Spider fighting is/was popular in Kentucky, USA too!
Interesting video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOIXiiuVJ40&feature=related

Today plenty of upsets.
First Jack trashes Bro1. No upset here as it was expected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO09UnObWvQ
Then i thot of filming from the side how Jack actually jumps over its opponent. So I used Kelapasawit as victim... darn...Jack became the victim! He was fed earlier with fly and also drank a lot of water. Looks like he was pretty slow when he tried to jump and he bore the consequenses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kf7CHLB_vY
Anyway, kelapasawit pretty much trashed every spider today, including Redleaf, Smallchop, Bro1, Topman. He is actually smaller than Redleaf and Redleaf is smaller than Jack. Really don't know what got into him, really mad. But i think i know a possible reason...I let him fight smallchop yesterday for my cousins(small kids) to see and he trashed smallchop(i didnt videotape)..after that i just kept him, possible over the night, it gave him a confidence boost.


Here's a tribute to all time heavyweight champion. He's getting really old(here's ur old spider which u say u never see before, Mangrovejumper). I only fight him with Bigleaf today and it was a no show(because Bigleaf also getting old). You can see his arms are perpetually bend while walking. (if you see droplets on him, that's because i spray water lightly on him). He is also ignoring food nearby. Will be anytime soon. I have let him retire horizontally in the leaves of my plant as he is no longer able to hang vertically on those round containers. Just now when i came home, he is still alive... snuggled nicely in between the leaves. I expect him to be around at most another day or so. Time to say goodbye...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRgw4-SZN2s

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 11 2008, 01:54 AM

RIP Bighead
25/11/07(caught) - 11/03/08

Wah, xinan rocks! Xinan and Xonan u catch from ur area... seems like use the same fighting style as Archilles and Spartan. The arm locking drags the fighting time. I timed it as 33s. Shows that the gene lines there have good stamina in fighting. Crossfire(lily2) seems no match to the other spiders..all no show fighting. Nexus should fight with Xinan?

I think from here we can see that fighting styles in spiders can be pass down. Styles seem to be similar in one area. Chops like smallchop, Jack, 6leg and now Redleaf are all caught from same area. Armlocking-stamina figthers like Archilles, Spartan, Xenon and Xinan caught from same area too? PJ fighters like Topman, Bigguns and Puchong fighters like Bigleave, Thickarms and Bro1, Bro2, Blackhead...all not so good when matched against the KL fighters. Even some seremban top fighter like Quietman is no match against KL top fighters like Bighead, Lumpy mainly becuz of size.
Hehe, of cuz all these i say is only those we catch, God knows wat really is out there.

yeah, i wonder how can i borrow or where can i go to maybe film using a highspeed camera MACRO, like those in some nature TV shows... then maybe can really see how their jaws sink in or lock close up and in super slow mo. haha!

Yeah.. his epic story is pretty much depicted here. Yeah, i also think the life span is around there. Last year the longest spider i kept was also nearly 3 months only. Most died within 2 months. I asked Ivan the singapore guy how long he kept his spider.. he also says 2 months.

Viper says he kept one for 10months! Holy cow... viper, you'll have to try that again with ur spiders now to get it documented.

I'm keeping females, named them but unfortunately i didn't really write down when i capture them.

I used the rough side of the yellow paper, so they have pretty good grip. The reason i use the yellow paper is because it is yellow mah.. light background, better pictures. I also prop up a white paper for the white background. The passport u use seems to be working well, allowing good grip but not so good for filming cuz harder to see cuz not so good contrast.

Before the last fight between Bighead and Bigleaf, I fought him with ur spiders.. surely no injury from just pushing.
Yeah, they can die from injury or sheer exhaustion... same like wat u say, walk slowly and dont eat. Bighead however have been gradually moving slowly for many days, almost 3 weeks... even when i brought him to ur place the last time..he's already slow down alot. So, i think it is old age. Even before he got his abdomen ripped by Jack, he already seems not so active in his container(i put him in a huge container). When he was at his prime, everyday at least twice a day he will be out walking...and he can wander about in its cage for an hour or so. But guess is that Bighead when caught has probably changed skin not long ago..at most 1 week, cuz he was still light in color and lembek..lost to smaller Lumpy. I think FS can probably fight well after about 1 week or so after change skin. Example is Blurman. Maybe peaking after 1 month and the peak can last maybe 1 month to 2 months. After 2 and half months to after 3 months, their prime is over.

ok. I remember u said u caught one spider before. Wat happened to it?

3cm??! Sure same species or not? Why can't u take back?

There are many spiders that look like the fighting spiders we have here but may not be the same species. 3 cm is really huge for a jumping spider.

Walao, viper, LRT station there also u can find. Damn geng man u. People can see u ah? So many people around.
Scorpio looks like a young healthy male. Twice it was able to push Xinan off the stage in the second round. Pretty good fight.

Today i wanted to look for FS in the evening but drizzling. I went to the Puchong Leech land, but now... a lot of the wayside trees chopped away and the area where the ditch is all replaced by brick wall. That very place used to have a lot of females. Now gone. Anyway i just jalan jalan there and took one pic. Then i went back cuz i came out quite late also.

Last time

Today


My guess is sooner or later u'll get a good camcord huh? I bought mine for about 2k. Panasonic VDR-D250. I took long time to decide, researching months ahead and then finally trying it again and again at the shop with my sister and compare with other brand camcord. I bought it becuz of my wedding but when i test it, i'm thinking of shooting FS fighting!! haha! I found the Sony/JVC models focusing not as fast as the model i bought, there is a lag time before the sony/JVC camcord can focus when u move closer. I was thinking, "Walau, by the time it focus, spider fight already over leow." Also the Panasonic 3CCD technology, the colors are more natural. But most importantly it can shoot really close up(almost touching) and still can focus. I test it by trying to shoot small words or objects the size of a spider in the shop. haha! Some other models cannot. The HD Panasonic range cost 3K - 5K...too expensive. In the end, found this model to be best suited for FS filming and not too ex. Under good lighting, the close up is pretty good. Here's an example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3qFrb-EKbU
But when shooting spider fighting cannot be so close la... chop one time and the spiders would be out of screen.

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 14 2008, 01:37 AM

Viper, in the earlier fight, Kaizer really looks like half chop. Very fierce. But he doesn't have the size to match Hope or Xinan huh?

In your today's fight, Kaizer and Nexus seems like good match but in the end, Kaizer consistently toppled Nexus. Kaizer certainly look like good fighter and in its prime too.

Walao! Incredible fight between Hope and Xinan! Lasted 30 seconds with the stall at arm bite lasting 18 seconds, more than half the time of the whole contact time. Damn, Hope could have lost its arm. With that strong arm bite and long hold, Xinan could have won if it was a bit more determined. Hope was already damaged badly while Xinan looks ok. Again another fight with the winner being more injured than the loser. If in the wild, maybe Xinan may encounter back Hope a short while later and finish him off, man! 18seconds is a long time... allowing a lot of Xinan's venom to be injected in. It's mighty lucky Hope's arm were strong enough to withstand that kind of wicked assault. Hope itself could have opt to break it off to save its own life. Wat a comeback. A..MA..ZING.

Crab. Your spiders fighting stamina is unmatched man. Taking the top 3 spots for time length of fight.
1. Archilles vs Spartan(post#183, page 10) - 46s
2. Xinan vs Xonan(post#276, page 14) - 33s
and now
3. Hope vs Xinan (post#293, page 15) - 30s
Great fighters and great matching!

Next is Bighead vs Archilles(post#135, page 7) - 22s
Fifth - Scareycat vs Pippy(post#146, page 8) - 17s

And at one time i thot anything above 5 seconds would be a good fight!


Here are some of the fights I had 2 days back. Didn't have time to upload it then.

Kelapasawit vs Redleaf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNJ3-TYZA8w
Can see Redleaf is chop but still no match for fierce Kelapasawit
Jack vs Kelapasawit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5-i01V8crw
Jack vs Smallchop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke5dZbnTxks
Lesson - Never fight big chop with small chop...duh!

I think having a variety of size for our spiders, will have a good match to fight them(yours with mine) huh?
So what is your ranking now, viper?

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 16 2008, 01:53 AM

Haha! Thanks for your support. Nice to know others can enjoy our passion. About giving up our hobby...hehe..hard to say. Sometimes may take a break, who knows, sometimes even a dog lover may give up keeping dog when their dog die or something more important in their life comes along.... That is why I decided to share this hobby on the net. Although i have no plans to stop keeping spiders now or future(but lots of weird plans to expand it actually), but just in case i or viper do for watever reason, hopefully someone can pick up where we left off. Otherwise, just enjoy our experience.

Btw - Bighead won Archilles. No chance for rematch. Bighead did lose to 6leg and Jack.

Food for FS..Drosophila/Vinegar Fly/Fruit Fly. I didn't catch most of them. Only a few of them. The rest were brought up! Children of the first few ones.

So you get to see a glimpse of what usually happen in the wild mah. Fair fighting is man-made. In the wild, FS may get chop from back, from side, from top(jump from another leave), inside nest, they may fight on vertical leave, upside down, may have third spider coming to chop after kena chop by first spider etc etc. Haha!
I'm also surprise arm get bit off, i was about to blow them seeing that jack like going to bite small chop body, where suddenly smallchop twist and its arm came off. Jack is still living up to its name... as the ripper.

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 17 2008, 09:42 PM

Well, i agree with you that Archilles and Spartan were better fighters than Bighead, Bighead never showed much chopping or manuveuring skills. He had size as its advantage, and probably a bit of stubborness for that one fight with Archie. When it was going backwards i thot it had already lost and getting ready to cabut. But somehow it used its last bit of strength for teeth grinding and got lucky.

Since we started documenting our FSs, to date here is, IN MY OPINION, the top fighters by rank and with reasons.
1. Spartan(viper) - Engaged in the longest fight, fought with a bigger opponent(Archilles) and Won!
2. Xinan(viper) - Engaged in 2nd and 3rd longest fight, although lost but quite badly injuring a bigger opponent(Hope)
3. Quietman(mindstorm) - Engaged in long fight(about 10s) - defending & chopping style, fought twice with bigger opponent(TooBig) and also won. Also win a lot of other fights.
4. Archilles(viper)- Lasted in longest fight and also lasted long with Bighead and showed great skill, but take 4rd place cuz did not win in both fights and also lost to slightly smaller Spartan.
5. Scareycat(mangrovejumper) - Engaged in exciting fast fighting 17s match with Pippy, and also making a comeback to fight again after dropping from stage in the fight with bigger Quietman.
6. Bighead(mangrovejumper/mindstorm) - Pretty good stats throughout its life but unfortunately did not show enough determination in a couple of fights against 6legs. Also not much impressive style. Pretty old school - push and direct chop.
7. Jack(mindstorm) - (chop) Unseen before fighting style i) jump over to bite abdomen tip with serious consequenses ii) chop until knock opponent upside down(twice). Unfortunately inconsistent.

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 17 2008, 09:46 PM

Round 1 was a good fight. There goes a double flip. Ding dong ranking between cross and scrop.. pretty equal. Kaizer is a chop after all. Fierce fighter, and another unique fight... drag opponent upside down!

Today i half day. Caught some new spiders today and some interesting photos. Later tonite i post up. Now i want to play ping pong.

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 17 2008, 09:51 PM

Yeah, after reviewing their fights i think Crossfire and Hope deserve a place too, possessing good counter moves against Jack. But Jack comes to mind first simply because of another spider...Bighead. Jack executed a technique that allows it to possible win a much bigger spider in an efficient time. With old school technique, Crossfire and Hope simply have no way of winning a big FS like Bighead. Their fights with Bighead was only pushing.

I guess our ranking criteria differ in one very obvious point. Size. As i have mentioned early in this tread, size difference is something to be eliminated when matching spiders. Of cuz, we cannot always have 100% same size spiders fighting. While you seem to see size as a plus point, i take size as a minus point! Not to say minus...but if a big spider loses to a smaller spider, the big spider's credit drops and the smaller spider's credit increases. However if a big spider wins a smaller spider, well...nothing to shout about cuz it is more or less expected. The rest of the points i agree with you. But obviously i have placed them in this order
1)Stamina
2)Strong fighting will
3)Fighting techniques
That's why those FS engaging in record time fights come out tops on my list. A long fight is an amazing show to watch simply because most fights are short ones. Even plakat(fighting fish) over generation has been bred for their stamina. The ones we buy can fight for 2 hours but wild fighting fish even in Thailand usually fight only about 15min. Of cuz in the wild, it is not advantages to fight that long...increases the chance of death...either by being preyed upon while fighting or easily preyed upon after fight because of injury or exhaustion.
And as in the fights between Hope/Crossfire with Jack, it can be seen stamina fighters can win simply by outlasting a technical fighter. In both fights, Jack manages to flip Hope/Crossfire and even carried Hope but Hope/Crossfire still flip back and carried on fighting to win! Having stamina is certainly a major factor in FS fighting.

Today i went back to the place where i got 6leg, jack, smallchop. It is also the place where Bighead was caught by mangrove jumper. I wanted to try to get another "KingKong" breed as Singaporeans call it.

Reached at about 4.45pm. Once i got out of my car, i walked up a path and immediately a nest caught my attention...

.. i looked up..holy shit...2 FS fighting!! Since they were quite deep in their nest and i dont carry my camcord around, i just watched them grapple and took some pics after the fight was over....


damn...look wat happened to the loser...

it was no longer moving so i took some pics and place it on a leaf so as not to waste the carcass....
the winner of cuz i took home ..Male no.1

After that i went to the place where 6leg was caught...in these type of leaves

i comb the area...no luck...but i saw this...

i squeezed the homeowner out... a hantu kuning female(Evarcha flavocincta)


Later on, while i was searching among some lily plant, i saw another jumping spider,huge one which dropped...wah...look like a finger! I waited for a while, searching somewhere else, then i see back...this is wat it was... a Bavia sp


As i was walking along a drain..i came across this...never see before toad resting on a leaf... under flowerpot got la

Well, with so many predators around, not surprising those that survive around here have to be chop!! What a harsh world for the FS!

As i continue searching i saw a female wandering in the middle of a big leave...rare sight...usually the males wander..

I continued my searched and found another 4 males...3 of their nest i took pics...


I also saw a female with one arm eating...i always wanted to take pics of FS eating in the wild..to see wat they really eat in the wild...so here's the first documentation...some kinda bettle..yeah...i've seen many times FS eat small bettle


I searched until about 6.30pm, and just as i was about to catch another male it then started to rain!

I tried to catch it, it jumped out and i couldnt find it among the debris. Big drops were hitting me and i got desperate, but in the end failed to find it...
i didnt want to leave so soon and stood under a huge tree. The the rain got heavier and heavier...oh man...i'll be soaked wet again!! Anyway i then ran as fast back to my car which was quite near and went home...

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 18 2008, 03:42 AM

yo, nice to see another spider enthusiast... very rare now. How many years u play FS as a child?

Wah, graveyard FS. Some ppl say they fight better!

I stay in Puchong, M'sia. Viper stay in Setiawangsa, M'sia. Met him here. Mangrovejumper stays in USA but he comes back every couple of years for about 2 weeks and I go spider hunting with him. He was my classmate. Some others I dunno but mainly they just follow this tread.

How did you find this tread? Hey, if your place got, go catch some la and show us some pics or video. I very interested to watch FS from other places fight too. Never know, maybe got different style like some of the fighting styles we found out while we had this tread. If I didn't know viper, i wouldn't know got so many tricks he use on his spiders. We also share different opinions on keeping spider, and debate out some controversial practice or ideas.
Example
1. Feeding FS will make them grow big(IMO, abdomen yes la, but not the head)
2. Can training can make a FS fight better?
3. Letting FS drink fruit juice/blood make it fiercer?
4. Keeping male with female( Possible make male fiercer since in the wild we also see couple FS and usually the male can fight well)

Anyway, welcome. Hope you catch some to show us.

PS where do you stay?

Ok, i named the new 5 males i caught. Aiyah, no kingkong breed. All quite small infact. Here i rank them.

Average size
Old FS
1.Joe
Young FS
2.Fairman
3.Brownie

Tiny
4. SmallDark
5. Destroyer(The winner of the 2 FS fighting in the wild)


Ceh... the winner of the wild fighting is only very small la. I let it fight SmallDark. 2 sort of avoid each other...but when smalldark move too close to Destroyer, Destroyer try to chop it... so Destroyer may be chop but not fierce like Smallchop. Smallchop when see from far will come all the way to chop.

Fairman vs Brownie - Fairman won with push
Joe vs Fairman - Joe won with a couple of chops. Joe is a chop!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN_J-ANe6M4

Here is Joe


Next is to fight Joe with my old FS. I choose Kelapasawit.
Holycow!!! NEW RECORD TIME!!! 48 seconds!!!
They fought almost same style like Viper's FS. Armlocking and alot of teeth grinding!! Joe style is like Jack(maybe Jack's brother)! He tried to do the jump over but missed! Watch it to believe it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgxzZNWka_I


This post has been edited by mindstorm: Mar 18 2008, 11:26 PM

This is not the daun sirih u showed me la. This is wild pepper plant. One of FS favourite.

I think i agree that letting a FS fight weaker FS before the real match will actually cuz it to fight longer. Confidence training.

Nexus chop quite a bit too, but looks like Kaizer chop 3 times at the end and although nexus chop back twice it still run.

Incredible fight. Lots of manuveuring/position swapping/choping.