Acanthoscurria chacoana

[ChrisNCT]

Hello.

Here are the details of the Acanthoscurria chacoana (Bolivian Salmon Pink) Breeding session.

Date Bred:
05-12-2005 @ 11:00 PM

Conditions:
84 Degrees F & 60% Ambient Humidity

Species Details:
Micheal (AR-Tarantula)'s Female Adult 5 1/2" freshy molted several weeks ago
My Male 5" and matured close to 3 months ago

Pairing
Male had walked into the females enclosure which was right next to his. She was in on the opposite side of her tank. The male walked across the floor, corkbark. She must have picked up his scent at the same time as he picked up hers. They both went at one another really fast.

He started drumming and the female twitched her front legs. Picking up on that they touched legs and he started immediatley hooking her fangs and lifting her up.

There were 2 really long insertions that I saw. After the insertions they paused and then he slowly lowered her down.

Once finished, I took the male out and placed him into his enclosure for future attempts.

Breeding: Successful

Here are some pics for viewing:

 

[pato_chacoana]

I'll paste here what I put in some A. chacoana thread. Here it is:

Well, here's my experience. I've seen A. chacoana in the wild twice. Once was a trip I made in late October the other time was in January (very hot time of the year there!!). The adult and subadult females and males that I found were just in the molting process. The males actually matures at that time too. So, the mating season begins at that time, late october - early november.
Let me tell you a little about the habitat. Their habitat is a subtropical forest with a dry season (I don't know if that is the correct expression for english) Anyway, these dry period affects winter mostly, which has very low (it never snows) temperatures sometimes, but some days are really warm too. Winter is short anyway. Summer is the rainy season, with really high temperatures (sometimes above 45ºC) and I've found females with eggsacs in january; february is usually the time when babies hatch.
With my adult female, I tried to recreate what happens in her habitat. She molted in late october, mated with a fresh male in late november, produced the sacc in late december and the babies are now about to hatch.
A. chacoana are oportunistic burrowers. They always need something to use to help them make a retreat. For example, I found the tarantula holes right next to a tree. Usually the bigger ones use a fallen tree as a retreat and they are just below the tree, with no need of digging a hole.
Conditions? Well, humidity pretty high, I guess about 85 - 90. Put a big waterdish and flood a little bit part of the substrate (just a little!). Temperature I let the summer take care of it. These year here was pretty cold, so in autumn, winter and part of spring I had to use the heat, at 25ºC. Then in summer, the spideroom temperature was between 24ºC - 28ºC.
A. chacoana sometimes are aggressive when they mate, but my female wasn't too aggressive. She mated once and then every time I put the male in her cage, she kicked him out. This was a very good sign. Then she started to get really fat and one day she was in a corner, and after a couple of days she made a huge eggsac. Then she moved to her retreat and she was there for a month taking care of her eggsac. That is when I removed the sac.
The cage is very large, perhaps too large, but it worked. A large retreat is a must. The substrate I use for A. chacoana is peat moss and vermiculite.
After 3 months the spiderlings didn't hatch. They are separated in 3 different cups which are in an enclosure kept moist with tissue paper. I'm waiting for them to molt then I'll put them some in individual enclosures and others are going to be communal since they are too many (I didn't count but I think over a 1000)

Pato.

 

[pato_chacoana]

Pato.

 

[pato_chacoana]

UPDATE Late April, 2nd instar

They were dispersing, time to separate them! About 3 months from egg laying.

Pato.