Not so "Glacial" growth

[MotherofDragons]

Growth we know can vary based on multiple factors, but still some species are known for slow growth overall. Species like Grammostola or Aphonopelma I hear over and over about their insane, obnoxious, ridiculously slow, and "glacial" growth. Feeding frequency and temperatures play the largest factors most agree, so I have been curious how growth would play out for me. My house is generally 75-82deg. I can preface this with saying based on my reading and research here and other places I do not fall in line with the idea T's can be overfed. I think there are enough people who have been doing this a very long time to have disproven this, but to each their own. I also took the wise advice of some here who stated they found clear differences in feeding responses when housing slings in smaller containers. I feed 2x a week chopped mealworms and some of my juvies get crickets on occasion if I have them already for my iguanas.

My G. pulchra was purchased at 1 1/4" DLS in November with a big brown abdomen (I posted a picture of her in a thread somewhere). She was a pretty healthy eater taking most prey offered, and she molted back on December 9th. I was thrilled to my toes when she molted and gained some black color, posted here in the Molt thread, etc. At that point she was a solid 1 1/2" DLS. I was giving her side-eye when she looked to be in premolt again early January, and sure enough found her on her back when she molted AGAIN (just 5 weeks later) on Jan 13th. I have read that if there is an issue present T's can molt in quick succession, but I do not believe that is the case here. I have also heard growth is slowest up until about 1- 1 1/4" for many species and then picks up. Still, this was surprising. She put on a good deal of growth and color again with this molt, stretching out to at least 2" DLS.

Now I haven't been into the T's for long enough to truly measure anything, and this could still be a fluke or the weather, but this isn't an isolated incident so far. I purchased 3 Aphonopelma hentzi in Novemeber and they have each molted twice, and they are great eaters. All the Aphonopelma I purchased have already molted since I have purchased them in November: A. chalcodes, A. gabeli, two A. bicoloratum, A. serratum, and an A. seemani (molted twice). I am eager to see how their molt cycle continues over the course of the year. I added two more A. serratum early this month and am eager to see how long before their first molt with me.

Tell me about your out-of-the-box experience with a species others swore would grow at the speed of snail and be a sling until you died and your your great-great-great grandkids inherited it. I was pretty blown away when the G. pulchra molted a 2nd time after only 5 weeks.

 

[Liquifin]

Well, I thought you meant fast growing as in from sling-to-adult fast growing. But you still have a small juvenile, so that "glacial" phase may come soon in the future once it's a larger juvenile. So it's too soon to say it's fast growing until it's an adult in my opinion.

 

[MotherofDragons]

Well, I thought you meant fast growing as in from sling-to-adult fast growing. But you still have a small juvenile, so that "glacial" phase may come soon in the future once it's a larger juvenile. So it's too soon to say it's fast growing until it's an adult in my opinion.

I didn't say she was fast growing, but that there was a quick (maybe unheard of for this species?) turnaround between molts. I also did admit it was too soon to make any kind of claims or conclusions, and this could be a fluke. I've read people saying their G. pulchra slings molt 0-3x a year, 5 weeks between molts was a huge surprise. I certainly don't find her growth so far to be glacial by any means, maybe it's my interpretation of the term that is off, but with all the exaggerated jokes you can imagine why I expected truly slow growth.

 

[Liquifin]

I didn't say she was fast growing, but that there was a quick (maybe unheard of for this species?) turnaround between molts. I also did admit it was too soon to make any kind of claims or conclusions, and this could be a fluke. I've read people saying their G. pulchra slings molt 0-3x a year, 5 weeks between molts was a huge surprise. I certainly don't find her growth so far to be glacial by any means, maybe it's my interpretation of the term that is off, but with all the exaggerated jokes you can imagine why I expected truly slow growth.

I think there was a case of one fast growing G. pulchra from sling to adult (MM) that grew fairly quickly. But I can't seem to find that thread, but it was interesting.

 

[Jonathan6303]

Growth we know can vary based on multiple factors, but still some species are known for slow growth overall. Species like Grammostola or Aphonopelma I hear over and over about their insane, obnoxious, ridiculously slow, and "glacial" growth. Feeding frequency and temperatures play the largest factors most agree, so I have been curious how growth would play out for me. My house is generally 75-82deg. I can preface this with saying based on my reading and research here and other places I do not fall in line with the idea T's can be overfed. I think there are enough people who have been doing this a very long time to have disproven this, but to each their own. I also took the wise advice of some here who stated they found clear differences in feeding responses when housing slings in smaller containers. I feed 2x a week chopped mealworms and some of my juvies get crickets on occasion if I have them already for my iguanas.

My G. pulchra was purchased at 1 1/4" DLS in November with a big brown abdomen (I posted a picture of her in a thread somewhere). She was a pretty healthy eater taking most prey offered, and she molted back on December 9th. I was thrilled to my toes when she molted and gained some black color, posted here in the Molt thread, etc. At that point she was a solid 1 1/2" DLS. I was giving her side-eye when she looked to be in premolt again early January, and sure enough found her on her back when she molted AGAIN (just 5 weeks later) on Jan 13th. I have read that if there is an issue present T's can molt in quick succession, but I do not believe that is the case here. I have also heard growth is slowest up until about 1- 1 1/4" for many species and then picks up. Still, this was surprising. She put on a good deal of growth and color again with this molt, stretching out to at least 2" DLS.

Now I haven't been into the T's for long enough to truly measure anything, and this could still be a fluke or the weather, but this isn't an isolated incident so far. I purchased 3 Aphonopelma hentzi in Novemeber and they have each molted twice, and they are great eaters. All the Aphonopelma I purchased have already molted since I have purchased them in November: A. chalcodes, A. gabeli, two A. bicoloratum, A. serratum, and an A. seemani (molted twice). I am eager to see how their molt cycle continues over the course of the year. I added two more A. serratum early this month and am eager to see how long before their first molt with me.

Tell me about your out-of-the-box experience with a species others swore would grow at the speed of snail and be a sling until you died and your your great-great-great grandkids inherited it. I was pretty blown away when the G. pulchra molted a 2nd time after only 5 weeks.

View attachment 408401

Well I can tell you that my now 1/2 inch b. auratum(was 1/4 inch) molted twice in a year with 2-3 months of premolt so it is a slow process right know. Although my conditions probably effect growth since it is quite cold up here.

 

[joossa]

See this:

HOW Significant is Heat & Feeding?

Last night I rehoused the c. darlingi juvenile I picked up Sunday afternoon with my last batch of babies, and I was really surprised by the size difference between him and the other c. darlingi juvenile I got from the same distributor 10 weeks ago. This one has been available for awhile, and...

arachnoboards.com

 

[viper69]

Grammostola

absolutely FALSE- this GENUS has members with FAST growth rates.

 

[MotherofDragons]

absolutely FALSE- this GENUS has members with FAST growth rates.

So Grammostola as a genus is a stretch. G. pulchra is certainly one stated as slow.

other than G. pulchripes, what is fast growing in this genus?

 

[Wolfram1]

Interesting.

I have also wondered if captive breeding over generations might have an impact on growth rates in general?

Sure some species grow more slowly in general but assuming the serious breeders keep the biggest, fastest growing ones for their next project, which i find likely, does that have an effect over time?
Unintentional or not it would be selective breeding.

 

[greeneyedelle]

I think everyone has one or two specimens at least that fall outside what's expected of their genus. Average growth with each molt, growth rate, appetite, behavior: All very specimen-specific with loose parameters set by what's currently known of their genus and species. Like joossa mentioned, we had a pretty good discussion about heat and feeding and the factors they play, and I think they're definitely the most significant factors in growth. I also keep my t's warm and feed more than a lot of people here would recommend hahaha And all my t's are fast growers, except my tiniest a. chalcodes (who is still half the size of my pinky nail and hasn't molted once since I've had her).

From a scientific standpoint, I'm curious if there was a big gap in between that first molt she had with you and the one before it, and her body was making up for lost time lol Or if there'll be a big gap now. Who knows? It'll be fun to see as she continues to grow The only other factor I've seen have such an unexpectedly drastic affect on molting is "stress" for lack of a better term. Whether it was the sudden rise of temperature in their environment or just the stress of changing environments, all my t's (besides Tiny) have molted within weeks of being in my house, and I find that unless they've just molted, rehousing seems to trigger one. That could definitely be coincidence.