Breeding True Spiders in captivity is difficult!

[Tarantula155]

This fall, I've tried breeding Cheiracanthium mildei and it was a disaster... Male ended up eating the slightly larger female (even after I fed him a nice fly).
I then managed to catch two Phidippus apacheanus and the male attacked the female, she's crippled now.

I don't understand, widows are easy to breed, P. Audax are easy to breed.. while others is a serious challenge. I still haven't been successful breeding some species, it's annoying.

Has anyone bred these two species before?

 

[ReignofInvertebrates]

The same thing happened with my Phidippus princeps.. I was so disappointed when my female later died.. Never tried Cheiracanthium before. Did recently have a pair but the male died. The only trues I've successfully bred are H. carolinensis, T. helluo, Schizocosa sp., and S. grossa. Wish you good luck.

 

[The Snark]

I wish you luck. It seems that with some Salticids, the window between prey, hunting, and mating is tiny. Like, the time frame for romance is less than 1% of it's daily operations. Getting two of them with coinciding opportunity windows appears to be extremely rare.
But to the point. What is just as rare is a good accurate accounting, documenting, of circumstances and participants in successful matings. So if you are successful, hint hint!

I can't even count the number of times I've observed a potential romance between Phidippus only to have some distraction mess up the entire operation. Another male wandering by and off the guy goes to do battle, completely forgetting his lady friend. Prey or what may be prey appears and their 1/4 millisecond attention span is blown and off they roam, forgetting everything. And of course, due to their ultra short term memory, romance can instantly become LUNCH TIME!!

 

[Tarantula155]

I'm beginning to worry for my female P. apacheanus! When the male attacked her, he bit her right underneath her head, between two legs (luckily it wasn't an abdomen bite).

She is not doing the death curl, she looks paralyzed... not moving whatsoever, it's worrying me. Can she pull through this?

Here's a video
[video=youtube;ONeSiLoe9Ok]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONeSiLoe9Ok&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[The Snark]

Probably not. Many venoms include digestive properties.

 

[Tarantula155]

Probably not. Many venoms include digestive properties.

That's not what I want to read!!!

Dammit, apacheanus are pretty rare where I live. First time I've found one since 6-7 years ago. What a bummer :wall:

---------- Post added 09-29-2015 at 08:40 PM ----------

She's still holding onto the cotton ball, which is some good news I hope... though no movement at all, just frozen. No death curl.. yet

 

[Tarantula155]

Placed her in a dark area with a little moisture, crossing my fingers tomorrow morning she'll be OK. If she's still the same, then she has passed away

 

[Tarantula155]

Well, she is the same and finally did the death curl.

So unfortunate, but it happens.


Careful trying to breed Phidippus apacheaus people, the males are lunatics

 

[The Snark]

Sigh. Just keep trying.

 

[Tarantula155]

Sigh. Just keep trying.

I will if I get my hands on apacheanus again! You were right.

I've had spiders get bit before and pull through, guess this one was too much for her.

 

[Chinverts]

The same thing happened with my Phidippus princeps.. I was so disappointed when my female later died.. Never tried Cheiracanthium before. Did recently have a pair but the male died. The only trues I've successfully bred are H. carolinensis, T. helluo, Schizocosa sp., and S. grossa. Wish you good luck.

I just recently bred a shizocosa sp. And im working on T. helluo, any advicr with those.

 

[pannaking22]

Salticids as a whole are a tough group to breed. I don't have any experience with Cheiracanthium. Latrodectus and Loxosceles are both easy, but there are a ton of other spiders besides those of course.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

I've had many P. Audax slings and prego mothers. You just gotta treat them like any other sling you might have, and feed them small, or disabled prey items. I like to keep my baby jumpers in small-medium sized spice jugs. Put in some sphagnum moss and sprinkle it with pesticide free grass seed, and you'll have a really nice nursery for your baby. Hope this helps!

Oh, and one more thing, make sure you have really really good ventilation. I like to cut the middle out of the plastic lids with a soldering iron and I usually put cheese cloth in place. Just re-melt the edges of the hole and mush the cloth into the melted plastic. Cut away the excess and you should have a good ventilation system. The sphagnum moss holds in humidity and the grass soaks up the excess.

 

[WildSpider]

Breeding True Spiders in captivity is difficult!

Tell me about it. Thankfully, my Dysdera crocatas may have successfully paired as it looks like my female might be building an egg sac or two.

 

[JAFUENTES]

only trues I've bred are latrodectus species and the former sicarious terrosus now sicarious thosimades , forgive me for spelling

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

I've bred many trues. My personal favorite are the black lace weavers I used to find in my basement downstate. They were beefy little girls and guys. The slings were fun to raise as they'd take down prey much larger than themselves with their hacklemesh webs.

 

[WildSpider]

I've bred many trues. My personal favorite are the black lace weavers I used to find in my basement downstate. They were beefy little girls and guys. The slings were fun to raise as they'd take down prey much larger than themselves with their hacklemesh webs.

I caught a female Amaurobiidae of some kind and she laid an egg sac for me. Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll hatch.

 

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

I caught a female Amaurobiidae of some kind and she laid an egg sac for me. Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll hatch.

Just be prepared for the matriphagy...

 

[WildSpider]

Just be prepared for the matriphagy...

She got away from me actually a while after she laid it. I think I know why now...