Artificial Insemination attempted on Brachypelma smithi

Travis K · Oct 10, 2009

After receiving a MM for my female he just never really got his male mojo going. Long sad story short he died without mating 24 to 32 hours prior to this thread. I tried lots of things, even spider rape:8o it was like he had bad aim...

So he is dead and I had a T I would love to have gravid. I decided I would try a little mad scientist and cut off the pedi-palps of Mister could have used some Tarantula sized viagra. I gave it a little squeeze and saw that there was "stuff" that was in there. Well I ended up molesting my big girl with her dead boyfriends junk. I was very easy going at first and noticed she wasn't very "loose". The more I attempted, yes very gently, to insert the palp the easier it was. After about 4 mins of gentle stimulation and light insertion I sqeezed out the creamy filling and then proceeded with palp number two.

Do I think it will work out and she will produce a sac? Let's just say I don't think it's worth keeping my fingers crossed, but we'll see what happens. I am not aware of any attempts of this kind so if you know of any link them up.

Kindest regards and don't flame me... She liked it,

upwith inverts! · Oct 10, 2009

Okay then... That is one awkward post. But If this does somehow work, please tell. It would be, ummm, interesting. on amore serious note, this would be a pretty huge advancement for the hobby if she becomes gravid.

OldHag · Oct 10, 2009

Travis K said:
Well I ended up molesting my big girl with her dead boyfriends junk.
Kindest regards and don't flame me... She liked it,

OMH I blew pop out of my nose when I read that!! That was totally hilarious the way you worded it!!

I hope it works! Keep us posted for sure! Im seriously interested to see what happens.

upwith inverts! · Oct 10, 2009

Since you aren't going to use it, let me cut it off and use it for you.

Travis K · Oct 10, 2009

LOL, she hasn't been in her hide in about 4 months and tonight guess where she went right off the bat?

vohnholley · Oct 10, 2009

that was just a awesome post. I cut his winky off and possibley impregated my female with a dead males phallus. cool...

Snakeman4life · Oct 10, 2009

Just a thought, but wouldn't the sperm cells die when the male died? How long do you think they would be viable for? Definitely an advancement in the hobby if it does work. Just think of all those breeding attempts that didn't go well because the male "wimped out" when placed with the female.....

joshuai · Oct 10, 2009

up withinverts! said:
That is one awkward post. But If this does somehow work, please tell. It would be, ummm, interesting.Okay then. on amore serious note,.. this would be a pretty huge advancement for the hobby if she becomes gravid
.

for all throes who hava a uncooperative male out there just wait til after a sperm web and then whack his "junk' off and do it your self. I am no expert but i think if this experiment is indeed successfull and done properly, like how he would incert it it will be very worth documenting everything. I am sure there is a Few hard to breed species out there that this would be worth looking into.

8by8 · Oct 10, 2009

how long was the male dead before you molested the female?

Travis K · Oct 10, 2009

8by8 said:
how long was the male dead before you molested the female?

24-32 hours, and the sperm already left the Ts body after being produced, hence the sperm web. If I am not mistaken the palps are just a strorage area and insertion/injection mechanism for the sperm.

Bill S · Oct 10, 2009

Snakeman4life said:
Just a thought, but wouldn't the sperm cells die when the male died?

Sperm are basically free-living cells, not dependent on the health or even existence of the male any more. That's why artificial insemination is successful in so many species. How long they last is dependent on environmental factors. For commercial horse and cow breeding it's kept refrigerated and stored for longer than what this guy did with his tarantulas.

As far as this tarantula breeding experiment - good luck and keep us posted. In theory it seems like it could work.

hamfoto · Oct 10, 2009

The sperm should be fine.

Cool idea...keep track of everything, writing down notes and such...because if this is successful you can easily have a scientific journal article out of this.

Chris

xhexdx · Oct 10, 2009

While your descriptions were a little...uh...'weird', I guess, the concept is something that has been discussed before, but this is the first I've ever heard of someone trying it.

As stated above, if it's successful, this would be huge. It's too bad it's with a species on the more 'difficult' side of the breeding spectrum, though. Next, try it with an OBT.

It would make it much easier to know if it worked, if nothing else.

Travis, I wish you the best of luck with this. If you are successful, you bet I'm going to want a few of the slings. The first AI slings in the hobby!

I wish you had pics!

--Joe

Julia · Oct 10, 2009

Wow....what an interesting post. (There really isn't a smiley to fully describe the expression on my face right now, though I would have loved to add one here.)

I do have a question though. In the wild, the "bad genes" are effectively weeded out through various ways. I would assume that a weak male would not even get the chance to spread his seed. You say that your male never got his mojo going and that it seemed he had bad aim. A healthy male tarantula wouldn't have bad aim, right? Is there a chance that you've just attempted to force a healthy female to breed with a genetically weak male?

I know nothing about tarantula genetics, other than what I've read here, so I may be way off the mark by even asking that. I'm still curious.

The results will be great to see. Even if you did end up with a bunch of cute little mutants, the experiment would still have positive results. Since no one has done this before, they'll know never to do it again.

WARPIG · Oct 10, 2009

Absolutely COOL. If you are successful it would signal a new stage in the hobby evolution and a giant leap in conservation:worship:

I remember a post where a hobbyist here used CO2 to knock his T out inorder to help cut the T out of a bad molt, now if successful, I can see hobbyists using CO2 to knock out there expensive gals and using their boys palps in lieu of skittish/recently deceased males.

GL, great post, keep us updated.

PIG-

xhexdx · Oct 10, 2009

Julia said:
I do have a question though. In the wild, the "bad genes" are effectively weeded out through various ways. I would assume that a weak male would not even get the chance to spread his seed. You say that your male never got his mojo going and that it seemed he had bad aim. A healthy male tarantula wouldn't have bad aim, right? Is there a chance that you've just attempted to force a healthy female to breed with a genetically weak male?

Brachys, (especially smithi, emilia, boehmei, from my experience) most often than not, have males who are difficult to get the initial insertions from. Once they get an insertion and figure out what they're doing, they're usually studs after that.

It doesn't surprise me at all to hear of males who never figured it out. Maybe in the wild, that wouldn't have been an issue for him. Who knows? :?

WARPIG said:
I remember a post where a hobbyist here used CO2 to knock his T out inorder to help cut the T out of a bad molt, now if successful, I can see hobbyists using CO2 to knock out there expensive gals and using their boys palps in lieu of skittish/recently deceased males.

I remember one where a hobbyist knocked the spider out and performed surgery on a cyst on her abdomen! I'm sure you remember that one, too.

I wonder how she's doing? I need to send him a PM.

Anyway...

Stopdroproll · Oct 10, 2009

Julia said:
Wow....what an interesting post. (There really isn't a smiley to fully describe the expression on my face right now, though I would have loved to add one here.)

I do have a question though. In the wild, the "bad genes" are effectively weeded out through various ways. I would assume that a weak male would not even get the chance to spread his seed. You say that your male never got his mojo going and that it seemed he had bad aim. A healthy male tarantula wouldn't have bad aim, right? Is there a chance that you've just attempted to force a healthy female to breed with a genetically weak male?

I know nothing about tarantula genetics, other than what I've read here, so I may be way off the mark by even asking that. I'm still curious.

The results will be great to see. Even if you did end up with a bunch of cute little mutants, the experiment would still have positive results. Since no one has done this before, they'll know never to do it again.

Well you could compare that to keeping captive bred Ts because I believe not many survive due to variables in the wild. So we're essentially allowing the "weaker" ones who hypothetically wouldn't be "smart" enough to survive in the wild.

OP made me laugh.

WARPIG · Oct 10, 2009

xhexdx said:
I remember one where a hobbyist knocked the spider out and performed surgery on a cyst on her abdomen! I'm sure you remember that one, too.

I wonder how she's doing? I need to send him a PM.

Anyway...

You're right, it was the cyst!!!

Combine both techniques, and we may have something here!!!

PIG-

The Dude · Oct 10, 2009

Yeah, wording in the original post was pretty awesome.

Mack&Cass · Oct 10, 2009

Wow that's very interesting, I'm going to have to keep an eye on this thread for sure. Like others have said, if she produces a sack out of this, it would definitely be a huge advancement in our hobby. I am blown away by the fact that you even tried it, but kudos to you for sure, truly amazing.

-Cass

Artificial Insemination attempted on Brachypelma smithi

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