how good has your experience been with Monocentropus balfouri so far? any experienced "joe"?

H

HomoPortoricens

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
26
Hi, everybody, i ve been out of the hobby ( and Arachnoboards as well) for two good straight years, lot of transitions here and there, and with the fact of also residing in the U.S now ( thanks to the army). for those of you who remember my posts about species of scorpions and tarantulas from puerto rico, i will be establishing myself in the breeding bussiness (here in the states) and possibly will introduce some species from puerto rico (legally, of course) in the hobby. But, back, to the original intention of this thread that i decide to post today, i was wondering how has been your experience with the fascinating M. Balfouri. So far i've seen good feedback about this species from people keeping them. I, Myself, recently aquired three specimens and i intend to reach a good number of these ( about 12-14) for breeding purposes ( good breeding biodiversity). Some people praise them, some people dislike them and take away credit of their beauty, but to me it seem like a very promising species to the hobby, similar in a way that a P. Metallica or any other sensational spider has been in the hobby ( well, hopefully more). How has it been (difficulty wise) to raise a spiderling of this species into a fully capable, mature specimen. also what experiences have you had with food,longevity, soil, and hardiness, and especially, how fast do they take to mature ( for those have actually raised a sling to an adult)? mine feed uncontrollably which i find a highly desirable trait. So far they make silk funnels and they are highly photofobic. Well, any feedback from people that have had them for a while is greatly encouraged!:wink:
 
Tweak

Tweak

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
134
I don't have any experience with these guys just yet but I'm days away from ordering a pair of slings so the last couple months I have been doing the whole obsessive research thing i always do leading up to the acquisition of new species. So, all my input is purely based on what I've read and deemed credible. They have that "sorta fast" growth rate of most baboons, males maturing in 4-5 years and females 6-7 which puts their life span for males around 2 years post maturation and 13-15 years total for females. As for sub, a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, and coco fiber is a good mix that holds in moisture (they need something around 80% humidity), and remains structurally sound for burrowing. Hardiness I cannot really speak to with much confidence without having any experience. They're diet doesn't need to be any different than your other T's to my knowledge a good variety of dubias crickets and superworms with my preference leaning towards dubia's as the primary feeder. For breeding, they have relatively small egg counts and from my sources the best bet is to leave the sac in there with the mom til second instar and the little guys are stable and ready to cut it on their own. Hope this helps even with my having zero experience and all that :p

Tweak

Other would-be posters:
If you see any flaws in the info in this post PLEASE let me know so i can be as ready as possible for my little guys
 
crawltech

crawltech

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
1,695
I believe they like on the dryer side.....and i also believe they are communal through all life stages..

check the breeding reports there is awsome post that describes ways to keep them thriveing in captivity....
 
H

HomoPortoricens

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
26
They do thrive under dry conditions, escessive humidity would be harmful, but for the sling a little humidity in the air ( not the substrate,no worries, I use a very shallow bottlecap for hydration) is always beneficial. I would love to know if there is a huge maturation rate difference between male and female in this species, as all my slings are about the same age, and I intend them to grow more or less ( but not necessarily perfect) on par. I will be posting some picks latter on. I am taking records of feeding and molting dates, as well as behavior and reaction to stimuli ( light, soil prefference,etc).
 
jayefbe

jayefbe

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 20, 2009
Messages
1,351
Tweak said:
I don't have any experience with these guys just yet but I'm days away from ordering a pair of slings so the last couple months I have been doing the whole obsessive research thing i always do leading up to the acquisition of new species. So, all my input is purely based on what I've read and deemed credible. They have that "sorta fast" growth rate of most baboons, males maturing in 4-5 years and females 6-7 which puts their life span for males around 2 years post maturation and 13-15 years total for females. As for sub, a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, and coco fiber is a good mix that holds in moisture (they need something around 80% humidity), and remains structurally sound for burrowing. Hardiness I cannot really speak to with much confidence without having any experience. They're diet doesn't need to be any different than your other T's to my knowledge a good variety of dubias crickets and superworms with my preference leaning towards dubia's as the primary feeder. For breeding, they have relatively small egg counts and from my sources the best bet is to leave the sac in there with the mom til second instar and the little guys are stable and ready to cut it on their own. Hope this helps even with my having zero experience and all that :p

Tweak

Other would-be posters:
If you see any flaws in the info in this post PLEASE let me know so i can be as ready as possible for my little guys
Click to expand...
I'm not sure where you got most of this. They can definitely mature much faster than that and they should be kept dry.
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?158351-Monocentropus-balfouri-growth-rate
 
Tweak

Tweak

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
134
Thanks everybody thank god I posted on this thread before i got mine :wall: I realize now that what i was trying to recall was the temperature range assuming im not wrong on that front as well is around 80F.

---------- Post added 05-01-2012 at 02:00 AM ----------
crawltech said:
I believe they like on the dryer side.....and i also believe they are communal through all life stages..

check the breeding reports there is awsome post that describes ways to keep them thriveing in captivity....
Click to expand...
yes from what I know(which is proving to be not as much as I thought :/) they can be communal for life I was talking about what i read to be the optimal way to breed them
 
H

HomoPortoricens

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
26
With such expensive species I would rather not experiment with comunality, at least until I have breed numerous specimens and I determine it to be safe, and also worth the try. I have kept scorpions communally ( it is far more possible with scorpions as they do not behave as agressively ( this could be due to the ambulatory nature of the scorpions, they don't usually have a ground to defend unlike tarantulas, which make their own hides and burrows, which recquires tarantulas to be somewhat more deffensive/offensive in nature.) I think the best way to keep them communally, is to have a group of female siblings and introduce males from another group ( to avoid inbreeding, even though there is no supported evidence that this affects the resulting offspring, this is still something to be avoided, just to be on the safe side, logic dictates.) And keep them as breeding communal group. You could have various groups to which you would collect the resulting offspring and then repeat the same process again with the offspring, for example: group 1 ,group 2, group 3, and so on so forth. To avoid thinning of the bloodline, you would simply alternate the males with females of the group and viceversa. This would work effectively if you want to perpetuate a communal group or various communal groups.
 
Jared781

Jared781

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
555
Tweak said:
I don't have any experience with these guys just yet but I'm days away from ordering a pair of slings so the last couple months I have been doing the whole obsessive research thing i always do leading up to the acquisition of new species. So, all my input is purely based on what I've read and deemed credible. They have that "sorta fast" growth rate of most baboons, males maturing in 4-5 years and females 6-7 which puts their life span for males around 2 years post maturation and 13-15 years total for females. As for sub, a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, and coco fiber is a good mix that holds in moisture (they need something around 80% humidity), and remains structurally sound for burrowing. Hardiness I cannot really speak to with much confidence without having any experience. They're diet doesn't need to be any different than your other T's to my knowledge a good variety of dubias crickets and superworms with my preference leaning towards dubia's as the primary feeder. For breeding, they have relatively small egg counts and from my sources the best bet is to leave the sac in there with the mom til second instar and the little guys are stable and ready to cut it on their own. Hope this helps even with my having zero experience and all that :p

Tweak

Other would-be posters:
If you see any flaws in the info in this post PLEASE let me know so i can be as ready as possible for my little guys
Click to expand...
---
jayefbe said:
I'm not sure where you got most of this. They can definitely mature much faster than that and they should be kept dry.
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?158351-Monocentropus-balfouri-growth-rate
Click to expand...
You mad because he beat you to the task? ahha
 
Tweak

Tweak

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
134
Yes! I love that thread! Reading stuff like that is what really got me interested in balfouri
 
Tonys spiders

Tonys spiders

Arachnosquire
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
136
I had a sling 1.25" or so and after 10 months he is now a 5" male(i think pen ultimate). So id say the males mature fairly quick.
 
matt82

matt82

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jun 4, 2011
Messages
270
Baboon sp. males maturing in 4-5 years and females 6-7? Bad info. Try 18 months-2 years, max!
 
Philth

Philth

N.Y.H.C.
Old Timer
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Jan 4, 2003
Messages
2,720
Where's Joe been? I haven't seen him piss anybody off in a while {D

Later, Tom
 
M

mitchrobot

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 12, 2006
Messages
285
my experience over the last 3ish years...

they do indeed mature very fast, 1-2 years if fed well for BOTH sexes. the females will drop a sac as small as 3.5", though the sacs (in general) are very small. also they are very very tricky to get to hatch and at least form what i gather, i believe only a small handful of people in the US has successfully gotten their sacs past 2nd instar. one problem may be humidity, and it seems like spending some time with their mother definitely increases the odds of a good sac rather then pulling the sac and incubating artificially.

they breed very easy, i have had little problems with my girls and MMs, and would just let them cohabitate, some males lives in with them for months without problems. they seem very tolerant of each other, and i have seen examples of communal set ups with this species. though i have never risked keeping mine together.

they do grow quick, but probably take closer to 3-4 years to get to what i consider full size (6ish"). i have sold most of my breeders, but still have two 'big' females, one has yet to catch up to the biggest of the ones i started with. but they breed small and young, the first sac i got from these was from a very small female.
sacs are laid hammock style, suspended between two walls or from the ceiling of a cave. i have had mine leave the sac exposed above the burrow 2 of the 3 times ive gotten them to drop egg sacks. the eggsacks as mentioned were all very small, and i wasnt not able to get them past 2nd instar.

KEEP THEM DRY. i begin set up with 10" or so of substrate (I had mine in a devided 15 gallon tank) and let it dry over time, it often stays some what damp even months later. and they will burrow to the very bottum. BUT, i see them out and about pretty often. also, some build huge web cathedrals, though not all...ive had some not web hardly at all.

they seem to be somewhat fickle eaters, mine seem to do best on crickets, they dont seem to like dubia so much. crickets though get the best feeding response.

i dont handle most of my bugs, some of these are pretty mellow, but again, ive had some be completely defensive monsters...the MMs seem pretty well mannered though. i also wouldnt risk handling as i dont want to accidentally drop a $200-300 spider :)

they dont start out looking too nice, and there seems to be a varying degree of blue amongst individuals. i also had one start gold/black rather then brown/blue, but i believe its just variable within a population (i think it eventually turned blue, i dont remember to be honest, might have sold it)

not sure what else i could add to that besides pictures of some of my collection :alien:. i do recommend them, theyre very neat spiders and pretty colorful.

smallish slightly off colored one

smallish normal colored one

mature male

large female


eggsac can be seen suspended in the back, that whiteish blob. this was a very small female. this one rotted.

bow chika bow wow

another eggsac, out in the open, that white blob off too the side...very little parental care seen on this one

slings emerging, they all died shortly after emerging. BOO.
 
Shrike

Shrike

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
1,598
If anybody's interested, the latest issue of National Geographic has an article focusing on the native plants and animals of Socotra. While the article doesn't specifically discuss M. balfouri it paints a pretty cool picture of where the species calls home. It also touches on some of the challenges native species will face under development pressures being pushed by Yemen. You breeders need to keep up the good work!

This isn't the entire article, just a short excerpt and some pictures:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/socotra/white-text
 
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