Disaster with the communal regalis tank :(

[Sylvi]

My communal set up is no more. Julie gave me her regalis set-up for Christmas which consisted of 4 P regalis who had been together for about a year. All came from the same sac and were the same size when introduced. One grew really fast, is twice the size of the others and is female, the others stayed small - one slightly bigger than the other two. I really wanted a female regalis, so after much thought I decided to remove her and leave the 3 males? as a communal. They have been like this for about 2 weeks and everything seemed fine. I hadn't seen one of the small ones for a few days but assumed it was molting in a cork tube. Then last night I checked them and the slightly bigger male had killed the other little one. Its body was lying on the substrate with puncture wounds. They have all been very well fed, but when I took the cork tubes out to search for the other little one I found 2 of his legs. Now I wish I had seperated all of them. Maybe taking the female out had shifted the 'social order' of the tank, and the very dominant male came to the fore. I don't know.

[UrbanJungles]

It's hard to tell if you disrupted the social order in there (are they social?) or if the inevitable just happened. Anytime you keep a communal tank this is what you have to expect. I'm very sorry for your losses...I hope the remaining two spiders do well and go on to reproduce so you can start over!

Sorry and good luck!

[Sylvi]

I won't set up another communal, it's Julie's thing really. She has got a ruffilata communal now and gave me the regalis one because she knew I wanted a female regalis. I shall give the male away for breeding. I'm not so sure about a communal in a tank set-up. In the wild if one particular member is dominant the others can move away and keep a distance, there is not that option in a tank however big the tank is.

[Merfolk]

I have read that when each individual is given a bit more space than usual, they switch operation mode and become more territorial. Removing the large female perhaps created such an effect.

[Sylvi]

Yes, that may be whats happened. Also he mollted just after I took her out which made him that much bigger than the other two.

[WARPIG]

It was a tough loss, but this post gives the hobbyist valuable information regarding the potential pitfalls with communal housing.


Thanks for posting your experience.
PIG-

[Bigboy]

Shocking. :wall:

[chandlermonster]

Sorry for your loss... How long has your friend had her ruffilata communal tank going?

[bluegootty]

sorry for the losses, but the whole communal things is always at risk.. after all they 're known cannibal (tarantula)..Again .. sorry for ur loss..damn such a waste....:(

[Sylvi]

Julie ( my daughter - Limamikesquared ) has got 8 ruffilata slings and has them in a tall plastic cereal container set up with hides. They all live in a burrow at the moment. She picked them up at the Kempton show in October.They are still small.

The other thing I did with the regalis was, I didn't actually remove the female as she lives 'out'. I moved all the males as they all lived in a tube. I just picked up the tube and put it in a new tank. So I suppose they all had to re-establish themselves in a new environment although their tubes were the same. She is a much more placid T than the remaining male. He is very spooky and always on the move.

Some dimensions for you - the tank is 9" wide x9" long x18" tall. The female molted yesterday and is now 5.5". The male is hiding down his tube but must be 3.5" at a guess, he has molted too - I'll edit it later if I'm wrong. The other 2 males were about 2". They all went in the same size a year ago. The tank is the same size as their original tank, there were 6 regalis originally but 2 died very early on. One was damaged in the post and never recovered, the other never really thrived. They all got out when we first housed them, we found them roaming on Julies bedroom ceiling - that would have been a very large communal tank lol.