Breeding G. rosea

[galeogirl]

I've read in many books and articles, and heard here, that G. roseas are difficult to breed. What makes them such a challenge? Do they require seasonal cycling or other special conditions?

I have three G. rosea, one unsexed spiderling and two adult females, and I would like to attempt breeding them, especially with all of the CITES talk I've been hearing.

Has anyone here had success with them?

 

[Botar]

I can't answer your question, but I have got a mature male that is ready to go, if you're interested. I've never done any shipping though... let me know.

Botar

 

[Paul Day]

The reasoning behind the difficulty in breeding G. rosea has to do with strange behaviors the spider exibits, such as eating it's own eggsac, or producing invalid eggsacs, amongst other things.

I recommend a well conditioned female before hand. One that eats well, and has eaten will prior to mating. Also one with limited disturbances, this means putting the spider in a quiet room for several weeks prior to mating. After you have mated the spider (which should be well fed), make sure you place it in a quiet, dark place and raise the humidity a bit. Always provide a water dish at this time. When the spider lays an eggs, there are two things you can do. 1. you can leave the eggsac with the mother, or 2. you can incubate it yourself if you know what your doing, forgoing the risk of the spider eating it. Incubation includes rotating the eggsac on a daily basis, and providing it with high heat and humidity. Use a tall deli container or jar for this, with good ventilation. Vermiculite can be used on the bottom for substrate, and a hammock for the eggs can be made from nylon material in womens stockings.

If all goes well, in a month you should check on the egg by opening it gently and seeing if their are moving spiderlings. If the spiderlings look well developed, you can let them free, but I am not sure about the maturation time in the egg for G. rosea, so it may take longer. Resealing the egg is crucial if the spiderlings are not well developed yet, in preventing mites or any critters from getting at the spiderlings. You should steralize anything near the eggsacs or used in the container prior for this reason. Seal the egg by stiching it up using thread.

Pauly

 

[Paul Day]

Temp for eggsacs should be around 80-85 degrees (somewhere in between), and humidity should be high at all times, but with good ventilation to prevent them from souring.

 

[Wade]

I think part of the problem is that not many people are willing to try very hard to breed a tarantula that's imported by the thousands. You can get adults as cheap as $3 at reptile shows, making slings practically worthless. That doesn't mean we shouldn't breed them, however.

My first ever tarantula breeding was with G. rosea and was successful. The female was a long term captive who had molted many times, meaning there was no chance of her having viable stored sperm before the breeding. Although I sold some of the offspring, most I gave away to friends, one of whom went on to breed one of the male offspring to a female he had, and was also successful. I now have some of those slings as well, the "grandchildren" of my female. So that's at least 2 successful captive breeding, from 2 different people who never tried it before.

Wade

 

[Case]

Wade, and anyone else who has had success with g. rosea:
Did you leave the sac with the female, or take it and incubate it yourself? How many slings did you end up with?

Thanks!
Case

 

[Paul Day]

I agree with Wade.... I've never really seen a good arguement for them being difficult to breed, I only have told you what I've heard, which really applies to many species of tarantulas.

Breeding Chilean Roses is ESSENTIAL for this hobby however, because eventually the fate of G. rosea will be in the hands of the pet trade with CITES approching. It otherwise will give fuel for enviormentalists (such as myself ) and others to point the finger at the pet trade for irresponsible overcollecting. So offsetting the wild caughts from the primary influx of G. rosea in the hobby is ESSENTIAL to their proliferation, and any tarantulas proliferation. Though how many we import is in question, as is how detrimental it is to the species in the wild. But as slow-growing as G. rosea is, I wouldn't say the collecting of tarantulas from the wild was a matter to brush off.

Personally, I want to see some red-phase chilean roses in the hobby more often.

Pauly

 

[Wade]

I probably should have eloborated. I left it with her, but after about 4-5 weeks I found her in the process of destroying it! Little developing spiderlings strewn about everywhere...I managed to rescue the sac, and transferred it to annother container. In the end, I managed to save about 80 of them, which was far fewer than what was probably there, but pretty good considering the circumstances.

Wade

 

[galeogirl]

Thanks for the advice. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Botar's male will survive an encounter with his female so we can try him out with my girls.

 

[Botar]

Well I'm about ready to try it. I've been feeding the two females quite a bit to diminish their "hunger", I hope. I know he's ready... doing quite a bit of pacing.

Botar

 

[Case]

Good luck, Botar!
And successful or not, let us know how it turns out!

Scott