# H. incei communal   (DUW!!!)



## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

I have been browsing the internet and forums, even Youtube looking for communal threads, there is not many.
Most of them start with I been "thinking about it" and "I have got some spare slings" and stop there.
Some have gone further, but not many.
*
I'm a big fan of communal setups, I think they are interesting, I'm even more a fan of webbing, that attracts me more than anything else!!
None the less, I thought I would share my Communal setup with you all. *


*The history*, how my communal got started.


I started off by buying one _H.incei_ sling on the 30/03/09 for $10[SUP]+/-[/SUP]. (R100)
It matured on the 05/07/10.
It then got sent off on a breeding loan where it was put into a communal setup. (Funny enough the breeder also had some _H.incei_*
mature into males shortly after my male was introduced into the enclosure)


I can't remember the amount I got out from the breeding loan, but I think it was 180 odd slings.
So I sold allot off and gave a good couple away, I then took 30 _H. incei _and put them together in a communal setup, out of the 30*
I had a couple deaths, and 15 mature males with 7 females, in turn they breed and I ended up with 150 or more slings, which I gave away a couple and sold some, I kept a 100 spiders in total with the females.
I lost a couple of slings along the way, but that is the story of how I started my communal with just one spider and a male at that.
From 2009 till present day, my communal is still growing and I'm looking forward to it getting larger and with that the tank upgrade to*
52 gallon (200 liter) enclosure. At the moment the tank is a 26 gallon (100 liter) *



*The start of the 26 gallon (100 liter) upgrade.*
Got a phone call from my mother in law on Saturday afternoon, asking if I would like a fish tank that was just standing around collecting dust,it is 35inches (900mm) X 15inches (390mm) X 12inches (325mm).


I had decided to break up my _H.incei _ communal during the week all ready, as I had seen one spider eating another spider.*
I had got two tanks ready to separate them, it was planned for the weekend. 09/11/12

So the larger tank was perfect, and had come in perfect timing.
There has been some loss in the communal. The new count is 50 _H.incei_, 6 females and 44 odds & ends left over.
The spiders get feed once a month (15 days), they get given a tube of crickets, extra small for the smaller spiders and*
then a handful of roaches mixed sizes and 15 medium crickets for the larger spiders.


*The tank and setup.*




Everything in the tank comes from the garden and the farm land.
I just washed and scrubbed the stones and bark.
The tank has a theme going. 


*Rocky Ridge*




*Fallen forest*




*Bark alley*




*The old setup.
Sea of webs.*

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

I thought this was cool.
Found four _H. incei_ in one burrow.




So after all the digging around and going through the webbing, I have 50 H.incei.
6 females and the rest are unsexed.

*The 6 Females*




*The bunch*




You will see the stones in *Rocky Ridge* and maybe worry that the rocks might fall on top of the spiders if they dig under them.
I have put supports under every rock to prevent them from falling.
Also compressed and wet the palm peat.




I have also added some roaches, ooths (roach eggs) and Isopods to the setup.

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

*All the spiders seemed to have settle in nicely!*

All the spider have found their spots and have started webbing.
There are 3 spiders who stay out in the open all the time!
Also the interaction between the roaches and the spiders is interesting, there is one roach who seems to like teasing the The bigger spiders.

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

The Brave roach! 07:28
This is one of the 3 spiders that stay out in the open all the time.




The roach got a bit to close and the spider went for him, but as I said the roach seems to tease them and was waiting for that to happen.
She seemed a bit upset after that and headed to her burrow.




Again at 21:50. the roach had another go.
The glass had a bit of condensation, hence the unfocused look.

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## Arachtion (Apr 20, 2013)

Excellent thread


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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

So something of interest, this spider died a week after this photo.
If you look at the spiders abdomen in picture 1 you will see white stuff on its abdomen.
It seems as this spider was attacked by something in the enclosure and the roach knew something was up with this spider.



cascade said:


> The Brave roach! 07:28
> This is one of the 3 spiders that stay out in the open all the time.



So far I had 2 deaths, one smaller spider had a bad molt. and then the one above that passed away from it injuries.

*The updates, *are more webbing than spiders at the moment.
I'm waiting for some of the spider to mature into males and for breeding season to start. there is much more activity in the tank and 
even more webbing once the babies become more active, as the mothers web every thing up for the new slings to climb around on, 
so the amount of webbing doubles.

I have 3 species of roaches and some Isopods in the tank.
At the moment there is _B. dubia_ (orange spotted) _B.Lateralis_ (forest roaches) and _N. cinerea_ (lobster roaches).
The crickets don't seem to survive longer than 4 days between the spiders and the forest roaches.

Something that I notices when I add crickets to the enclosure, The forest roaches actually attack and eat the crickets.
The one roach had caught and started eating the crickets, will he was busy eating the cricket 4 other crickets came 
closure to see/help and the roach would use he's back leg to push them away and even kick at the crickets.

I feed then every 15 days, with a R15 tub of crickets, medium and small on top of the roaches that get topped up,
 when I see they are running low.
I also feed the roaches.

*Some pictures of the webbing.*

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

*Some of the roaches. *
Some breeding has taken place.







Most of the forest roaches stay in the grass and then the larger female _B.dubia_ has made her home by the rocks.




*The Isopods*, have become arboreal.
They have done such a good job of keeping the cage clean they have almost eaten all the leaves that I had added by the fallen forest.
And now they have moved up into the trees to start eating the bark off of the sticks.




*Babies Isopods.*

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## Scuttlebutt (Apr 20, 2013)

Great pictures and a neat looking setup. I love how you have names for the locations in the tank.


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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

This afternoon 12/11/16 we had fling ants, so I collected some for the platannes and then the communal.

And this is what unfolded 2 hours later.
Was sitting next to the tank, all of sudden a roach darts out from it's hiding spot, chases something down and runs back to it's hide out.
So I get the camera and this is what happens next.

*The flying ants.*




*Darting roach*




*The action. *
The roach was a _C. cinerea_ This roach had eaten about 3 flying ants before going to eat the mielies I had given them to eat.

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

*H. incei communal (DUW!!!)*

The next roach was a _B.lateralis_. 




Something that I noticed, even the isopods become more active around the flying ants. 
Normally you don't see them but tonight they were all over the area where the flying ants were walking around.
and the roaches seem to be going for the flying ants abdomen only.
as these pictures show clearly. (the photos are not so great quality, we had rain so the tank started to fog up)

A _C. cinerea_ again, this time a larger roach.

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## cascade (Apr 20, 2013)

*12/11/20*
So on heading to bed, I saw some movement in the communal.
At first it looked like wings flapping, I thought it was a flying ant that had survived the onslaught of roaches and the spiders.
But I was wrong, it was some baby Isopods trying to fly. :laugh:







What surprised me is the Isopods were eating the wings, which explains why there were no wings left over the last time 
I through flying ants into the communal.
So this morning there were 2 wings left over from 6 wings.

So 2 hours later after taking 200 odd photos and watching all the things with the lights off, I finally went to bed around 23:45.
*This is how it looks with the lights "off".*







Evidence, that the spiders enjoyed the ants.

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## Marijan2 (Apr 20, 2013)

Wow, this is really nice. Thank you for posting and contributing here, really great experiment!


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## DaveSB (Apr 20, 2013)

Really great pictures and some interesting anecdotes.


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## MrCrackerpants (Apr 20, 2013)

Great thread and thanks for sharing. I have a communal set up of this spider species.


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## Rhodin (Apr 21, 2013)

Do you think these could be kept in a small scale communal? like 2 or 3 of them?


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## Marijan2 (Apr 21, 2013)

Rhodin said:


> Do you think these could be kept in a small scale communal? like 2 or 3 of them?


yeah, actually alot of people i know keep them like that, a simple 10"x10"x10" terrarium is perfect for that


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## poisoned (Apr 21, 2013)

Wow, cool enclosure

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## 3skulls (Apr 21, 2013)

Very cool. I would love to set something like this one day. 
Looking forward for more updates.

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## sr20det510 (Apr 21, 2013)

very nice setup : )
Awesome pictures!

Keep the pics coming!

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## Meezerkoko (Apr 22, 2013)

*Awesome!*

I really can't wait to do a communal of H. incei gold or bumblebee.  They're both gorgeous.  So neat!


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## Necromion (Apr 22, 2013)

hate to say it but those flying ants look a lot like termites


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## Ceratogyrus (Apr 23, 2013)

Necromion said:


> hate to say it but those flying ants look a lot like termites


They are termites. People down here just call them flying ants sometimes.


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## cascade (Apr 24, 2013)

Thanks for all the comments!  
I'm running short on posting MB for the photo's, I have 5MB left and I have 12MB of photo's that I still need to post, well in total I have 140 odd photo's. So I'm still deciding which photo's I should post.

I did read some where that if I upload to a photo sharing site I will be able to upload photo's like that. 
I just have not had the time to sit down and try it as I'm fairly busy with work.  





Rhodin said:


> Do you think these could be kept in a small scale communal? like 2 or 3 of them?


Yes, I have a smaller communal of 5_ H.incei_ slings at the moment.
And I have other communal of 10 slings. They do pretty well in small groups and larger groups.  



Necromion said:


> hate to say it but those flying ants look a lot like termites


Yes they are termites, they just get called "flying ants" even my parents called them that when I was growing up.


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## stewstew8282 (Apr 24, 2013)

great thread, great setup, im jealous.. 8-P

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## thespiderguy (Apr 24, 2013)

I had several in a communal, and I think somehow I ended up with two different subtypes. 

There was some cannibalism sadly.

I separated 2 of the original 4 and it appears that one is very bright gold/olived in color and the other seems to be much more blue. 

Any thoughts on that? Or is it just sexual dimorphism?


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## Marijan2 (Apr 24, 2013)

thespiderguy said:


> I had several in a communal, and I think somehow I ended up with two different subtypes.
> 
> There was some cannibalism sadly.
> 
> ...


seemy youaccidentally put in "normal" and "gold" ones


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## cascade (Apr 24, 2013)

*Update  12/11/20*

With regards to spiders movement, 6 smaller spiders have moved away from the webbed up areas and started there own burrows and webbing.
2 juvies have also moved away from the webbed areas and gone off on there own.
Both these spiders sit out in the open for hours. even with all the movement and lights on and sitting next to them, they not worried.

(Pictures seem to be of poor quality due to uploading them via Photobucket)

*The two larger spiders, second one is a bit out of focus.*





*The second spider*

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*Two of the smaller spiderlings that have moved in together.*





---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 12:34 AM ----------


Something that caught me off guard, and it is Murphy's law.

I got two MM on breeding loan, from two different people, I have 2 females that are not in the communal setup that are in there 
own containers.
None the less, I had put the males with the 2 females, both gave inserts so I rested them, So they can both make new 
sperm webs for the 2nd attempt.
I do not want to do a breeding loan in the communal setup as I would have to destroy the whole setup just to find the babies
 as half would belong to owner of the male.
So I thought why not mate the females and the babies that come out of the sack will go into to communal.

The other night I noticed a spider sitting in the corner of the communal setup, he had span a nice new web. 
The spider just looked funny sitting there, so taking a closure look, it is a mature male, I was expecting the 
males to only start maturing towards the new year, but I was wrong, so far there is 2 Mature males that I can see.

I think it is just funny, you receive males only to have your own males mature shortly after receiving them!!

*Update 12/12/03*
*Something exciting is happening!* 

So sitting on the couch I noticed some movement of legs in the air and guess what I see?
That is right, a male locked in a mating embrace with a female. ( I hope it is a female  )

(Sorry for poor quality photo's, taken with back up digital camera)

*Picture taken through the glass.(first mating)*



*Male by female burrow.(2nd mating)*



*Male calling female out of her burrow.*



*Female responding to male's calling card.*





---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 12:59 AM ----------

*Update. 28/01/13*

Up till date I have seen 5 mature males, I have removed 1 male, and have 2 males still in the colony with 2 missing in action.

One thing that I have noticed and fine it very interesting, there seems to be a large female that is staying in the back left hand corner, which seems to be controlling that side of the tank and chasing all other spiders from her domain.



This evening around about 18:45 the female was webbing this area up, and all of a sudden a smaller spider came running out from he's hiding spot with the female sitting behind him. you can see her legs if you look carefully.



*The female sitting by her entrance.*



This is the bigger one of the males in the communal at the moment. He sat on the rock for most of the day, and while he was 
sitting on the rock he decided it was time to get ready for another visit to one of the many ladies in the area, so he gave himself a bath. 







*You can see the difference between H.incei unsexed and a Mature male H.incei*



*Just a very interesting scene, H.incei, mature male and roach.*




*Can you spot the roach and the H. incei male in the leaves??*


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## cascade (Apr 24, 2013)

*Update: 09/03/13 14:02.. New arrivals*

*Update: 09/03/13 14:02*

Finally something has emerged from the females lair!!! 

I was contemplating moving the communally out of the house into the flat where it gets much hotter, over 30 degrees during the day.
As nothing seemed to be happening with the couple of females that had been mated.
The temps and humidity was a bit of a worry for me.
But again this species proves itself, that they don't require much breeding husbandry.

The highest temps was 22-24 degrees and the humidity 60%.

So this is a good sign, I have seen one female out in the open a bit more so thinking she might be the next one to start webbing up for her babies to start climbing on.

*The slings sitting out in the open.*





Something interesting, There is one male that has been living with the mother of the slings and hanging around the left hand corner of the tank, which is interesting as he has not been killed yet.

When I was busy taking photo's he was bugging a smaller female and trying to push himself onto her.
She eventually ran away and the male went back into the webbing.



---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 01:10 AM ----------

As I normally do every night when sitting on the couch, I observe my communal.  

Over the last couple of days I have noticed tunnels in the palm peat against the glass.
I had no Idea what they were and what was making them.
Not the first time I have seen these tunnels in other larger enclosures, as I said I don't have a clue what is making them.

Well this evening I found them, worms.
I think they are mealworms, not so sure though.but still interesting to find life in the set-up that I did not put there.

*Tunnels*



*Worms*


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## Billeh (Apr 24, 2013)

Thank you so much for sharing this. I never really had much interest into H. incei until now This enclosure is beyond amazing. I love how you have a chunk of an ecosystem, just living together. So remarkably well done. Please keep updating this thread!!

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## cascade (Apr 24, 2013)

*Update: 16/03/2013*

*Update: 16/03/2013*

The past couple of days there has been allot of movement, some homeless spiders, some major cleaning, doubling of numbers and 
some growing up that has been done.

So first off.
*The growing in numbers and major cleaning.*

The Isopods have doubled in numbers; which in turn, means a supper clean tank, so clean that the Isopods seem to taking it easy.
The Isopods get the leaves as a main source of food, anything else in the enclosure is desert for them.
Normally the leaves in the fallen forest last for a couple of months.
With the amount of Isopods in the enclosure, the leaves are only lasting about 2 weeks and then I have to replace them.
I normally give them 2 handfuls of leaves, soaked in water.
It is actually allot of leaves.

I still subsidise the Isopods, roaches and sometimes the crickets food for them, as the enclosure is not a self staining environment, 
so every other day they might get some greens just to keep them going.
On Friday night they got a whole carrot.
Something interesting from that, in the one picture you will notice that some of the Isopods are orange.
That is the carrot that they have been feeding on.





*Homeless spiders*

Over Thursday there were 3 spiders that had become homeless; they were wondering around the enclosure aimlessly.
We will call them Spider A - B - C
Spider – B, in desperation to find a place to hide, he kept trying to go into different burrows; every time he tried to 
enter a new entrance, the burrow’s owner would chase him away.
He tried this 5 times, eventually he went and park off under some leaves.
On the 16th he had made a burrow in the fallen forest.
Here is he’s started burrow.

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This afternoon 17/03/13 he had webbed some leaves and bark together to make an entrance.





Spider – C, moved into the left hand corner of the tank, rocky ridge staying with the slings.





Spider – A, made burrow in the fallen forest as well.

*Growing up*

That time in one’s life when you need to say goodbye, go out on your own and start something great, has arrived!

My whole excitement with having slings, is the webbing that comes from the female. For the slings to climb on and molt.
This webbing can be very elaborate, gracefully draped webbing. Which is just plan stunning in simple English. 

The female only webbed up to a point, and went on a break,I would give it a 5 out of 10, on the webbing scoring board. 
I have had 8 and 9 out 10 before with other females, smaller tanks though.    
The slings have also been very inactive and only come out every other day, only a couple of slings are seen at one time.
The Mother of the slings closed her entrance off about 2 weeks ago.





With her doing this, 2 larger spiders have moved in, or have always been staying their but just more active now that she is not "around".
If counting correctly there is 3 to 4 larger spiders staying in and around the females burrow.

*Moving out.*
It took a bit longer than what I thought it would, the first few slings have left home and have moved into their new "digs"
Some have just moved into established homes and other have made new homes for them selves.

What I find the most interesting and don't know if it is indeed fact or just coincident but it seems the slings
that have moved out, move out in pairs, like a partner ship.

This was the 2nd pair of slings that had moved out, which was on Saturday the 16th.
As you can see, these 2 have moved in with this larger spider.
They have taken over he's burrow, even started doing some alterations on the outside webbing.





*The 1st pair that moved away.*



The spider that was sitting against the log was the one that was busy webbing up, when the 2nd spider came out as to 
tell it to come inside. at this point I had removed the glass lid to take pictures from the top.





---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 01:37 AM ----------

*Photo's of the 2nd pair that moved out.*

As I said in the above post they started making alterations to the existing burrow.
The larger spider uses the back entrance as he's place to stand, the front entrance is for the 2 smaller slings.

*Through and through. The new home of the 2 slings.*



I have a whole line of photo's where the sling came out first and directly after the sling the leg of the larger spider came out behind it.
Not going to post it all though.



*Walking around the foot in the way.*



*New style of web building.*



*Pulling the web*



*Some more pulling.*



*And even more pulling.*





---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 02:00 AM ----------

A bit of a , surprised, stumped and shocked update.

*Update: 22/03/13 17:45*

I had plans to stay home and work on my big design and rehouse some spiders.
But my plans never seem to stand firm, we went out to family instead, left the house at 10:30

I came home to get some things round about 17:45.
I got distracted and ended up checking on my communal.  
When I noticed 3 slings sitting outside the entrance of the burrow.
So I looked inside the burrow to see if I could see any more slings.

Not only were there more slings, there was A glob of slings, sitting inside the burrow.
At first glance I thought they were just parking off, but when I saw 2 of the spiders abdomens
 in the air I knew they had caught something and were busy feeding off it.





Which I have seen this "glob" before.
*5 H.incei slings feeding on one roach.*





Never the less, I was so dam curious to see what they had caught.
So I got the tweezers out and hooked the prey item.

Well here comes the shocked part!!*
Never in my wildest dreams did I think, I would be pulling a tarantula out of a burrow that had become lunch.
(Gave the slings the name, spiders of the corn *)
As the spider is lying on the web in the first photo is how it came out.



They were feeding on the legs segments attached to the body and the mouth part and some of the under carriage.
(photo's not so good, camera was not focusing so nicely)



The spider of the corn slings were looking for their meal.
You can see some brown liquid on the slings mouth part





I had to leave as the visitors were waiting for me, as they wanted to head home.
So I left the spider where it was.
I left the house just a bit after 18:00

Ended up watching, I bought a Zoo (again) and having coffee and talking..
On returning home at 19:54. I found this.

This is the stumped part A:
As you can see the slings were feeding/drinking off the webs.
I highly doubt that slings could finish off a whole spider in 2 hours and not leave legs and some 
signs of a larger spider behind. I'm wondering if either a another spider took the body to feed on or the roaches, but again
the roaches would of left signs behind of a body.



Stamped part B:
I'm also wondering if the slings ganged up on the larger spider and took him down.
I'm sure the larger spider would not have stood still for the slings to kill him, he would of ran away.
Or if he had died or was busy dying. I highly doubt that as he was alive in the morning before I left.
I did not see bite marks on the larger spider, as I did look for that.

I'm also not sure if it was the same spider that was sharing the burrow with the two slings, I can't see him since I pulled the victim out.
Also don't think the spider was moulting, as he had molted out recently, with he's molt standing by the back entrance.

Then I got the Idea to see if the spiders would carry away "meet" that is just lying on the ground, so I gave them some ox heart.
The only creatures that actually ate the ox heart was the roaches.
The slings tried some, but when it did not move they left it.







As I said, I'm stumped and shocked. 
Would love to know what happen to the spider's body, and what was the cause of he's death?

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## Poec54 (Apr 24, 2013)

Never a dull moment with a community.


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## Marijan2 (Apr 25, 2013)

I think this is worth of going sticky. This is really awesome!

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## user 666 (Apr 3, 2017)

I know @cascade hasn't visited in 4 years, so this is a long shot, but -

Can you give us an update on your communal enclosure?

Reactions: Agree 1


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