The Grammostola pulchra myth

[miss moxie]

Or if you just want a fast growing big black tarantula then get a female P. antinous.

I've got three P. antinous slings. I love pamphs!!

 

[efmp1987]

This is what I mean when I say people need patience to well in this hobby. Forcing your G. pulchra to speed grow is for your benefit and your benefit alone. I'm content with my small G. pulchra and her slow growth rate. If you want a fast growing grammy, purchase a G. iheringi.

How are we so sure faster growth doesn't benefit them? Pulchras being slow-growing might be captivity-induced due to keepers reluctance to feed them to their hearts content as increased feeding is frowned upon generally-speaking (not accepting of change). Prey insects aren't exactly scarce in the wild, and definitely not in a place as diverse as Brazil. Being a slow-growing invertebrate in the wild is also counter-adaptive and increases their risk of being predated upon by other life forms.

 

[efmp1987]

Or if you just want a fast growing big black tarantula then get a female P. antinous.

You missed the point. The point is, under certain conditions, pulchra can grow fast too. This thread wasn't put up to discuss which black T grows fast.

 

[nicodimus22]

Prey insects aren't exactly scarce in the wild, and definitely not in a place as diverse as Brazil.

Every time someone brings up conditions in the wild, I just want to

Tarantula mortality SUCKS ASS in the wild. Over 90% die before they can breed. We should be creating ideal conditions, not trying to mimic what they encounter in nature.

 

[efmp1987]

Every time someone brings up conditions in the wild, I just want to

You are contradicting the norm that one must not feed T's daily because in the wild they can sometimes go for months without finding food (which can be true, or not at all). But as noted above, its folly to think insect prey is scarce in a place like Brazil.

Tarantula mortality SUCKS ASS in the wild. Over 90% die before they can breed. We should be creating ideal conditions, not trying to mimic what they encounter in nature.

And what is ideal? Feeding more? Or feeding less? More facilitates growth. Less delays it. Ideal is a positive word. Which then is ideal, delaying growth, or facilitating it?

 

[nicodimus22]

And what is ideal? Feeding more? Or feeding less? More facilitates growth. Less stunts it. Ideal is a positive word. Which then is positive, stunting growth, or facilitating it?

People have been arguing about this since the beginning of time, and they probably will for a long time. There is no exact formula to follow. It seems sensible to me to avoid either extreme, though.

 

[efmp1987]

There is no exact formula to follow. It seems sensible to me to avoid either extreme, though.

Correct. There is no exact formula. But have you noticed the trend? People speak of the implications of feeding frequency like it was based from a much-thorough scientific research, when it is not.

Edit: Change is nice.

 

[Olan]

My larger G. pulchra female is growing way faster than my brachypelmas. My smaller pulchra is growing more like Brachypelma speed. The big one doesn't have long premolt either. She once ate just a couple days before she molted, which was only one month after her last molt (she was around 2.5" at the time). That was a very surprising molt, her second one with me. So maybe there is the occasional fast growing female that starts big arguments like this

 

[Olan]

Looked back at some old photos. This is when I was unpacking her April 25th, 2017:

This is her tonight (I don't make a habit of handling, but I couldn't resist for comparison)
View attachment 253575
That is actually a ton of growth. I didn't realize it was quite that dramatic

 

[efmp1987]

Looked back at some old photos. This is when I was unpacking her April 25th, 2017:

This is her tonight (I don't make a habit of handling, but I couldn't resist for comparison)
View attachment 253575
That is actually a ton of growth. I didn't realize it was quite that dramatic

You lie. Thats no pulchra. Thats an african bush pig.

 

[efmp1987]

Looked back at some old photos. This is when I was unpacking her April 25th, 2017:

This is her tonight (I don't make a habit of handling, but I couldn't resist for comparison)
View attachment 253575
That is actually a ton of growth. I didn't realize it was quite that dramatic

Mines I think in pre-molt again (molted about 40 days ago). It did not venture out of its burrow since this morning. Just now it's starting to bury half of it's body like a flounder in the substrate.

 

[Ungoliant]

The topic is the hastened growth rate of the pulchra species only, and pulchra alone. How pulchra 1, 2, 3, grew faster than pulchra pulchra 4, 5, 6. . . . The conversation is on an intraspecific level only.

If the sole point of this thread was demonstrate that you can make a Grammostola pulchra grow faster by keeping it at warmer temperatures and feeding it more, that is not news. That is true of all tarantulas.

A post like that is about as "groundbreaking" as announcing that one has discovered that weight training increases strength.

I dont understand why you need to bring up other species in a intraspecific (pulchra-only) test? Under good wind conditions, will the sparrow fly as fast as the falcon?

Because that is what people mean when they categorize a species as being a fast or slow grower -- it is relative to an average growth rate across different species (and in many cases to the keeper's own experience of different species).

I am keeping my entire collection at the same temperature, and absent pre-molt fasts, I feed them all on roughly the same schedule. The two pulchras are easily the slowest growing tarantulas I have. If I warmed them all up and fed them more, they would still be the slowest growing tarantulas I have.

If faster growth occurs under optimal conditionals (1 year growth spurt), will that render our husbandry conditions "sub-optimal" because ours take twice or thrice as longer to grow?

It depends on your definition of optimal. If you define optimal solely by rate of growth, then you would consider any conditions that slow the rate of growth to be sub-optimal. (Although it's worth noting that the community rarely agrees on one "best" way to keep any species. We just have collective experience on methods that work and methods that don't.)

Just because a species is a slow grower doesn't mean it's an undesirable species. I get a lot of enjoyment out of all of my tarantulas, and Bulldozer is among my favorites. It also makes it that much more special when you finally do have a large adult.

 

[Olan]

Looks like my images didn't work. Here she is before and after 5 months of growth

 

[efmp1987]

Looks like my images didn't work. Here she is before and after 5 months of growth
View attachment 253586
View attachment 253587

Huuge increase in 5 months!