communal P regalis setup

[FryLock]

Peter Kirk once told me (personnel comment) he had 5 female P.reg that had been together from slings to adult with no prob's they even shared food with out fights he did not give me a time frame but they had been in a large tank together from slings to adult's

 

[Lostkat]

Peter Kirk once told me (personnel comment) he had 5 female P.reg that had been together from slings to adult with no prob's they even shared food with out fights he did not give me a time frame but they had been in a large tank together from slings to adult's

I can well believe that Ray has similar set-ups!

Plus, there's Eddy, who has several billion P. regalis in a tank... mothers, daughters, husbands, grand-daughers.. second cousins twice removed...

I think there are a lot more sucesses that you don't hear about. People only tend to make posts when things go wrong.

 

[FryLock]

true lots of ppl used to do things before the days of the net too, i thought Ray had some big groups too but did not want to say 100%

 

[Ker]

Ok.. I asked this in a different thread, but got answers that were totally off .. has anyone tried setting up a tank of multiple Pokies with some of the more uncommon varieties??

 

[FryLock]

Afaik P.met is the only one that no one as tryed adult's of as a com setup tho i could be wrong :?

 

[metallica]

i have had these species communal:striata, pederseni, fasciata and regalis

 

[MizM]

Well, I can say that wading through the bickering was worth it!! Holley, thankx for posting your observances. I also have fantasies about a beautiful P. regalis community!! I only have one right now though!!

I've got males and females cohabitating and they spend much of their time touching toes and staying close to each other. I'm wondering how many of you keep the males and females together and what experiences you have had with ?THIS arrangement. My g. aureostriata couple actually seem to LIKE each other!

 

[RazorRipley]

I have kept about half of the poecilotheria species in social terrariums together, and having a 100% success rate, Ill share some of the secrets.
First off... Its not about hiding places, like people seem to assume, the poecilotheria are a social genus, and prefer to stand next to, and on top of each other. Ive found that the regalis spread themselves out, unlike the formosas, and rufilatas, however, they dont hide,... They just stand in the open with a lil bit of space. I keep 4 full grown female regalis in a 10 gallon glass terrarium, and all 4 have been fine for over a year now. The rufilatas are inseperable, they are always at each others sides. I keep my terrariums full of branches, leaves, bark etc, so that they can seperate themselves if they choose, however its never been necessary. I have one terrarium that is basically just open space, that 6 regalis have shared since birth, and are now a year old, with no casualties. My lovely friend Ker has the first pederseni social terrarium that I have ever heard of, and when asking for help, her thread was closed due to this one. Never the less, I am very anxious to see the results of such an experiment, involving a more risky species, due to their high prices, and demand. One day I will try the smithi, miranda, and subfusca species, so that I may conclude the results of socially keeping Poecilotheria. Feel free to ask me questions.

 

[FryLock]

I was going to add at the price state side you may be better keeping them apart

 

[RazorRipley]

I was going to add at the price state side you may be better keeping them apart

Always a very good idea... Intelligent people keep costly tarantulas in seperate housings. Somehow, I feel I need to prove points though and take high price risks. Oh well.... guess I may one day learn the hard way, but its only a loss of one.

 

[Lostkat]

Always a very good idea... Intelligent people keep costly tarantulas in seperate housings. Somehow, I feel I need to prove points though and take high price risks. Oh well.... guess I may one day learn the hard way, but its only a loss of one.

I can relate to your needing to prove a point, especially with all the bickering and negativity that surrounds communal set-ups at present. Like you, I intend to try social groups of the more expensive pokies in the future, but at present, I can barely afford 1, let alone 3!! I'll certainly be keeping social groups from any pokie eggsacs I get though.

It's nice to hear a few other people who've had sucesses coming out of the woodwork, rather than the same old "It doesn't work, you are killing innocent spiders" etc.

I also agree with your point about hiding places. Like I said in my previous post, the 3 P. formosa have plenty of hiding places, but they prefer to sit within 1" of eachother 99% of the time.

 

[FryLock]

I was joshing with ya (the ) P.p are said to be fine in a communal setups but considering i have heard of sub adults males beening killed by there female siblings in communal tanks (anyone add more to that i think it was a few pages back) it maybe better to spilt them if ur lucky and got one of each.

 

[Martin H.]

Hi RazorRipley,

I

First off... Its not about hiding places, like people seem to assume, the poecilotheria are a social genus,

what's your definition of "social behavior"/"social spider"?

BTW, a definition of "social spiders" and an explanation of the four premises (tolerance, interattraction, cooperation) which define "social spiders" according to FOELIX (1992) you can find in this book:

• FOELIX, R. F. (1992): Biologie der Spinnen; 2., überarb. und erw. Aufl. Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart.
  (there is also a translated edition of this book "Biology of Spiders")

BTW2, interesting reading on communal keeping of Poecilotheria:

• STRIFFLER, B. (2002): Poecilotheria subfusca POCOCK, 1895: Gemeinschaftshaltung und Nachzucht. Reptilia 7(6): 36-41.

 

[phormingochilus]

To my knowledge there are some species that do well together and some species that doesn't. It generally speaking as there tend to be both succes stories and disasters with most species that has been tried kept communally.

The born room mates:
P. formosa
P. regalis
P. striata
P. rufilata
P. subfusca

All of these are said to be found living together until the ultimate instar in nature. And I know several persons that have had no problems whatsoever in keeping groups of these species for longer periods. If you make an eggsac on one of the above species the way is to provide a large tank and raise the lings together. Much easier and much more fun than the vials.

The troublemakers:
P. ornata
P. fasciata
P. pederseni

I am not saying that it can't be done - keeping the troublemakers communally, but I have seen and heard of downright slaughterhouses when people try to keep or raise these species for prolonged periods. It seems as all goes well until a certain point were usually one or two dominant individuals need "lebensraum" and terminates most if not all siblings. I am trying these days to raise a little group of 5 P. fasciata but my hopes are not set too high ;-)

The unknowns:
P. smithi - being a very docile species from the same area of P. subfusca I'd believe that they could be kept socially.

P. miranda - I haven't been able to retrieve information about this species in nature and for obvious reasons not many have had the chance to try to keep it communally yet - 50/50 chances I'd say.

P. metallica - as this species has never been found cohabiting even with small spiderlings and the fact that the spiderlings are solitary living from 2-3 cm legspan sizes would make me very cautious in trying to keep this species socially - even though it may be the most docile of all the Poke species handling wise.

P. uniformis - is not in the hobby so who would ever know?
P. hanumavillosum - is not in the hobby so who would ever know?

Very best regards
Søren

I have kept about half of the poecilotheria species in social terrariums together, and having a 100% success rate, Ill share some of the secrets.
First off... Its not about hiding places, like people seem to assume, the poecilotheria are a social genus, and prefer to stand next to, and on top of each other. Ive found that the regalis spread themselves out, unlike the formosas, and rufilatas, however, they dont hide,... They just stand in the open with a lil bit of space. I keep 4 full grown female regalis in a 10 gallon glass terrarium, and all 4 have been fine for over a year now. The rufilatas are inseperable, they are always at each others sides. I keep my terrariums full of branches, leaves, bark etc, so that they can seperate themselves if they choose, however its never been necessary. I have one terrarium that is basically just open space, that 6 regalis have shared since birth, and are now a year old, with no casualties. My lovely friend Ker has the first pederseni social terrarium that I have ever heard of, and when asking for help, her thread was closed due to this one. Never the less, I am very anxious to see the results of such an experiment, involving a more risky species, due to their high prices, and demand. One day I will try the smithi, miranda, and subfusca species, so that I may conclude the results of socially keeping Poecilotheria. Feel free to ask me questions.

 

[RazorRipley]

Im glad you reminded me, I forgot to mention totally, that ornata and fasciata are the known trouble causers of the genus... I know little to nothing about pederseni for I only have one.

 

[Immortal_sin]

thanks to whomever resurrected this thread...
Here's an update for those interested. I STILL have 4 in the tank, I believe they are all females. I have a 5th one that was kept separate (from the same eggsac) that matured male just before I left for the conference last week. He grew so much faster than the other 4. I actually had put him in the communal tank a couple months ago, instead of keeping him separate. At that time he was the same size as the other 4. However, he quickly outdistanced the others and I removed him molt before last. He molted/grew much more quickly in the communal tank than when he was in his own vial. Obviously, this is not a scientific experiment, but I found that interesting. The reason I knew it was the same spider is that I had sexed him (tentatively-not from a molt), but he looked much different then the other 4.
I hope I'm making sense here, I'm still tired from the trip.
Anyway, I still have 4 of what I think are females in the communal tank, and he's in a separate enclosure ready to mate with my adult female this week.
I have considered cohabitating him with the adult female vs just letting them together to breed.
I also have a P fasciata couple that have been together for approx 4 months.

 

[RazorRipley]

Immortal Sin.. PLEASE keep me updated with the fasciatas, I have heard twice now that the ornatas, fasciatas and pedersenis are too aggressive to keep in such a manner. I wont try it with pederseni, too costly, but I will with fasciatas, provided that it works.

 

[phormingochilus]

I for one never said that it was impossible. I know of persons who've had luck with keeping both P. ornata and P. fasciata (not the two species together though) in communal setups. But - the general picture is that these guys are more risky to keep together than the others outlined above and that there are more failure stories than succes stories with these three species. I include P. pederseni with P. fasciata and P. ornata as P. pederseni is very closely related to P. fasciata and share the same temper.

Best regards
Søren

Immortal Sin.. PLEASE keep me updated with the fasciatas, I have heard twice now that the ornatas, fasciatas and pedersenis are too aggressive to keep in such a manner. I wont try it with pederseni, too costly, but I will with fasciatas, provided that it works.

 

[Immortal_sin]

I probably was not clear with my post. My P fasciata are a breeding pair. I haven't and wouldn't attempt to try a fasciata setup...the regalis setup at the moment is the only true 'eggsac mates living together' pokie arrangement I have.

 

[phormingochilus]

Martin Huber is one of the guys that I know of who have succeeded in raising P. fasciata communally - so it can be done ;-)

Søren

I probably was not clear with my post. My P fasciata are a breeding pair. I haven't and wouldn't attempt to try a fasciata setup...the regalis setup at the moment is the only true 'eggsac mates living together' pokie arrangement I have.