To mate or not to mate, that is the question?

blooms

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
222
I recently was awakened by my P. rufilata. My "spider closet" is next to my bedroom. The other night I heard "tap, tap, tap". I got up to find that my male P. rufliata was tapping on the side of his enclosure. Oddly enough the object of his affection was a female P. regalis in the adjacent container. So do I let him have his way with her, die a virgin,or ship him off to a friend who has a female P. rufliata? If I decide not to mate him, how much longer will he live? I should say also that he's got a legspan of about 7 inches and the female regalis is an 8 incher.
 

BrettG

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
1,315
Do NOT mate them.Just do not do it.Not even going into why,because in 5 minutes you will see why.........Ship him to your friend.
 

Redneck

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
1,393
Do NOT mate them.Just do not do it.Not even going into why,because in 5 minutes you will see why.........Ship him to your friend.
+1 To this ^..... Lets all run and grab some popcorn.. This is going to be fun to read..
 

Redneck

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
1,393
Maybe, just for fun, try to mate them once?
What?! Please... Tell me you are joking?! If not.. That is the most ignorant comment I have ever read on this forum...& you should really not post again.. Until you have actually read & learned enough to know what you are suggesting..
 

BillieJean

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
23
Could someone please explain the harm of breeding different species of the same genus?
 

NikiP

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
539
Breeding tarantulas isn't like breeding cats & dogs.

It wouldn't be as much of an issue if tarantulas weren't hard enough to ID with out cross breeding being mixed in. Seems like even when you are sure, you still can't be sure enough.
 

flyguycolorado

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 7, 2009
Messages
48
This comes up every two weeks or so and gets really redundant quick.

Sometimes I wonder why a person that would ask that question even has a poecilotheria to begin with .Not that anyone can’t get them, or they are hard to keep. I would think that if you had anything from that genus and was a member of this forum your (research-time spent doing research) would have led you to topic and the answer to that question “just by dumb luck.” Anyway ship him off. All in my opinion. 
I apologize for any grammatical errors this is done via my phone. Just had some time to kill, and this topic fit that mold.
 

BillieJean

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
23
Breeding tarantulas isn't like breeding cats & dogs.

It wouldn't be as much of an issue if tarantulas weren't hard enough to ID with out cross breeding being mixed in. Seems like even when you are sure, you still can't be sure enough.
I would assume T's in the hobby are in the hobby for good (i.e. no releasing back into the wild), so I don't quite see ID'ing a captive-bred spider as being of much importance to biology. What is important, biologically speaking, is the diversification of the tarantulas' genes, and if we are to only breed within species (without the introduction of MORE wild-caught tarantulas) eventually the tarantulas will begin to express [deleterious] recessive genes due to the interbreeding.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying we should crossbreed our tarantulas willy-nilly. But IMO responsible hybridization, with proper documentation, could potentially be a good thing for the long-term survival of the T's in our hobby.
 
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Chris_Skeleton

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Messages
1,309
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying we should crossbreed our tarantulas willy-nilly. But IMO responsible hybridization, with proper documentation, could potentially be a good thing for the long-term survival of the T's in our hobby.
Right. Because there is no chance that Ts will survive without hybridization :wall:

Seriously?
 
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