t blondi ID

[Tomoran]

I wouldn't say blondi has problems in captivity. The problems come if the keeper is inexperienced. The only 2 people to breed blondi in EU often never have problematic molts with their Ts. And I also dont think they shouldn't be kept, unlike some species like M. mesomelas. I loved blondi.ever since I saw it 6 years ago, although Ive grown to like apophysis more, I think. Glad Ill be getting both species soon. I dont think I'd own stirmi, as I don't like it all that much, but who knows... I didnt like most Poecilotheria as well and now I have most of them. In the end, it comes down to taste and delicacy shouldnt be a deciding factor when buying Ts, imo.

First off, I agree that keepers with the correct level of experience should be able keep any type of T they choose. We certainly shouldn't dictate what people should or should not keep. But I think that the fact that there are only two folks that have successfully bred the T. blondi evidences the fact that this is a difficult spider to keep in captivity. I don't think that it's an over-exaggeration to say even those with years of experience find this species difficult to keep correctly, and molting issues are a huge problem with most. Whether it be the temperatures or the humidity, most folks just can't seem to nail down the proper levels for whatever reason. For the vast majority of keepers interested in Theraphosa, a stirmi would be the best, most logical option. The delicacy of the species absolutely has to be a deciding factor in which species one gets in this situation, especially when there is a MUCH less expensive, more hardy version.

Again, though ... the main issue seems to be that most of those (not all) obsessed with keeping this species lack the experience and are dead-set on acquiring one due to fallacies and misinformation.

 

[Poec54]

People just keep them too warm and too wet, most likely. That's the root of the problems. Theraphosa shouldn't be kept too warm. One of the aforementioned people keeps them at 22-23,5 at most. Blondi aren't the ones with the problems, it's the keepers who don't know how to keep them.

Not true. I've kept stirmi at 90 degree days (80 degree nights) for 6 months out of the year, and blondi about 5 degrees cooler. Heat isn't what kills them or causes molting problems. People tend to keep their spiders at a temp that's comfortable for themselves, and that may or may not be what the spider lives with in the wild. Low elevation tropics/subtropics is hot. I'm in Florida and know what it's like. It's only at several; thousand feet in elevation that temps start to moderate.

 

[Angel Minkov]

Not true. I've kept stirmi at 90 degree days (80 degree nights) for 6 months out of the year, and blondi about 5 degrees cooler. Heat isn't what kills them or causes molting problems. People tend to keep their spiders at a temp that's comfortable for themselves, and that may or may not be what the spider lives with in the wild. Low elevation tropics/subtropics is hot. I'm in Florida and know what it's like. It's only at several; thousand feet in elevation that temps start to moderate.

First off, the person whose theory is "too warm, too wet" is the guy who provides all Pamphobeteus, Theraphosa and Xenesthis species to most of the world. From my knowledge, one of your largest importers buys his Pamphs and Xenesthis from him. It's the combination of heat + high humidity, not heat alone. He's studied them in the wild more than anyone else and has spent a lot of resources, so you're basically arguing with him. I don't know why you've developed that trend of yours to try to enforce your opinion on other people who don't share it.

PS: Breeding blondi and apophysis is far from what you guys think it is. It's actually quite simple, so is the breeding for all Xenesthis and Pamphobeteus. I've acquired the info and shared it with Tom in hopes of helping him with his X. sp. "Blue" breeding. Hope it goes well for him this year

PS2: I am not agreeing nor disagreeing about stirmi being a better choice for a newbie. I've met many novices who bought blondi and had very little problems with them (maybe a lost limb during a molt, but never death or anything serious).

 

[Philth]

First off, those guys over in Germany aren't the only two people to breed T. blondi. They just happen to be the two current guys that actually have the stock to work with, so they are having the most success right now. Although captive breeding wasn't as big back in the 90's, people were having success breeding T. blondi, and getting WC females to produce sacs. Back then the real T. blondi was just as commonly imported as T. stirmi are these days.

One of the major problems for T. blondi was when T. stirmi was introduced into the hobby. T. stirmi was flooding the market for years before anybody knew they were different then the old T. blondi stock. This created a lack of captive breeding success, eventually flooding real T. blondi out of the market. Now there's nothing left to work with, unless your willing to pay premium prices for a spider that only has slight differences then the cheap WC T. stirmi that are widely available. In the U.S. it would cost more then $1,000 to get a nice breeding group of T. blondi around here. Most people aren't going to pay that, so captive breeding of T. blondi is still far off in the U.S. Although now that these guys are pumping them into the hobby again, I would suspect prices to drop and eventually see the return of T. blondi.

Later, Tom

 

[Angel Minkov]

Well, not literally the ONLY two people to breed them at all, but the only two people with a very, very high success rate. I've seen them hatched here and there, but 99% of the blondis I see are from one of those two guys. Ben definitely knows what he's doing, but his prices are also a bit higher than Kim's. Kim actually doesn't have that much to work with, compared to Ben who probably has 2 walls only with Theraphosa. Don't think he has T. stirmi though, but I'm not sure.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Would one of you in the know send me some of those breeding success notes for Theraphosa species? I have a giant adult female T. apophysis that I would really like to breed. I'm constantly on the look out for a male.

 

[Angel Minkov]

No problem. Check your PM

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

(and really doesn't belong in the genus; it used to be in Pseudotheraphosa because the males have tibial spurs)

Poec54,

Now that is an interesting discussion topic of itself. Tinter, in 1991 when his description of T. apophysis was published, used the generic taxonomic character of the presence of tibial spurs in the males to create the new genus Pseudotheraphosa (we both know this already). This is still typical in species classification today. However, Bertani determined the tibial spur in that instance didn't warrant generic separation and considered Psuedotheraphosa a junior synonym of Theraphosa because all other characters of the genus Theraphosa were present. Characters such as the placement of the stridulating organs, male palpal bulb shape, female spermatheca, etc. etc are basically the same between all three Theraphosa species. In my opinion, I would agree with Bertani that in the case of T. apophysis, an exception needed to be made on generic designation of that species just because everything else matched the generic characters of Theraphosa. I would assume then, you would agree more with Tinter in that tibial spurs alone, combined with other Theraphosa generic characters, warrant placement in its own genus.

Far more interesting to me than the generic placement of T. apophysis is how T. stirmi as juvenile and an adult resemble a cross between T. apophysis and T. blondi. This especially as juveniles. I can't be the only one to recognize that T. apophysis is it's own very distinct species (for the reasons mentioned above) and T. blondi is its own very distinct species, but T. stirmi has an appearance like it was born from the two others. Aside from the setae on the patella appearing on T. stirmi, its morphology is the same as T. blondi, but the juvenile markings of the bright pink tarsi and metatarsi on leg 1 and 2, the vertical stripes on all legs, and general dark coloration more closely resemble T. apophysis and nothing like juvenile T. blondi.

As far as the species' phylogeny goes I do wonder, are T. apophysis and T. blondi species that branched from T. stirmi or the other way around?

 

[Poec54]

Other species have been moved to new genera because of tibial spurs, or the lack of them. If the merge of Pseudotheraphosa is valid, then there's some other changes that should be made with combining other genera. This can be pretty subjective, as we try to neatly fit all living things into an rigid & arbitrary classification system. There are definitely some grey areas in animal and plant taxonomy. Where does one species end and the next begin, especially when there's intergrades between main populations. This is an example that taxonomists aren't yet in agreement on what constitutes a genus, or species of tarantula. Obviously apophysis, blondi, and stirmi are related to a common ancestor, but the three species may have become distinct thousands of years ago, and apophysis gradually may have been isolated and through genetic drift became different enough to warrant it's own genus. Could stirmi be an intermediary species along the way, and some populations continued evolving into apophysis?