Breeding Questions

[ReignofInvertebrates]

So I’ve been keeping T’s for years now, but I’m a complete noob when it comes to breeding them. A few nights ago I paired my Kochiana brunnipes, and all went well. I have a few questions about the rest of the process:

1) Should I mate them again after giving them a break? The female has kind of closed off her burrow now so I’m not sure that she’d be receptive again.

2) Approximately how long does it take before the female lays her egg sac? I understand it may be different for different species and I couldn’t find much info about K. brunnipes.

3) I apologize if this is common knowledge on the forum but I couldn’t find much info on it. Are you supposed to pull the sac before it hatches or is it ok to leave it with the mother before separating them? If it’s recommended to pull the sac, would it be easier to just remove the female and rehouse her as to not disturb the eggs?

 

[Chebe6886]

I know a lot of people do perform repeated pairing to ensure the male hit his mark. From what I understand you can pull a sac around 28-35 days so you have better control of collecting slings when the time comes and removing bad eggs before it spreads to others next to it. Def be better to pull the sac from mom and make an incubator for them. As far as how long before she lays the sac “it’s Highly variable” according to many breeders I’ve talk to on here. Could really be anytime before her next molt if it’s going to happen.
Hopefully someone comes along with experience breeding this species though
Good luck!

 

[Magicis3]

Sorry but I'm not good at this also. I'm 15 and do you think thatll be able to have 70+ slings .

**I think (I THINK) that a female tarantula can lay her egg sac anytime she feels like it. If you see the egg sac lookin a little puffed up you should take it away from its mother's enclosure. Then incubate it. Try get 30 cm or 30 cm plus tongs to take out the egg sac cuz the female will probably put up a fight. If you mate again there will be a bigger chance of the female laying the egg sac.**

Remember I said I think so if im wrong correct me.

Hope you have good luck with the mating

 

[Nightstalker47]

If you saw the MM make an insertion no need to pair again, hes just likely to get crunched on if shes already got the sperm.

Pull the sac at 30 days, or you can leave with the mother all the way...both can work. If you pull the sac too early, you'll need to keep turning/rotating it to prevent the eggs from spoiling.

 

[Venom1080]

1) Often no reason to. If you are sure the insertion was good the first time, more sperm doesnt do anything to my knowledge. Just risks the male. If youre not sure, multiple pairings are a good idea.

2) Generally at least a month. I paired Poecilotheria ornata in early September and got a sac in the last couple weeks. It can take a while with some species.

3) If you dont know when the sac was laid you probably shouldnt remove it at all. Ive disturbed a nest of 1st instar Psalmopoeus irminia by pulling based on when i first saw it. Its important to really keep an eye on bred females. Incubating after 30 days is the general rule of thumb. By then the eggs are developed enough that you dont have to do anything more with them. The sac needs to be opened either by you or the mother. The babies dont do it themselves, so dont rehouse mom and leave the babies by themselves.


Good luck. Breeding should be a priority of every keeper.

 

[ReignofInvertebrates]

1) Often no reason to. If you are sure the insertion was good the first time, more sperm doesnt do anything to my knowledge. Just risks the male. If youre not sure, multiple pairings are a good idea.

2) Generally at least a month. I paired Poecilotheria ornata in early September and got a sac in the last couple weeks. It can take a while with some species.

3) If you dont know when the sac was laid you probably shouldnt remove it at all. Ive disturbed a nest of 1st instar Psalmopoeus irminia by pulling based on when i first saw it. Its important to really keep an eye on bred females. Incubating after 30 days is the general rule of thumb. By then the eggs are developed enough that you dont have to do anything more with them. The sac needs to be opened either by you or the mother. The babies dont do it themselves, so dont rehouse mom and leave the babies by themselves.


Good luck. Breeding should be a priority of every keeper.

Thanks for the info. So if you remove the sac 30 days after it was laid you generally don't need to worry about turning the eggs? Is there a general time frame in which you should open the sac or does that vary by species also?

 

[Venom1080]

Thanks for the info. So if you remove the sac 30 days after it was laid you generally don't need to worry about turning the eggs? Is there a general time frame in which you should open the sac or does that vary by species also?

No. The mom will have done that. Some keepers pull the sacs right away for extremely rare species and turn manually every 3 hours for like two months. But its much easier just to let the mom do that, if technically riskier.

When you remove the sac you open it. Hopefully to find eggs with legs or maybe 1st instars.

 

[Chebe6886]

You should be able to open the sace at around 30 when you take it out and have eggs with legs or very close to it

 

[cold blood]

When you take the sac, you open the sac....eggs in an incubator should never be left in an unopened sac.

 

[RezonantVoid]

Ive only done it once with T's but my incubator was simply a sealed plastic container lined with damp paper towel. I sprayed it with filtered water so there wasnt any chance of chemicals in with the eggs, and that was it. Only downside to this method was that the paper towel needed replacing about once every 3 weeks as it inevitably starts to mold