🕷 Invertebrate Enthusiasts 🕷

[emjayy]

Omg I absolutely love both the black beauty’s and your little set up! Definitely considering getting some more stick insects.

[root]

i don't own any inverts at the moment, but i'm a big fan of bugs and i'm currently looking into getting one right now!!
the one i'm looking at is a juvenile mexican orange beauty tarantula (about 1-1 1/4 inches) and i'm wondering about what i should feed it. the site says it's currently being fed pinhead roaches but they're illegal in florida. discoid roaches are allowed though, so i'm wondering if those be okay if i got some small ones. i'd rather not have crickets since they're kind of a pain haha

update;; just ordered a b. smithi (hamorii? the classification is confusing) and it should be here soon :-)

i'd really love to have a giant african millipede (they're probably one of favorite animals in general), but of course they're illegal to import to the US. still hoping to find someone breeding them here!

[hapalopus]

@Blackiie: Thank you!! I bought them as a breeding colony (meaning they were all in their last instar), so most of them have passed away now, leaving me with a bunch of eggs to take care of. But despite their short lifespan, I really can't recommend stick bugs enough! They're such a joy to take care of and there are so many beautiful species around c:

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@root: Good on you for not wanting to break the law, haha. I know a lot of keepers/breeders don't care about that stuff and it bugs me so much!
I don't have any personal experience with tarantulas but from what I can see, others have fed slings at that size juvenile crickets and other roach species. If you have the patience to set up a mealworm colony, I'm sure it could eat newly hatched larvae as well.
At the expo where I bought my sticks, I talked to a bunch of tarantula people and basically all of them recommended B. smithii as a beginner rancho. I've fallen in love with G. pulchra, though, so I'm waiting for some female slings to be put up for sale in the local tarantula groups. Please post pics of your smithii when it arrives!
They're slightly smaller, but another millipede you could check out is the Texas Brown Millipede (Orthoporus ornatus). They should be somewhat easy to get a hold of in the states ^v^
Here's a G. pulchra because I just need to show y'all how pretty they are;







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Also, a couple of days ago I was at a university thing and one of my professors just gave us a cup of mealworms to bring home. Soooo guess who's breeding mealworms now!! I brought ten home and two of them have already pupated and I so excited! The same professor studies mealworms and other bugs for use in feed and food and I can't wait to take her classes!!

[root]

@hostile popcorn
since i already have mealworms, i'm planning on using those for now until it's big enough for crickets! g. pulchra is totally gorgeous!! i'd love to own one someday. one of my favorite T's is p. regalis!! i'd also like to have one of those, but i'm definitely not ready for one ^^'



as for texas brown millipedes, i've taken a look at them before and they're pretty cool! i'm trying to keep the amount of bugs i own to a minimum right now though haha

[hapalopus]

P. regalis is so beautiful!! But I really feel you on not being ready for them. I'd love a Poecilotheria metallica (so pretty!) or Avicularia versicolor (so fluffy!) as well. Hnnngg so many spiders, so little money/time/experience T__T

Obligatory pictures:

[emjayy]

I find it really funny that both g.pulchra and a.versicolor have popped up so soon! I currently own a subadult female pulchra and a subadult avic.versicolor is also on her way to me via courier! She’s coming from London so I’m STOKED. We don’t see them in Ireland much.

Sadly, my old male g.pulchripes passed away last week living to 4 years old! He even had a bald patch to go with it. He was bred to a big female of friends 6 months ago so we’re hoping she will finally lay eggs soon. I think she’s playing with us though.. it’s been a long time waiting for eggs

Edit; SPEAKING OF EGGS
My giant African Land Snails laid over 200 eggs this week. Originally counted 194 in the clutch but after another few days there are some new eggs I haven’t collected yet. I’m not looking forward to finding homes for them!! 😳

[hapalopus]

I'm very sorry to hear about your G. pulchripes. May he forever eat crickets and burrow in spider heaven <3 I hope for the best for the (hopefully) gravid female and your future versicolor

And congrats on the babies!! If nothing else, you can use them for escargot... Sorry if that's morbid; I'm beginning my BSc in Animal Science soon and hope to work on using bugs for food. ^^' What species do you have? I've been thinking of buying some A. achatinas or A. reticulatas from my local classifieds.

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As for my stick colony, I've only got one male left by now. The rest of my adults have died. That's what I get for buying bugs in their final instar. I've got roughly 20 eggs, though, and from what I can read Peruphasma schultei have a pretty high hatch rate, so I'm hoping for babies in late December!

[emjayy]

I'm very sorry to hear about your G. pulchripes. May he forever eat crickets and burrow in spider heaven <3 I hope for the best for the (hopefully) gravid female and your future versicolor

And congrats on the babies!! If nothing else, you can use them for escargot... Sorry if that's morbid; I'm beginning my BSc in Animal Science soon and hope to work on using bugs for food. ^^' What species do you have? I've been thinking of buying some A. achatinas or A. reticulatas from my local classifieds.

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As for my stick colony, I've only got one male left by now. The rest of my adults have died. That's what I get for buying bugs in their final instar. I've got roughly 20 eggs, though, and from what I can read Peruphasma schultei have a pretty high hatch rate, so I'm hoping for babies in late December!

Thank you so much. I may preserve him, he was my first! I’m still learning but I think she may be too long gone to lay? I need to look into it more, I’ve never bred any myself.
Ooof lol I don’t think I’m mentally ready to eat escargot but maybe in future 😂 I have 2 adult that are A.fulica. The eggs should hatch in 5-21 days so they have 14? days to go at most before I’ll see some faces.

Awww I had the same problem with my Carausius morosus. I had 6 adults who all died after a year but left me with eggs that could take 6 months to hatch. I left the eggs in a lunchbox and had completely forgotten about them. They got devoured by fungi so that was the end of my sticks. Hopefully yours don’t end up with the same fate and that you have a high hatch rate!


Edit: After looking into it more I think my snails are actually A.reticulatas!? I’ll know by how long the eggs take to hatch lol

[root]

my little b. hamorii just got here!! i wanted to take a photo, but it’s very tiny and blends in with the moss too much. i probably should have taken one while it was in the paper towels
if it moves to a good spot i’ll try to get one :-)
i’m super excited though!

[hapalopus]

Aaaa congrats!! Please send baby pics when you get the chance!

At the opposite end of the spectrum, one of my mealworms just refuses to pupate! It's been lying still in the substrate for two days, but is responsive when I pick it up. Get on with it, dude! I need you to start a colony for me! haha. One of the pupas is already turning a bit brown, so hopefully I'll have my first adult in less than a week ;w;