What are you doing today?

[gwand]

Earned $44 in store credit today by giving a bunch of dwarf red coral platy juveniles to my lfs. I’m making money in retirement. Of course I spent my store credit immediately like a drunken sailor. New heater and a piece of driftwood.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I wonder if I could enter the enormous invasive spiders from my daughter's basement in Pet of the Month? Half their charm is their accent as they yell back and forth about "getting enough trainers for all their feet" and "finding jumpers with enough armholes". I don't know what these jumpers and trainers are, but these British immigrant spiders seem to.

I know they're unorthodox pets, but they do seem to have fur.

They've just taken to squatting in the basement? Hmm. I wonder when their breeding season will be in the climate there?
Since that's when they tend to go runabout, and you find them in strange places. Like when I found myself trapped in a room because a huge one was just poised above the doorframe, waiting to fall on me the moment I went to fetch a big enough container and bit of cardboard! Or hiding under the washing up bowl in the sink to jumpscare me in the morning, before I've even had coffee yet. Scuttling out from, under, or ONTO the bed possibly the worst... no, actually when you find one has somehow clambered onto you and you feel the tickle of those horrible hairy legs, is the worst.

Memorable one for me was around early hours of the morning, I'm lying on my side reading a novel and in that lovely liminal space just as you're super comfy, sleepy and content, about to fall asleep, when one suddenly landed on my book, right in front of my face, waved a tiny hairy spider fist at me before running over my pillow and down the head of my bed, as I did everything I could to escape the bedding and room before it could eat me.

Then had to fetch someone else to come find and either catch or destroy it before I could go back in that room! Let alone sleep in there.

This is why I hate them so much. Not only large, hairy, creepy looking spiders, but they're jump scare experts, and it's that part I resent the most. Give me a slow, sedate tarantula any day.

I hope your daughter isn't as freaked out by them as I am! They're all hairy legs and huge bodies, and they're so fast! Yet also often ungainly and clumsy, just seem to hurl themselves at you... It's just not fair!


While I don't wish them on anyone, and don't like it when a non-native species becomes invasive, I'm also kind of glad you've seen them, and know what I mean about them! Not dangerous so shouldn't whine, but man, they're just so creepy!

 

[Alice B]

We have tarantulas that have mating seasons, the males come out of their underground dens and go girlfriend hunting, I opened my screen door a couple of years ago and one fell off the top right in front of me. He was about 6 inches wide, that would be what in centimeters? I just encouraged him off the porch since I have no girl spiders here.

 

[gwand]

I have wolf spiders in my basement. Big hairy things. And they bite humans.

 

[Alice B]

I have wolf spiders all over. The red wasps hunt them. I find them in the house now and then and evict them to the garden

 

[Rocky998]

Just got a ton of new bass baits to use!!!
Everything besides the large spinnerbaits and the crankbaits are new!

 

[GaryE]

Rocky, that picture of you with the fish - that's a terrible acclimation method...

Back when I used to fish, I used to love seeing and trying new types of fishing lures. I think my mind went from trying to figure out how fish lived in order to fool them into taking artificial bait, to just trying to figure them out. That big question of why species A is found in spot B leaked into my early teens aquarium thinking.

As for the invasive spiders, they seemed to get frisky in August, and to be invisible again by late winter. They have locals a bit shocked, because of their size. We're used to wolf spider types, but they don't appear in occupied houses a lot. These British house spider things stumble all over looking for love. They also seem to appear in good numbers outdoors, in gardens and such. My daughter's house is in a historic site - right near the spot where an ammunition ship collision destroyed most of the city in world war one. If you dip a shovel into the earth, you get the debris of destroyed tenements - so much broken glass and metal - even half melted chunks. She can't eat anything from the garden, as the residues may still be present. A lot of factories were levelled in her area.

So, large invasive spiders. A degraded environment. Is there a future science fiction novel brewing here? Stay tuned...

 

[Lanpenn]

Earned $44 in store credit today by giving a bunch of dwarf red coral platy juveniles to my lfs. I’m making money in retirement. Of course I spent my store credit immediately like a drunken sailor. New heater and a piece of driftwood.
View attachment 349230

Interesting. Are Neocaridinas safe tankmates with platies?
Usually, I see some wolf spiders that like to live under the dry grass clippings I have next to my worm bin.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

We just returned from a marching band trip to Laramie for a University of Wyoming football game. Fun day. But wow, I am glad to not be on a bus with a bunch of teenagers.

 

[Back in the fold]

Nothing to do today . Did my run this morning and it was beautiful outside . Sunday morning has very little traffic early so the air smelled clean and I saw a few rabbits . Looking over my stock of Aplocheilus lineatus Golden Wonder Killifish and thinking about collecting some eggs as my stock is dwindling . Also thinking about looking in the pet shops for some new blood as mine have given me more than just some deformed fish . Sure would like to find the original wild type lineatus. That’s what the lineatus in Aplocheilus lineatus means - “striped” . The Golden Wonder doesn’t have those stripes . You’ll see them faintly on fry but they fade out as they grow .

 

[jaylach]

Watching football of course. Of course both my Cleveland teams are playing at the same time. I'll have the video of the football game going along with the radio broadcast for baseball flip flopping the audio input between the two on my sound system.

 

[Alice B]

Gardening, then checking mite fall on the bees and visit from daughter and grandkids later

 

[JackGulley]

Earned $44 in store credit today by giving a bunch of dwarf red coral platy juveniles to my lfs. I’m making money in retirement. Of course I spent my store credit immediately like a drunken sailor. New heater and a piece of driftwood.
View attachment 349230

Might be doing this soon myself lol Last time my platies had fry they were all eaten, but now my tank is much junglier and so far it’s been 3-4 weeks and they’re all doing fine and growing!

 

[JackGulley]

Interesting. Are Neocaridinas safe tankmates with platies?
bin.

Yep should be! I kept a group of them with my platies in perfect harmony for quite a while.

 

[gwand]

Interesting. Are Neocaridinas safe tankmates with platies?
Usually, I see some wolf spiders that like to live under the dry grass clippings I have next to my worm bin.

My neocaridina are a thriving colony despite platys, Mollys and endlers.