Avicularia avicularia

[Lycanthrope]

A. avicularia

Successful


Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers-
no.

How they were paired - i let the male load his palps for a week, after which i placed him with the female on 2-1-03. then again on 2-5-03, and once more on 2-14-03.
Any observations on the hookup - the initial mating was interesting, after being introduced to the female the male began drumming, with the female responding with a few loud taps. she then ran at the male, and basically threw herself at him, even raising herself into the mating position for him. a few good inserts that time, and one or two on the subsequent matings.
.

Any special post mating care -
No.

Time to sac -
50 days

Care of the sac -
eggsac taken on day 35, sliced open to reveal healthy post embryos.
Time to emerge/hatch -
molted into first instar at day 51

The final details -
81 post embryos were healthy when sac was opened. 14 of these never molted first instar. 5 more died shortly after molting first instar. this left 62 healthy spiderlings.

 

[Nixy]

Successful? - Yes, So Far.

Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers - Purchased both male and female from seperate locations in June 2003. Female molted July 20, 2003. Male was fresh matured and deformed from being kept in an extremly small deli cup and molting. Ending up with extreme back bent legs and the loss of several limbs.

How they were paired - The female was allowed to harden and build resources and the male was placed in her enclosier without intent of removing him on Sept. 1.

Any observations on the hookup - They were obversed together several times until on Sept. 10 remains consisting of two legs were found after the female ate him.

Any special post mating care - The female was given a cooling period of ten days, fed a Tiny pinky mouse on Sept. 20. and fed several large crickets and superworms a week. Normal feeding for her.

Time to sac - 38 days from death of male. The sack is about the size of a ping pong ball.

Care of the sac - Fresh made so still in the females care.

Time to emerge/hatch - Never. I pulled the sack at day 40 and opened it. Inside where 48 eggs. Absolutly no development.

The final details - I then placed them in a delicup incubator and gave them an aditional month to do Anything. They were very white at the time of sack opening and went steadly opaque until they developed black spots and were finaly presumed duds.

The female molted Nov. 15'th.

 

[Gail]

Successful

Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers: both the male and the female were fed heavily on a varied diet - the female for several weeks after obtaining her, the male for several months prior to his ultimate molt and for a month after ultimate molt. Temps averaged 72 to 75 F.

How they were paired: male entered females cage, cohabitated until after the sack was made - I only removed him as he seemed to be making the female nervous.

Any observations on the hookup: the female practically "raped" the male - this is an old girl that was kept by her previous owner in a smallish pet pal since the late 1990's and I think she was feeling her biological clock
Strangely, the male helped her build her maternal hammock - disguised it on the outside and stood guard over her once she sealed herself in - I had to pry him off of her hammock when I removed him after the sack was made.

Any special post mating care: the female and male ate ravenously during the weeks before she sealed herself in the maternal hammock, the mated frequently and I actually got to watch him build and use his sperm web once.

Time to sac: First mating was on Feb 12, sack made on April 18 - 67 days

Care of the sac: took sack from female approx. May 24 - 37 days after she made it. *note* female did not become aggressive, although she didn't want to give the sack up, and, sadly, made a "fake" sack from bits of web once I had taken the real one - however, she lost interest in the fake sack after a day and began to eat with gusto.
I used the hammock style incubator, temps of 72 to 78 F.

Time to emerge/hatch: I opened sack when I took it and the spiderlings were mobile, hairless and tan - I believe first instar eggs with legs? They seemed much more developed than other eggs with legs that I have seen photos of so I assume they were just further on in develpment than those I'd seen. As days went by the spiderlings became progressively darker and the baby striping could be seen.
June 12, after all seemed to have been going great, I found that some of the spiderlings had started to turn a sore looking fleshy red - they were dead or dying, with oozing from the anal area - I removed 25 of them and switched the rest to clean paper toweling.
June 15 the first spiderling molted into 2nd instar - cute and fuzzy and looking just as a baby pink toe should 59 days since sack was made
June 17 most spiderlings seemed to be done molting and I transfered into individual containers. Again, sadly, there were large losses - another 35 were dead, some with the red coloring, some that didn't molt out right, some for no apparent reason, 5 more seem healthy but haven't shed yet and 2 others may not make it as I had to untangle them from their sheds/silk and they appear to have some leg damage.

The final details: Not counting the few infertile eggs I found when I opened the sack there were a total of 115 healthy 1st instar to begin with - a whopping 60 of those fell to the dreaded "red death", bad 2nd molt and unknown causes, 5 haven't molted yet, 2 have molting damage and may not survive and there are 48 healty 2nd instar babies.

 

[Pheonixx]

NOT SUCCESSFUL..except for one egg.

Bred several times, male was left in tank with female for 1 month.
sac laid - 11-20-04
removed- 12-22-04

I found about 120 dried eggs and one egg that might make it.

Room humidity was approximatley 75-80% at all times. tank was misted every other day as well. room tempature was between 70-83 (F) at all times.


i guess this was strike one...

 

[Botar]

Successful. I had babies from this species in 2004 and 2005. On both occasions the male was introduced into the females enclosure and left to cohabitate for several weeks before he was eaten. Within a couple of months of eating the male, the female made an egg sac. I left the egg sac with the female until I noticed babies outside the egg sac. Once the babies began to disperse, I pulled the female from the enclosure and separated out the babies. Both sacs were pretty small with less than 50 babies each time.

Botar

 

[WhyTeDraGon]

Mating successful

Male received 4/7/05 from Steven Beckman (www.beculture.com).
Introduced him into the females cage that same day. He had made a sperm web earlier in the week. Let him walk around a bit to get in the "mood".
Female began drumming like crazy immediately, male never drummed, he just tapped gently. He made his way to her hide, stood right outside and tapped, she was still drumming. She made a few attempts at coming out, but never came all the way out. He made a run for it a few times, and I removed him, put him back in his container, and removed HER hide from over her, she was out in the open. I put him back in near her, he slowly approached and tapped at her feet, she began drumming again. Then it was on! He stroked everything from her feet to her back, until she allowed him to "dance" with her. I witnessed many insertions for nearly 5 minutes until I noticed the female getting aggitated, I put a comb on her fangs to hold her back while he made a run for it, straight up my arm!
All is good and well Will wait for another sperm web before reintroducing them.

Edit: I watched the male make the sperm web 4/08/05, around 10am, the whole process took nearly 45 minutes. Reintroduced them the following day twice, once in the morning, once in the evening, both times they just walked away from each other. Hopefully this means something good. Will try again soon.

Added: Same male mated with a new female 4/18/05.

 

[Varden]

Still successful

The first breeding occurred on 12/01/05. Placed male into female's enclosure and was startled when she right away began to drum on the wall of her cage. She drummed hard and loud for attention. Male slowly made his way to her, and she eagerly closed the distance to meet him. Mating was hurried, but he got several good insertions. Then she turned and went back into her web. He followed a short distance, stroking her legs, but did not pursue, and I removed him from the enclosure. I fed and watered both.

The second mating was only a few days later. I caught him making his sperm web, so later that night I paired him with the female again. This time, he went straight to her, but it wasn't until he was in her web, stroking her back legs, that she started drumming. Mating took place, there were several insertions and unlike the first time, it took much longer. Fed and watered both, removed the male to his enclosure and got him ready to ship out to his next lonely lady the following Monday.

9 days before she laid the eggsac, the female abandoned her funnel shaped web and built another on the opposite side of her enclosure. After only two days, she abandoned that as well and built a bowl-shaped web right smack on the floor of her enclosure. This is where she laid the eggsac on 01/21/06, 52 days after her first mating.

On 01/22/06 I removed the eggsac and placed it in the mechanical mom. We'll see what happens from there.

02/14/06 I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to open the sac. Here we are with the beginnings of eggs with legs.

03/07/06 We are currently molting into our 2nd instar. The breeding can be considered successful only in that it resulted in living slings. Out of 122 eggs, only 12 seem to have been fertilized. Initially, all looked healthy, they just didn't develop. Of the 12 that did, 2 died molting from eggs w/ legs into the 1st instar. A further 2 died of unknown reasons and 1 died of what seemed to be humidity-related problems (stuck in 1st molt). I increased humidity from 80% to 85%. So far, 3 of the remaining 7 have molted without difficulty and the others look to be on the verge of following suit.

 

[kitty_b]

looks promising!!! (7-28-06)

introduced one of my two males into my female's (molted 6-8-06) enclosure last night, both were well-fed and male appeared loaded.

he took a few hours to cross the cage to her, and after some begging she came out of her hide and drummed for him. i couldn't see whether he got a real insertion, but he definitely knew what to do.

i've left him in her cage, put in a couple crickets for them, and he has taken up shack in the corner opposite from her, behind her climbing branches.

 

[geopet]

Avicularia Breeding

Hi guys here is a summary of my breeding of avicularia avicularia. It is my first ever breeding attempt and I am very proud but as has ben said it is a long way from eggsac to spiderlings. . baby steps baby steps The female is still in the hammock with the eggsac. For ATS members it is almost identical to my post there.


I just checked my little Avicularia avicularia female and she has a whopping big egg sac the size of a golf ball. I bought a male Avicularia avicularia back in late May only two weeks after he molted male in the pet shop. A week later I found a female for him at a different pet shop. I co-habited them from June 6-17 (11days keeping the temp at 26-27celcius and the humitity at 60-70% with daily mistings. The female showed no obvious interest in the male and after that I put the male back in his own cage. He was going crazy all night wandering ALL OVER his cage. I decided to put him back with the female despite the fact she showed no interest. On June 29 I put him back in with the same humidity and temp and he has been with her ever since. On July 11 the female had barricaded herself in a georgeous(sp?) cup shaped web up in the corner of the cage and I figured she must have had enough of him. Well anyway her web was so thick I couldn't see her condition so after a month has gone by I was worried so tonight when I got back from the rig I decided to take some scissors and cut the web open for a look.

Well GUESS WHAT BABY !!!!!! She had an eggsac about the size of a golf ball clutched between her pedipals and an angry "what do you want. . buzz off!" look. I had also noticed on aug 10 that the male was at the bottom of the cage and was on what appeared from the excellent photos I have seen here to be a sperm web. It was a flat web just above the substrate about the size of a regular playing card.

I work away on oil rigs a lot and if the eggs were to hatchwhile I was away the spiderlings would all escape the mesh at the top of the cage. If there is an experienced breeder who could take over at this point in the Alberta area I would gladly bring her to you cage, spider the whole shebang.
Martin

Update:
Also in late July I did notice the male hanging around outside the "maternal hammock" as somebody said for a week or so. I wonder if they do that while the female lays the eggs?? After reading the other posts I no longer feel the breeding was in July but in the earlier co-habitation in Early-Mid June.

 

[geopet]

Update to post:

Hi guys here is a summary of my breeding of avicularia avicularia. It is my first ever breeding attempt and I am very proud but as has ben said it is a long way from eggsac to spiderlings. . baby steps baby steps The female is still in the hammock with the eggsac. For ATS members it is almost identical to my post there.

I just checked my little Avicularia avicularia female and she has a whopping big egg sac the size of a golf ball. I bought a male Avicularia avicularia back in late May only two weeks after he molted male in the pet shop. A week later I found a female for him at a different pet shop. I co-habited them from June 6-17 (11days keeping the temp at 26-27celcius and the humitity at 60-70% with daily mistings. The female showed no obvious interest in the male and after that I put the male back in his own cage. He was going crazy all night wandering ALL OVER his cage. I decided to put him back with the female despite the fact she showed no interest. On June 29 I put him back in with the same humidity and temp and he has been with her ever since. On July 11 the female had barricaded herself in a georgeous(sp?) cup shaped web up in the corner of the cage and I figured she must have had enough of him. Well anyway her web was so thick I couldn't see her condition so after a month has gone by I was worried so tonight when I got back from the rig I decided to take some scissors and cut the web open for a look.

Well GUESS WHAT BABY !!!!!! She had an eggsac about the size of a golf ball clutched between her pedipals and an angry "what do you want. . buzz off!" look. I had also noticed on aug 10 that the male was at the bottom of the cage and was on what appeared from the excellent photos I have seen here to be a sperm web. It was a flat web just above the substrate about the size of a regular playing card.

I work away on oil rigs a lot and if the eggs were to hatchwhile I was away the spiderlings would all escape the mesh at the top of the cage. If there is an experienced breeder who could take over at this point in the Alberta area I would gladly bring her to you cage, spider the whole shebang.
Martin

Update:
Also in late July I did notice the male hanging around outside the "maternal hammock" as somebody said for a week or so. I wonder if they do that while the female lays the eggs?? After reading the other posts I no longer feel the breeding was in July but in the earlier co-habitation in Early-Mid June.

Hi I wanted to update the progress:
On Sept 10 after about 50 days with the female I retrieved the egg sack from the female and placed it in a hammock style incubator. The female resisted writhing this way and that and protecting the sack with her legs to prevent me from getting it. The egg sack was about 1.5" in diameter. The hammock was made by placing 1" of damp coconut fibre on the bottom of the cup, puching 2mm holes 1" down from the lip of the cup and draping a coffee filter over the top of the cup. The mom and sack were kept at 23-26deg and humidity of 70% for most of the time. I placed the eggsack gently onto the coffee filetr and slowly cut the sack open to see the development stage. Inside I could see about 0.25" spiderlings that were light gray - brownish gray in colour and almost translucent. They moved their legs very slowly and had small white specks almost like webbing on the area of their spinnerettes. One dried up egg was seen but i left it alone after that. It looks like they were almost fully developed. On sept 11 I noticed 4 of them had crawled out of the hole in the egg sack so at least a few were mobile. they moved very sluggishly though. It looks like maybe 30-40 spiderlings but we shall see.

The female's abdomen/opisthosoma was tiny and she looked like a male almost and she was obviously starving herself to protect her brood. She started normal behaviour on Sept 11 the next day after egg sack removal.
the father is sitting nervously in another tank. I told him he is a daddy LOL.

 

[ShadowBlade]

So far, its successful

Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers -
Um.. Nope. Made sure female was well fed, and male had loaded palps.


Any observations on the hookup -
Female was very 'pushy'. Like pushing him down the side of the cage during mating. Male left in a hurry, female stayed in same place for hours afterwards.

11/1/06
Male placed in females cage, began 'shaking'. Female quickly responded. They missed each other the first time, as the female seemingly didn't know what end of the tube web he was at. When they finally hooked up, it went well.
Male was removed from the cage. Will pair them up again after another sperm web is made.


Any special post mating care -
None so far. Female still in her tube web, and is feeding again.

Will update after sac is dropped.

 

[Hedorah99]

Ongoing

Have been co habitating a female and a MM for the last ten days. Male made a sperm web 7 days ago and have found him and the female tied at least twice in the past four days. I am planning on leaving him in there until his demise or she lays a sac. Wish me luck.

 

[bliss]

So far, so good!!

Any special care or preliminary notes for the lovers: the male was inserted into her tank about the beginning of November. fed very well before hand. MALE WAS MASSIVE 6"+!!!! (i traded him off, i don't have him anymore).

How they were paired: male inserted, he showed no signs of wanting to mate. they lived together for about 1 month w/o any problems. (obviously he got the job done, or else i wouldn't have a sac right now!! ). they were both fed VERY well during the "communal" period. male was taken out on the 5th of December, female started showing hostile behaviour towards him on that night. NOTE: i tried using a different male a while back, but he was missing his front two legs with the tibial spurs. Needless to say he couldn't do a thing!!!

Any observations on the hookup: couldn't tell, because they were with each other communally for around a month, so that is still unknown.. but one thing is certain, he did his job! they were both kept at around 72 or 73 degrees F at most times.

Any special post mating care: none.

Time to sac: Today, January 21, 2007. eggsac about 1.5" in diameter.

what happens next: we'll just have to see, this is my first eggsac, so im kinda nervous and happy at the same time. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE ME ADVICE!!!!!!

daniel (AKA blis) in NC.

 

[SouthernStyle]

It's ALLLLLLLLLLLL Good!

01-20-07
Introduced MM in with female late night (auround 0200 MST) He Went right for her and immediately started drumming, needless to say she didnt resist, I observed at least three insertions and then they parted ways. there was only the light from the TV on at that time, the enclosure was packed with sticks and cork bark for him to hide in of which he stood fast at the top of the enclosure and immediately webbed himself a nice little hide

01-24-07
MM has been co-habitating with the female with no signs of agression...Hoping it stays that way!


01-29-07
MM Removed today~ It looks like he might have been in a bit of a brawl with the female, He went to drum on her again last night auround 1800 hours and she wasn't going to stand for it very long, he may have had an insertion, I didnt catch that far (got wrapped up feeding the other T's) And when I glanced back over, she had positioned herself over his hide and wasn't going to let him come out. He was removed at 1820 hours

01-30-07 @ 0800 hours
She has completely webbed herself inside a piece of cork bark, the web is thick enough that I cannot see inside of it so I'm hoping that she will remain there until she drops a sack. The bottom of it is open enough and every time a cricket deceides to venture too close, It's immediately snatched up and eaten...

I'll post a bit more once I see a Sac

 

[bliss]

Unfortunately.. Infertile.

Yesterday was day 36 for my little avic avic eggsac, so i slowly and steadily sliced it open to reveal -- about 20 eggs, all of which were black. So, im assuming these are all duds. . Well, maybe ill have better luck next time, as i believe this sac came out INFERTILE.

~If you can offer any advice, Pm me.
thanks

 

[Hedorah99]

Have been co habitating a female and a MM for the last ten days. Male made a sperm web 7 days ago and have found him and the female tied at least twice in the past four days. I am planning on leaving him in there until his demise or she lays a sac. Wish me luck.

4-8-2007
Female has been webbed up in a tube for about a week now. Last night saw her laying eggs through the silk. By the morning she had a full egg sac.
I will prolly let her have it for closer to 40-45 days and then pull for manual incubation.

 

[ScorpDemon]

My record keeping is.. well non-existant for the most part.

I paired up the male with female #1 several times over 2 weeks in the beginning of October '06 and witnessed several good insertions everytime, then let him cohabitate with female #2 for 6 weeks after that.

No special post mating care for either female.

Over the past several weeks they have both been very busy webbing, female #2 made a bigger, thicker tube web, female #1 webbed herself in a corner.

Wednesday April 4th 2007 female #2 made her sac
Friday April 13th 2007 Female #1 decided it looked cool, and made one of her own.

These are my first 2 Tarantula sacs, so as far as plans to pull the sacs, I'm just gonna play that by ear. But if both sacs are sucessful, I have to keep some of the ones from the sac laid on Friday the 13th. It seems I'm not the only one with a sac, so I may be keeping a lot more than I want to, assuming of course that they are successful.

Pics and updates to come.

Chris

 

[_Nagash_]

Avicularia avicularia egg sac

HI!

Some weeks ago, I tried to mate my Avicularia avicularia female with a borrowed male. It went very well, and after about 3-5 days, she dropped a sac. On Saturday night, I colud not control my curiosity any more, and decided to pull the sac.

Her burrow was well protected by a massiv webbing, so I had to cut my way trough with a sharp knife.

When i tried to pull the sac out with my tweezers, she refused to let go, and I had to push her away with a brush.



Finaly, she let go of the sac.(sac in home made incubator, with pen as reference)

This was my first sac ever, so I was very nervous, and gently cut it open.

The eggs in their incubator. I counted 228, maybe more

Greets
Robin

 

[ScorpDemon]

pic and an update.

My record keeping is.. well non-existant for the most part.

I paired up the male with female #1 several times over 2 weeks in the beginning of October '06 and witnessed several good insertions everytime, then let him cohabitate with female #2 for 6 weeks after that.

No special post mating care for either female.

Over the past several weeks they have both been very busy webbing, female #2 made a bigger, thicker tube web, female #1 webbed herself in a corner.

Wednesday April 4th 2007 female #2 made her sac
Friday April 13th 2007 Female #1 decided it looked cool, and made one of her own.

These are my first 2 Tarantula sacs, so as far as plans to pull the sacs, I'm just gonna play that by ear. But if both sacs are sucessful, I have to keep some of the ones from the sac laid on Friday the 13th. It seems I'm not the only one with a sac, so I may be keeping a lot more than I want to, assuming of course that they are successful.

Pics and updates to come.

Chris

Last Thursday night my curiousity got the best of me, and I pulled and opened the first sac that was made. The second sac is still with the female.



Chris

 

[Hedorah99]

Success

4-8-2007
Female has been webbed up in a tube for about a week now. Last night saw her laying eggs through the silk. By the morning she had a full egg sac.
I will prolly let her have it for closer to 40-45 days and then pull for manual incubation.

Pulled at 45 days. Sac is full of eggs with legs.