Could this be my second blow of the day?? :(

[foxy]

So my supposedly juvenile GBB molted for the second time in my keep a month ago ..but it hadn't moved from its tunnel since(not to my knowledge) so I hadn't seen it clearly...I kept offering food but with no response...Well today I manage to either entice it or aggravate it enough by waving a small locust around that it ran an pounced..not sure whether to eat or defend lol...anyway I managed to get a look at it for the first time....Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?

 

[Timc]

You sure are.

 

[klawfran3]

Ain't a juvie anymore, but there are plenty of people who would be happy to take that boy off your hands for some cash, or send a couple of his babies to you in return! GBBs are always high in demand and MMs are hard to come by since they often get eaten.

 

[coolnweird]

It does indeed look like you have a mature male on your hands!

As others have said, GBB males are in high demand and you should have no trouble finding someone to buy him or trade for him. Personally I found someone to take my MM GBB on Facebook groups like Spinder (Spider Tinder ) and local buy/sell/trade groups. I knew that males often got eaten, and while I understand that's a normal risk of breeding, I didn't want to send my boy off and have him get chomped due to the breeder's inexperience. I asked each person interested if they had ever bred spiders before, which species, etc. and was able to find someone who I was confident in.

I know getting the males can be a bit of a bummer, but you have the opportunity to trade for a different species, sell the MM and use the money for more spiders, or even get some of your boy's babies back. For the spider, it's simply the end of their developmental cycle, not anything to be sad about

 

[viper69]

MM

 

[Liquifin]

Yep, that's a mature male. Time to find a female.

MMs are hard to come by since they often get eaten.

If a male gets eaten, then it's usually an inexperienced breeder or really poorly fed female in most cases.

 

[foxy]

Yep, that's a mature male. Time to find a female.


Breeding is not for me,so hopefully I can find somewhere/someone in the UK where I can try and pass him on,so he can put those love wands to use before the inevitable happens.....

Thank you everyone for the replies...he's currently chowing down on that small locust,so I'll take that as a positive sign for now

 

[Mike Withrow]

I've seen a handful a guy kept that his male's all matured out smaller than expected. A lot of male spider's are I suppose gbb maybe have this in common too.
He is a shocking beautiful spider still

 

[mack1855]

I thought from the post it would be a death curl,or stuck molt.Congrats on your MM.Its not a blow,its a high-five.

 

[Bandywhisper]

looks like hes got his spurs on his boots and ready to go!

 

[Smotzer]

Yes it’s what you think it is, and i agree it’s not a blow, obviously many people prefer females but males are always needed!

 

[foxy]

Well they say things come in 3's.....just checked on my pumpkin patch after its molt or should I be saying HIS?? Surely I'm seeing things that aren't really there?

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

The males are flocking to you!

 

[vicareux]

Sausage party

 

[foxy]

So I'm judging by those by those comments that I am correct in assuming my pumpkin patch is indeed now a mature male...
Are there certain factors that can make a T mature faster than normal...I believe that power feeding and high heat can cause them to grow quicker(im not saying ive done that)...so is maturity determined by time(age) or by number of molts? This is my pumpkin patch when I got him on October 6th last year( pic below) so he's gone from that to a mature male in 6 moths and 4 molts....is this normal?

 

[klawfran3]

So I'm judging by those by those comments that I am correct in assuming my pumpkin patch is indeed now a mature male...
Are there certain factors that can make a T mature faster than normal...I believe that power feeding and high heat can cause them to grow quicker(im not saying ive done that)...so is maturity determined by time(age) or by number of molts? This is my pumpkin patch when I got him on October 6th last year( pic below) so he's gone from that to a mature male in 6 moths and 4 molts....is this normal?

View attachment 443838

Tarantulas develop faster when they are kept warmer. "Power feeding" them is a term that came from the snake hobby, where you feed a snake as much as it'll eat so it grows faster. The problem with this is that tarantulas grow totally differently from snakes, and power feeding them doesn't actually work for them. It just makes them fat and have a long premolt period.

Maturity is determined by their stage of growth. Each individual will grow faster or slower based off of the environment and genetics is has. We characterize their growth in a few stages, and I believe these are the standard terms many people use for them:

EWL- eggs with legs, the first stage after hatching, where they'll be resorbing the remaining yolk they hatched with. They molt once or twice and become slings.

Sling- a small, baby spider that usually shows no adult coloration or proportions. These are evident in brachypelma and Aphonopelma, where slings are just a pinkish-tan color and all look like little water balloons.

Juvenile- still not at adult size but showing adult colors. Usually around an inch or more. They'll also start showing proportions more like adults and developing adult characteristics eg. Starting to grow the horn in ceratogyrus species. Males don't have emboli and female spermatheca are not sclerotized yet. They aren't sexually mature yet.

Adult- fully grown and colored, males have "matured out" and female spermatheca are fully sclerotized and ready to breed.

 

[foxy]

Tarantulas develop faster when they are kept warmer. "Power feeding" them is a term that came from the snake hobby, where you feed a snake as much as it'll eat so it grows faster. The problem with this is that tarantulas grow totally differently from snakes, and power feeding them doesn't actually work for them. It just makes them fat and have a long premolt period.

Maturity is determined by their stage of growth. Each individual will grow faster or slower based off of the environment and genetics is has. We characterize their growth in a few stages, and I believe these are the standard terms many people use for them:

EWL- eggs with legs, the first stage after hatching, where they'll be resorbing the remaining yolk they hatched with. They molt once or twice and become slings.

Sling- a small, baby spider that usually shows no adult coloration or proportions. These are evident in brachypelma and Aphonopelma, where slings are just a pinkish-tan color and all look like little water balloons.

Juvenile- still not at adult size but showing adult colors. Usually around an inch or more. They'll also start showing proportions more like adults and developing adult characteristics eg. Starting to grow the horn in ceratogyrus species. Males don't have emboli and female spermatheca are not sclerotized yet. They aren't sexually mature yet.

Adult- fully grown and colored, males have "matured out" and female spermatheca are fully sclerotized and ready to breed.

Thanks for the info appreciated but I get all that...what I'm asking is,how do you go from a 2cm sling to a mature male in 6 months? Surely that's not normal and has to be underlying factors?

 

[thedragonslapper]

If you don't have any females on hand you can send him off to a breeder. Last year I traded an MM GBB and got 4 slings - 2 OBTs, a P. irminia and an H. pulchripes - in exchange.

 

[foxy]

I

If you don't have any females on hand you can send him off to a breeder. Last year I traded an MM GBB and got 4 slings - 2 OBTs, a P. irminia and an H. pulchripes - in exchange.

Don't have any females,and tbh breeding is not for me anyway,far to much work involved....
T Keeping in the UK isn't that big from what I can gather..I have posted them on a few sites in hope of finding someone to take them for a fee or exchange...I'm not comfortable posting so it's going to be a big ask to get shot of them...

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

From Tom's Big Spider's

" This is a sexually dimorphic species, with mature males being much smaller than their female counterparts. I’ve had a male mature in under a year at a very gangly 2.5” (6.3 cm). In comparison, my large female is now a hefty 3.5” (8 cm), and it took her close to three years to reach sexual maturity."

Hapalopus sp. Colombia Lg. “The Pumpkin Patch”

A feisty new world “dwarf” terrestrial tarantula from Colombia At a Glance Old World or New WorldNew WorldTerrestrial/Arboreal/FossorialTerrestrialMoisture DependentYes (although adapta…

tomsbigspiders.com