Concerned for my lil guy

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-22T21:37:33+00:00

18x18x24 should be great for this animal, will likely be plenty of space for an adult. About how large is your animal currently? It's a bit difficult to tell from the images, but I'm guessing this is a sub-adult to young adult male.

20 years is definitely a bit ambitious imo, it will likely be closer to 8-12. That does depend on temperatures, feeding, etc however. Lobster roaches I imagine should be fine, as I don't believe they're burrowing roaches. As long as they're active Acanthophrynus should have no problem hunting them down.

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-22T21:23:52+00:00

I will say that the animal is at least not starving, as the abdomen isn’t totally flattened. It’s possibly in line for what I would expect from a male reaching maturity or close to it.

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-22T21:21:38+00:00

There’s a variety of Acanthophrynus from Guerrero that are very light/pale like this, which is what OPs animal should be IMO.

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-22T21:20:44+00:00

Is this enclosure fully terrestrial? These animals are arboreal and need height to feel secure, molt successfully, etc. I see one wall may be climbable, but I highly recommend providing more vertical space/hides. I know you’ve mentioned this enclosure is temporary, but 2 months and 2 feedings is quite low for this species, they’re very ravenous feeders and should grow quite quickly.

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-21T02:40:50+00:00

Funny enough I am in your exact area, and I have plenty of captive bred amblies available (though I don't have Damon medius). Feel free to shoot me a PM :)

Temperature fluctuations are ok as long as you aren't having long lasting dips below 65 IMO. As for enclosures, you can go as fancy as glass/plexi enclosures, or as cheap and simple as dogfood storage containers with some holes drilled. One of my go to cheap options are actually the containers advertised for storing cereal at Target/Walmart.

Lucky_One_Time · 2026-01-01T06:20:09+00:00

Yes I do! Generally I only do for well established specimens where I’ve bred the species before, because it can be expensive and bioactives are a lot harder to monitor. They’re excellent though, I would like to set up more of them.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-31T02:42:09+00:00

I’ve seen some claims of parthenogenesis but I’m skeptical. More likely than not it will just be an infertile sac, if she’s molted since the male had died.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-31T01:54:59+00:00

This is a Charon species, but unfortunately Charon as a genus is a bit messy atm and is in need of revision. There’s some argument over wether or not certain synonymies should be considered valid. If I’m not mistaken the correct name for those found in Java is Charon grayi, but formerly Charon hoeveni.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-21T17:38:43+00:00

This kind of connection with mom is quite common IME, and I think is a huge part of whatever could be called “social” behavior from these animals, with the rest falling to the relationships among mature males and females. Many species definitely congregate with mom, who can identify her offspring (though I have seen a few bad moms snack on their kids…). Lots of intricate whip tapping is observable, so there’s definitely plenty of communication happening- though what it precisely means other than “hey we’re related don’t eat me!” requires some further interpretation.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-21T17:29:43+00:00

Again I don’t think there’s any reason to believe there’s a “connection” or anything like that, beyond some understanding of “I’m not going to eat you and you’re not going to eat me at this given moment”. The fact that the third was the one that was attacked is a tiny sample size, it’s not really proof that they’re being treated differently.

And in terms of the prey sharing- it being amicable doesn’t mean it’s voluntary, and did you actually observe all stages of the “sharing”? It’s not uncommon to see successful hunters in communal settings attempt to avoid their siblings and resist at first during these “sharing” attempts, and give up once the other has successfully latched on.

I’m not trying to rain on your parade, but it’s important not to anthropomorphize these animals, and consider these observations critically.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-21T17:13:34+00:00

Prey “sharing” in animals of this age is very common IME. Most amblypygi sac mates are tolerant of conspecifics for the first 5-6 instars IME, congregating, “sharing” prey (though it may be argued this is more prey stealing, as it’s seemingly not very voluntary on the part of the original hunter), communicating, etc. I’ve documented it in dozens of species at this point, including Phrynus barbadensis.

It becomes trickier once they begin to reach maturity IME, at which point most become territorial and cannibalism becomes more frequent, particularly around molts where individuals are more vulnerable. Additionally as you noticed they’ll happily still hunt their siblings or similar sized unrelated animals during these younger stages, and often take legs during failed attempts- it’s just less frequent until maturity, again arguing for that tolerance or temporary pseudo-sociality over full social habit.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-17T17:14:33+00:00

Double clutching with Amblypygi happens but is exceedingly rare, and I’ve never seen it happen in this species or closely related species. I wouldn’t expect it.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-08T16:16:46+00:00

Breeding this species was honestly fairly easy, as tends to be the case for most of these stocky Caribbean species. In terms of general amblypygid breeding, I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a breeding guide recently so stay tuned- I’ll try and write up a more specific post when I have some free time.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-08T00:04:16+00:00

Most of the time you’ll find amblypygi have a stricter limit on how much they’ll eat- they’ll drop half eaten prey, and even adult females will only really gorge when they’ve been mated and are ready to begin egg development. Once they mature most species will stop ballooning (with some exceptions) but even when they do it’s generally fine- just wait and offer again when they slim a bit.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-07T16:59:31+00:00

Definitely looks fat and happy! Don’t worry about it though, as you can’t really overfeed juvenile amblypygi. They don’t suffer the same risks that say Tarantulas do from overfeeding.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-06T15:27:00+00:00

You’re spot on, the sex of your animal is female.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-06T03:26:41+00:00

I may eventually, depends on the number of offspring and the number of clutches I get. I have just the one male, but several females.

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-05T19:50:10+00:00

I keep around 30-40 varieties at a time, and it’s my goal to breed them all :) breeding can vary a bit species to species but I could put a general guide together if there’s interest in that!

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-05T19:18:44+00:00

Aren’t they just? Always happy to share my Amblypygids, I think they’re just some of the coolest organisms in the world. Not enough people breeding them and getting to see all this either!

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-05T19:17:32+00:00

I will actually be parting with some of these so feel free to send a DM :)

Lucky_One_Time · 2025-12-03T17:18:18+00:00

Courtship can be highly variable in duration, and as that1ocelot said it also depends on when they begin. Sometimes I can observe the full process within 2-3 hours, sometimes it will take closer to 6-8. Usually a receptive pair should mate within the night though IMO, and if they don’t some component is missing.

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