(crossbreeding) G. rosea X G.iheringi

[EricFavez]

Do you people think that pure bred dogs will ever die? Pitt bulls, Dalmations, etc..? NO! They will always be there, even with all the mutts that are made in this world...there will ALWAYS be pure breds! It is no different with Tarantulas, you will Always have your pure bred tarantulas...people who think the whole hobby is gonna go under because of this are very wrong and not so smart to say the least. I would imagine those slings would be awesome and I would be proud if I was the one who produced them....and I wouldnt care what any of you thought because well theyre not yours. Ill take some slings too if your buddy produces them...and Ill even try to X breed the hybrids themselves!

 

[vvx]

Do you people think that pure bred dogs will ever die? Pitt bulls, Dalmations, etc..? NO! They will always be there, even with all the mutts that are made in this world...there will ALWAYS be pure breds! It is no different with Tarantulas, you will Always have your pure bred tarantulas...people who think the whole hobby is gonna go under because of this are very wrong and not so smart to say the least. I would imagine those slings would be awesome and I would be proud if I was the one who produced them....and I wouldnt care what any of you thought because well theyre not yours. Ill take some slings too if your buddy produces them...and Ill even try to X breed the hybrids themselves!

Well dogs are all the same species, and the breeds stay pure because of pedigrees primarily. When you know the family tree of a dog it's easy to say "this is 100% pit bull" and then have it bred. With tarantulas currently you rely on what you purchased it as and what it appears to be. But you don't have the certainty the dog world has. The black spider with a red rump might be a b. vagans, or it might be a look alike. Or, it could be a hybrid already. And when you breed and sell it as b. vagans you just produce more questionable spiders.

There's just no way to be 100% sure the b. vagans you have is truly 100% b. vagans. So it would be harder to keep "pure bred" tarantulas than it is with dogs.

 

[Stylopidae]

If the spiderlings you produce are fertile, then we have a serious question about what 'species' they are - or specifically, what species you bred.

I know there are those who say "Nyaahh! You said it's impossible!"... infact, what you have done is quite significant. You have re-calssified two spiders, and garnered important information about how similar those 'species' actually are.

On a different note, I don't personally believe that our definition of a species is actually any good. However, at the moment it is all we have... when we have a good DNA picture of what a species might be, then we might have something more useful and/or testable.

Also, for the record, if you were to do this in a scientific institution, you would have had endless paperwork and red-tape to go through. Consider yourselves lucky.

If he keeps proper records, the experiment would still be a viable experiment.

The offspring of those spiders would also have to be viable, as would their offspring.

Growth rates, survival rates...etc. Those would have to be closely monitored.

Of course, there are also definitions of species other than the biological concept.

 

[Truff135]

I understand both sides of the argument and can agree with some on each.
1) It is very interesting to see two different species mate/breed. It probably shouldn't happen (like the liger example used earlier) but it doesn't sound like the mating was forced, either. Natural didn't seem in any way to be trying to "play God", he simply felt like sharing something that occurred and for that I am thankful.
2) Crossbreeding can be a very dangerous thing. I don't have an exact reference here and I'm at work and don't feel like digging them up, but I have read of crossbreeding gone wrong. Offspring can be ugly or weak and perish quickly. Seeing as how these two species live far apart in nature it is probably safe to say that this wouldn't happen in the wild. They, however, are not in the wild and it did happen and it is fascinating to see.
I don't think that he/she should get criticized so much for letting it happen. I can see if he/she was secretly plotting to terrorize the hobby with thousands of little crossbred mutants but that was not the point of this thread. It was only to share an interesting occurrence with other hobbyists.
I can't say I approve of what happened and I don't necessarily think it should be tried again, but what's done is done and I'm not going to flame you for it either.
Things like this just happen. How many of our "pure-bred" tarantulas have been the same for hundreds of years? I'm sure somewhere, some cross-breeding has happened that we just don't know about.
All in all it was interesting to see, I'm curious to know how the offspring turns out, and I think it's very responsible of you to want to keep the offspring, should they indeed hatch.

 

[cockroach52]

As for letting them go outside, it sounds like fun. But you have to consider that the tarantulas could cause problems for other native species (ok probably not much of a problem with tarantulas) and at any rate you would probably make the politicians go nuts like they are in Florida.

you have to consider not everyone cares about maintaining the current balance of things.

also consider sometimes, on the internet people make posts in jest.

 

[david goldsboro]

this is not good cross breeding any spieces of tarantulas they will end up in the hobby some how , there is roughly 1000 t's in the hobby so why go messing around trying to hybridising t's for the fun of it ,there is people who are trying to keep speices seperate but its not working when there is people who are willing to hybrize spiders , i wont loan males from any body apart from davros and paul towler as i know they have all pure stock of what we breed , also not all hybrids are week and they are fertile , when you have over 200 hybrids to contend with on top of your others you will end up passing some on to friends who will again pass them on and some where down the line the lables fall off or get mixed up then they get used in breeding projects,

 

[sunpoe]

Do you people think that pure bred dogs will ever die? Pitt bulls, Dalmations, etc..? NO! They will always be there, even with all the mutts that are made in this world...there will ALWAYS be pure breds! It is no different with Tarantulas, you will Always have your pure bred tarantulas...people who think the whole hobby is gonna go under because of this are very wrong and not so smart to say the least. I would imagine those slings would be awesome and I would be proud if I was the one who produced them....and I wouldnt care what any of you thought because well theyre not yours. Ill take some slings too if your buddy produces them...and Ill even try to X breed the hybrids themselves!

You should go to some dog forums, you would probably be surprised that a lot of poor breeding has resulted in the lose of many pure breeds. And not to mention the corruption of certain pure breeds as well.

 

[Cocoa-Jin]

I dont like the idea of hybridizing. If it happens in nature then so be it, but to have done by man feels irresponisble and disrespectful of the processes of nature.

If man wants to, chooses to, change his existence, then so be it...its within the natural process for us to choose to. But to artifically and willfully induce such "choice" on other species for our own whims is wrong.

Its wrong for us to irresponsibly bring weak and sickly animals into existence to suffer on behalf of our childlike curiosities.

All species change, adapt, or fail to do so, but its all done due to natural process, natural responses, following nature's path, nature's way.

I'd accept the hybrids if the end result had some utlity to it...livestock for food, beast of burden, etc. But doing just because you have the means to, just to get a rise out of it, just to feel powerful and important is wrong...its just mental m*sturbation. It may feel good but it leaves everything a mess.

 

[Avix4me]

i think if your willing too ide buy some of tha slings depending on how much you would sell em for