North American Aphonopelma breeding ?'s

[aliceinwl]

I have a few local (central coast of California) Aphonopelma eutylenum type tarantulas. Six of them molted this year, five females and one male. My male has been making the rounds with the ladies and has successfully bred with all five at least once (three have been bred twice). He's over 6 months old now and starting to slow down in terms of sperm web construction, so I'm not sure how many more breeding he'll be able to do.

I've done a number of searches on this site trying to find information on breeding the North American Aphonopelmas, but couldn't find any that ended in the production of an egg sac. The male started making the rounds in August and his last successful conjugal visit took place last weekend. All the females still look pretty much the same, ecept for Nancy who has gotten really fat. Is there anything that I need to do to increase the chances of a sac being produced? Does anyone have any idea of a timeline / time of year that egg sacs are laid?

Thanks,
Alice

 

[David_F]

Sorry I can't give you any actual pointers but I figured I'd throw this out. I'd recommend ordering a copy of W. J. Baerg's The Tarantula. Old but I believe it has a lot of information about breeding Aphonopelma hentzi (not the same species you have, I'm sure, but probably close enough). You can get it from Fitzgerald Publishing, at the British Tarantula Society site, for a pretty good price or you could probably find it at other online book stores (not sure about that though). Need to get a copy of it myself.

Good luck breeding them. Hope you get lots of slings.

 

[Whiskeypunk]

According to the Tarantula Keepers guide*, There are two breeding cycles for Anophopelma. For some species one in the fall (august through october), then the females produce egg sacks in the spring. For other species, one in the spring with eggsacks in the end of summer.

I bet your Anos are on the fall mating cycle, and this spring you'll see some sacks.

* REALLY, Buy this book. 90% of questions on these boards can be answered by that book.

 

[aliceinwl]

I bet your Anos are on the fall mating cycle, and this spring you'll see some sacks.

If this is the case, would they need to be cooled to simulate winter temperatures? I also keep them dry, but would they also require misting to simulate winter rains? Or, could they just continue on at room temp since that is how they have been kept for the last year and their last round of molts and the male's maturation seemed to coincide with what the local wild T's were doing?

Thanks,
Alice

 

[aliceinwl]

Blackie, my male, died a couple of weeks ago. He built his last sperm web about two week before his death and I paired him with a sixth female. I'm not sure if this final mating was successful. None of my other females were accepting him, but this girl who has not molted since I've had her, and showed no interest in him during the initial round of introductions, surprised me by responding to his drums this time around. He declined rapidly after this final mating, poor guy

His first two partners have undergone dramatic increases in girth. They, however, managed to collapse their burrows repeatedly by completely undermining the foundations. I build them artificial burrows with a half aspen log at the bottom of the substrate connected to the surface by a paper towel tube cut to size. They both took to these burrows quickly and I decided to try "flooding" them. Hopefully this will simulate the rainy season. One responed by closing her burrow after doing a lot of excavating, the other left her burrow, but is now back in excavating.

I've read a few reports about flooding on here to stimulate sac productions, but I've got a few questions. Should the substrate be kept continually moist / flooded repeatedly? How moist should it be? Right now the moisture is kind of spotty since I moistened the substrate by misting heavily; does it need to be uniformily moist? One female has provided me with a nice window by clearing away the substrate between her hide and the plastic, if she produces a sac, should I continue misting to keep the substrate moisture at a certain level?

-Alice

 

[MindUtopia]

I wish I had some pointers. I'm interested to hear what others say though. I just received a A. anax pair that I hope to start pair in the next month or so once both settle in to their new homes and the male (hopefully) builds a sperm web. Good luck in getting a sac!

 

[syndicate]

more people need to breed moderatum!i want one lol

 

[The Juice]

more people need to breed moderatum!i want one lol

Yeah I noticed that I haven't seen any on anybody's list in awhile,thats probably the best looking North American specie I've seen.

 

[angelarachnid]

I have tried for many years in the UK to try to get groups of named (ie anax, chalcodies etc)Aphonopelma species from the US, to try to breed them. Any Aphonopelma species in the UK are either STUPIDLY priced or only in ones and twos.

I was promised on exchange various Argentinian Centipedes, Millipedes, Scorpions, spiders, Ecuadorian Theraphosids such as M. velox (including a couple of eggsacs), C. schmarde (including a couple of eggsacs), D. janthium etc 40 M.peterclassi alings and all i got was 17 Aphonopelmas of which most were "Carslbad green" , or Flagstaff orange, a few were given scientifc names, but mostly what i got was ripped of so i hope you are at Arachcon .

Sorry for that but that is why i refuse to deal with people accross the pond anymore (for those people who have been asking me if i will supply them).

Anyway, one A. chalcodies female i had in my spider room for over a year did nothing, sat on her bark and fed. Due to a shortage of space i moved her into my unheated living room, and within 2 days she had dug and webbed a tunnel system:clap: :clap: .

So if you want to breed Aphonopelmas, my sugestion is (depending on which states you live in and which species you are keeping) is not to bother with any extra heating (especieally at night) if they come from near where you live, or to replicate the climatic data of the area/state the spiders come from (remeber that the temperature in the burrow in winter will be a bit warmer than the air temperature recorded.

To get eggsacs from P. smithi i only had to drop the temperature a few degrees to simulate the cooler rainy season, so maybe a slight drop may be all you need.

Sorry i cannot be more helpfull the American Aphonopelmas were one of the spider groups i REALLY wanted to work on............i just couldnt get the stock.

Ray

 

[Brian S]

For Aphonopelmas it might be a good idea to give them a cooling period after they mate. I am speaking from A hentzi but the others are probably the same way (i suppose). I know that here they mate usually in late Summer or Early Fall then next year about July will make their sac. It may not be necessary for a cooling period but it certainly wouldnt hurt

 

[angelarachnid]

For you guys and galls, who have experiance with Aphonopelma species, are certain species only readilly found at certain times of the year = breeding season.

I spent many years working on the UK Hymenoptera and with some of the Apidae (bees) certain species would only be found within a few week period of the year.

Just wondered if it was the same for your Aphonopelmas, if so then maybe this could narrow down the climatic range which would be required to breed them

Ray

 

[Becca]

Sorry i cannot be more helpfull the American Aphonopelmas were one of the spider groups i REALLY wanted to work on............i just couldnt get the stock.

Ray

I feel rather disappointed now that you've said that Ray, I'm in the process of building up my collection and Aphonopelma is a species i wanted to concentrate on (especially hentzi)... Oh well... Maybe i'll be able to find a few gems here and there. It makes me wish I didn't sell on the hentzi that was given to me as a freebie from someone who no longer wanted it:wall:

 

[angelarachnid]

I feel rather disappointed now that you've said that Ray, I'm in the process of building up my collection and Aphonopelma is a species i wanted to concentrate on (especially hentzi)... Oh well... Maybe i'll be able to find a few gems here and there. It makes me wish I didn't sell on the hentzi that was given to me as a freebie from someone who no longer wanted it:wall:

Hi Becca,

Sorry but that is the state of things in the UK.

I was once offered Aphonopelma sp at a really good price, but i had to order $4000 worth at one time. That is about $3500 worth more than the UK market would cope with in one year, and i was not willing to sit on that amny spiders for that long.

So American Dealers, there is a market for named IE chalcodies, hentzi, anax. moderaum, texenensis Aphonopelma sp in the UK, unless the price is right not many can be sold so not many can be ordered. I hope someone picks up this project in the UK i will give them all the help i can

Ray

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

For you guys and galls, who have experiance with Aphonopelma species, are certain species only readilly found at certain times of the year = breeding season.

I spent many years working on the UK Hymenoptera and with some of the Apidae (bees) certain species would only be found within a few week period of the year.

Just wondered if it was the same for your Aphonopelmas, if so then maybe this could narrow down the climatic range which would be required to breed them

Ray

Yes, Aphonopelma sp. are more likely to be found during the late spring to mid fall with better chances on cool nights. In Texas (at least the northern portion) I have on occasion noticed a distinct gap in activity in July. Of course there are exceptions. Some in the western/ southwestern region start looking for them with success in January and some end their "hunting season" in December.

I'm going on literature here and not on hands on experience, but it seems that the most likely months for egg sac construction is March - June. The environmental triggers for egg deposition for this season would be an increase in water/ moisture and an abundance of prey due to the same environmental conditions.

So in my opinion, the best time to breed a North American Aphonopelma sp. is late fall. During winter reduce (not completely stop) prey availability, reduce water availability (these things are master moisture retainers so don't worry), reduce temperature (to maybe 60- 65 degrees farenheit) and before winter make sure they have a hide they have established themselves in. Some are very, very picky about this so as a general rule of thumb if you see them often, they don't have an adequet hide and keep experiementing (I see my Aphonopelma sp. as much as my Haplopelma sp. ). When Spring roles around and you notice frequent rain showers and hear crickets chirpping at night, start increasing food, humidy, and the availability of drinking water for you captive tarantulas then hope they shut themselves in their burrow/ hide and hope for the best.

- Lonnie

 

[Brian S]

I feel rather disappointed now that you've said that Ray, I'm in the process of building up my collection and Aphonopelma is a species i wanted to concentrate on (especially hentzi)... Oh well... Maybe i'll be able to find a few gems here and there. It makes me wish I didn't sell on the hentzi that was given to me as a freebie from someone who no longer wanted it:wall:

If you are interested in A hentzi send me a pm. I might be able to help you out