slings can be male - what do you do about that?

Pulk

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i'd like to buy T's from slings in the future. it's a more fulfilling experience to raise it from a sling, and they are way cheaper than larger ones, obviously. it seems like a lot of people tend to buy T's from a very small size.

but you don't know if it's going to be a female. if it's a male, it'll die significantly sooner. (also they're often not as big as females, and they're not worth as much money).

if you breed them, or are dealing with a species with beautiful MM coloration, it's a different story, but i'm just gonna be keeping (at least many) T's as pets/display animals.

one could buy multiple slings (2 gives a 3/4 chance of getting a female, 3 gives a 7/8, 4 gives a 15/16, etc.) but that seems kind of wasteful.

i'm wondering how various people deal with a 50% chance of a sling being a lot less than perfect...
 

mischaaussems

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why is a male less perfect. In most species it takes a few years for the male to reach maturity. You still have a nice looking T, which ok maybe doesn't grow as big as a female, but that doesn't make it less nicer. If after a while it appears to be a male, keep it untill it reaches its final moult en then send it of for a breeding loan. You can benifit from that in getting a lot more new slings.
 

Pulk

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don't males live less than half as long as females? that's a big difference.

you're right, for most species size wouldn't matter (except aureostriata/parahybana/blondi/geniculata) :)

and that's a good point, that a male would give you access to a lot of slings, but that plan delays getting your female for whatever the male's lifespan is.
 

Mina

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That is just how it is. You either take the chance, or you buy bigger, guaranteed females. I currently have a number of males I'm waiting to mature,, L. para, T. blondi, B. boehmei, P. cancerides. I still enjoy them even though I know they are males. I'm really looking forward to how beautiful the cancerides will be. Yes, males don't live as long as females, however in my observations, males are much calmer and easier to deal with. My cancerides and blondi boys are very gentle and sweet for what they are. The cancerides is handleable.
And yes, I've heard of the idea of buying 3 slings so you get one female. I've only done it once, mainly because most of my slings cost in the $30 and up range. Multiply that by 3, and its a waste if you are after a female. Take your $90 and buy a guaranteed female juvie.
I care for my males just as much, if not more than, my females. I know I'll have them for less time so I cherish what I have. I guess I just don't understand what you are saying, sometimes you just can't choose sex of a pet, just as you can't choose the sex of a baby. It is just how it is. If you have that much of a problem with the possibility of getting a male, do as I suggested, forget the trio of slings and spend the extra money on a guaranteed female.
 
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Pociemon

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Same goes for me, i have bought a big T. Apophysis female, not yet fullgrown, but BIG and garantueed female. And i have now 2 slings from the same gender, and another one on the way. So i hope to get 1 female and a couple of males so i can try breeding them;)
 

Arachnobrian

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For me, buying new slings is like buying a scratch and win ticket with 50/50 odds.

Male or female makes no difference, if female it remains in my collection, if male, once mature it will be sent out for mating, and a new sling starts the process over again.

So far to date with the ones sexed, I am 50/50

N. chromatus - female
A. seemani - female
P. murinus - male
B. smithi - male
 

AfterTheAsylum

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If you are just keeping and not breeding, then why do you want a female so bad?

Also, people deal with the 50/50 chance in slings because... well, do they have any other choice in the matter?
 

cacoseraph

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really, males are actually good to get of slow growing species. something likea B. smithi would take me 7-10 years to mature a female of... that is some SLOW growing.... but a male would make decent growth each year and be mature in like ~5y for me.


plus, there is a definite thrill for me to find an unsexed turns out to be the sex that i need/want.


also, you can probably find someone interested in breeding and trade a male (mature or otherwise) to them for some slings from a dif breeding project ifyou look around and plan and what not. that way you don't have to rely on a 50/50 (which is something like 5-15% likely to yield babies for you, depending on where you read and what you believe. i personally think if you are discriminating you can up your % significantly.... don't pick idiots to send your males to, heh) to get more slings.
 

Drachenjager

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i personally think if you are discriminating you can up your % significantly.... don't pick idiots to send your males to, heh) to get more slings.


HEy thats a good point!!! MY problem is that im good at picking idiots lol I guess i am surrounded by people with that ID 10 T Error ...

NOT to mention , if you send out for a 50/50 you had better trust that the person is going to be honest. its not like oyu can go watch the matings and watch the female either lay or not lay a sac and hatching out ect. Well i guess you COULD but i mean hey if i sent one to you , it would not be practival to visit on a regular basis half way across the country would it?
 

cacoseraph

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HEy thats a good point!!! MY problem is that im good at picking idiots lol I guess i am surrounded by people with that ID 10 T Error ...

NOT to mention , if you send out for a 50/50 you had better trust that the person is going to be honest. its not like oyu can go watch the matings and watch the female either lay or not lay a sac and hatching out ect. Well i guess you COULD but i mean hey if i sent one to you , it would not be practival to visit on a regular basis half way across the country would it?
it took my brother a long time to explain ID-10-T errors to me. in my defense, we were mouth talking, not typing... but still, it was pretty funny.


and you definitely place a decent amount of trust with a person when you do a 50/50. i have had people turn into scammers a couple times now... and let me tell you, that SUCKS! the annoying thing is both times the person had only good reviews and what not before they manifested their arsefullness.
 

Drachenjager

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i'd like to buy T's from slings in the future. it's a more fulfilling experience to raise it from a sling, and they are way cheaper than larger ones, obviously. it seems like a lot of people tend to buy T's from a very small size.

but you don't know if it's going to be a female. if it's a male, it'll die significantly sooner. (also they're often not as big as females, and they're not worth as much money).

if you breed them, or are dealing with a species with beautiful MM coloration, it's a different story, but i'm just gonna be keeping (at least many) T's as pets/display animals.

one could buy multiple slings (2 gives a 3/4 chance of getting a female, 3 gives a 7/8, 4 gives a 15/16, etc.) but that seems kind of wasteful.

i'm wondering how various people deal with a 50% chance of a sling being a lot less than perfect...
I dont figgure your math here , maybe its because i am not too good with stats. BUT if i am right, if you flip a coin you have a 50% chance of getting heads and a 50% chance of getting tails. because it has equal chance of landing on each side. IF an egg sac is 50% male, and you buy 2 slings , id say you have a 50% chance of getting a male. not sure how you figgure getting 2 slings gives you a 3/4 chance of getting a female...
actually there is a 100% chance of getting either male or female slings, and that is as perfect as it gets. I dont see how you can call a male less than perfect. Just think for a minute what would happen to our hobby in the next 25 years if all slings were female... did you think? WE would not have a single young tarantula in the hobby. ALSO no wild stock to replenish our stocks as they too would have no males. SO unless you believe that they can evolve into asexual critters in the next 10 years , you better be happy that a sling can be a male !

i mean this thread is sort of silly if you think about it isnt it?
I do understand that people would like to have longer lasting Ts for thier collections but, some females are not very pretty. Take P. plattyomma for instance. IF you want a display T to me the males of that species are the way to go. YES when they get that awesome pink color they dont last long BUT they are awesome displays until they die. The females are not UGLY by any means but no where near as bold colored as the males.
Unless you are planning to breed them, some species the males would be better displays .
oh well .
if you REALLY want to be sure you get a female, dont buy a bunch of slings, buy a guaranteed female. you may even wind up spending less money.
Just my thoughts on it. feel free to totally ignore me lol you wont be the first one to do that , and i can guarantee that , i have 2 daughters ! lol
 
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Drachenjager

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it took my brother a long time to explain ID-10-T errors to me. in my defense, we were mouth talking, not typing... but still, it was pretty funny.


and you definitely place a decent amount of trust with a person when you do a 50/50. i have had people turn into scammers a couple times now... and let me tell you, that SUCKS! the annoying thing is both times the person had only good reviews and what not before they manifested their arsefullness.
lol i suppose you should only do 50/50s with people you can beat to a pulp and close enough for that to be a threat ROTFLOL
 
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cacoseraph

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I dont figgure your math here , maybe its because i am not too good with stats. BUT if i am right, if you flip a coin you have a 50% chance of getting heads and a 50% chance of getting tails. because it has equal chance of landing on each side. IF an egg sac is 50% male, and you buy 2 slings , id say you have a 50% chance of getting a male. not sure how you figgure getting 2 slings gives you a 3/4 chance of getting a female...
actually there is a 100% chance of getting either male or female slings, and that is as perfect as it gets. I dont see how you can call a male less than perfect. Just think for a minute what would happen to our hobby in the next 25 years if all slings were female... did you think? WE would not have a single young tarantula in the hobby. ALSO no wild stock to replenish our stocks as they too would have no males. SO unless you believe that they can evolve into asexual critters in the next 10 years , you better be happy that a sling can be a male !

i mean this thread is sort of silly if you think about it isnt it?
I do understand that people would like to have longer lasting Ts for thier collections but, some females are not very pretty. Take P. plattyomma for instance. IF you want a display T to me the males of that species are the way to go. YES when they get that awesome pink color they dont last long BUT they are awesome displays until they die. The females are not UGLY by any means but no where near as bold colored as the males.
Unless you are planning to breed them, some species the males would be better displays .
oh well .
if you REALLY want to be sure you get a female, dont buy a bunch of slings, buy a guaranteed female. you may even wind up spending less money.
Just my thoughts on it. feel free to totally ignore me lol you wont be the first one to do that , and i can guarantee that , i have 2 daughters ! lol
he is assuming a random distribution of males and females. from the perspective of any single spider you have 1/2 of it being either sex. the first spider is easy to see that you have a 50% chance of either sex, right? well, what pulk is talking about is the random chance that two spiders are the *same* sex, and is er, infering the opposite case from that. like.
Code:
1    1    1
- *  - =  - =  25% that both spiders are one sex
2    2    4

1    1    1      1
- *  -  * -  =   - =  12.5% that three spiders are one sex
2    2    2      8
so in the first "two spider case" there is a 25% chance of both spiders being the same sex... which means there is a 75% chance of both spiders being *different* sexes.... which means, all things being equal (which usually *isn't* the case) you have at least a 75% chance of getting a female when you buy two spiders

similarily, there is a ~13% chance of three spiders being all the same sex... so ther is an ~87% chance they will NOT all be the same sex... so there is at least an ~87% of getting a female.

one must remember that this is not what will happen in EVERY case... merely an average case in a random 50% sex distribution with all over elements being equal.... if males are sickly then the sellable portion of a sack of a certain species might be 75% female.... or vice versa.... but in general what pulk was saying is as true as math

lol i suppose you should only do 50/50s with people you can beat to a pulp and close enough for that to be a threat ROTFLOL
why do you think i started up the local group?! heh, just kidding. well, i *do* want to do breeding with locals... but i promise only to hit people if they ask me to. or pay me.
 

Paramite

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After getting many males, I started to think about it. It's like people think that females are superior or something. They both have their place in nature and are equal. Right? Yes, females live much longer, but of course males don't have time to eat, cause they actually need to FIND the female. :) I think it's fun to see an active tarantula for a change.

These days I love all of my spiders as much, no matter if they are females or not.
 

AfterTheAsylum

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he is assuming a random distribution of males and females. from the perspective of any single spider you have 1/2 of it being either sex. the first spider is easy to see that you have a 50% chance of either sex, right? well, what pulk is talking about is the random chance that two spiders are the *same* sex, and is er, infering the opposite case from that. like.
Code:
1    1    1
- *  - =  - =  25% that both spiders are one sex
2    2    4

1    1    1      1
- *  -  * -  =   - =  12.5% that three spiders are one sex
2    2    2      8
so in the first "two spider case" there is a 25% chance of both spiders being the same sex... which means there is a 75% chance of both spiders being *different* sexes.... which means, all things being equal (which usually *isn't* the case) you have at least a 75% chance of getting a female when you buy two spiders

similarily, there is a ~13% chance of three spiders being all the same sex... so ther is an ~87% chance they will NOT all be the same sex... so there is at least an ~87% of getting a female.

one must remember that this is not what will happen in EVERY case... merely an average case in a random 50% sex distribution with all over elements being equal.... if males are sickly then the sellable portion of a sack of a certain species might be 75% female.... or vice versa.... but in general what pulk was saying is as true as math



why do you think i started up the local group?! heh, just kidding. well, i *do* want to do breeding with locals... but i promise only to hit people if they ask me to. or pay me.
And then you need to consider the cherry pickers who take the smallest slings from the sack to enhance the chances of keeping the females and selling the males.
 

Needles666

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Choosing the smallest slings is an interesting concept to me, and not one that I had considered much (I'm new to owning more than 2 lol).

Does anyone here ask the sellers for the smallest sling or slings?

It would make sense that if males grow faster than the smaller ones have a better chance of being female...

I might have to start doing that, the next time I buy...
 

Pulk

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ok, it looks like the general answer to my question is that males aren't that bad.
Drachenjager - yep, this thread is sort of silly. :)

thanks!
 

Tony92

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really, males are actually good to get of slow growing species. something likea B. smithi would take me 7-10 years to mature a female of... that is some SLOW growing.... but a male would make decent growth each year and be mature in like ~5y for me.
Very true, I had a Brachypelma vagans male mature not too long back that took 12 years !!! so you can get your moneys worth from males, also the colours can be more striking in some species.


As for me, I tend to buy at least 3-5 of the same species as small slings now to guarantee a split of the sexes, currently I'm collecting the bigger species & in the last 6 months have aqquired as sling/juvs >>

9 Theraphosa blondi
5 Theraphosa apophysis
6 Lasidora parahybana
5 Aconthoscuria genictula
 

cacoseraph

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Choosing the smallest slings is an interesting concept to me, and not one that I had considered much (I'm new to owning more than 2 lol).

Does anyone here ask the sellers for the smallest sling or slings?

It would make sense that if males grow faster than the smaller ones have a better chance of being female...

I might have to start doing that, the next time I buy...
i do that sometimes. at shows i totally try to ventrally sex stuff. amusingly enough, not just to get females... but to hopefully get the sex i want/need (penultimate males are usually pretty easy to spot in most species)



you know... pretty much everything i have said in this thread can be taken out of context and be WAY funny
 
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