3 Post Molts

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Had a few Ts molt in the past few days, thought I would share there progress.

Brachypelma smithi 1″
(Mexica Red Knee)

Phormictopus cancerides ¾”
(Hatian Brown)

Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens 1½”
(Green Bottle Blue)

Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Your welcome to share videos as long as it is doesn’t violate any terms. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.

Molting Blaptica dubia Roach!

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After attempting to feed a tokay gecko a B. dubia roach, the gecko didn’t want it. A little while later I noticed the roach had started to molt, so I grabbed my camera and started filming. So, if you have never seen a roach molt, as I hadn’t, heres your chance. The total process was about 15-20 minutes.

Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.

“Male” Brachypelma smithi molted!

Brachypelma smithi premolt flip!

Well the bad news is my Brachypelma smithi (Mexican Red Knee) molted out to a “male”. The good news is, I still have 11 more chances to get females. As you will see in the video, I had fed him a day before. When I checked this morning, he had flipped. Now normally I could of left the B. lateralis roach in there with him, without incident. You can’t take that chance with crickets. A cricket would attempt to eat your tarantula. So good practice, regardless of prey, is to remove them if not eaten within a 24 hour period.

Brachypelma smithi pulling out of exoskeleton!

It’s very important at all times to keep a water dish for juveniles and adults and mist one side if a sling. I put a fresh water dish in with him after he had molted. A couple of hours later he went and drank from the water dish. Even if you don’t see your tarantula drink, they do from time to time. The greatest thing about tarantulas, is they don’t need much space to survive and grow. The freshly male B. smithi that just molted could probably live in that 16 oz deli cup for another molt (2-3 months) before I need to rehouse him.

Brachypelma smithi finished molting!

I have a total of 13 B. smithi, 5 at the size of the present molt and 8 other slings about ½” or the size of your thumbnail. In the video above, you will see a comparison of the two sizes. The 5 B. smithi, about 2″, were purchased back in January 09. They were born in June 08. They have molted for me 2-3 times now since I purchased them. They were about ¾” when I got them. So they have grown about an 1¼”-1½”.

Brachypelma smithi post molt!

I recently read that a male B. smithi could take up to 15 years before maturing. Even though there are many hobbyists breeding this species, they haven’t been in the hobby for that long. B. smithi are still one of the most saught after species in the tarantula hobby, due to there generally docile attitude and coloration. They make a great first addition to any tarantula collector. I owned my first adult B. smithi 30 years ago. I rember paying just $20 back then, which I thought was allot. Now you could spend that on a sling (½”-1″). I have seen adult females upwords of $250-$400.

Brachypelma smithi post molt!

I like to start out small and watch them grow. The down side to that for me is, I may need to include some of my slower growers in my will, cause they could easily out live me. If your looking to “invest” your time and maybe some money, a B. smithi is a good start to any tarantula collection. Remember these are the species you see in most of the movies over the last 25 years.

DISCLAIMER: Information contained herein represents various resources and my own personal experience with this particular species. Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. There are still allot unknown about certain species, so if you feel this article needs correcting/clarification, please comment below and I will make adjustments where necessary. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.

Brachypelma smithi molting!

2" Brachypelma smithi before molt

Coming up later today, footage and pics of one of my many Brachypelma smithi (Mexican Red Knee) molting. I hope to sex it out as well. It is just finishing the molt now and should be flipping anytime soon. It was a good 2″ before it started. I’ll get a new size in awhile. Update will follow later today after I get pics and video footage uploaded.

Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.