New home for my avic avic

[HungryGhost]

I made a new home for my avic avic and rehoused her today. I was nervous because this is my only arboreal but she was a real lady about it. Cool, calm, and collected during the whole move. I made this enclosure from a large pretzel jar. I'm not sure of the sex but I'm leaning female from the ventral views, her sheds are always destroyed when she's done molting so I can't be sure. Also, I never get to see her. She makes intricate tubes and only pokes out at night. A real pet web she is. I've had her since she was the size of my pinky nail.

 

[Radium]

She's freakin' adorable! I really can't with avics and their little pink toes.

 

[Yentlequible]

I would add more air holes if I were you. From the very bottom of the enclosure, up to the very top.

 

[Poec54]

The number of airholes is reasonable depending on your climate & humidity/air movement in your house (could add some if you wanted). Just make sure the spider doesn't cover up too many with silk.

 

[Storm76]

Also looks like A. metallica to me

 

[HungryGhost]

Also looks like A. metallica to me

That's probably due to the camera flash.

 

[Poec54]

Also looks like A. metallica to me

I was just thinking that; lots of white tipped hairs.

 

[Ellenantula]

Interesting. She looks just like mine -- white tips and all but mine was sold to me also as A avic also.

 

[Poec54]

Interesting. She looks just like mine -- white tips and all but mine was sold to me also as A avic also.

Most pet stores and dealer/importers have no idea if they're really selling A avic or A met. Both are coming in w/c and are sometimes mixed together in the same shipment. A avic is the more common of the two, but a certain percentage are A met.

 

[HungryGhost]

I bought this avic as a tiny captive bred sling from an online dealer (no, not backwater reptiles). I'm pretty sure they know their stuff but unless they bred it themselves anything is possible.

 

[Blueandbluer]

Most pet stores and dealer/importers have no idea if they're really selling A avic or A met. Both are coming in w/c and are sometimes mixed together in the same shipment. A avic is the more common of the two, but a certain percentage are A met.

Seeing as they're so often confused, do we know if there's any hybridization accidentally occurring like the brachys?

 

[Storm76]

My personal assumption is that certain species have probably been hybridized by accident in the past. There are a good bunch of tarantulas out there and in the hobby that aren't as easy to distinguish. Good examples are C. fasciatum and C. pentalore. I could open that can of worms again with the Homoeomma sp. "blue", too but alas I won't right now. One of the few advantages over here is that the breeders I get my T's from usually have no problem showing they respective parents of the offspring if asked. While it doesn't guarantee you wysiwyg - it deos help still quite some. Sadly I count this whole problematic towards the reason why quite some people prefer WC instead of CB - seems silly to me as at least I can't tell if Avics don't hybridize in nature, too. It's assumed afaik.

 

[Poec54]

Seeing as they're so often confused, do we know if there's any hybridization accidentally occurring like the brachys?

The reptile dealer near me got 400 w/c Avics in from Guyana last summer, I helped unpack them (flimsy plastic cups with lids that didn't fit well, all strewn inside a large wooden crate; about a dozen were loose in the box). They were Avic avic, but had some white-tipped hairs, not as much as metallica, but maybe an intergrade population where their ranges overlap. None were as big as typical A metallicas.

 

[Storm76]

There's two "forms" of them in the hobby over here:

One, from Surinam, the other from Guyana. The first is the one with the lots of white hair tips, the other, like Poec said has less of those. Both species are kept seperate over here and labelled with the origin to avoid confusion usually.

Besides that, A. avic grow hardly bigger than 4.5", while A. metallica reaches 6" quite often.

 

[viper69]

There's two "forms" of them in the hobby over here:

One, from Surinam, the other from Guyana. The first is the one with the lots of white hair tips, the other, like Poec said has less of those. Both species are kept seperate over here and labelled with the origin to avoid confusion usually.

Besides that, A. avic grow hardly bigger than 4.5", while A. metallica reaches 6" quite often.

Thanks for this!