G. rosea breeding

[MizM]

Hi everyone! Same old story, I went to pick up some crix yesterday... well, you know the rest! I found a red-phase g. rosea, I've never seen one... it is literally the color of Flaming Hot Cheetos! Amazing. It is, however a BOY T!! But he's only about 3". He has hooks and big palps, is he ready to mate even though he's so little? And... can I mate him with my brown-phase g. rosea and my "regular" g. rosea? That's not species "mixing" is it?:?

PLEASE NOTE: THIS SAID WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO ALL ON THE BOARD:
If you think Jane Emailer has the intelligence quotient of a barnacle, or that Joe Poster knows absolutely nothing about recombinant DNA, or that my spelling sucks, please e-mail that person directly. I want to hear all of your experiences with BREEDING G. ROSEAS, but don't want to scroll through 3 pages of parrying back and forth about personal opinions of each other's opinions and personalities. I think you're ALL great, and funny and cool, but I don't want to read any slams and digs on each other.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP

 

[Lopez]

Interesting. I'm in the same (or rather opposite) situation.
My female is a red phase, I've been sent a tiny 3" male who's the "standard" coloration.
My main problem is - has my male spun a sperm web yet? The owner said he matured 18th May, but he hasn't *seen* any signs of a sperm web yet. The male is not very active at the moment, unless I handle him for a while, when he gets a bit hyper. No pacing etc

Sorry to add my stuff to your thread MizM, but as it was basically the same topic I figured it would be daft to start a new one.

 

[Jeff_C]

I would like to add a third part to this question: How do you really know if the female is ready (short of seeing if she just eats the male!!)?


Jeff

btw, my apologies to those I have already asked this question but additional opinions can't hurt.

 

[MizM]

Oh puhhlease Lopez, it's not MY thread!! And your question is one I'd like to hear the answer too also!!

There was a little webbing in the enclosure that I brought Flaming Chee-Toh home in, I don't know if it is a sperm web, but he's pacing like a horny teenager!

In answer to the females, they are LTCs and adult and healthy.

The male is 1/2 the size of the females, I know this is standard for SPIDERS, but is it o.k. with my Ts? I don't want him to get eaten, but then the girls are very vell fed.

Lopez, I'd love to see a pic of your female, mine is the first red-phase that I've ever seen and I'm wondering if they're ALL as awesome as this. Oh, the underrated g. rosea!

 

[RugbyDave]

since it was found that both morphs can come from the same eggsac, i don't view it as any type of odd-breeding-behaviour.

i think its perfectly fine to do it as such.

I've got a beautiful red phase female i'm waiting to get a bit older, so maybe hold on to your boy for a while

they really are stunning, aren't they?

peace
good luck!
dave

p.s- i'll drop you an email back tonite.

 

[skinheaddave]

First of all, a mature male (boxing gloves and spurs) isn't going to get any readier. They won't continue to grow and moult, so you'd better take your chances now. Even if you managed to get a postultimate moult out of them, they wouldn't have the breeding aparatus and so you would still be out of luck.

As for sperm webs, I've had some succesful breeings now and I have NEVER actualy seen a sperm web in use. I have occasionaly thought that I've seen something resembling a sperm web remains, but could never quite be sure. They tend to disassemble them after they use them (makes sense if you are a wandering male to reclaim your resources). I generaly give freshly moulted males a couple weeks after maturation and a week or two inbetween matings.

You can check whether the female is mature from a moult. There are tonnes of websites around that go into this. Generaly speaking, though, if the female is at her adult size then she is most likely mature.

Lastly, there is nothing wrong with mixing red phase and standard phase. They will produce mixed sacs at times, so you needn't worry.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[jwb121377]

Lopez does your t have hooks? If he does, give him a week to get settled in and then he will make a sperm web.

MizM size can vary greatly in males. My G. rosea male was large when he matured, but I don't think that there is a set rule on mature male sizes. If he has hooks and makes a sperm web then he is ready for some loving.

Edit: Dave beat me to it.

 

[Lopez]

Here is my Red Phase Female:

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/PepperGallery.jpg
http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pepper08


And the Normal Phase Male I was sent today:

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Roger01

He moulted out with hooks and palps May18th, so I'm going to give him a while to settle before attempting to mate him.

 

[MizM]

Oh, you guys are great! Thanks for the info, keep your palps crossed, I'm gonna go home and put on some Barry White and pour a couple of glasses of burgundy.....

Thanks so much for the info, and Dave (LOL, I was just thinking RUGBURN Dave... not SkinheadDave! Where on earth did THAT thought come from?! Oh, ROFLOL, I kill me!!!!!) Anyway, when your girl is ready, let me know.

STUNNING pictures, why aren't more people WILD over the red-phase. I never knew they were so beautiful!

 

[SurfinJB]

I posted this on spidertalk.net for those of you not members there here is my post.G.rosea breeding project

This post is my experience with breeding G.rosea so far: On 12/26/02 I obtained a large G.rosea 5in from Petco. She was in very good condition and molted on 2/17/03 to almost 6in(she's a big girl). The humidity is around 60-75% in the spider room(varies as my humidifier is on a timer) . The temperature goes from 78 during the day and a night drop to about 70-74. The room is a walk in closet so the lighting is dim- either natural sunlight coming from my bedroom when I leave the door open or turn the closet light on. She is in a 5 gal tank with bead-a-beast a couple of sticks for a hide and a water dish.
I received a beautiful male from Scott around 3/09/03. Who had molted into maturity around 02/14/03. He is around 5in. The first breeding attempt was on 3/12/03. I tried the “shark cage method” where I put the male in an overturned petpal inside the female’s cage and waited for any signs of courtship (drumming) at which time I would release him for mating. After watching for a while and nothing happening I removed the “shark cage” to see what would happen which again was nothing. I watched them for 2-3 hrs sitting at opposite sides of the tank with no interest in each other. With a spatula in one hand and a mister in the other in case she attacked him- I decided to nudge her toward him. Sure enough as soon as one of her legs made contact with him he grabbed her right away and mated. The whole thing from him hooking her fangs till he ran like a bat out of hell probably lasted 15-20 sec (to me it was an eternity). He really wanted out of her tank after that 20 seconds and tried running up the glass walls where I rescued him. The female made no attempt to eat him or chase after him. I put him back into his enclosure to rebuild a sperm web and try again. I never saw a sperm web but 2 days later on the substrate there was remains of webbing I assumed was the sperm web. I tried again a week later using the same method of nudging the female until one of her legs touched his with the same results of him running right in to mate. I have mated them once a week using this method and instead of waiting hours to see if they will mate or putting them together and never really knowing if mating took place- they mate right away and the whole thing only takes 5 minutes and you verified that a mating took place. Now this is with a very docile female. With one of my aggressive females it worked also but this time while nudging her she assumed the threat position. I continued to nudge her closer to the male and the male actually must of seen that as an opportunity because he rushed right in while she was in the threat posture, hooked her fangs, mated, and ran like hell.
Today is 05/25/03 The females appetite is voracious and her abdomen has put on weight. Whether or not this is because I’m feeding her more to produce eggs or because she is indeed gravid is now the question. But she grabs anything that moves in hopes it is food. I’m also going to try this method with my A. avics and I’ll let you guys know if it works. This is my experience so far and I will update if I get an egg sac or anything changes.

 

[MizM]

Dude... GREAT recordkeeping, or did you just REMEMBER all that! Thanks, it helps, I never thought of having the mister handy, I just use a spatula! O.K. romance tonight!!!

 

[SurfinJB]

Yeah I keep a 3x5 card next to their cages just to write down important dates. Good Luck tonight! You might want to play some Barry White or Marvin Gaye in the background -set the mood

 

[MizM]

I was way ahead of you.... scroll up....

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

Miz M,

Joy, Cronoss and I have been involved in a large Grammostola breeding effort. One of the species involved is G. rosea. I have 6 mature red phase G. rosea females and one very happy mature male. Cronoss has a mature red phase female that has also been with my male. I also have 3 mature normal phase males, as well as several normal phase females. I have already mated all but 2 of the females ( due to molts) and I am now crossing my fingers for results. I wish all of you luck!

I asked this same question concerning the possible ratios in a previous thread. http://www.arachnopets.com/arachnoboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8040&perpage=15&highlight=Love%20thread&pagenumber=1

I never can insert links correctly so I doubt that worked.

Here is a pic of a freshly molted female next to her exuvium.

 

[Lopez]

I tried pairing them for the first time tonight.
As soon as he came near the female she started drumming like crazy - it's amazingly loud when she does it on the cork bark!
She was extremely receptive, following him around and lifting herself up and parting her fangs.
The male was more concerned with holding her off - after a long struggle he actually ran away at a mighty rate of knots.
There was no copulation.

I'm assuming this means he isn't charged or ready even though he's 100% matured.

 

[Buspirone]

I have a red phase rosie. Red phases are very pretty, IMHO. I have a female but I think she is sick.

 

[skinheaddave]

Since we're into pictures, here is one of Mary Jane with her egg sac. The lighting was poor because I didn't want to disturb her and the container isn't completely transparent, but you can definitely see what's up.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[MizM]

Awesome you guys!! Thanks.... I'll post in the morning and let you know if my red phase is wearing a silk robe and smoking a cigarette!

 

[Lopez]

Last night I decided to "test the water" and put Roger in with Pepper.
I dimmed the lights, set the tanks down on the floor and let Barry White play softly on the stereo.
As soon as Roger hit the peat Pepper came out of her burrow and sat atop her cork bark, drumming loudly with her pedipalps.
If you've not seen mating tarantulas before, this drumming is surprisingly loud, almost like someone rapping their fingertips on a wooden table.
She approached Roger, partingher chelicerae and lifting her body.
Poor Rog was having none of it though - he froze at first, eventually grappling with Pepper in an attempt to shrug her off. During the confrontation he kept his pedipalps held far backin the air, away from her body, before spinning around and legging it at an almighty rate of knots!

I managed to get a few pics of the failed copulation:

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/PepperMating01

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/PepperMating02

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/PepperMating03

http://www.donsroom.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/PepperMating04

I can only assume this means he has not had a chance to spin his sperm web and charge his palps.
I'll try again in a few days - one good thing to come from this is I now know Pepper is responsive and willing to mate.

 

[Jeff_C]

Lopez,

The coloring on that male is fantastic. Good luck with the project and keep us informed.

Jeff