Death, and life

I mourn the passing of Pepe the Praying Mantis, but I also welcome some baby Subulina octona snails and some Chlorocala africana oertzeni beetle larvae!

How little and cute is this guy next to the largest of the colony???

And look at growing Thor the Tarantula's old exoskeleton. Mean old fangs!!! He has finally tidied it up onto the surface to make more space in his little castle.

R.I.P Pepe the Praying Mantis

I sadly found Pepe on the floor of the cage this morning dead :( Very sad - not sure why he has died as he was feeding on Monday and walking around like normal. Moulting issues in nymphs can result in death but it's still really sad.

Thor flaunting his 'new' self

I've now manged to measure Thor's whole body and he's 280mm long from fangs to spinnerets! Look at those fangs!! His leg span is roughly 4cm, as it's hard to measure properly when I catch him on the side of the cage, as he then retracts them a bit when you disturb him. He definitely is getting his adult colours!

I will need to disturb his cage soon as his hide is sinking as he digs under it... I am thinking that he needs another kind of hid already because of his size, some people on RFUK are using cocofibre pots as hides in dry vivs so I might try that!

Thor catching a mealworm!

Thor the Tarantula was on the feeding schedule today. I laboriously set up to film, then popped in the mealworm. Thor grabbed it even before I could press the record button on the camera!! But you get an idea of his size seeing those long legs and large abdomen :)

I also received the Fluval Ebi cave for Big Shrimp-o, and he was quick to check it out. Hopefully he will move in soon!

Some local wildlife!

We went to my plant survey square today up at Mar Lodge and saw this guy hiding in a deep waterfilled pot hole in the forest track :) What a gorgeous guy! There were loads of tadpoles in the same pool, all must have come from the moss-filled ditch that fed it on the side of the road. I feel I rarely see amphibians anymore and I am very aware they are in rapid decline worldwide, so I am always thrilled to see one. There are 3 native newts in Britain, but I don't know anything about them really so I couldn't say which species this is, but a fair guess would be Lissotriton vulgaris, the Smooth or Common Newt.

Some new additions!

I got 6 Subulina octona snails today, but sadly one shell was old and dry and empty! But the other 5 looked well :) They are just feeding on some lettuce and settling into a nice moist substrate. They will eventually go in with my Achatina reticulata, but I will quarantine them for a month first in a separate tub.

And here is the ferocious Thor in his burrow, waiting for an unwitting 'roach to scurry past. Just  look at those fangs!!

Pepe the Praying Mantis having dinner!

Pepe just loves fruitflies :) I love watching him hunt, praying mantids are truly a perfect predator! The eyesight must be so acute. He can spot the tiny fruitflies from across his enclosure and is lightning fast creeping up on them and then he corners them, and strikes. Equally, after his first little fruitfly, he sits patiently and waits, and waits....

Monster-Earthworm!!

Me and the Other Half are keen recorders of native wildlife as well as me being obsessed by exotic invertebrates... We went for a nice but soggy walk yesterday locally and saw this enormous Lumbricus terriestris - earthworm or lob worm - on the road. Huge; measuring about 15cm and fat as a cigarette!

I've been meaning to have a wormery but haven't decided yet as we have food recycling services with our garden waste service so might be a bit overkill. But I think I might get a bumblebee colony this year, I will keep you posted on this...

Some updates on the bugs!

I saw that Thor had churned up some of the substrate again so I decided to check what he was up to. He has been excavating underneath his resin spider burrow, to make more room looks like, and no wonder, just look at the size of him!! :O He definitely is showing the first signs of his adult colours. He's growing really fast and is such an active spider with great appetite so I feel that the 4" cube has proved successful in rearing him! I just couldn't bring myself to rear him in a tiny vial :( He seems to love his excavating and he wouldn't have been able to do that in a vial/small tub. He should be able to stay in his cube for at least a year too so lessening the disturbance to his 'slinghood'.

This is the current setup of habitats in the bug room. The new snail habitat for Stan the GALS is the large faunarium, it's an x-large Komodo plastic terrarium. The dimensions are 39 x 25 x 24.5cm, so it will do him for a long time yet. I'm going to add some climbing branches and a hide as well but I have to find ones I like first... He's growing so quickly, I can't believe how tiny he was when I got him :)


One of the Purple Flower Beetle females have gone to the large flower in the sky. Pretty good longevity considering I got them as adults. The other female and the male are still going strong and have mated again, so perhaps more eggs! I know I have some larvae but not sure how many, now I just need to make sure they survive to cocoon.

Big Shrimp-oh moulted AGAIN on Friday, so goodness knows how large he is now, he is still hiding behind the heater but he's a lot longer than the flat heater so I guess he's put on an inch... I really do need to get him a big shrimp tube to hide in, I think I will get a Fluval EBI shrimp cave.

Pepe the Praying Mantis is so exciting to watch, he is so much quicker than my eye so watching him hunt fruitflies is slightly disorienting! He's still too small to film as he hunts, I will have to wait another couple of instars for that!

Slim Jim displays his wings!

Slim Jim the Stick Insect had a new privet stick put in today and I managed to get some good shots of him :) He's so beautiful, but very aggressive. Definitely not for kids!

Pepe moults!!

So I did think Pepe the Praying Mantis was up  to something - he'd been on the same leaf for a whole day... I just thought he was waiting for the fruitfly to fly by but it turns out he was moulting :) I came in this morning to see his dry old skin (in the background) and next to it, a 50% larger, more ferocious looking Pepe!

Pepe the Praying Mantis!

Thor has been joined on the top of the Exo Terra terrarium by Pepe the Praying Mantis :) He arrived today after just over 30 hours in the post. He's so wee - only about 1.5cm long maybe? He looks ultra-delicate with his little body and long, skinny legs, not at all like a ferocious predator! I gave him couple of fruitflies. And one escaped through the vent (no biggie; my house is plagued by them anyway due to a myriad of house plants). But on arriving home after fixing mother-in-law's computer, I saw that the other fruitfly wasn't so lucky - this is Pepe having his first meal with me :D You can see the fruitfly snapped in his arms.

The video is him walking off across the lid. Looking at this footage, I realise the Jungle Jars really aren't ideal for viewing or photography and I am considering investing in another House of Spider's box but taller for Pepe to match Thor the Tarantula's housing.

Awaiting a new arrival...

I've manage to persuade the Other Half I need a praying mantis, and finally opportunity happened :) I am getting a Sphodromantis viridis L1-L2 nymph. I have made up it's Jungle Jar this evening, so here it is. The suction cup branch is actually for a shrimp aquarium, so hoping it will stay suctioned without being in water. If not, I'll stick the suction cup into the substrate and let it point upwards! I should know tomorrow if it's a lost cause :) I am going to get some more of the Fluval nano tank plastic vine decor I have in my Crabitat and Spider Cube to add to the decor.

Now for a game of 'spot the tarantula'. If you were a cockroach, would you see the ambush?..

Thor the Tarantula has dug a 'back-door' to his snazzy resin spider burrow instead of using the hole built into the burrow, and he climbs up on the wall against the warmth of the Exo Terra compact light canopy at night time and waits for unwitting prey... He has taken a liking to bluebottle larvae and loves to pounce on them from his wall perch as they scrabble to burrow! He is so large he must have moulted again after getting his spider burrow! I can now clearly see his adult colouring coming on.

Thor the Tarantula's new castle!

Thor has a leg span of about 2.5cm now

I got two micro hides from thespidershop.co.uk along with two of their micro water bowls for a very reasonable price. I got the 'Spider Burrow' and the 'Spider Hide'. One of the bowls is going into the snail habitat, I am keeping the other one for when Thor gets bigger and needs a waterbowl. I got both hides as I couldn't decide which one would look better in Thor's his little 4" House of Spiders cube but after a bit of thought I chose the Spider Burrow :) After this video was shot, I turned off the light and Thor scurried right into his new hide, and I saw his fat butt as he was busy clearing the floor inside of debris :)

I put a micro waterbowl in Stan the Snail's habitat as well. He has just got his favourite lettuce leaves so he is rushing (ahem, well, in a snail way) to get it! I can't believe how much he has grown since I got him!!

Big Shrimp-o moults!

Big Shrimp-o and his old self!

The large unknown shrimp (now officially called Big Shrimp-o) started moulted during the night, he is still moulting I think - I think his claws are getting done now?.. Or he could be finished and eating his exuvium, they usually do to regain lost minerals. I hope he will be fine, the water should be mineralised and pH ideal for shrimp moulting but we will just have to wait and see!

Also I stumbled across this spider game. Very cool :)

Bug update!

Spring is starting to blossom here in north-east Scotland, as you can see, my dwarf cherry tree is flowering already, and there is promise of a BBQ tonight! I've been very ill with flu again, and have lost my voice, but I decided I still needed to clean out the Red Claw Crabs and the Stick Insect. That provided a wealth of exciting video and photo opportunities and has cheered me up a lot!

The Red Claws have proved to be a very exciting, although unplanned, addition to my brood, they are really hilarious :) Just look at this guy pretending to be a Hermit Crab :)

I got sprayed by Slim Jim the Stick Insect today for the first time - it's VERY unpleasant. It smells a bit like acetic acid. And it did give me a coughing fit, but I have bronchitis and laryngitis anyway so that may be why. He was not happy at all, but I am sure he will be happier when he goes to forage tonight and see the fresh privet... Peruphasma schultei are truly stunning stick insects; the jet black body, stripey antennae, bright red wings with white lacy pattern and the evil yellow eyes is a true spectacle of nature! But they are aggressive so I wouldn't recommend them for kids.

I am not sure what the Purple Flower Beetle is up to, it was wrestling with this piece of wood for some time, and it looked almost like it was eating on it?.. Maybe it's just trying to show off how fierce it is?..

I checked in on Thor the Tarantula, he has built himself a nice big cave in the substrate but is now hardly ever visible... I fed him a rather large Turkistan roach, which he chomped on quite happily after the poor thing tried to hide from me and ran down one of the spiders tunnels to the cave... If Thor keeps buried I might have to re-arrange his cage so I can see him to make sure he's doing OK.

Otocinclus and flower beetles!

How cute is that little face?

I cleaned up in Tank 1 last night, the Otos have trashed my moss-wrapped bamboo cane. Bad fish!! Nevermind, they're so cute :)


The flower beetles have laid eggs in my special egg-laying earth, but I need to clean up their habitat a  little and remove some leaves that are starting to mould before the eggs hatch. I now have to devise a plan to catch them so I can take the lid off and clean up :O Flower beetles are accomplished fliers, so it will be interesting...

Snails and shrimp!

Snails have had a big clear out, as the Achatina fulica 'Jadatzi' is going to her new home next weekend. They have grown so much! I have found they prefer to eat ASDA Organic Lettuce, and they only eat the green bits, not the crunchy stem :) I nip most of the crunchy stem out and give the the feeder roaches, who love it.

And the big shrimp and Otos are doing great too, I've changed the water today. The shrimp even caught a wafer as it tumbled down through the water yesterday! Very impressive. The Otos have destroyed the remnants of the Pogostemon helferi. It was on it's last legs since I changed the tank over, I can't believe it's gone; I look back at old photos and realise it used to be so lush! Never mind, the Sagitta grass in Tank 2 is starting to overrun it so I will replant some of that in Tank 1.

Yamato shrimp, or Macrobrachium lanchesteri?.. Who knows?..

Shrimp update!

My large unknown shrimp seems to be enjoying his new home. It was really hard to get a still photo of him, he was moving all the time, picking through the substrate for food. He is now busy munching on a shrimp pellet I put in this morning that the little Otos haven't managed to eat yet. The little Oto fish are voracious :O Within 24 hrs of being in the tank, they had cleaned the *very* algae laden glass and back plate, and they ate a whole large algae wafer to themselves yesterday!

New inhabitants!

Assassin Snail tucking into a shrimp pellet

Otocinclus sp dwarf catfish

I got two Otocinclus sp. dwarf catfish today and what was sold as 'Yamato shrimp', which is the same as Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica) but it sure as hell is NOT an Amano shrimp... I didn't tell the fish shop I thought they were wrong, but it looks more like some kind of Ghost Shrimp. After a bit of Googling I think it's unfortunately a Macrobrachium lanchesteri, which grow very large and can be very aggressive... Oooops. It's beautiful anyway :) I don't think it's right they can't even tell you the species you are buying - the Otos were just labelled as Otocinclus. OK. There are about 200 species according to Wikipedia... Is it too much to ask they find out from their supplier? There is a good article about Otos here on the 'Practical Fishkeeping' magazine website which is a good base for trying to find your particular species! I may find mine eventually :)

These will remain with the Assassin Snails for now while I ponder their future housing!