Aphonopelma seemanni

Hello.

I would like to introduce a pair of really hard to breed Aphonopelma seemanni!

This is the 4th time that I have paired these guys and until now they have held hands and with conditions just right I went ahead with pairing these guys up today.

Temperature: 79 Degrees F
Humidity:71%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani Info: 4 1/2" Matured Male delivered August 11th from owner Matt Hasley. He matured a week before delivering him to me from NJ.
Female Aphonopelma seemani #1 Info: 5" Female freshly molted on 08-21-2005.

Male walked into the females enclosure and settled down on the substrate for several minutes. Moved around a bit then approached the female burrow.

The male instantly picked up on the females scent. He initiated the mating by some drumming very shortly while "twitching". The female walked toward him and lifted her front legs and pedipalps. No fangs were bared so I didn't interfere. He gently tounched her front 2 set of legs slowly lifting her and walked her backwards slightly just enough to pull her abdomen closer to him. While doing this he used his pedipalps to drum rapidly on her belly while lifting her up and arching her backwards.

He made 2 insertions and started lowering her down. Once that happend, I intervened and took him out placing him back into his enclosure for future breeding attempts with my other 2 females.

Here are a small series of pics showing what happend.

Enjoy!






***************UPDATE******************
11-27-2005
The bred female has a serious weight gain. She seems to be gravid and doing a little excavation.



***************UPDATE******************
01-15-2006
The bred female has weebed the entire front of the hide.



***************UPDATE******************
01-17-2006
The bred female has made a eggsack and is guarding it closely. She will left undisturbed.

***************UPDATE******************
01-27-2006
I took the eggsack from the female and placed it in an incubator/ hammock for the remainder of the gestatation.


***************UPDATE******************
01-29-2006
I took a peek inside the eggsack to check on the quality/condition of the eggs. They look good so far.

Hello.

I would like to introduce the second pair of really hard to breed Aphonopelma seemanni!

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

Temperature: 82 Degrees F
Humidity:68%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani Info: 4 1/2" Matured Male delivered August 11th from owner Matt Hasley. He matured a week before delivering him to me from NJ. Just made another sperm web on 10-03-2005.

Female Aphonopelma seemani #3 Info: 5" Female freshly molted on 09-21-2005.

Method:
Male was placed into the females enclosure and settled down on the substrate for several minutes. Moved around a bit then approached the female burrow.

The male picked up on the females scent. He initiated the mating by some drumming very shortly while "twitching". He gently touched her front legs slowly lifting her and walked her backwards slightly just enough to pull her abdomen closer to him.

He made several insertions and started lowering her down. Once that happend, I intervened and took him out placing him back into his enclosure for future breeding attempts with my other females.

Here are a small series of pics showing what happend.

Enjoy!






Well..so far Success!

I have bred and got one Eggsack from one of the females! More CB Aphonopelma seemanni in the hobby! Yeah!

Aphonopelma seemani

Put male and female together once on 09/25/2005.

Kept her warm (25c+) and well fed.

Sac laid on 01/21/2006.

I took and opened the sac on 03/04/2006.

The results, 260 slings total.

Aphonopelma seemanni Breeding 09-23-2006

Hello.


Species: Aphonopelma seemanni (Costa Rican Zebra)

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

Temperature: 82 Degrees F
Humidity:69%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani Info: 4 1/2" Freashly Matured Male delivered last week from owner David Campbell (Ventell).
Female Aphonopelma seemani #1 Info: 5" Female freshly molted on 08-01-2006.

Method:
Male walked into the females enclosure from his and settled down on the substrate for several minutes.

The male moved around a bit then approached the female on top of her hide. She felt his presence and made her may to her hide. Once inside she rested. The male sensing the movements of the female... he followed to the front of her hide and started twitching his legs. The drumming started by him enticed her to drum.

Once the drumming was started it went pretty well. No aggression by the female towards the male. She accepted him and they both started waiving the front legs. He tempted her a little bit out of here burrow and started the breeding. He got several visible insertions. After they seperated, I took out the male for future breeding attempts.

Pretty textbook.

Here are a small series of pics showing what happend.

Enjoy!

Aphonopelma seemanni Breeding 09-29-2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello.


Species: Aphonopelma seemanni (Costa Rican Zebra)

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

Temperature: 82 Degrees F
Humidity:69%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani Info: 4 1/2" Freashly Matured Male delivered last week from owner Nate Lovely (shammer4life).
Female Aphonopelma seemani #2 Info: 5" Female freshly molted on 08-02-2006.

Method:
Male walked into the females enclosure via cupping method and settled down on the substrate for several minutes.

The male moved around a bit then approached the female's burrow. She felt his presence and made her may to her burrows entrance. The male sensing the movements of the female... he started twitching his legs.

No aggression by the female towards the male at all at this point.

He touched her legs for several mintutes twitching and tapping her front legs. He slowly moved her legs with his and she lifted just slightly. Once she did that he moved in and lifted her up backwards without any complications.

He drummed on her belly several times and made 4 good insertions that I snapped pics of.

I then took him out and placed him back in his enclosure for more breeding attempts in the future.

Pretty textbook.

Here are a small series of pics showing what happend.

Enjoy!

10/05/06
A 5:00 pm first attempt to breed my female.

Recived male A. Seemanni from botar.
Female molted on 09/15/06

I put the male into her enclosure. He stood in one position for five min, Then started to walk toward the female but did not drum. he danced moving his body up and down and walking closer.
female showed the threat pose and tried to attack the male. male got a way with a very small nick on his pedipalp and i put him back into his enclosure.

I will do a second attempted in two days. if he is doing ok

On 10/11/06

Temperature 80 degrees
Humidity 73
Very low light.

Introduced male into female's enclosure. male started to dance but not drumming. walked toward the females hide place. and female came out very quickly at the male in a threat pose... male freaked out. backed off.
min past he got closer. and still a threat attack at the male and runs after him.. he crawled out of her enclosure very quickly so i put him back.
will try next year in hopes for her to chill out.

11/11/06 8:03 PM A. seemanni Breeding FIRST ATTEMPT

Temperature: 81 Degrees F
Humidity:50%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani (4 1/2")
Female Aphonopelma seemani (Last molt: 8-21-06)

Male was placed relunctantly in female's cage. The male sat in the corner facing away from the female. After 20 minutes, the male slowly turned around and starting drumming. The female responded with an eight leg drum. The male slowly crept forward about an 1/8 of an inch, drummed, and once again the female drummed back in a drumming frenzy. It went on like this for a tense minute and a half. The male kept creeping closer and closer with this drum. Soon the mating began, he pinned her fangs and began to make insertions. Can't tell you exactly how many insertions were made but I'd bet.

Slowly but surely the female started turning on the male and a second later the male cut and run. He ran up the side of the cage, onto the table and jumped a foot down to the floor, and just kept running. The female pursued but was headed off and stopped.

It was a very close call for the male. I'm glad he'll live to mate another day. I believe this to be a success, but will attempt to breed them again in a few days. I'll keep you posted and I'm sorry I didn't have a camera. I'll get one and post pics soon.

Temperature: 70 Degrees F
Humidity:65%
Lighting Conditions: Dimmed

Male Aphonopelma seemani (4.5")
Female Aphonopelma seemani (5")

Placed male in the cage. It took him a few minutes to realize there was a lady in there with him but when he saw her, he didn't waste any time. It didn't look like he was going to get an insertion, but he lifted her all the way up almost flipping her over, did his duty and quickly escaped. Here's a little video of the whole event

Successful?
Fingers Crossed.

Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers
Female was a couple of months post-molt and well-fed.

How they were paired
Male placed in female's large KK. Approximately 15 minutes of bouncing and twitching before male approached female.

Any observations on the hookup
Female was initially receptive, but attacked the male after a short mating attempt (not certain if insertions were made).

Any special post mating care
Female will be well-fed. Male was given water and where she bit him on the leg "healed."

Time to sac
N/A

Care of the sac
N/A

Time to emerge/hatch
N/A

The final details
N/A

Update: Success!



I had a feeling it was a success minutes after they mated. My assumptions were solidified when the female zebra was displaying abnormal behaviour e.i. webbing herself in her home. She finally sealed herself shut completed and made an egg sac last week. I plan to let her care for the eggsac as long as 70 days. Then I plan to seperate the slings. This was my first experience breeding. It's not over yet but it's been an amazing experience.

I didn't breed to see if I could. I love this species! They are beautiful, docile, a bit skittish but non agressive in my experiences. Can't wait to raise my first batch of CB A. seemanni slings!

My attempt at this was a failure. The female kept batting the male away, despite his attempts.

Temps were in the 70s during the introduction, low light.

The pictures tell the rest of the story.

My very dirty bathtub and both the enclosures



The object I use to seperate the two if things get a little scary:



Introducing the male...not exactly ceremonial



He's a nice guy, really. Just a bit dumb.



A few minutes later...



A few after that...



A few after a few after that:



Female bats him away, then backs into her burrow:



Different angle:



And this is what tarantula sexual harrassment looks like:



Male was then removed after the female started getting a bit aggressive.

All three attempts followed these basic steps.

bred my A seemani today got insertions with both palps will try again after new sperm web

No Joy

Time- 10:30 PM EST
Temp- 72 degrees F
Lights- dimmed

Placed male, on loan from a non-board member, in females tank. She was in her burrow. He began drumming and she seemed receptive. She then made several aggressive lunges at him. I removed him from enclosure and will try again tomorrow.

My Female Seemani


My Friends Male Seemani


First Touch


Female Went on top of her Burrow and Male Followed her.


Two Quick Insertions were made. Lasted on Average 2-3secs. per Palp.



The Female was calm and receptive. After putting the female down the Male ran for retreat. Will try again early next week.

Time 4:45 Pm
Temp 73 F
Lights Dimmed

Placed male back in females enclosure. She had previously been hiding under a piece of bark. I removed it leaving her only a half buried flower pot to hide in. This allowed the male more room to maneuver around her. He began drumming once he it the entrance. From there it was a half hour game of lunges from her and little love taps by him. At about 5:15 he engaged her and hoisted her up. The mating actually wound up with her on her back. He made several good insertions and ran like hell. I will attempt one more mating and then move her to the lower tier of my rack.

Drachenjager said:

bred my A seemani today got insertions with both palps will try again after new sperm web

Click to expand...

Egg sac made 1/20/2008

kean said:

Two Quick Insertions were made. Lasted on Average 2-3secs. per Palp.

Click to expand...

Update
The female is webbing up her enclosure on a corner.. might be preparing to lay eggs..

Feb. 01, 2008.. Egg Sac Laid

My Female just laid her eggs.. :clap:

Drachenjager said:

Egg sac made 1/20/2008

Click to expand...

still guarding sac.

My Female tried to eat her eggs.. caught her in the act.. I pulled out the sac only to find out that the eggs are slowly being eaten by mites.. such a sad sight.. :8o

some photos of the Bad Egg Sac..




Such a Sad sight.. :8o