30 day eggsac pics/ communal Avics

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Arachnodemon
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These are pics of my A. avicularia eggsac moments after I took it from mom. The adults were bred in a community set-up with 2 females and 1 male. The trio lived together for a few months without incident. The females had constructed hammock- type webs in different parts of the enclosure, and the male roamed throughout. One morning I noticed that the smaller of the two females had taken over the other's web, and apparently had done so by force as the other was leaking from two fang sized holes in her abdomen. I quickly put the wounded female in a small ICU container and stopped the bleeding with Nu-skin. Amazingly, she made an eggsac while in the ICU container! Unfortunately, she ate the eggsac and has not yet molted, so I am still a little worried about her.

Here is the kicker-- The other female made an eggsac just days after the first one devoured hers. Could they have been fighting over a prime location to make their eggsacs? Could the attacker smell that eggs were imminent, and moved to eat them? Was it just a random occurence? I'm not sure, but here are some of the results...
 

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Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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wow..how interesting!
I wonder if their behaviour in the wild is anything like that? It's just fascinating to see what happens when we experiement. Great that you got an eggsac too!
I have a 100 gallon tank that I'm considering some kind of communal setup for, if I don't divide it up.
thanks for sharing the pics!
Holley
 

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Arachnodemon
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Thank you Holley and Bryan.

Holley, good luck on your Avicularia community. I have heard of quite a few successes, but I have not been able to make mine work long term.

John
 

LaRiz

Arachnodemon
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JP,
that is very intersting. We could only speculate on the behaviour of your Avics. But it does give insight. Nice pics!
john
 

Steve Nunn

Arachnoprince
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Aug 30, 2002
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Hi John,
Have you noticed that a T's behaviour changes when she is guarding an eggsac? Most are excellent mothers, as you would know, and are extremely protective of their sacs. The most placid T will rear up and put on a show never seen before to defend her sac. Your story doesn't surprise me one bit, I'd *imagine* her maternal instinct had kicked in and she became one hormonal bitch/ perceived the other female as a threat to her upcoming sac.

I have no idea if this has been "proven" or not, but it sure does make sense.

Great story.

Cheers,
Steve
 

Tangled WWWeb

Arachnodemon
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Re: Re: 30 day eggsac pics/ communal Avics

Originally posted by Steve Nunn

I have no idea if this has been "proven" or not, but it sure does make sense.



Thanks, John and Steve.
:)

Steve,

Your theory sounds very reasonable to me. I'm not sure how it could be proven. I don't think I want to leave 2 expectant mothers together again.

BTW, the spiderlings are all doing fine, and have darkened considerably in the past few days.:)
 
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