Spider hatching today

[Tim/Robin]

We had our first Pyxis arachnoides arachnoides (Spider) tortoise pip today! 167 days since it was laid, 96 days since diapause broken. Here are a couple photos. Will add more once she makes her way out completely. Maybe her eyes will be open then too. It's a big day at our house!

 

[BigBiscuit]

Congrats. I bet it is really exciting to see the little critter make it's way out.

 

[jlyoncc1]

Way cool! Congrats you lucky ducks!

 

[Yvonne G]

Tim and Robin: I must apologize! I was suffering under the impression that you were newbies to tortoises. So I went back to your introduction last July and I see that you were just new to the forum! You already had a nice collection of tortoises. No wonder you are having such breeding success with the hard-to-hatch species. You've been taking care of tortoises for some time.

Congratulations on your new spider baby. Are there many more eggs coming? Or is this a specie that only lays one egg per clutch?

Yvonne

 

[Tim/Robin]

Congratulations on your new spider baby. Are there many more eggs coming? Or is this a specie that only lays one egg per clutch?

Yvonne

One egg each clutch. Long, complicated incubation. We have several females and thus have more eggs in the incubator. These are quite precious since they are slow to reproduce and increase the population size. Pyxis arachnoides arachnoides are listed as critically endangered (habitat destruction, illegal collection as pets and people eat them).

 

[Millerlite]

congrats, always great to see you hatching new babies, spider tortoises are very cool tortoises

 

[Isa]

So cute Congratulations.

 

[egyptiandan]

Great pictures Tim & Robin The little one looks great.

Danny

 

[PATMAN]

Congrats to you on a job well done! I here incubation is difficult.

Can't wait to see the little one totally out of it's shell!

 

[Crazy1]

Congratulations on your new baby spider. It is just precious.

 

[pyxistort]

Congratulation. It's good to see more spider tortoise babies...

 

[shelber10]

Congratulatoins what a adorable little tort

 

[Meg90]

wow! that is REALLY impressive! Your family must be so proud!

 

[Candy]

Can not wait to see him/her when she breaks out all the way. Will be looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Tim/Robin]

Here she is...

And here is the mother...

 

[Jacqui]

Simply beautiful...both mother and hatchling. Think I should get over my fear of Spiders...

 

[shelber10]

Wow what a pretty tortoise

 

[desertsss]

That is amazing. Congrats to you and the mother! Both are beautiful.

 

[Meg90]

oh wow! This baby will be a wonderful addition to your collection! Do you have any threads up with pictures of your entire collection? Or one of your incubating room/nursery? I'd love to see a thread on either topic....your setups are so impressive, and your ability to hatch such fragile species is simply amazing!

I'm really happy to have been able to witness something like this.....you can't find pictures like this through google!

 

[Tim/Robin]

oh wow! This baby will be a wonderful addition to your collection! Do you have any threads up with pictures of your entire collection? Or one of your incubating room/nursery?

There are tons of pictures on our blog. The address is in our signature. Robin loves to take photos of them all and shares many on the blog.
As for this baby, she is already spoken for. However, at this point we cannot fathom getting rid of a single Spider babe. They are a labor of love. The incubation is rather complicated.
As for the incubator, it is a home-made one, using a styro-foam tropical fish shipping box and a light bulb, thanks Danny. I did have to add a Helix thermostat, as I could not calibrate the other thermostat. I was getting too much fluctuation in temps. It really is very simple.
We really feel a key to our success this far, is time. We commit a lot of time and attention to our tortoises, it is a family passion.