Shark Tank Question

[mschemmy]

I am preparing to pair my B minax so for the past week I have had their enclosures next to each other. Then I decided to shark tank the male in hopes the female would not think he is food. At first there was no interest in either tarantula but they might have been stressed from the new arrangement. So I left him in her enclosure over night and found her next to him this morning I haven’t witness any drumming or mating behavior from either despite their close proximity. Should I wait longer until I see signs of interest from both or is it a good sign that she is next to his deli cup. I fed her until she refused food so I believe she is ready to pair in that regards. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Glorfindel]

always an element of risk involved with introducing potential partners, be prepared to separate at a moment's notice.

 

[fcat]

I like to make a big tub with her enclosure buried inside, then bring up the level with substrate so there are no dangerous falls. I place his enclosure inside the big tub, removing his lid but not hers…for a few days. This is so he can map out all the safety exits (be more comfortable in a potentially threatening environment).

Some old school legends here have said if there’s not immediate interest from the female, she’s not ready. What does interest look like? It can be subtle or dramatic. I’ve seen girls start to flutter their legs the moment a male put his first leg in their enclosure a foot away, females chasing males down because the males are not interested and I’ve seen 3 week stalemates. You know what, I’m not worthy so here’s the good word:

Poecilotheria vittata pairing

You do realize that I was NOT disagreeing with you, right? i noticed ;-)

arachnoboards.com

The important part is keeping him away from her if she’s not ready. He will be a meal. If it’s a skittish species, a bigger bin with hides might allow you to cohab, but you won’t know if it was successful without cameras.

A setup for open/supervised pairings with skittish species, a video by Dave’s (little beasties) on Heterothele gabonensis pairing. A bigger open playing field with leaf litter for him to hide in when he bolts.

This is my set up for my Ornithoctoninae sp Vietnam silver (her enclosure is the one with the green labels, I keep my females that I intended to pair in smaller enclosures as suggested by @cold blood and the males I have propped open with cork bark. He is a mail order stud and I didn’t want to go from a vial to a deli cup. He’s living larger though, he’s made sperm webs in both those exterior cork bark hides as well and one in the crevice



@AphonopelmaTX has an old post about witnessing A anax pair in the wild….. males passing plenty of burrows to target particular females. He pointed out how much space they have in the wild to flee. And how selective they were about which females to rouse. I’ll try to dig it up.
A hentzi I was wrong:

Mating with sub-adults

Hey hey, I often enough read some guys explaining they pair their females at sub-adult level or waiting they hit a certain size for. Personnally, I always wait that my females are matures for pairing them with males. On my point of view, that could be a risk for the female if the male is bigger...

arachnoboards.com

There’s a lot of helpful comments in both of those posts btw

Let him come to her rather than dump him into the belly of the beast.

 

[mschemmy]

This is all great information. Thank you for the response. I will definitely try the enclosures in a larger tub with some hides. Much appreciated!

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

I’ve only paired once and they are irminas, but I found putting some of his web at the entrance of her burrow and vice versa for a few days helpful. I witnessed her “looking for him” and him drumming a bit for fervently before they were put together.