Tarantula incest...?

yarndilwuck

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Messages
11
so i was thinking hypothetically if one were to get 2 t's of the same egg sac and mated them later on down the line would it be considered incest and would it cause birth defects etc. for their babies? i don't have a pair personally but i was just wondering...
 

Musicwolf

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Messages
283
so i was thinking hypothetically if one were to get 2 t's of the same egg sac and mated them later on down the line would it be considered incest and would it cause birth defects etc. for their babies? i don't have a pair personally but i was just wondering...
It's actually fairly difficult to do because the males usually mature long before the females - - however, with different feeding regimes and temperature controls that has been overcome. The more common "incest" is a son mating with it's mother since females live so much longer than males.

Anyway, I'm not a breeding expert, so look for more replys, but I don't believe there are too many births defects initially, but certainly if fresh DNA is not brought in over a period of several generations then things will fall apart.
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
From what I've read in the tarantula keeper's guide thus far, it sounds like inbreeding is bad and can lead to smaller Ts.

They recommend constant influx of new genes.
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
1,145
4 generations into an inbreeding population of Holothele incei and I have noticed no issues.
 

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
5,357
Do you have proof of that? Any reports or papers, or even an article to support that? Just curious
I know there was a post on here regarding P. murinus being 5th generation, all kept 'in the family', so to speak.

I've done it with P. murinus and H. incei as well, and will be giving both another go this year. P. murinus will be son to mother, and incei will be siblings.

In the wild, this kind of thing isn't as likely to happen. Most of us know that males have a tendency to grow (and mature) faster than females do, so they typically mature, breed, and die before their female siblings mature.

In captivity, we're able to regulate their growth, so we can mature the males at the same time as the females. People buy multiples of one species all the time, not only so they can increase their odds of getting a female, but so they can breed them once they mature.

Occasionally you encouter oddities like this or this (both P. irminia) or the most recent N. chromatus. I don't recall whether or not these slings were produced from 'incest' breedings, or if they were random. For that matter, things like this may happen all the time, but they don't survive long enough (in captivity OR in the wild) for us to document very often.
 
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jbm150

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
1,650
I wonder if as the hobby progresses, we'll begin to see a trend of more and more weak slings are being born, Ts having less vivid colors, behavioral changes, increased mortality at all ages or decreased average lifespans, things that could be attributable to captivity but might also be possible symptoms of inbreeding.....
 

Poxicator

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
354
I wonder if as the hobby progresses, we'll begin to see a trend of more and more weak slings are being born, Ts having less vivid colors, behavioral changes, increased mortality at all ages or decreased average lifespans, things that could be attributable to captivity but might also be possible symptoms of inbreeding.....
Unfortunately thats how I see it. So many believe that inbreeding will be seen immediately, but nature gives us so many clues. We're depleting the gene pool by doing so. If you read papers by some of our luminaries they are worried that our gene pool is too small from the original sources, so you have to wonder at encouraging interbreeding.

I'd have to ask why people do this, what are the benefits? is it a lack of other sources or is it an endevour to keep all of the results? Perhaps its different in the US, but its certainly frowned upon in UK.
 
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