enjoy watching her grow being my first T  :Very Happy:  so i just went and got a mini kritter keeper for it, i'm not sure if its too big for it right now.

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_3skulls_ (03-07-2013)

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## 3skulls

Just double check and make sure he can't fit though any of the slots. 

I would fill it half way up with substrate and watch her make some burrows.  :Smile: 

If you want, start one for her near the plastic, with your finger. If she takes to it, you'll have a better chance of seeing her :p

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## threezero

so i transfer her over to the new kritter keeper. man working with spider is a test in patience, trying to get her to move a certain direction lol. She keep trying to climb the cage in the beginning and tiptop over the substrate(its kind of cute lol). But she has settle down once i moist up the substrate a bit. She doesn't seem to burrow, i'm still using the milk carton thing for her to hide in and she would put half of her body into it and chill out like that. I use 2 medium size tattoo ink cup for her as water but she dug one up this morning. Do they actually drink from the water cup or is it really there for moisture and humidity? 

Wow Tarantulas are pretty neat, i don't think i can stop at one lol

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_3skulls_ (03-07-2013)

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## 3skulls

Yeah, you can't have just one :p

Give her some time to settle in and I bet she will start to dig. They do and will drink from a dish but at that size they will get everything they need from its prey. I don't have any "bowls" in with my vagans right now. I need to get some more bottle caps. 
The normal rule is to always have a water bowl available at a 2-3" leg span. I always start them out with something very shallow or place a few pebbles in the cap. 

Here is one in its tunnel. (Bad pic)


Wait until you work with a T that can teleport :p
They'll be in one spot, then in another before you know it. Transferring some of them really gets my heart pumping.

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## threezero

Yea she is already burrowing a bit. I think she like it better in the critter keeper the deli cup didnt have enough substrate in it. Just bought some crickets for it but I don't know if they are too big or not....

also I have her on my desktop right now beside my computer. Since I'm a nocturnal creature my room light is on until 3-4 am all the time. My snakes which is in the same room don't seem to mind but than agin they live in racks. Will the t get stress out if the lights is on all the time. I notice it will freeze whatever it's doing whenever I turn on the room light.

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## 3skulls

I'm not sure if it will stress it out or not. 
Can you make a little cover for it? Once it makes a good burrow, I'm sure it won't be a problem. 
If you feel the crickets are to big, you can crush their head a little. It's gross but has to be done at times :p

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## threezero

well i just throw in 2 crickets and she tooke it like a champ, i guess thats a sigh that she is comfortable in its new enclosure? how much should i feed it at the time and how often should i feed it??

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## TVR22

> well i just throw in 2 crickets and she tooke it like a champ, i guess thats a sigh that she is comfortable in its new enclosure? how much should i feed it at the time and how often should i feed it??


Once a week with an appropriate sized cricket/roach and they're good to go. Oh, P. metalicca piece of cake. Just show some respect and you be alright. Here's mine that I raised from a sling and now she's a good 4".

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_threezero_ (03-11-2013)

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## threezero

^ WOW that beautiful. I'm literally drooling on to my laptop :Surprised: . Sadly I'm not really comfortable pay 100+ for a spider yet....Even a sling is pretty expensive. I should probably save up that money for a nice male bp for my 2 girls

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## Herpenthusiast3

I picked up my Brazilian black tarantula yesterday!!! Woop woop  :Smile:

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## threezero

^ cool should post some pictures  :Smile: 

So i woke up today to find my little guy redecorated his place again and has cary the tiny water cup to the other side of the enclosure. She must be really busy while i'm sleeping lol. Would be cool if i can setup some kind of time lapse recording that work in the dark and see exactly what shes up to lol

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## 3skulls

Yeah that would be awesome. They are hard little workers :p

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## Herpenthusiast3

> ^ cool should post some pictures 
> 
> So i woke up today to find my little guy redecorated his place again and has cary the tiny water cup to the other side of the enclosure. She must be really busy while i'm sleeping lol. Would be cool if i can setup some kind of time lapse recording that work in the dark and see exactly what shes up to lol











 :Smile:

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_3skulls_ (03-11-2013),_threezero_ (03-11-2013)

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## threezero

your brazilian black are they fast growers?. I never thought i would say that about a bug until i got into Ts lol. Manage to take a photo of my red rump today. I look up picture of male vs females online and i still no idea what to think about mine  :Confused:

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_3skulls_ (03-11-2013)

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## 3skulls

They are slow like a G. rosea

I'm not good at sexing unless I have a good fresh molt. Or the spider is sexually dimorphic. :p

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## threezero

guys i think i'm addicted lol. So I pick up a P.irminia sling today, they just look so good as adult! Here's to hoping she is a girl lol. the little bugger is very small. barely over 1 inch legspan. I made him en enclosure with leave and stuff but once i got him inside it looks too big for him, looks like he could have trouble catching prey. So I redid one with a pill bottle, on the process of rehousing him out he pose for me


here he is in his new pill bottle lol. he went in took up this position and never moved again. he is so different from my much slower moving b.vagans, but i'm enjoying the rush i get after i successfully move him over  :Very Happy: 


I'm already in the progress with buying a much bigger p.Regalis maybe even a p.Rufilata sling that would be happy to call that bigger jar home :Taz:

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## Herpenthusiast3

> your brazilian black are they fast growers?. I never thought i would say that about a bug until i got into Ts lol. Manage to take a photo of my red rump today. I look up picture of male vs females online and i still no idea what to think about mine


From what I keep reading they are really slow growing. Especially the females. Watch the video of the Mexican red rump that wrestles the large mouse. Literally tossing it around. Pretty intense.

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## Herpenthusiast3

This is the bracjypelma albiceps (Mexican golden red rump) and setup I picked up for my little brother a few months back. He named him Aragog. Lol

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## threezero

Is that a 5gallon? thats looks very cool!i will keep that in mind when the little guy is bigger. I have so many ideas for vivariums now, i just need these little buggers to grow up so i can move them into bigger enclosures  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  How fast do pokeys grow?

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## threezero

so i think my suntiger is settling in perfectly. both the b.vagan and suntiger is chowing on crickets no problem. The suntiger sling however is doing something strange, i have him in a pill bottle and he havn't web it up at all, but i notice that he has been moving around the same little ball of substrate. Seems like almost everytime i'm checking on him he is fussing over that little ball moving it around the pill bottle, or he is hanging upside down with that ball of substrate in its mouth :Confused: 

I know it recommended to feed them once a week but they seems so eager to feed espeically the b.vagans, i throw in around 5 baby cricket and he snatch it all up within 3 second and sat around looking really content with 5 crickets in its mouth. It look like it could eat the whole cricket bin if i let it. are they able to regulate how much they eat or will they stuff themselves to death if given the chance?

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## 3skulls

Yeah over feeding, like an any animal, isn't a good idea. 
They can be opportunistic feeders.

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## threezero

feeding once a day too much? or can smaller slings be feed more often than the bigger ones?

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## TVR22

> feeding once a day too much? or can smaller slings be feed more often than the bigger ones?


Feeding once a day is way too much. Once every 5-7 days is the norm. Prey should be about the size of their abdomen or smaller.

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_3skulls_ (03-14-2013),_threezero_ (03-14-2013)

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## 3skulls

> Feeding once a day is way too much. Once every 5-7 days is the norm. Prey should be about the size of their abdomen or smaller.


This.

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## threezero

gotta. I will hold off on feeding. It so exciting to watch them catch prey :Very Happy: 

Or I have a better idea, get more spiders and space it out so i can feed different ones everyday :Razz: 

just pick up 2 p.regalis slings. hoping one would be male and another would be female



Here's the bigger one of the two. I'm hoping this one would be a female, the other one from the same sack is half the size of this one
there bugger are fast! rehousing them gave me a rush lol

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## 3skulls

Have you read the bite reports on them yet? 

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/show...theria-regalis

Not to sound like a jerk but... If you are asking questions about feeding, I don't think you are ready for any Poecilotheria. 

It's your call. Good luck and be safe.

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## Herpenthusiast3

I recently started getting into tarantulas also and arachnoboards has been the ultimate learning tool. You can look up "bite reports" which are people actually telling the stories of the symptoms and affects of whatever species they where handling when they got bit. It gives you a good indication of what spiders to stay away from when your a newb. Because lack of knowledge and experience pertaining to an aggressive species is eventually going to end in a bite which isn't the end of the world but you might want to know what your in for since your getting some of the quicker moving arboreal species. I was reading some of the reports and was absolutely jaw dropped at the brief agony and illness that comes with some of these bites. Might be worth looking into.  :Smile:

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## threezero

> Have you read the bite reports on them yet? 
> 
> http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/show...theria-regalis
> 
> Not to sound like a jerk but... If you are asking questions about feeding, I don't think you are ready for any Poecilotheria. 
> 
> It's your call. Good luck and be safe.


actually i have read the bite report before I got the regalis. I check to make sure that there is no rotting flesh and/or death. It doesn't look like fun but it doesn't seems to have any long lasting effects like missing chunk of flesh, paralyzation or entire limbs etc. I'm willing to take the risk :Embarassed: . But I'm not interested in handling any of my tarantula, not now not ever. My b.vagans on the other hand has been very aggressive, he messed up his enclosure flip his hide upside down and bury his water dish and when i go into his enclosure to try and clean it up a little he immediately attack my forceps and try to climb up on it  :Surprised: . any advice on how to get it to stop making a mess of it enclosure than get mad because it has no place to hide anymore?

oh and look in the bigger regalis' enclosure this morning and found this  :Smile:

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## 3skulls

Sweet. Congrats on the molt. 

They will keep rearranging until they are happy with it. I have a few that love moving or dumping their bowls over.

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## threezero

so one of my p.regalis sling, the smaller one, is having trouble climbing the glass. I can see it frantically trying to glass the glass container its in but its not grabbing on to the glass. should i be concern?

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## 3skulls

Is that the one who molted? 

I have read that when they get close to a molt, they can have trouble climbing.

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## threezero

no its not this one havn't molt in my possession yet. interestingly sometimes i see he/she has surprise stick on to the glass and is just chilling there, sometimes i would catch it frantically trying to hold on to the glass. Is there any other sign to molting besides having trouble climbing?

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## 3skulls

It will go off feed and the abdomen will darken. 
I haven't worked with any pokies but I'm guessing it holds true with them as well. 

Maybe the substrate is too dry and dusty? What are you using? Is it damp?

The only other thing I can thing of is it being dehydrated. 
Do you have a bottle cap with water in there?

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## threezero

my substrate is damp and he/she has made a thin layer of webbing on the substrate already. It in a glass vial way too small to put any kind of water bowl in it, i though it should be ok absorbing moisture from it substrate and food when its so small? And i feed it few days ago and it took the cricket, don't see any shrinkage on its abdomen. As i say this i see it chilling on the glass but as i pick it up it panic and slip off and now can't grab a hold again, i wonder if the glass is too smooth on some part of the vial?

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## 3skulls

Hmm. I'm not sure. Maybe there is something on the glass..?
I'll flip through my Tarantula Keepers Guide (highly recommend this book,
Tons of info and you can find it for cheap) and see if I can find anything. 

I would still guess its time for a molt. If I find anything, ill let you know.

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## threezero

weird the little regalia has put up webbing along the side of the glass vial but it still does the panic grab at the glass when i go check it out however I can clearly see it being able to chill on the glass sometimes and the fact that he/she put up webbing along the side means that its able to climb up. its just when it gets scare that it lose its grip.

check in on my little suntiger today, he/she looks angry  :Razz:

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## threezero

so i've decided to try my hands on cricket breeding. I put the heat lamp right over the soil and the temp is reading 75 at the soil plate. Will the youngster hatch at this degree? If i always have fresh food for them inside the tank do i still have to remove the adults so it doesn't eat the pinheads or the eggs? I sometimes see males digging around inside the soil plate, are they digging up and eating the eggs thats been deposit by the females??????


On another note, my smaller P.regalis shedded, starting to show blue! but too small to photograph properly so I took a photo of his gf instead (i hope its a girl)

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## 3skulls

The regalis looks awesome. 

I know nothing about crickets. Let is know how it goes.

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## threezero

so my mexican red rump molted today :Very Happy: . its really black now with a prominent red rump :Cool: . what do you think is it a she??????? :Very Happy:  :Very Happy:  :Very Happy: . On another note my cricket breeding experiment did not seem to work out but i have successfully keep the 20 odd cricket i brought a month ago alive and just feed off the last one......

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## 3skulls

From that pic its looking like a female. 
I wouldn't want to call it for sure with a pic.

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