Hey all

Have a 20cm female P.fasciata she was mated about 3 or 4 months ago, thought the mating was unsuccessful, until tonight she has webbed up her hide for about +2 weeks so I decided to open it and tong feed her a large dubia she attacked the roach bit it 3 times then kept her threat posture, I decided to coax her out to my surprise she looks like she has that bell shape gravid look but I’m not sure any ideas? or would she have dropped already? should i be keeping her warmer even if im unsure she is gravid or not?

Pics were taken with my cell so not the best

Thanks

When she is againt the glass or perspex like in your pics,
take a LED torch and shine it right against the glass
where her abdomen is! If she is gravid her abdomen
will glow a yellowish color! if she isnt gravid there wont
be much of a glow and wont have a yellow color to it.
you obviously have to do this in the dark!
She looks good though!

The female in your pictures looks good. How do you know the mating was unsuccessful? The insertion by a P fasciata male would take a split second. Is it possible that this happened?

The method Fangs is referring to is called "candleing". I was never yet able to see the yellow "glow" that folks are referring to, although I hear it works. This would not however indicate that she has sperm to fertilize the eggs with.

Why did you coax her out of her nest? There is absolutely no way anybody can say whether she "should have dropped" already. A Tarantula can drop an egg case within 24 hours after being mated, or 24 years... There is no gestation involved, only a culmination of ALL the right conditions.

Have a quick look at THIS BREEDING REPORT.

Scarab wrote: Why did you coax her out of her nest? There is absolutely no way anybody can say whether she "should have dropped" already.

Agree. People need to learn a bit of patience.
If she had webbed her hide closed, she might have been preparing for a nice sac for you. For all you know, you could have just convinced her not to drop.

Also, as scarab said, the inserts for pokies are literally half a second. Very difficult to see. On that same note, she does look gravid, so good luck.
Hopefully you didn't do any damage to your chances of a sac.

I have tried candling on 4 occasions with no "yellow effect to show that she is gravid".... i have seen gravid Ts and the look like they gonna pop where as mine is not rely that big, +- been the same size for about a month.. except it looks more oval in shape... {if she had webbed her hide closed, she might have been preparing for a nice sac for you. For all you know, you could have just convinced her not to drop} rookie mistake...

From the pics, she looks like she could very well be gravid.
I have tried candling in the past and I have never seen anything really yellow before and yet I get successful eggcases every now and again.
As for the rookie mistake - When it comes to breeding, the only one who can decide when the spider wants to drop is the spider.
Patience is key when it comes to breeding spiders.

But so we all learn. We were all there once.