How do they breed Ts; Traits and genes

[efmp1987]

I'm just curious, how do Tarantula hobbyists select individuals for breeding? Do they just breed anything that matures? Are traits passed on to spiderlings just as other animals do in the first place?


Do presence of "undesirable traits" disqualify a specimen for future breeding plans. Examples:

a. Docility in OBT is counter-adaptive and goes against its nature

b. Aggressive tendencies in normally docile species.

c. Dull color

d. Dwarfism or smaller than usual sizes

c. Readiness to eat (picky feeding habits should be weeded out from the gene pool. Evolution dictates that wild tarantulas with the most aggressive eating habits will get to pass on their genes, to ensure healthy offsprings and the survival of a taxon)

Just wondering if breeders also apply strictness to ensure a healthy breeding pool.

 

[EulersK]

It's pretty easy to do what you're proposing with animals that mature quickly, but many of these spiders take up to a decade to become sexually mature. Combine that with the niche hobby that we're in, and suddenly "desirable traits" go out the window. You usually don't have a stock of mature males to choose from, you take what you can get. Same goes for the females.

Genetics are genetics. There are color forms for a reason. So yes, traits are most certainly passed on. But breeders generally don't concern themselves with anything other than matching species.

 

[awiec]

Also take this in mind that quite a few species in the hobby are the offspring of just a small group of spiders that were imported or smuggled into captivity. There has been a lot of inbreeding, so the genetic variance is pretty low in those species, so not much to select from. Also currently there is only one species, H.incei ,that has distinct morphs that work in a Medelian fashion. We just don't know that much about spider genetics.

 

[miss moxie]

Agreed. Lack of selection and information definitely inhibits us this way. I'm sure people attempt to pair up Ts strategically, it's just easier said than done at this time in the hobby. It's got to be easier now than it was 30 years ago, for an example. How hard it must have been to locate mature males/females without the internet? Yeesh.

 

[viper69]

Do they just breed anything that matures?

Generally, most do.

Are traits passed on to spiderlings just as other animals do in the first place?

Yes, progeny get their DNA from parents. However, no one attempts selective breeding as they do in the reptile world. Even N. incei gold morph happened by accident, and not through selective breeding.

 

[Anoplogaster]

Traits are definitely passed down to offspring. Different individuals of the same species can be noticeably different. Hobbyist T breeders generally don't have any strict rules when it comes to selecting individuals for breeding. However, I have spoken with breeders who make a special point to attempt breeding when they come across particularly attractive specimens.

 

[Moakmeister]

I wondered this awhile ago myself and made a thread on it too. I pondered whether we could eventually breed Theraphosas that were much larger than today, or P. imperators. I don't think it's practical since they take too long to mature. This would certainly be possible with the species that mature in a year though.

 

[GreyPsyche]

It's an interesting topic to ponder on but it's not as advanced yet as breeding say dogs as in some ways it's much harder to do to that extent and sometimes even frowned upon as in particularly, hybridization.

 

[efmp1987]

It's an interesting topic to ponder on but it's not as advanced yet as breeding say dogs as in some ways it's much harder to do to that extent and sometimes even frowned upon as in particularly, hybridization.

Allowing natural selection to take hold at an earlier stage prevents pseudodivergence. Taking ferrets as an example; no wild counterpart exists. Yet the strain can be traced back to a wild relative. Centuries of man-induced breeding (thereby the exclusion of the Darwinian theory wherr offspring production is concerned) created the ferrets as we know them today.

What I was trying to express is, the maintenance on the species level. Breeding with abandon ultimately gives birth to something that is genetically distinct from the wild relative. Whos to say in the future we all dont end up with green captive Poecilotheria metallica, ultimately losing their value in in conservation and re-introduction should the wild population end up becoming extirpated? This is seen in wild cats kept as pets as well. The gene pool of captive tigers, lions, etc. are so muddied they are ineligible for release back into the wild.

Anyway, I think Im thinking too much lol. Obviously, maybe this is not even applicable to aninals outside of megafaunas.

 

[GreyPsyche]

I totally agree with you although I must admit a green P Metallica does sound pretty freakin sweet...gooty gem.