aphonopelma seemani

congratulations!
i am surprised she didn't eat the sac with all that moving around! but well done leaving her to do it, she is obviously a good mother.
these are great spiders, and i know with my seemani-like spiders (there is some doubt around these, as usual!), watching them develop from fairly nondescript grey slings into beautiful blue-ish subadults was a treat.
considering i bought them simply cause they're Aphonopelma's but wasn't initially that keen, they won me over!
i'd suggest keeping them with water available, fairly humid. they should eat like pigs if they are a species in any way similar to mine! good luck!
btw, i think they can tolerate dryness as they grow up, but i like to suggest humidity for them, especially at such a young size when dehydration can occur so easily and quickly.
also there is some thought that they become more vibrant and less brown if kept moist, though the other thought was that keeping them in darkness was the way forward. maybe you can prove one way or the other!

of course no guarantee yours will be blue like mine, there are several species potentially in the hobby that are sold as A seemanni, most are almost certainly Guatemalan, and you may have blue-ish, brownish, grey-ish or black-ish depending on conditions and species. the experts are attempting to suss this as we speak!
one of the clues (if not proofs) is that the spinneretts and underside of the abdomen become peachy orange in colour as they grow up. a second clue is bold striping, which it appears your female has!

hey corpselight,nice write u had,thanks mate.
anyway,there was around 100 or more slings,50 of them are being placed with one tank mate each in a cup cake sized container,while the others are being left in the big tank.
recently i found that the seperated ones started to eat,i feed them with cricket legs ,then turned to mealworms,which is much more convinient to be obtained.but i always wonder why was the other 50,which is staying communally doesnt seems like wanna eat?i have offered them with chopped mealwoms in a small dish,but they show no interest but just wandering here and there at the corner of the tank,of course with intense web constructed.they just grouped themselves together in a corner.
i made the tank quite humid with transparent foil covered,to avoid dehydration,also constant food supply.i understand its normal for a tarantula to starve themselves,with any possible reasons,but i have to do something as i dont want their siblings to be food source.
response awaited.thanks mate

corpselight wrote:

congratulations!
i am surprised she didn't eat the sac with all that moving around! but well done leaving her to do it, she is obviously a good mother.
these are great spiders, and i know with my seemani-like spiders (there is some doubt around these, as usual!), watching them develop from fairly nondescript grey slings into beautiful blue-ish subadults was a treat.
considering i bought them simply cause they're Aphonopelma's but wasn't initially that keen, they won me over!
i'd suggest keeping them with water available, fairly humid. they should eat like pigs if they are a species in any way similar to mine! good luck!
btw, i think they can tolerate dryness as they grow up, but i like to suggest humidity for them, especially at such a young size when dehydration can occur so easily and quickly.
also there is some thought that they become more vibrant and less brown if kept moist, though the other thought was that keeping them in darkness was the way forward. maybe you can prove one way or the other!

of course no guarantee yours will be blue like mine, there are several species potentially in the hobby that are sold as A seemanni, most are almost certainly Guatemalan, and you may have blue-ish, brownish, grey-ish or black-ish depending on conditions and species. the experts are attempting to suss this as we speak!
one of the clues (if not proofs) is that the spinneretts and underside of the abdomen become peachy orange in colour as they grow up. a second clue is bold striping, which it appears your female has!

i was pretty shock to knw that i had a seemani which has a different form from the normal seemani like what u said.
anyway,heres a photo of her.
yea,she did has purple colour.




a little wild sometimes

haha! she is gorgeous...the poor taxonomists are having a nightmare sorting out these species lumped together as seemanni!
i do see the purple sheen, that is something special!
you're not in the UK are you? i'd be interested in a couple slings from this form/species!

im from malaysia my friend,where ya from?
so u mean these purple sheen ones shouldnt grouped as seemani?or can i call this aphonopelma seemani purple form?haha
hows urs?do u have any seemani?i will guess its a blue one..

there was cannablism already in those two in one tanks..
im worried already about the communal tank..any idea mates?

if you are worried, separate them out hun

yeah definitely separate the slings into individual pots...if they're starting to eat each other, it's time they made their own ways in the world!

ah i am in London, i didn't think you'd be located nearby but had to check

well for all i know, they may be seemanni, but i am told there are several species from the same general area.

the things in favour of yours being seemanni are the bold striping on the knees as well as the tan/peach colour of the spinerets as well as underneath the abdomen. but as i said, there is still some doubt!
as for the purple colouring, they vary so much! so that may or may not be something to go by, i can't say, sorry!

yeah mine are blue/grey, they are sub-adults, with fairly bold knee striping and that peach colour under the abdomen when they are fresh. they are skittish and voracious eaters.

i've had someone look...and all he can say is they are Guatemalan lol...oh that's another thing, evidently at least in the UK, most spiders sold under the common name Costa Rican Zebra are actually from Guatemala! i think this is due to people assuming its all the same species as what you find in Costa Rica, but i think the exporting of spiders from Costa Rica is much harder now or just illegal fullstop.

enjoy your gorgeous spiders!

okay,thanks.so what will u guys reccomend me to feed the communal tank ones before i seperate them?

well you can feed after splitting them.
anything small and chemical free i'd say, are micro crickets possible to come by? or fruit flies? or squat maggots? how about baby dubia roaches?
another option is the tiniest of baby mealworms, but they are a pain, and not all spiders go for them.

however you may have some luck pre-killing crickets by squashing them and letting the babies feast on the goo within (wow i actually got to use that phrase in a SERIOUS sentence! lol). I've had success with the more desert dwelling Aphonopelma doing that.
since this is a relatively humid species though, it's important to remove the bits of crickets before mould develops. i'm not that much of an alarmist with mould, but i've found a whispy species that looks a bit like webbing grows very fast and may have had a roll in killing a few of my Yamia sp Koh Samui spiderlings.

the good news is that i've found the seemanni-like species i have to be aggressive feeders! i would not be afraid to try them with prey larger than themselves. if you keep a bit of an eye on them, i bet they'll take down decent sized crickets comparitively in no time at all!

hope that helps!

good,certainly helps.
well,gonna seperate them soon.

wish to sell them to oversea countries,anyone interested?

if you can legally do that, which i'm not so sure, i'd be interested. you probably need permits.

yea,i heard from friends before,doing it legally is okay,but shippment fees gonna cost u a bomb.i guess most of them goes to illegal ones unless there is a massive purchase.anyway corpselight,how many u need,i wish i could send them overseas.

woho,rehoused most of them to individual container right just now,tiring job!
some of them are hitting to 4th instar already,so i have no choice to seperate them
again,some photos!


sorry for that,a little bit photo edited

these are the bigger ones,which are about to moult.




looking nice

cool ...

fantastic little spiders! housing/feeding slings is immensely tiring!

some update here my friends.
most of the a.seemani slings are hitting to 3rd instar already,majority of them turn grey after moult.
surprisingly,i have found that some of them showed colour like this

was that because sexual dimorphism?or just normal for slings to show such colour?

out from the burrow,the broodmother

junshern222 wrote:

out from the burrow,the broodmother

Great photo! Got an urban look to it. Looks like it should be a big wheeler coming over the dirt mound! lol

thanks mate,gave the photo a little edit by darkening it.cause the original version is just too bright and exposed.

question here....i heard there's a blue form seemani....and they said blue form are males...is this true?...

hmm,from what i have seen from the little ones from my batch,they really come in several forms,some red,grey,black.i guess the colour may be vary during sling stage..
about blue are males,im not sure though,but i think i saw before a blue one holding an egg sac.may be the male help to guard sac,who knows

basically nobody should be calling them seemanni at the moment, there are several species that come in various colours based on environmental factors. these are not FORMS, they are merely responses to how they are kept...how much darkness and humidity.
but saying that, there are at least 4 species sold as seemanni...and scientists are working on them now.
so breeding should be done perhaps only with sac mates, to avoid random hybrids.

Another question James,whats the normal colour of the aphonopelma slings to be?from what i have now,i can see they come in red,grey and black.Or to say their colour may be vary when young,eventually turn to a common or mutual colour when adult?lets say i have one with red colour,so will the particular one turn to red when adult,then being labled as 'RED form'?
Sorry for asking the question about colouration repeat and repeatly,cause i really have lots of doubts in my mind,or to say,i wish to have something extraordinary
this will be one of the red one


and this would be the black one



hope she will hold the old skin as long as possible ,to produce a new sac