Pterinochilus mating

[rknralf]

Well, I got up enough nerve to attempt to mate my Pterinochilus murinus/Usambara and was fortunate to have another keeper offer his mature male for the attempt.
Well the male is on the way, and I am looking for as much information as possible to assure a successful attempt. My female is a big girl, around 6" across with a serious attitude. She has a web retreat under a large section of cork bark in a 5.5 gallon aquarium. I've got her well fed, so I'm hoping she won't make a snack of the male. She last molted on 05/04/02.
Anyway, I wonder, when the male arrives should I wait for him to make a sperm web before I introduce him to her tank? or should I assume he is ready to go? Is there any danger of him hurting my female? If they mate, how long would it be before she produces an eggsac? Will it happen this fall or wait until spring? Also how long will the eggs take to hatch and how many babies will there be?
I know this is alot of questions, but I this would be my first experince with tarantula mating.
Ralph
I have the tarantula keepers guide by Schultz and Schultz and the book by Marshall and will read up on the breeding sections, but am looking for first-hand experience with this type as to what to expect.

 

[Immortal_sin]

Ralph,
my experience in breeding these are that the females are remarkably tolerent of the males. I had a male that I rotated a month at a time with my two females. I just put him in their tanks, he introduced himself, and even lived in her burrow with her. At times, they would sit on the side of the tank with their front pair of legs touching.
One of my females even molted while they were living together... I feel lucky he did not munch on her. However, she did not return the favor, and one day I came home to one happy fat girl. However, I believe that she was gravid by that time, and decided that she needed the room!
They are totally different with each other than they are with us humans, and it came as a total surprise to me. I did not want to attempt to *help* them male, like I do with more docile species!
Does the owner of the loaner male expect to get him back, or are you expected to send him on? I would find out if I were you...that may dictate what risks you are willing to take with him.
I am getting another male within the next week, and will do the same thing with him..just let him in to the female's tank that I don't think is gravid.
Hope that helps some!
Holley

 

[rknralf]

Holley,
The owner of the male said he does not expect him back. With that I was hoping to let them live together unsupervised for a while. I'm just sure what to expect though. I am concerned about rushing things, I think I will feed him in a separate container first and allow him to settle from the transport, then introduce him on the weekend. I may try and video some of it, although I don't want to disturb them for fear of her freaking out and deciding to munch him.
With your, has she started to prepare to lay and eggsac? How would you know it was approaching? and do you have any idea how many to expect?
Also, did your B. albopilosum eggsac ever hatch? I'm guessing it is pretty close if not already.
Thanks very much!
Ralph

 

[Immortal_sin]

Ralph,
my Usambara just cleaned house, she removed all her old webbing, and put up all new...it is now so dense that I can't see into it even though it's right up against the side. I'm hoping that it means an eggsac, though I don't want to disturb her. She ate the male on the weekend of June 20-23, so it's been a bit over 2 months.
Just put the containers next to each other, so they can figure out that there is someone of the opposite sex right there.
It shouldn't take long for some interest to show!
As for my B albo...the babies are emerging, and I think there are approx 2.5 million or so LOL
I will start separating them from mom next week, right now, they are sticking close to her. She is very protective of them. They are about 1/8th of an inch, and almost a clear color.

 

[Wade]

My experience has been similar to Holley's, they are very tolarant of each other, regardless of how they feel about the rest of the animal kingdom! The first time I bred them, I watched the whole affair, after hooking up, the male didn't bolt out of there (as I was used to seeing other species do), he instead followd her around, tapping, until he hooked up twice more! Afterwords, instead of tearing out of their, he just leisurely strolled away.

On annother occasion, I just put the male's and female's cages inside large storage bin (with top) and removed the cage lids and left them overnight. The next day, I found them on opposite ends of the bin, but mating must have occured, because I got a good sac later.

These guys do not make the round, portable sacs. They make the "hammock" type sac, that is webbed to the sides of the retreat or cage, and mom rests in the middle, just like a hammock!

Wade

 

[ArachnoJoost]

I haven't bred spiders myself yet, but from all the stories here I notice one thing: it seems to me that the more docile a T is, the more agressive mating is, and vice versa. Any thoughts on this?
greetz,
Joost

 

[Garrick]

I have some tidbits about it on my site with pictures and dates that may help. I haven't updated the Usambara breeding section lately, though. I think what's lacking is dates from laying to "hatching." In the three P. murinus sacs I've had, they each took slightly over a month from laying to spiderlings.

The females have always been really tolerant of males, except in one instance where a male cohabited with a girl well after she was so bloated that it was obvious she was producing eggs. She ate him. Likewise, a friend of mine had the same experience.

-Garrick

P.S. Oh, the link is:

http://tarantulas.differentdawn.com