Recorded Growth Rate for Pamphobeteus/Xenesthis/Phormictopus/Lasiodora

[antinous]

Question, for those who have had these species and have recorded the molt, how long was the wait in between molts and for them to reach their current size (and what were the conditions they were kept in)? I do know temperature & feeding are the main differentiating factors for this, but I'm just curious.

For me at least, I feed slings smaller than 1" ever day, 2.5" every other day and then any larger than that depending on the abdomen size (I don't know about you, but I like my Ts to have some junk in the trunk lol)

 

[Poec54]

Anyone's else's growth rates are just a loose guideline, you can't really go by them. Temps and food are a huge influence and those vary. Few people are feeding slings daily. Most probably once or twice a week. Typical captive tarantula temps are going to be comfortable for us, which is usually low to mid 70's, but some are closer to 80. Most tarantulas are native to climates much warmer than that. For a couple years I had my collection in a room without a/c, and for 6 months temps in our summer were 90 daytime and 80 night. Growth rates were accelerated for every species, but it was rough on me working in there. When I started giving them some a/c (days 80, nights low-mid 70's), they didn't grow quite as fast. Does someone's growth records have day/night temps? Sling's growth is going to be faster in the summer than the winter; when did you get your sling?

The value of feeding records is also of limited use, especially for slings/young juveniles. Prey usually grows quickly when small, and a week can make a big difference in their size and bulk. To say that you fed a spider 3 small crickets: those crickets can double in size in a week. So how much food did the spider really get? When my juveniles are big enough to take adult crickets, I give them male crickets, as they're smaller. A molt later, they'll start to get female crickets.

 

[antinous]

Anyone's else's growth rates are just a loose guideline, you can't really go by them. Temps and food are a huge influence and those vary. Few people are feeding slings daily. Most probably once or twice a week. Typical captive tarantula temps are going to be comfortable for us, which is usually low to mid 70's, but some are closer to 80. Most tarantulas are native to climates much warmer than that. For a couple years I had my collection in a room without a/c, and for 6 months temps in our summer were 90 daytime and 80 night. Growth rates were accelerated for every species, but it was rough on me working in there. When I started giving them some a/c (days 80, nights low-mid 70's), they didn't grow quite as fast. Does someone's growth records have day/night temps? Sling's growth is going to be faster in the summer than the winter; when did you get your sling?

The value of feeding records is also of limited use, especially for slings/young juveniles. Prey usually grows quickly when small, and a week can make a big difference in their size and bulk. To say that you fed a spider 3 small crickets: those crickets can double in size in a week. So how much food did the spider really get? When my juveniles are big enough to take adult crickets, I give them male crickets, as they're smaller. A molt later, they'll start to get female crickets.

True, guess I didn't think it through all that much.

Question for you (regarding how you kept your room 90 during the day and 80 during the night), did you notice any tarantulas where the growth rate didn't seem to change or were negatively affected at all? I have two 'incubators' set up were it's kept around 80-82 during the day and 73-75 during the night.

 

[Haksilence]

X. Immanis
Mine has damn near doubled in size with ever molt. Purchased as a .75" sling on 3/19/16
First molt in my care was on 4/7
Next 5/29
Last 7/17

It's now ~3.25" specimen, hard to say. They are very leggy. But average about 50 days between molts a little less.
My tarantulas are kept in my bedroom, which is only used for me sleeping, so I have a space heater on a thermostat and timer regulating the room at 84f throughout the day, cycling up from 70 in the morning to a peek of 84-85 during the peek daylight ours, and then cycling back down and then off at night, keeping it comfortable for me to sleep and simultaneously mimicing a natural temperature range.

This specimen was fed every 3 days until it either refused the food, or the feeding response went down enough for it to be obvious that he wasn't interested.


Lasiodora parahybana
Purchased at ~2.5-3" 2/10/16
First molt was at 4/11
Last was 6/7

It's now about 4.5" give or take, fastish growt rate and average molt cycle of about 55 days or so. Kept in same conditions as listed above, fed 1 medium dubia or two adult crickets about every 5-6 days. Every five days until it's abdomen is quite plump, then pulling back to 6-8 days depending in appetite.

Basically I feed all of mine by their abdomen sizes, if their abdomen isnt plump and theyre accepting food, I'll supply it. I only default to the strict psudoweekly routine when they are a healthy plump size. So there have been periods with some of my specimens (especially slings, I basically feed them as much as they will eat) have been fed 3 days in a row and accepted the meals each time and then been fed again 5 days later.


Keeping the room in the high 70s low 80s GREATLY increases their appetite and groth rates. Before I started regulating temperature my bedroom was a almost constant 70 or so, maybe a bit cooler at night, and I had a b boehmei who's entire molt cycle of 190 days was under these conditions. Literally the day after she molted I started regulating temps and her most recent molt cycle was only 112 days. So having the temps up a little bit shaved 2.5 months off her molt cycle. I've been having a freshly molted t every week for like 3 months straight now.

 

[Poec54]

Question for you (regarding how you kept your room 90 during the day and 80 during the night), did you notice any tarantulas where the growth rate didn't seem to change or were negatively affected at all? I have two 'incubators' set up were it's kept around 80-82 during the day and 73-75 during the night.

Every species grew faster than they would at cooler temps, but there are always some species that are faster than others, due to the constraints of their habitat's resources. Species from arid/semiarid regions are self-regulated to grow at a slower pace, so they don't molt when there's little, or no water (which also means little or no prey). To be able to withstand long droughts, they have to start them with plump abdomens (like a bear going into hibernation).