Aphonopelma Hentzi Female Breeding Size

N1ghtFire

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jun 17, 2016
Messages
172
Hello everyone!

About how big should an A. hentzi female be in order to breed her?

I have a small WC female and I think it would be a great first species for me to try breeding, especially because they are native where I live and the female is from my area, so I could try and catch a MM to breed her with and if I end up with too many slings that I can't raise or sell then I can release them once they've molted a few times to help out the wild population.

I'll take some pictures and measure her in a bit and post here.
 

KezyGLA

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 8, 2016
Messages
3,013
I wouldnt try to catch any MM from your area as it is probable that is not same species. There should be plenty people that will have males available in the hobby. I would aquire one that is 100% correct species and doesnt risk bringing anything nasty in to your T collection.

It is a slow growing species and take a veeeeeerrrrryyy long time from pairing to slings. You may want to try another species as a first. This is just my opinion though
 

N1ghtFire

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jun 17, 2016
Messages
172
I wouldnt try to catch any MM from your area as it is probable that is not same species.

It is a slow growing species and take a veeeeeerrrrryyy long time from pairing to slings. You may want to try another species as a first. This is just my opinion though

The female is WC from the same area as I would get a MM. And I realize they are slow growing, but all of my other Ts are small slings/juveniles still so I have lots of time to wait until I will have the opportunity to breed any of my other Ts. My female is 2.5" as well, so it will probably be awhile before she is big enough to breed.

I do plan on trying to breed my versicolors, or diversipes once they mature, likely in about 6 more months, but for now I am wondering about A. hentzi
 
Last edited:

AphonopelmaTX

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
May 7, 2004
Messages
1,816
My own observations of watching Aphonopelma hentzi mate in the wild in my own area of Dallas, TX put the mature legspan around 4 inches or more. I have noticed though that the ones that are ready to mate and produce offspring are very bulky and legspan alone isn't a good indicator. Hardly scientific, but if you tickle an A. hentzi from it's burrow and are surpised on how large it is, that would be the mature female. That being said though, there is no guarantee that you would be able to guage a female's readiness to breed based on any visual cues. I have seen plenty of large healthy looking female A. hentzi in the wild chase away males and males approach females and turn away as if it knew the female wasn't ready.
 

N1ghtFire

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jun 17, 2016
Messages
172
My own observations of watching Aphonopelma hentzi mate in the wild in my own area of Dallas, TX put the mature legspan around 4 inches or more. I have noticed though that the ones that are ready to mate and produce offspring are very bulky and legspan alone isn't a good indicator. Hardly scientific, but if you tickle an A. hentzi from it's burrow and are surpised on how large it is, that would be the mature female. That being said though, there is no guarantee that you would be able to guage a female's readiness to breed based on any visual cues. I have seen plenty of large healthy looking female A. hentzi in the wild chase away males and males approach females and turn away as if it knew the female wasn't ready.
Thank you!
 
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