obt communal?

jimip

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Oct 26, 2010
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so i have 3 obts coming to me tomorrow. i have reason to believe there from the same sac, i wouldnt mind doing a communal, but i owuld hate lose one of my most likely angsty angry orange beastie. its not a confidence issue here if it possible id love it. i jsut need to know tips and facts to make up my mind.
 

jt39565

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I also am getting 3 next week, so I have been doing alot of research. From what I have gathered I found they are communal when very young and not so much when getting bigger ( like 1.5") so I have decided I would save the communal for another sp. and keep my OBT's in individual containers.
 

jimip

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thats very good to know... maybe ill put them all real close so they get pissed and i get to see interesting behavior.

---------- Post added at 12:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

like bettas
 

Jacobchinarian

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thats very good to know... maybe ill put them all real close so they get pissed and i get to see interesting behavior.

---------- Post added at 12:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

like bettas
If by close you mean put their containers next to each other that will not work. Tarantulas feel their environment and sence vibrations from things moving. If you put them in separate cages they won't know about anything outside their cages.
 

jimip

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... well there goes that idea.... they will probably be in deli containers for the next bit.
 

Poxicator

Arachnobaron
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I successfully kept a community of these which started as a full sac and gradually reduced down, selling them off, to 5 after just over 1 year of communal living. The largest of these was near adult size.
I'm doing the same again from Aug 10 2 x sacs and I'm experimenting with questioning the "same sac" argument that many repeat, over and over.
 

jimip

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well i jsut picked them up today and i must say one was twice the size of the other 2. i think my 3 will stay in there sperate containers like all the others it would be a sweet idea but i would hate to lose any of them.
 

Bigboy

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so i have 3 obts coming to me tomorrow. i have reason to believe there from the same sac, i wouldnt mind doing a communal, but i owuld hate lose one of my most likely angsty angry orange beastie. its not a confidence issue here if it possible id love it. i jsut need to know tips and facts to make up my mind.
Tip, give the search function a try and you will be overwhelmed with threads asking this same question.

Fact, most "communal" set-ups result in significantly fewer, fatter, spiders than you started with.

Opinion, if you don't want to lose spiders to cannibalism, house them separately.
 

Moltar

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There are only a few species that exhibit genuine communal tendencies (as opposed to "communal tolerant"). H. incei, Pamphobeteus sp. "Chicken Spider" and several Poecilotheria come to mind. Even with those there are occasional incidences of cannibalism. Other "tolerant" species such as some Avicularia, OBT's, etc will, more often than not, will tolerate each other until... well, until they don't.

I don't know what Poxicator did right but his experience is fairly rare from what I've read.
 

jt39565

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I apologize for hijacking this thread, but, I was wondering has anyone succesfully housed an arboreal with a terrestrial? If so, what species were used?
I think on paper it could be a success, but as we all know that doesn't always translate to success in the real world.
 

Moltar

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The only way that would work is if you can manage to design the cage so that they never encounter each other. They will only see each other as potential prey or a potential threat.
 

jt39565

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I kinda thought so, but like I said, "on paper" that would be an awesome set up.
 

spiderslight

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you would almost have to go with something that burrows more then on top of the substrate. But it would only be a paper idea. No way I know of that it could be done in RL.
 

Poxicator

Arachnobaron
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There are only a few species that exhibit genuine communal tendencies (as opposed to "communal tolerant"). H. incei, Pamphobeteus sp. "Chicken Spider" and several Poecilotheria come to mind. Even with those there are occasional incidences of cannibalism. Other "tolerant" species such as some Avicularia, OBT's, etc will, more often than not, will tolerate each other until... well, until they don't.

I don't know what Poxicator did right but his experience is fairly rare from what I've read.
Nothing special, I think people don't experiment enough with this species. I have 3 communities running at the moment from 2 separate sacs and I'm studying the interaction of mixing the 2 sacs. So far no issues.
Here's a vid from the last sac, you can see the various burrows but only a few showed their faces :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMdrctiSLck
 

Moltar

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Nothing special, I think people don't experiment enough with this species. I have 3 communities running at the moment from 2 separate sacs and I'm studying the interaction of mixing the 2 sacs. So far no issues.
Here's a vid from the last sac, you can see the various burrows but only a few showed their faces :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMdrctiSLck
Hey, that's pretty cool. Have you had a communal going long enough to see if they continue to live harmoniously into adulthood? For example, the communities of H. incei and Pamphobetus sp. I've seen exhibit maternal feeding instinct and multiple generations laying all over each other without incident. I think this is the defining factor between "communal" and "tolerant". Ie: do they stay friendly once they've grown up and raise young together or do they become antisocial as they mature?

I'm glad there are people out there with the space, time, resources, etc to do these experiments so I can sit on the sidelines and pretend like I know what I'm talking about... Thanks!

Also, have you seen the vids Xhexdx has up of his OBT communal? Pretty slick.
 

Poxicator

Arachnobaron
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I guess to fully argue the question of communal living we have to consider where the definitions are. I consider Poecilotheria communal, they can be raised as slings with mum without much loss. They can be found in their natural habitat living communally with a range of generations. I consider Avics to be cohabitator at best, its obviously they can be kept together if you can get it right, although this seems rare, but they don't interact in the same manner as Pokies.
In captivity, with enclosed spaces I think communal living receives a breakdown when the breeding starts whilst you have an enclosure of adults, juveniles and slings. A female and male pairing might suffer a loss of the male so it doesnt make too much sense to continue the community at this stage. Having said that I have done exactly that with P. cambridgei.

My community of P. murinus lasted over 14 months in my care and still exists since I sold them in October. I noticed no obvious cannibilism, even when food was scarce, they'd run from one burrow and into another without issue.
I'm starting the experiment again and hope to expand on what Ive learned beforehand.
I shall take a look at Xhexdx's vids, thanks for the heads-up
 

jimip

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id love to do it it sounds so cool and id love to add to the research but im not exactly wealthy and dont want to lose my ts. so when it gets boiled down its not for me at this time. maybe someday ill have a sace and plenty of extra to mess around with.
 

Moltar

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This thread has me inspired to give an OBT commune a try. Maybe a P. lugardi commune even... Power to the proletariat!
 

jimip

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This thread has me inspired to give an OBT commune a try. Maybe a P. lugardi commune even... Power to the proletariat!
my lugardi is much calmer then my obts. i think you would have a more interesting and possibly more successful time with it.
 
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