Grammostola rosea

Successful - partially

Male introduced into 2 different female enclosures several times between 12/20/02 and 02/14/03. Introduction results varied from successful insertions to the female attacking the male.

Female #1 molted out after breeding. Female #2 made an egg sac on 03/07/03. On 03/25/03 the female tore the egg sac open and was caught eating the eggs.

I was able to salvage between 40 and 50 eggs and placed them in a surrogate egg sac made from a paper towel. The surrogate sac was hung from the side of a homemade incubator. The sac was turned and opened daily.

04/02/03 eggs w/ legs.

04/22/03 group began molting.

04/25/03 group was separated out. A total of 25 slings were salvaged.

Botar

Grammastola rosea

The last time I tried bringing a male in with my female G rosea she destroyed him. All that was left afterwards was a leg and an ugly little male pedipalp. This new boy loves her and she loves him. They have bred a few times and a few of those times I saw some pretty good insertions. It is exciting. She doesnt even mind his presence at all so I hope to keep making attempts as long as he is still alive.

Last week I introduced my male rosey to my hulking female. He eventually got his nerve up to walk up to her and played footsy with her eventually this led to a interesting backward bend on my female. The male did this odd ducking of his head and i could see him doing something feverishly with his left and right pedipalps ( I like to think of it as a mining dive because thats what he looked like). The female made a lunge at him and he started to slide in the substrate( I was using vermiculite farm grade) I place my handy wooden pencil between them to protect him since he was a gift from a X of mine and i'd really be upset lossing him to carelessness. I returned him to his tank and left her alone . The thing is I have tried to breed them again and the male runs away as soon as he is placed into her tank.

Placed male rosey into females tank on 8-14-2004 and decied to leave them alone i repeatedly checkup on then and i removed the male today on the 8-16-04 he was perfectly ok female hadn't killed him Isaw afew insertions by male on sunday .

Bean's G. rosea Breed Report

9/24/04 Introduced male on to 6" female. Female had molted 9-11-04 (13 days prior) and had not eaten post molt. (food was offered 3-4 times)

Male was placed into female enclosure. After a few minutes of drumming, (by both parties) he found her and we observed insertion. Male made quick get away and has not been reintroduced since.

10/22/04 Female is eating daily and appears to be putting on some weight.

UNSUCCESSFUL

I've got a very sad ending to a very long (perhaps record breaking) saga of cohabitation.
I received Verde, my female, 11/3/01. She was one of the first tarantulas I ever owned.
Approx 9/8/02, I received a beautiful red phase male from Vayu Son. I mated him with both G rosea females, Verde and Morax.
Verde tolerated him so well, I decided to let them cohabitate. They lived together for 5 months. On February 27 2003, I found him attempting a post ultimate molt. He didn't make it
Since my female was so tolerant, I decided to continue the experiment. I found a mature male for $5 at a pet shop, and introduced them on March 5th. They lived together until he died of old age this past September 2004.
She lived almost continually with a male for TWO YEARS...I think this is phenomenal.
Well, I went to feed and do cage maintenence today...and found her dead.
She was in a pose that looked like she was just crawling off her log, and just stopped. No curling up or anything.
Needless to say, I'm pretty upset...it's not the ending I envisioned at all.
RIP Verde...

12/4/04 introduced male into famale #1 tank, they both went right to work. The next day 12/5/04 male made a huge sperm web. Reintroduced male into female #1 tank on 12/6/04, mating went very well. Decided to introduce him into female #2 tank, mating went very well on the same day. 12/7/04 put male back into female #1 tank, mating went very well. Will introduce male back with female #2 on 12/8/04.

Each time I put a piece of cardboard between them after the event so the male could get out safely.

Male has mated with both females.

Renee

my advanced zoology class was studying arthropods, and i decided to bring both a male and a female rosie in for m/f comparison.they had lived next to each other for several months in seperate enclosures. we decided to put them together to see what would happen. successful mating/insertion after i removed her (unwebbed) hide so she couldn't continue to ignore the male. full lighting, middle of the day, large audience . i guess i'm kind of proud . we tried putting them together again about a week later to see if it had taken, but she fought harder this time and he was only able to hold her up and out of the way, but no insertion. her interest in eating has gone up, which is significant for her, but it has only been about a month.

Breeding report for Grammostola rosea.

All G. rosea in this breeding report humidity is kept between forty percent to sixty percent. All were handled at least three times a week. None had molted while in my care nor had any fasted while in my care either.

The male Grammostola rosea is of unknown origin. The male was bought from Pet Island on 01/10/2005. He has been fed two to four crickets a week, Gut Load, and Tarantula Bites since 01/10/2005. The male's cage is an extra large Kritter Keeper. The substrate is one hundred percent peat moss. The substrate is three inches deep. The only things in his cage are a food dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.) and water dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.). He's kept at room temperature (Between seventy two and seventy four degrees.) with no additional heating source used. I wet the substrate once a month and mist the cage once a week.

Female Grammostola rosea number one is of unknown origin. I bought her from Pet Island on 12/04/2004. She has been fed two to four crickets a week, Gut Load, and Tarantula Bites since 01/17/2005 before this her diet had been two to four crickets a week and Gut Load. Female number one's cage is an extra large Kritter Keeper. The substrate is one hundred percent peat moss. The substrate is three inches deep. The only things in her cage are a food dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.), water dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.), and a coconut hide which is turned upside down like a bowl. She's kept at room temperature (Between seventy two and seventy four degrees.) with no additional heating source used. I wet the substrate once a month and mist the cage once a week.

Female Grammostola rosea number two was bought off Arachnoboards from Arachnoboards member Rob on 04/05/2005. I'm not sure what her origin is nor her diet before I bought her. Here's what I learned about female number two from Rob. She was bought from the House of Reptiles Pet Store in Jacksonville, FL on 01/??/2003. He fed her crickets for the first couple weeks he had her. Around five or six large crickets every week or so. She then went on a fast and molted in 03/??/2003. He then fed her the same amount of crickets until about 09/??/2003 and she went on another fast and didn't eat another cricket again until 01/??/2005. She didn't eat for fifteen months. She also didn't molt during this time. So its been two years since her last molt. Since I've had her her diet has been the same as the two Grammostola rosea mention before. Female number two's cage is a plastic shoe box. Its the five quart type. The measurements are twelve inches long by eight inches wide by eight inches deep. The substrate is one hundred percent peat moss. The substrate is three inches deep. The only things in her cage are a food dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.), water dish (Made from the bottom of a Dixie Cup.), and a Coconut Hide turned on it's side. She's kept at room temperature (Between seventy two and seventy four degrees.) with no additional heating source used. I wet the substrate once a month and mist the cage once a week.

04/12/2005

I introduced a male Grammostola rosea to female Grammostola rosea number one on 04/12/2005. Mating took place at 9:30 p.m. E.S.T. The room was dimly lit by a basking light above my Bearded Dragons which is located on the other side of the room and by a heat light right above the Rubbermaid Storage Bin I used as a mating cage. The storage bin was lined with one hundred percent peat moss. Just like all my tarantula's cages are. I placed female number one in the storage bin first. I gave her ten minutes to calm down before attempting to put the male in the storage bin. I separated the storage bin with a piece of cardboard while the male was put into it. I withdrew the cardboard and placed a plastic spatula between the male and female. The male walked right up to female number one tapped on her carapace a couple of times. Once that was done the male hooked the females fangs with his hooks and mating began. I saw several insertion of the males pedipalp. Starting with the right and ending with the left. Once mating was complete the male pushed the female up further and backed off. At this time I again inserted the plastic spatula between them as I got the male out with a plastic ladle. The female kept her fangs bare during this whole time. I got the male into his cage then got the female out and placed her in her cage as well. Only when she was in the ladle did she lower her fangs. No strikes were attempted. From start to finish it took ten minutes.

I introduced male Grammostola rosea to female Grammostola rosea number two on 04/12/2005. Mating took place at 10:00 p.m. E.S.T. The setup was exactly the same as it was with female Grammostola rosea number one. Again the female was placed in the storage bin first. The male was placed in the storage bin after giving the female ten minutes to calm down. The same method used on introducing the male and female number one was used when introducing the male and female number two. The male walked to where female number one was last at so he had to be shown where female number two was. Once again he walked right up to female number two tapped her carapace and mating began. He hooked her fangs with his hooks. I saw several insertion. This time he started with the left and ended with his left. I have no ideal if this means anything or not just something I noticed. Again after mating was complete the male push the female up further and back off himself. I used the same method when taking the male out as was used with female number one. Female number two put her fangs away almost as soon as the male was away. She was taken out the same as the others. From start to finish mating took twelve minutes.

When each was placed in their cages I gave each five Grub Worms, Gut Load, Tarantula Bites, and a dish of water. I plan on keeping them on this diet for the next week. Only replacing what food and water is needed. During this time I will observe them to see if I notice any changes in any of them. If so I will record what I witness. After a week I will see if they will mate again.

04/13/2005

After talking to Charles from Botarby8s I have found out that your chances for a successful second breeding without letting the male reload is slim. With this information in hand my next breeding attempt will start with female number two. Then I'll let the male reload before attempting to let him mate with female number one. Thanks allot Charles for this information.

A few things more I thought to add to this post as well. This morning I added a Coconut Hide to female number two's cage. Female number one already had a half coconut shell turned upside down. I noticed that female number one was sitting in this coconut shell. This might mean nothing at all but I thought it needed to be added.

I found the remains of a sperm web in the males cage today. Looks as if his second attempt to mate with female number two will happen tonight. So I believe he at least was successful when he mated with female number one.

The male was once again introduced to female number two. Mating took place on 04/13/2005 at 9:45 p.m. E.S.T. I followed the same procedure as last night. The male was a bit slower to mate. Once he noticed female number two he walked up to her (Sort of fast. I thought he was going to attack her.) and mating took place. It lasted a bit longer this time. The whole process took twelve minutes. The male started with the left pedipalp again tonight. Once mating was done he again pushed her further back so he could make his escape. I followed the same feeding procedure as last night with the breeding pair. There was one thing different tonight about female number two than last night. After mating she kept her fangs out as female number one did last night. Maybe this might mean a successful mating? Could she be in a state of euphoria and this is a sign of it? I also plan to watch which pedipalp the male uses to start off with. Maybe tarantulas also have sides they prefer to use as do humans? I will watch both of these behaviors closer at the next few breedings between the male, female number one, and female number two.

04/14/2005

There was no sperm web today. Maybe he's tired. I'm going to try and mate him once again to female number one tonight. A mating is better than no mating.

The male was introduced to female number one again tonight 04/14/2005 at 11:55 p.m. E.S.T.. The male was really slow to approach the female. She ignored him until he touched her Opisthosoma. When he did that she turned on him quickly. Once he caught her fangs with his tibial hooks mating took place. He started again with his left pedipalp but ended with his right tonight. Once mating was done the female tried to attack him. It was more like driving him off more than attacking him. Is this a sign of a gravid female? Something else I'll have to watch with this species during their matings. Tonight will be the last night I breed him with any of the two females. He's going to be shipped to Arachnoboards member Becca on Monday. So until Monday he'll eat and gain strength. I think he deserves it. So posts will slow down allot. I'll only post when something big happens.

04/29/2005

During my feeding I noticed that both females opisthosoma seem a little bigger. There are no other signs of either being gravid. So the wait is still on.

05/25/2005

I was feeding today and what did I find in female number one's cage? A shed of course. Any other time this would be a happy time not today. This means the breeding didn't take. I plan to wait a few weeks then introduce the male to her again. I'll write what happens then.

I received a G. rosea male from Jaden on 4/20/05.

I let him rest up for a bit then introduced him to my female on 4/22/05.

1st attempt: Unsuccessful. They ignored one another and the female kept turning around and walking the other way.

2nd attempt: Same day. Successful! The male walked towards the female and when leg I hit her abdomen he turned her around and lifted her up. He was bigger than her and I saw several good insertions. After about 60 seconds, female begin to wrap her front legs around the male slowly. In fear of him being eaten, I seperated them.

Male Received: 4-12-05
From: Larry Walker
Male made sperm web: N/A (hasnt made one in my care)
Female was purchased from a local petstore in '04
Mated Successfully 4-24-05 & 4-25-05

The male was placed in the females container for a whole week, no sperm webs witnessed. I placed them together a few times during the week, and nothing happened. The male would rush around the cage like a madman, just asking to get eaten, so I removed him.
I went out of town for the weekend, and came home on Sunday, decided to put them together again.
This time the female made the first move by coming up to the male. Once he felt her legs he quickly grabbed onto her fangs. She was so tolerant of him. Mating went on for a near 5 minutes, many insertions were witnessed. I seperated them with a stick, but noticed they wanted to continue, so I let them, which was followed by another 5 minutes of insertions, and the female being incredibly patient.
I took them apart, put the male back in his container, and put the female away. I could clearly see she was looking for him afterwards. So I tried again the next day, and it was another success. They once again quickly hooked up, and another 5 minutes of insertions. Seperated them again with the stick, and they wanted even MORE, so I let them have at it. This time it was more like 3 minutes of insertions.

No sack as of yet, of course. Will keep my fingers crossed.
Male is to be tried out on my bigger female today, but they havent shown any interested thus far.

Added 4-27-05: Same male mated with my other female, successful. Insertion took 2-3 minutes. She's waiting for more, but he wont have it!

First Breeding Attempt

UNSUCCESSFUL

6-25-05

We are using a "Herp Haven" breeder box with a divider. When we put the male on the one side of the tank, we noticed the male start to drum and was trying franticly to get over to her, so we lifted the lid and let him climb over to her, when he touched her abdomen slightly she bolted up the side and crawled out. I let her crawl into a cup and put her back in and then after a few moments of no response from either of them, we were afraid maybe she was too stressed so put the divider back and let them be.

Well we tried to breed them again tonight.

Lifted the divider, and just sat back and watched TV for a couple hours until they started being active.

She was exploring, and she wandered over to his side of the cage and kinda ran into him. She was startled again by him, but as soon as he was bumped by her, he tried to do his job.

She was very aggressive lunged at him and threw him away, but he held his ground, and tried to hold her, at one point she even ended up on her back, and a few times it seemed like he had her, but she was just very aggitated and fought him off repeativly despite all his impressive attempts to hold her.

We waited patiently because he was handling her agression well, but eventually realized she wasn't going to calm down and right when we went to seperate them he turned tail and ran bolted out of the tank, he knew right when to take off.

It was so chaotic I'm not sure if I really saw any genuine insertions, I saw some definate attempts, but he didn't quite have her locked in place so I don't think he made it.

We have only had this pair for a couple of months, and we are wondering if maybe the female is going to molt soon? She has been eating recently, but we have no idea when she last molted....

6-26-05
Came home and saw the male drumming, and both of them seemed to be trying to climb over the divider. Decided to lift the divider, the male went to hook her, she was very resistant as before, and for a moment it seemed he might be successful, but he only had one of her fangs hooked, and the situation deteriorated from there, and her turned and ran from her.

7-3-05
The female Rosea(Trinity) has eaten 2 crickets in the past 2 days so we are assuming she’s not in pre-molt. They have been living in the breeder box for a week straight now. We lifted the divider again and hoped for the best.
The female eventually wandered over to the male, and ended up bumping into him again, but it didn’t seem like she even realized he was there. He didn’t drum at all and seemed immediatly defensive. It looked like he was going to try and hook her, she was very aggressive like before, and then we saw his fangs come out as well. They just began to brawl. He was seemed to be trying to fight her not mate with her, so we seperated them quickly.

Discouraged by this attempt, we took the male (Don Quijote) and put him in a breeder box with a different female (fuzzbuzz). We will wait a week, and we hope their pairing is better.

FuzzBuzz & Don Quijote

SUCCESSFUL

7-13-05


These two had been living together in a Herp Haven breeder box with a divider in between them since 7-3-05. We had noticed the male (Don Quijote) drum a few times at her during the week, but saw no notable response from the female (Fuzzbuzz). We wanted to wait and give her some time to be comfortable in her new home.

After a week had passed we decided we would wait until we saw the male drum again and then lift the divider.

Today he began to drum and continued to drum frantically, and attempted to climb over the divider, she had approached the divider and appeared interested. She started to climb the divider, so we lifted the lid and let her crawl over to him. She took her time and when she was half way down the wall (which is only maybe 4 inches tall) she slightly brushed his leg, and he immediately went to hook her while she was still on the wall. She lost her footing and fell to the ground. He had her held tight, and she didn’t seem to be the least bit disturbed by the slight fall or him, she was very calm and let him do his thing. He made a few insertions, the whole process lasting maybe 30 seconds, and then he started to back away, holding her far away with his legs. She pursued him slightly, didn’t seem really aggressive, but it was clear he wanted to leave so we separated them. We will try to pair them again in a week.

7-15-05
Caught Don Quijote making a sperm web.

7-23-05 Successful 2nd attempt
They both started to become active, and walk about the tank. The female seemed to be trying to get to the otherside, and it almost looked as if the male was ignoring her. He then tried to get over the divider to her, and she ignored him. Finnally they both were on each side of the divider, facing each other, and the male started drumming. We lifted the divider, and it seemed to startle them because they stood completely still facing eachother only centimeters apart but not touching, after about 5 minutes the female advanced towards the male, and the male raised her up immediatly.

She did not fight at all, and we saw many inserts, this process lasted about 1 minute, than he stopped and it looked as if he might try to get away, but then went in for a second time. She began to curl her legs around him, which made us nervous, but after about 15-20 seconds he started to back away, Fuzzbuzz became a tiny bit agressive, and the male was starting to recipricate. My boyfriend seperated them with a brush, and we each placed one half of a 2 liter bottle on top of each of them. Then coaxed them to opposite sides of the cage, and replaced the divider.

8-25-05

FuzzBuzz laid an eggsack. We JUST removed her from the tank where there was a divider between her and Quijote on 8-24-05. We cleaned everything and put her in the tank by herself. She's holding the eggsack and looks so far like a happy mommy.

*****UPDATE*****

Sorry I should've updated this a long time ago, this eggsack turned out out be a dud sack unfortunatly. No spiders ever hatched from this.

ChrisNCT said:

MATING PROCEDURE 02/12/2005

At 6:00 AM E.T. The male was witnessed tearing down what I believed to be
remains of a spem web built during the night.

At approx. 3:00 PM E.T. on February 12th, 2005 the male was introduced to
the females cage with the use of a small deli container. This container was
set into the female's enclosure on the opposite end. The male had sat for
approx. 3 mintues before stepping out. Once exiting the deli container, the
male proceded out onto a small piece of moss in the female's cage. He came
to rest of the moss for about 5 mintues. At approx. 3:10 PM E.T. the male
started dumming on the moss and shaking his right rear leg. The drumming
proceded to about 3:14 PM E.T. The female started to show signs of noticing
the male's presence in her enclosure. She turned towards him and stopped
about 1 inch away from his front legs.

The male feeling her get closer immediatley proceded to move forward until
reaching her front legs. Once feeling her legs, the female moved her front
legs and pedipalps so that his front legs can hook her. When the male had
the females legs and fangs hooked, the female arched backwards and provided
the male with a perfect opportunity to deposit the sperm from the bulbs into
the opening. I witnessed the male releasing his bulbs and protruding the
opening. Once this occured, the male cautiously backed up releasing the
female and did a small retreat. The female did not advance towards the male
but instead actually awaiting his return.

At about 3:20 PM E.T. the male approached the female again and had another
perfect opportunity to do a second sperm deposit. The male went through
basic porcedings that were mentioned above and did indeed get a second
deposit. The male after releasing the female continued upwards to the top of
the females enclosure. I assisted him into his enclosure for a future
breeding time. The female continued to sit quietly as I put the enclosures
lid back on and placed the enclosure onto the rack.

END OF FIRST ATTEMPT
ATTEMPT WAS SUCCESSFUL

************************UPDATE********************
06-08-2005

The female had laid an eggsack. The eggsack is about 2 1/2" in diameter. She is guarding it and holding onto it with her fangs.

Wish me luck!

************************UPDATE********************
06-23-2005


The female abandoned the eggsack today. Plus it looked like it got flatened out. So I figured what the heck and took it out since she was not caring for it.

I have an incubation hammock ready for this reason. Before I put the sac into the hammock I had wanted to check to make sure that the eggs are viable. All the eggs from what I can see are good and almost eggs with legs. You can faintly see the legs inside so I figure a week or two in the hammock and we should be all set with all of them in the eggs w/ legs stage (postembryo).

I sealed the sack back up and am keeping it at the same temp and humidity as was in the cage.

************************UPDATE ************************
06-27-2005

I opened the sack again today to find these little critters!!!! Check em out! My first successful sack!!!!!! Not all of them have legs now but I feel that they will be within the next couple days. I see no dicolored or broken eggs. I don't smell any odor or anything. Everything seems okay!

The leggs actually move at this stage (postembryo)! They are soooooo tiny and cool!

********************UPDATE***************************
07-05-2005
I opened the wrapping up again to check on the little ones. They sure are waiving their arms about. Here is a pic taken today of them. They are getting close!!!!!!

********************UPDATE***************************
07-13-2005
Here is a pic of the little ones nearing the 1st instar. The darkening of the bodies and limbs show very near molt.

Click to expand...

********************UPDATE***************************
07-15-2005

They have began to molt into the 1st instars! The legs are longer and moving around. The spiderlings are dragging themselves around the bottom of the cup. Fangs are visible. Eyes are visible. Hairs are visible on abdomen.





********************UPDATE***************************
07-17-2005
Approx. 95% of the post-embryos have become 1st instar tonight. We'll see how much longer the 2nd instar comes around where I will have to seperate them.



********************UPDATE***************************
07-26-2005
They are nearing the 2nd instar stage where I will have to seperate them. The slings are darkening and the yellow fluid that is stored in the rump is being used up.


And last...the needed packaging is ready for the babies when they hit 2nd Instar stage!


********************UPDATE***************************
08-13-2005
2nd Instar has been completed! They are running around climbing all over the place. I seperated them to vials and got 133 living spiderlings, 10 undeveloped eggs.




Successful Breeding
Successful Eggsack
Successful Hatchout

New Grammastola rosea Breeding Session 08-18-2005

Grammastola rosea (Chilean RoseHair) Mating 08-18-2005 Session # 2
New Male and New Female--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello.

With conditions just right I went ahead with pairing these guys up.

Temperature: 81 Degrees F
Humidity:71%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed
Male: Mine (GRose-6)
Female: Mine (GRose-7)


The male was placed on the outside of the enclosure and walked over the side and into the enclosure of the female.

He went up to her right away. There was no drumming of any sort.
The male lifted her front legs and pedipalps. No fangs were bared so I didn't interfere.

He made 2 insertions and started lowering her down. Once that happend I took him out and placed him back into his enclosure for future breeding attempts.

Enjoy!





********************UPDATE*******************

Male built another sperm web on 08-25-2005. I paired them for the second time successfully on 08-27-2005. I saw some insertions and then he retreated.
Male Climbing over into her enclosure.

Nice close up shot of males carapce.


********************UPDATE*******************
03-23-2006

The female has laid a eggsack a few weeks ago. Hopefully it is viable. Time will tell.



********************UPDATE*******************
04-08-2006

I opened the sack to find Eggs with Legs (Post-Embreyos).

Successfull!!

Got a adult male from a friend. My female haddnt been eating in almost 1 year, and i had no idea when she moulted, because i had bought her as an adult but i desided to try to breed anyway. This was my first breedig attempt so i was a little thrilled.

28/6 Eavning. I put the females and males cages on the floor and carefully opend the lids. The male started to climb into the females cage, and approch her carefully. The female turns around and face the male and starts to drumm. The male getsa scared and run back into his cage. Same thing happens three times and i decide to abort. Next eavnig things went better, they hook up and the male inserted for about 30 seconds. I tried the next eavning too, but this time the male was emidiatly eaten. I took this as a good sign, because i knew this could be a sign that things gone well.! After a couple of weeks the female was really fat and started to dig out the substrat.

5/8 she begun to spin the eggsack.! I put plastic over half the petbox lid, and kept half of the substrate moist. She was rolling and carrying the sack all the time. After 1,5 month i took the eggsack out and placed it in a incubator with moist papertowls in the bottom, and was turning the sack a couple of times a day.

1/10 i couldent resist in opening it, and found eggs with leggs!!! A week later they moulted out to nymph and i put the content out in a larger container with moist paper. After a month all of them had moulted to slings and i started to seperate them. There wrer around 400 spiderlings!!!!! CHEERS!!!///Johan

Scary Mary

I bred my wild caught, but longish term captive, Scary Mary on FRIDAY 13TH, January 13, 2006.

i got the male from Brigebane. the male was power grown from captive birth about two years ago.

the female was actually the first tarantula i ever bought (about 18 months ago). she molted c. November 2005. i've been conditioning her since i bought her, with the intent of breeding her. conditioning entailed almost power feeding her with a variety of prey items including lobster roaches, Mad hissers, a couple orange head roaches, wax worms, meal worms, and crickets. she also decided to eat a meal worm beetle a few days before i mated her. i've never seen *anything* eat a meal worm beetle before. all my bugs are kept in my bedroom, with a window open most of the year. this is in the hopes that the tarantula can attune herself to the seasonal cycles from temperature and humidity cues. she was caged in a 4"x6"x8" critter keeper with a half a coconut shell for a hide. Mary took so well to the hide that i decided to just put her small cage *inside* a large 24"x18"x12" plastic cage. her small cage is off to one side, leaving a large space for Mary to cast her eggsac in.

January 13, 2006
i placed the female's cage inside of an open LARGE tupperware, as a secondary container, both of which where in the middle of my bed/bugroom floor. i placed the male in a large cup to move him around and to recieve him after the mating.

i introduced the male to the female's cage. due to the interesting construction (a smaller critter keeper inside of a much larger plastic cage) the male was initially unable to figure out where the female was. they were drumming back and forth, but the male kept heading in the wrong direction. i helped him to find her by moving him so one of his legs touched the large patch of dirt that the female was on.

once the male was touching the same patch of dirt they drummed (with the male using mainly his pedipalps and the female drumming with her pedipalps AND legs I AND II... i guess she was, um, ready...) and Mary rushed the male. i thought for a minute that i was going to see the male get eaten... but i guess Mary was just REALLY eager to get started! as soon as Mary was in "leg range" she and the male started tapping and stroking each other. the male hooked Mary's fangs within 30 seconds of contact. the angle at which i was viewing the spiders (bird's eye view, more or less) allowed me to look down in between the spiders' bodies. i saw the male insert his right "hand" pedipalp and pump for approximately 5 seconds. he switched palps and pumped for another 3-5 seconds. Mary still seemed heavily entranced, so the male switched back to his original palp and proceded to give her both barrels for approximately 5 more seconds a piece.

at this time Mary seemed to be coming out of the mating trance and pulled away a little bit. the male clung to her and it seemed like he was trying for a THIRD round of insertions. at this point i thought it was prudent to seperate the two. once the male was completely out of contact with Mary he displayed the comical fast-motion escape i have read about sometimes happens.

overall, this was a very cool experience and i can't wait to see how the rest of the drama unfolds.

i'm looking forward to mating my other G. rosea and my A. seemani soon

-----------------------------------------
August 8, 2006

Step One: Mating... Check

Step Two: Eggsac Production... Check

Mary has been excavating like a woman possessed for the past two months. She burrowed under the smaller (medium size, i think) kritter keeper i have *inside* a giant kritter keeper and excavated out a large chamber. I hoped this was in preperation for making an eggsac... and indeed it was.

From a glance of a few legs in a stilted position down the burrow hole i suspected for the last week that she had made an eggsac. Tonight with a tempting roach and a few squirts of a mist bottle i saw the eggsac in all it's glory

Now, my plan at this point is to let it go another month (so five to six weeks total elapsed sac time) and then take it and raise it in the hammock incubator my brother and i built for his A. avicularia eggsac. I hope she hasn't been sitting on this thing for two months already and it hatches in her tank.... although that *would* take care of the dang stupid baby lobster roaches that hatched in there, i guess...

i got a pic of the eggsac

zoom

Successful (so far)

Male: ScorpDemon
Female: mine (well prepped)

Lighting: dimmed
Temp: 74 F


Chris informed me that he had observed the male "loading up", and that he should be ready to go when he arrived, so I started pairing these guys up the day I got the male
(2/2/06).


They have been paired up 3 times, with good insertions (observed) on two of them, but I'm pretty sure he got her all 3. I'm only discussing the 2 I observed at this point though. The males behavior is astonishing to me with this pair. He is not slow to approach the female at all. In fact, the first time I put him in the tank, he seemed to almost charge her. She (amazing to me) was tolerant of his arrogant behavior, and allowed him to do his thing. I placed the male back in his enclosure, and 3 days later he had made a new sperm web.

The second time I let them mate, there was about a 1 1/2 minute pause from a distance, and then the male did the same thing he did before. This time though as the male pulled back, the female struck at him, and continued after him, but I was there with the shell of a bic pen to keep her from destroying him.

I am going to continue pairing these guys up, and hopefully get some good pics to post for you all to see. I will also keep the progress updated.

Later,

Charles

<edit>
Just paired them up again yesterday (2/20/06), and this was the result:

The males aggressive behavior got him tagged. He hasn't died at this point, but he was "bleeding" fairly heavily last night. I had to pry him away from the female after she got a good hold on him and sank her fangs in. I almost just let her have him, but I wanted to see if the male could survive such an attack, so I got him away from her.

I am somewhat optimistic since he was still moving this morning, but I won't know anything for sure until later. If he shows any signs of permanent damage then I'll probably put him back in the tank and let her eat him.

Today I decided to take the plunge and mate my G Rosea's. What an exhilarating experience! I placed each enclosure on the floor next to each other and introduced the male to the female. At first there was no interest what so ever until the male happened upon the female. They touched and froze in place for about 5 minutes. Then the female got real aggressive and pushed the male back until he finally got into position and locked her into place. I thought she was going to kill him for sure and was just at the point of wanting to separate them. They stayed together for at least 60 seconds, seemed like forever, and then he retreated as quickly as possible. I kept them apart until I could remove him for the enclosure and she behaved herself very well. I was at a bad angle and could not see an insertion, but I am confident that he scored a home run! Now she is just sitting there relaxing and he is still very nervous and trying to climb out of his enclosure. That was an incredible experience and I am looking forward to the results! Whew, my heart is still pounding!

Second attempt at breeding.

Well seems my first attempt with breeding my female G. rosea's was unseccessful.

So a new attempt is being made. There will be four females involved. Three are normal and one is a red phase G. rosea. The male is a normal. I'll add details for each as time goes on. The male was gotten from Cacoseraph (Andrew). I'll get and fill in details for the male later as well.

03-13-2006

At 2:35 a.m. E.S.T. I introduced the male G. rosea to female G. rosea I'll label as N1 (Normal 1). When the male was first put in the tank he stood around for around two to three minutes. He then headed straight toward the female. There was no drumming or any other movements. He lifted her and I saw several insertion. Once they were done the female lunged at the male once. That was all the hint he needed and backed off. The whole process took around ten minutes or so.

03-14-2006

I didn't see a sperm web but the males palps looked full again.

At 3:45 a.m. E.S.T. I introduced the male G. rosea to female G. rosea I'll label as N2 (Normal 2). When the male was first put in the tank he walked around the tank for around three minutes. He then headed straight toward the female. There was some drumming on the female as he lifted her but the wasn't any other movements. He lifted her and I saw several insertion. The whole process took around fifteen minutes or so.

03-15-2006

Once again I didn't see a sperm web but palps looked full.

At 7:25 a.m. E.S.T. I introduced the male G. rosea to female G. rosea I'll label as N3 (Normal 3). When the male was first put in the tank he stood around for around a minute. The female charged him but backed off way before contact. There was no drumming or any other movements. He lifted her and I saw several insertion. Once they were done the female chased the male into a cornor where I lifted the male out with a wooden spoon. The whole process took around five minutes or so.

03-16-2003

Yet again no sperm web seen but palps looked full.

At 11:09 a.m. E.S.T. I introduced the male G. rosea to female G. rosea I'll label as RCF1 (Red Color Form 1). When the male was first put in the tank he stood around for around a minute. The female charged him and he retreated from her container. After several minutes I reintroduced the male again. This time he went straight to the female. There was no drumming or any other movements. He lifted her and I saw several insertion. Once they were done the female chased the male out of the container where I caught the male. The whole process took around three minutes or so.