Genetics and Tarantulas

[Quality Exotics]

It’s been 12 years senses I have done much with them. A lot has changed now and I was wondering what people thought about the Genetics of them now. Can you breed for size and Color? What about disposition. It works in other animals what about Tarantulas. Are there any Albinos out there yet? I know a lot of things like that come from inbreeding and it’s a bit harder to do this with Tarantulas.

Just wonder what the comman belief is these days.

 

[LimaMikeSquared]

From what i've read and seen of articles about genetics (which is very few, i'm trying to read further) there hasnt been much luck in looking at the genetics of Ts. There was one good article by Ray Gabriel in one of the BTS journals (August 2006, Vol. 21 No. 4) - I will see if I can post a scan up, but will have to check it out due to copyright and regulations. It was about double dorsal patterns on poecilotheria, and wether it has hereditory, but the researcher didnt seem to get any results to sugest it was.

heres about conjoined patterns and hereditory patterns, and links and causes...

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=1946&hl=albino+tarantula

There have been few reports on albinos there are some threads - but some of the mentions are quite a way down on the post so bare with it.

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=9996&hl=albino

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=9232&hl=albino

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=10458&hl=albino

I don't know much about inbreeding but I've seen very concerned comments about it on the communal threads in places, but I believe nature sorted that issue out for wild species with the maturing times - or that's my deduction for it anyway, makes sense though. But that's about all I know on inbreeding.

I think breeding hybrids is also not considered appropiate in places and cause alot of controversy from what I can see. But I haven't seen much for breeding for colour, except for keeping the colour forms seperate so not breeding a light form Haplopelma lividum with a dark form. But thats about all I know on the subject I can say without bringing in too much personal opinons and hypothesis'.

Hope I helped and anyone correct me if any of this is wrong, as this is a subject I want to learn more about.

LMS

 

[MclarenF1]

Has anyone tried cross-breeding Ts?

 

[cheetah13mo]

Crossbreading is a no no so let's just leave that subject alone and say no more.

The subject of genetics has made great strides but still has a lot to be desired as quite a few genus (Aphonopelma among others) are still not fully understood yet.

 

[Brian S]

Has anyone tried cross-breeding Ts?

I wouldnt touch this topic if I were you. By doing a search you can find all sorts of crap to read on this subject. I'll even help you out and show you some infamous cross breeding threads.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/search.php?searchid=919135

 

[B.L.]

I don't think most people keeping T's even know how to breed T's successfully. It can be tricky. It helps if you show them a kama sutra guide for tarantulas first that way they know not to eat the other one.

 

[mwh9]

With out going into a lot of detail, I can tell you why what you ask is probably not going to work very well. I know quiet a bit about genetics from my experience with show rabbits but, I should say this may not be exactly the same with spiders. I would guess that most spiders don't do a great deal of traveling so when they mate, it's very possible that they are mating with a relative. The more inbreeding that happens, the more certain traits get locked in. So much so that it takes many out-crossings to change them. This applies more to type than color which is some times determined by other factors. With show rabbits, when you have breed to the point where you have the perfect body type and color, you then breed brother to sister. When this is done, you get generations of grand-champions or sometimes generations of nothing more than pets. Either way, it takes many generations to change things. Even if you did want to try to change the way they are, it may take a very long time to achieve any results.

 

[Quality Exotics]

Well coming from the Dartfrog world were I was one of the best known breeders in the US for 10 years I can tell you this. Even talking about breeding different area Color Morphs was a total sin. If you even mentioned cross breeding species you were pretty much Black Listed.

My main question is about size. I have been saving the biggest WC A. avicularia and had 4 huge Females. One molted and turned out to be a Huge Male. I bred it back to all 3 females and got my first egg sac a few weeks ago. At a show this last weekend a dealer had a Male that just molted and was tiny in comparison. I was talking to another Spider guy and he said he didn’t believe breeding for size mattered. I know breeding anything else that breeding the biggest Male and Females always made a difference and was just wondering if it was the same in the T World.

Here is a Picture of the WC Male and a Female.

 

[mwh9]

I never meant to discourage you. In fact, I personally think everyone that breeds anything should strive for the best quality possible. Breeding for color or even size within a species is great. I only hope that you are keeping records of which ones that you are breeding together and the results. I'm sure if you are successful that it will be important to have this information. The same rules should apply to spiders, if you want to change something, avoid inbreeding. Once you achieve what you want, inbreeding can lock it in.