Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens Mating Preparation

[HaploFool]

Here is the actual first step in preparing to mate my Green Bottle Blues. Many thanks and much love goes out to my new friend Mina for her advice and guidance! This is day one (1/22/09) I will be taking step two which will also be uploaded here for all to see. I had heard how difficult these are to breed so I figured I'd make a "how to" of sorts for people to see what I did.

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Here's the first attempt at mating them (1/24/09) which proved interesting though no inserts were made. I find it fascinating how they behaved with one another and the female did not try to devour the male... here's a clip from how the whole hour and a half of courting went.

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[Talkenlate04]

Good luck! This species is hard to breed but very rewarding when you do get slings.

 

[HaploFool]

Thanks Ryan!! I ADORE this species... I got my firs two GBB's from you and the girls are getting big, i'd say two (maybe 3) molts and they'll be mature. I certainly hope to get a sac from this pairing!!

 

[KJE]

Good luck!

The first couple times I bred this species I watched them for about 2 hours before anything happened. I finally decided I'd just let the male co-habitate with my females. That actually worked out great for my girls. I have only lost 1 male to my females, and he was on his last leg anyway. I have used several males in the last few years. I tried rotating different males in and out with my girls.

Getting a viable sac is harder than the actual mating.

I hope you get some slings. This is my favorite species.

 

[HaploFool]

I put them together again last night and at one point the female lunged at the male and he barely escaped! He only lost one leg and as of this morning was doing fine. He's in a very well ventilated shark cage. Thank you for the well wishes... I'm hoping for the best.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Was there an insert before the attack?

 

[HaploFool]

To be quite honest Ryan... I was staring as he reached his palps out and she flipped! It happened so fast that I couldn't tell. :wall: I don't believe there was but I'm also not 100% sure. I need better lighting.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Did she scratch at all like my female did in the video I sent you?

 

[HaploFool]

No. You mean like they do when it seems like they're trying to wipe the other spider off of them?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Yes mine scratched her furrow for a good 5 minutes after, it was pretty hard to miss.

 

[HaploFool]

Well... hopefully I'll get to see some of that with this male. I'll try and video them if they're mating tonight and I'll post it here in this thread. Thank you for the tip though, very much.

 

[HaploFool]

Well...

I released the male from the shark cage to cohabitate with the female some time around 7:30 pm on 1/26/09. I had thrown in several large crickets for Adi who damn near ate all of them. Several attempts were made by the male to mate with her in between meals but to no avail. This morning when I woke up I checked on them and found Adi finishing what was left of Little Boy Blue. It saddens me but at the same time I am hopeful that he might have been able to make an insertion.

All I can do now is begin feeding my other males so that they will mature. I have two penultimate males here and two more on the way (held up due to inclimate weather). In the time it takes to grow the males into adulthood I will keep an eye on Adi to see if she gets any larger. I will post some video I captured last night this evening. There was mating attempt number one. I am a bit curious as to whether the substrate was too wet for them. Also in the time it takes for the males to mature I will allow the substrate to dry out significantly and try a second mating attempt with male #2 on dryer terrain.