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I am interested in this as well. I know most people only feed like once a week...What about if you feed them more often like 4 times a week to keep them from being hungry?
OBT Communal Experiment
- Thread starter Warren Bautista
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I believe that was one of the flaws in my commune. I only fed them once a week, and sometimes missed feedings.
I also believe the amount of space may have been a problem, as they were very cramped.
They were seperated around 5i-6i.
I also believe the amount of space may have been a problem, as they were very cramped.
They were seperated around 5i-6i.
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I've got 3 that have been together for about 2 years now.
Originally I started with 10... there was obviously some casualties, mostly over the first winter, but the population seems to have stabilized now. Interestingly, one seems to be growing at like 3x the rate of the others... and before you say this is from eating her sisters... that was a long time ago. I think now it's mostly because she is an extremely aggressive feeder. It's funny... all three have very different personalities... one is an aggressive larger spider, one is small and has short guy syndrome... and one is small and scared of the world.
Originally I started with 10... there was obviously some casualties, mostly over the first winter, but the population seems to have stabilized now. Interestingly, one seems to be growing at like 3x the rate of the others... and before you say this is from eating her sisters... that was a long time ago. I think now it's mostly because she is an extremely aggressive feeder. It's funny... all three have very different personalities... one is an aggressive larger spider, one is small and has short guy syndrome... and one is small and scared of the world.
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OBT Colony
How about you, Joe, how are your colonies doing?
How about you, Joe, how are your colonies doing?
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In foresight, I'll probably try again.
Wait, what?
---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 PM ----------
One side of the cork bark has the fibrous part of the coconut bedding, which apparently provides a good medium for OBT slings to construct hides.
8 sling this time, more hiding space, going to be fed more often.
I wonder if sometimes in a group one or two spiders will outcompete the others, causing these differences in size. Or if the pressure of crowding might cause some to eat less or grow slower. I've got a group of Holothele sp Tachira, and several litter mates of the same living in individual containers. The spiders living together as a group are notably smaller than the ones living individually. They're all offered all the food they want, but I don't think the ones living as a group eat as much.
I should mention that these are all over a year old and the group has been living together since they hatched.
I was wondering if space wasn't one of the main issues in keeping communal spiders. My three P. formosas - Winken, Blinken and Nod - all have their own individual "hides" they have constructed in the tank. I have visual confirmation that all three are alive and well at least once a week.
Did any of the OBT babies stake out a hammock or burrow of their own, or did they all seem to wander all over?
Marga
kristinnandbenn
Arachnopeon
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Any updates on any of these? I'm thinking of starting a communal project, most likely with Holothele's because it seems most people's OBT/Avic communal projects have failed.
Mr Goodkat
Arachnopeon
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- May 26, 2011
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Sorry for dragging this thread up but have found it a really good read!
Has anyone tried again or have tried there own?
If so what are your results? age? time together etc?
Jim
Has anyone tried again or have tried there own?
If so what are your results? age? time together etc?
Jim
Mr Goodkat
Arachnopeon
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Ok so i've started my own OBT Communal tank. Has been running a few weeks now.
I put 4 in a exo terra faunarium (the tall large one) with plenty of hides and substrate.
The OBT's are between 1-2" leg span in size. 3 of them straight away found their own lil place to live and settled in nicely. The other kept moving from place to place and not taking a full time hide so decided to remove this one from the tank into his own enclosure and he's now very happy
Anyway, the rest are happy (well seem to be) and keep themselves to themselves. To stop them praying on each other I make sure they are all well fed.
So far so good, I'll get some pics up soon and hopefully get a few of them too
I'll keep you posted!
I put 4 in a exo terra faunarium (the tall large one) with plenty of hides and substrate.
The OBT's are between 1-2" leg span in size. 3 of them straight away found their own lil place to live and settled in nicely. The other kept moving from place to place and not taking a full time hide so decided to remove this one from the tank into his own enclosure and he's now very happy
Anyway, the rest are happy (well seem to be) and keep themselves to themselves. To stop them praying on each other I make sure they are all well fed.
So far so good, I'll get some pics up soon and hopefully get a few of them too
I'll keep you posted!
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I have two communal OBT tanks. One has about 50 two inch OBT's and the other has about thirty 2-3 inch OBT's. (Both 10 gallon tanks with lost of hides, bark, etc) I just removed the mom after I saw her eating an offspring. She was in there for about 8 months.
Hard to tell if there have been any casualties other than the one eaten by the mom. When I do see them, they all seem to be fat and healthy. They have a consistent supply of food and it looks like some groups stay together and some are loaners. I just pull out individuals as I sell them.
I would take pics but all you would get to see is webbing.
Hard to tell if there have been any casualties other than the one eaten by the mom. When I do see them, they all seem to be fat and healthy. They have a consistent supply of food and it looks like some groups stay together and some are loaners. I just pull out individuals as I sell them.
I would take pics but all you would get to see is webbing.
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Great thread. I am thinking about setting up a communal OBT enclosure but after reading this thread it does not appear they do as well as many of the pokies do. Anybody have any updates or experiences they can add? Thanks in advance.
spiderengineer
Arachnoangel
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this is all I can think of with this idea
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj43/bigman24015/mother-of-god-gif-i9.gif
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Yes, probably better stick with my communal pokies.
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Just wanted to report on a recent failed attempt at keeping two P. murinus slings in a "communal" enclosure. Basically I got several 2i OBTs (same sac) as freebies for a separate purchase in October and decided that I would try keeping two of them together in the same 2x2x3in container. It was my first attempt at any sort of communal enclosure, but I had read that OBTs can tolerate this sort of arrangement relatively well.
The two slings lived together with no apparent issues for five months. They dug two separate burrows but I would sometimes observe them sharing the same tunnels. As they molted out from 2i one of the slings started to appear noticeably larger than its sac-mates, including the one sharing its enclosure, which made me somewhat wary but wasn't concerning enough to end the experiment. They were both fed once or twice per week, kept at around 75F, and molted three times between October 2013 and March 2014. Yesterday I was looking through my spiders and was unable to locate the smaller of the two communal OBTs. I eventually found an unusual large bolus in the bigger sling's burrow area... I picked through it a bit and noticed some undigested fangs/chelicerae that confirmed the smaller OBT's fate.
Not sure if I could have done anything as a keeper to prevent this result... I suppose they could have been fed more, but I don't think my feeding schedule was at all unreasonable or out of line with normal care. I suspect the real issue here was the increasing size/power differential between the two slings, and perhaps the fact that these spiders are not truly "communal" but simply tolerant of each other most of the time. The remaining OBT from the communal enclosure is a solid 1"+ now and will be kept alone from now on. In any case, I just wanted to share this result for the benefit of future keepers.
The two slings lived together with no apparent issues for five months. They dug two separate burrows but I would sometimes observe them sharing the same tunnels. As they molted out from 2i one of the slings started to appear noticeably larger than its sac-mates, including the one sharing its enclosure, which made me somewhat wary but wasn't concerning enough to end the experiment. They were both fed once or twice per week, kept at around 75F, and molted three times between October 2013 and March 2014. Yesterday I was looking through my spiders and was unable to locate the smaller of the two communal OBTs. I eventually found an unusual large bolus in the bigger sling's burrow area... I picked through it a bit and noticed some undigested fangs/chelicerae that confirmed the smaller OBT's fate.
Not sure if I could have done anything as a keeper to prevent this result... I suppose they could have been fed more, but I don't think my feeding schedule was at all unreasonable or out of line with normal care. I suspect the real issue here was the increasing size/power differential between the two slings, and perhaps the fact that these spiders are not truly "communal" but simply tolerant of each other most of the time. The remaining OBT from the communal enclosure is a solid 1"+ now and will be kept alone from now on. In any case, I just wanted to share this result for the benefit of future keepers.