Avicularia purpurea

[MindUtopia]

10-17-06 - Female is about 4 1/2" and molted in early September 2006. Male molted out about the same time and is on loan from Varden. The two lived shark-tanked together for about a week or so. After seeing possible evidence that the male had built and then destroyed a sperm web, it was time to see what he could do. This breeding attempt was made with the tank at around 75F and moderate humidity (from misting earlier in the day). The female had been fed crickets earlier and the male had been offered food but refused. The top was removed from the male's set-up (a beanie baby display case) within our female's 5 gallon tank. For several hours, he just sorta seemed to hang out. He ventured out a bit, but never towards the female and there was no visible or audible drumming. Late at night though, he appeared to pick up on her and slowly approached. She allowed him to tap on her legs and her underside. He made multiple approaches, but pulled back each time before getting an insertion because he couldn't seem to get in at the right angle. He was approaching her hanging off a branch and upside down, so it seemed difficult for him to get her in the right position. He eventually moved a few inches away and at that point they were left to do whatever business they choose to do in privacy (and because I had to go to bed, it was about 3am!). She seemed receptive and showed no aggression towards him. Upon waking in the morning, she was chasing him around the tank - in a non-aggressive way but it definitely seemed as if she was trying to say, "I'm tired now, leave me alone". Male was placed back in his enclosure still shark-tanked with female.

10-24-06 - Male was again let out of his enclosure late in the evening. He did not seem to approach female and there was no visible drumming or signs of interest from either of them. Male was left in female's enclosure for 24 hours. Upon returning home from work the next day, I found the female eating the male Grrr! I'd hoped to have a few more chances to pair them up and then send him up again for Varden!

Since this time, female has been more active, eating well, and seems to be a little heavier. I'm hoping this is a good sign and that an egg sac is on the way. More updates to be posted as they happen.

 

[MindUtopia]

Sadly, above female died in a molt when I left her in the care of my family while I was moving. She never produced a sac.

 

[Varden]

Successful

My computer crashed earlier this year and I lost alot of data, but I'll try to do this by memory.

Breeding took place between my female and Iguanamama's male. They were introduced on 11/25/06, inserts were observed and an eggsac was laid on 12/21/06. Nice Christmas gift!

Now, here's where details get sketchy. She was kept in my gravid mamas' room, with temperatures around 80 during the day and 78 at night. Humidity was kept at a constant in the room at 65%, but I spritzed her container twice a week. She made two false tunnels before settling into a third, where she dropped her sac. I let her keep it for approximately 20 days, then pulled. The sac wasn't very big, and there were a few bad eggs, but not many. I don't recall the exact number, but I think there were around 40-50.

 

[The_One]

We bought a pair of Avicularia purpurea this spring and after the male became adult we decided to mate them in spite of the fact that the female seems to young. We mated them 4-5 times around 20/08/2007. After 3 months the female gave us a surprise with an egg sack.

We had no problems while mating them, we put the male into the female's cage and cept it open. The male started chasing the female and they mated several times for quite a long time. They even came out the cage. We repeated this procedure several times during the next days.


Here are some bad photos:

 

[The_One]

On 04/01/2008 we opened the egg sack:

There are around 20 larvae in a good condition. The other eggs were bad. So this breeding seems successful. Infact this is the first successful breeding of Avicularia species in Bulgaria. A friend of mine had little versicolors, but the female was mated in the wild.

Now we are feeding the male and female as much as they want. We intend trying to mate them soon again before the female molts. The male is becoming older so there is no time to waste. Their tanks are close to each other and the male is showing interest.

First molt

 

[NorthwestInverts]

Pulled an A. purpurea sac today: 54 days left with mom, all are just about to molt into 2nd instar any day. Not sure of total count yet.

 

[zonbonzovi]

This mating was semi-successful. Female molted in Feb. '10(1st molt in my care after 16 months). Male was found for her in mid-March, final molt roughly 2 months previous according to seller. Humidity level raised by saturating substrate every couple days. No significant temperature raise from room average of 70F. Male allowed to acclimate in adjacent container for several days. Attempted supervised matings on several occassions before cohabitation. Cohab lasted 2 weeks before male was consumed by female. Witnessed male entering females' tube web a couple of times, but mostly stuck to his own small web structure.

Sac noticed on 6-20-10, roughly 3 months post mating. Sac pulled 8-4-10. Of over 100 eggs, nearly 1/3 were dry and/or discolored, showing no signs of development. Remaining eggs were incubated and humidity drastically increased. Within 3 days about 25+ eggs with legs noticed. After one week, these are beginning to darken while the remaining eggs show no sign of further development.

I fear there was some dehydration of the sac while I was on vacation for 2 weeks. Outside temps. uncharacteristically warm and spider sitter given instructions to leave this tank alone. I believe there would have been much higher success than 25% had humidity levels been attended to more judiciously.

Pics: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=188296

 

[JoeRossi]

Success!

Successful Breeding : Took place on approximatly 10-30-2010-1-1-2011


Breeding 1: Female and Male were introduced several times and at least 5 good insertions took place. Egg sac was discovered on 1-16 and the female was kept with temperatures ranging from 80-85 at night and 75-80 during the day. Humidity was monitored to make sure substrate was never dried out at any time.

At 44 days of incubation I noticed 5 little ones emerging from the egg sac at 2nd instar. The sac was pulled and not one bad egg, only 3 were still at 1st instar, and it appeares to be a smaller sac around 48 babies (her first) or so.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Sometimes the sequel is better than the original

2nd successful sac for this female:

Introduced sharktanked male in to empty tank containing female in early March '11, releasing him nightly & eventually removing sharktank altogether...over the course of 1.5 weeks. 2 pairings with multiple insertions witnessed. Male passed on for another date. Returned female to home tank, high humidity(condensation) & +/- 75F

Female found clutching sac April 4. Pulled & put into incubation May 5...eggs just beginning to develop. Incubation box "muggy" & noticed mold developing on several EWLs. Lid removed to increase airflow. 1st instars begin June 1. Estimated 90-100 slings with several eggs undeveloped.

 

[Quixtar]

Successful breeding

12/17/10 - Introduced Joe's male to my female and allowed them to co-habitate over the course of the next month
1/21/11 - Found female eating the male; no observed matings
4/30/11 - Egg sac discovered ; female maintained at an average temperature of 77 F
6/11/11 - Egg sac pulled and placed in a separate incubator controlled at 77 F
6/12/11 - Egg sac opened:

21 1st instars, 13 good eggs, 7 bad eggs, 1 dead egg-with-legs, and bits and pieces of eggs

6/12/11 and on - Will continue to rotate the good eggs and keep the 1st instars in the incubator until they molt to 2nd

 

[BrettG]

Kinda successful..Female molted 7/11,and was paired with a male on loan from zonbonzovi .Female is 4.5 inches and of unknown age.Male was paired with female until he was found dead at the bottom of a spermweb a few weeks later.
Sack found mid December, and when pulled contained total of 156 eggs.Only 18 developed,and as of Feb 6th we have 14 healhty 2i.Low #'s,but this was probably the females first sack,and the male was older than dirt.Still better than nothing.

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

Successful!

The female was paired on and off with the same male over the course of a couple months leading up to the eggsac. Her enclosure was flooded a couple of times in that timespan. The eggsac was dropped 2/7/12 and it was pulled on 3/4/12 and at that point they were still eggs. They emerged to EWL on 3/7/12, 1st instars on 3/16 and they eventually became 2nd instars on 4/26/12. The temps throughout the entire process were in between 63-73 degrees and the humidity varied up until the incubation period in which it was at a near constant 100%. The final count is 15 healthy slings with 5 runts that didn't molt properly. Once again, I had problems getting these guys from 1st instar to 2nd instar and I'm not exactly sure why.

EWL's:

1st instars:

2nd instars:

 

[Apollo Justice]

Successful!!
Paired my female with a loaner male on the evening of February 29 2012 and exactly one week later. Female was very receptive both pairings. Temps were kept 77-82 degrees. On March 29 the female produced an egg sack. I did flood the tank or change the temperature at all. Exactly 30 after the female produced the egg sack I pulled the egg sack.

When opening the egg sack to find very darkened first instars and 12 dried eggs.

On May 10 2012 all slings molted into second instar. Total count 114 healthy slings.

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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?1lk5r1

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

Successful! - Sorta

Two females were paired with a male on loan during the months of January and February of this year. One eggsac was dropped on 3/25/13 and another on 4/2/13. I pulled the first eggsac on 4/25/13 to find a bunch of eggs. The second eggsac was pulled on 4/28/13 and was filled with a bunch of black, dried up eggs. The eggs from the first eggsac were placed in the incubator and on 5/2/13 they became EWL's. First instar was reached on 5/9/13. There was a bit of a hiccup trying to get them to 2nd instar. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I have a feeling it was something to do with my incubator setup. The few that made it to 2nd instar molted on 6/17/13. The temps were kept between 70-80 degrees throughout the entire process and the humidity varied because of the different incubator setups I used. I don't have an exact percentage, but it probably varied between 70%-100%. The final count of the good eggsac was 3 with one dying a few days after molting. Not exactly a great success, but a success nonetheless.

Here's the bad eggsac:


And the good:


Eggs:


EWL's:


1st instars:


1st instars darkening up:


2nd instars: