Communal tarantulas

iwlim

Arachnopeon
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Aug 28, 2015
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I found some 1.5 inch h gigas slings, are they too big to keep together? What about 1.5" h incei?
 

Cassiusstein

Arachnosquire
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Dec 9, 2016
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The two species I've seen successfully kept together are M. balfouri and P. metallica. But I'll follow this thread to see if others know a bit more.
 

Arachnomaniac19

Arachnolord
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Aug 23, 2014
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It's not worth the risk. They'll tolerate each other, but they're not communal in a social animal sense. There's always the risk of cannibalism. I'm also pretty sure that H. gigas doesn't tolerate others of it's species.
 

Cassiusstein

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Dec 9, 2016
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It depends how much of a risk you're willing to take. There's clear examples of successful communals of other species, but there's just as much, if not more cases of it failing
 

Walker253

Arachnobaron
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Jun 12, 2016
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I agree with these postings. The only thing about keeping the balfouri communally, is what if it goes wrong? Awfully expensive experiment
 

cold blood

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It depends how much of a risk you're willing to take. There's clear examples of successful communals of other species, but there's just as much, if not more cases of it failing
Lots of short term success...virtually no long term.
 

Cassiusstein

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Lots of short term success...virtually no long term.
On the youtube channel "Tarantulapedia" they had a P metallica communal for 2 years (possibly longer, no recent updates). A few casualties from "unknown causes". I personally just wouldn't try any communal whatsoever
 

cold blood

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On the youtube channel "Tarantulapedia" they had a P metallica communal for 2 years (possibly longer, no recent updates). A few casualties from "unknown causes". I personally just wouldn't try any communal whatsoever
Pokies are only "communal" when young"...2 years is just asking for trouble. M. balfouri is the only true communal in the hobby....if there's another or more, we don't know about them yet.

Yeah, I am not down with communals either.
 

Cassiusstein

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Pokies are only "communal" when young"...2 years is just asking for trouble. M. balfouri is the only true communal in the hobby....if there's another or more, we don't know about them yet.

Yeah, I am not down with communals either.
Yea I remember talking with you about this earlier. Even then aren't there a lot of precautions you're supposed to take with balfouris?
 

Poec54

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Mar 26, 2013
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It seems that the people most fascinated with keeping tarantulas in group cages are almost invariably people with little experience even keeping them in individual cages (they're not social or 'communal': a few are tolerant under ideal conditions, for varying amounts of time). For them to try this with OW's, especially arboreals is a poor idea. How many of them are prepared to catch one spider that runs out of a cage, let alone several that panic and run out at the same time?

What about the group dynamics that come into play? I've kept various Poec species together as litter-mates, from sling to juvenile. There's always food hogs that grow faster and intimidate the others. They'll grab far more food in a group setting then they would if by themselves, sometimes ridiculously so. Some will soon be 3" while a sibling or two will be 1". No matter how much food I've put in, the small ones are reluctant to eat. What do you do when recently-molted siblings are starving, and others are premolt? Do you feed the hungry ones and risk the crickets injuring/killing a molting spider, or do you hold back on food and risk the hungry ones themselves eating their defenseless siblings? If you use pre-killed food, how do you remove any that are uneaten without causing a stampede? It's a lot different than when you only have to keep your eye on one spider. Have you given any thought to cage maintenance? There's a lot more boluses to pick up, and water bowls will usually be fouled with boluses & feces. A lot more molts to pick up. You've got to lift this stuff out, sometimes when spiders are next to it. And if you nudge the spider to move it out of the way, that may trigger a panic and several may start running around, even running out of the cage together. Prepared for that? What about the people you live with, whose world will be turned upside down with loose tarantulas in the house?

The risk of cannibalism is always present. Poecs that have been together for 2 or 3 years, that one day suddenly start fighting and killing each other. There have been posts that even balfouri group cages have involved the fatalities of some. In the wild they can leave & cool down when tensions rise over food/territory, but in artificially-confined spaces, things can quickly escalate to the point of violence.

These just aren't the kind of animals to cage together, and to be fair to the spiders (a consideration often overlooked) it should only be attempted by experienced keepers. Do you want to come home and find one eating the other, or both dead from injuries? If you're short of funds, we'll chip in and buy you a few cages.
 

Olan

Arachnoangel
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Dec 23, 2002
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I too will argue against communal setups. They're still fascinating creatures to keep even with one per box.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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Dec 8, 2006
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N. incei can work as communal, they have been observed in the wild together, provided the owner has a relevant amount of experience with Ts to begin with IMO.
 

Vanisher

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Oct 2, 2004
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Had a friend with a H gigas femsle in a targe tank. He mated her and she laid a sac. The sac hatched snd the spiderlig was fed by mom. They grew to juveniles and beyond! He had them together til some of them where subadults..
 

mantisfan101

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Dec 26, 2018
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Just because a tarantula can tolerate another tarantula dors not mean that they’re communal. True communal species actually interact with each other, and the only truly communal species I can think of are monocentropus balfouri. They have even been seen sharing thebsame food item multiple times while other species such as H. Incei tend to be able to tolerate each other and that’s it.
 
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