Local petstore with communal Avicularia tank

greensleeves

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
Messages
557
I walked into my nearest petstore to pick up some crickets, and I saw the most amazing thing - a huge hexagonal tank marked "Pinktoe Tarantulas". This store had carried a few basic Ts before, but this was the first time I had seen a petstore risk a communal setup. They did a great job landscaping the tank - plenty of corkbark and leaves and hiding places, and a nice water dish with no sponge - this place really tries to do their best for their animals.

As I was staring into the lovely greenery, counting one cute little avic after another, a very charming salesperson walked by and stopped to mention there were *eight* of the fuzzy little guys living happily in this little home. And apparently they had been doing so for several weeks. :eek:

I idly mentioned that the jury was still out on communal pinktoes, and the salesperson said that was why they were neurotic about making sure there was enough prey. I congratulated her on a nice set up and wished them luck in keeping all of them alive.

I'm definitely going back to see how this little experiment turns out - maybe put some batteries in the old digital camera to see if I can grab some shots for you guys.

Greensleeves
 

Alias

Arachnosquire
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Apr 29, 2003
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128
did he mention if any of the Avicularia succesfully molted in there already? molting tarantula would be such an easy prey, for the others hard to resist.. ;P
 

BakuBak

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
656
if You do a comunal set up with slings from 1 eggsack they will molt in thos same time ( like sometime with ouer females :p - they synhronized :khekhe )
 

abstract

Arachnodemon
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Feb 25, 2003
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748
While a molting T might be easy prey, I don't think they will actively leave their burrows and search out one. Especially if there's crickets running around everywhere, which make more noticable movements.

And, as Baku pointed out, their molt cycles are likely similar. While they might not molt the same day, they'll either be pre-molt, molting, or post-molt at the same time and not interested in food.
 

Alias

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 29, 2003
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128
I will dare to go little bit offtopic now...I saw some Martin Huber´s photos, here on Arachnopets, showing few P.subfuscas in one enclosure..did he post any info about this somewhere?
 

greensleeves

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
Messages
557
Alias said:
did he mention if any of the Avicularia succesfully molted in there already? molting tarantula would be such an easy prey, for the others hard to resist.. ;P
Actually, yes, she mentioned a few of them have been through molts - including one earlier that. They were all different sizes, so either they were sacmates in different stages of progression, or maybe totally unrelated.

They really did have a lot of good hiding places, one was even holed up inside a corkbark cave, so maybe they were able to hide well enough when molt time came around that no other T happened upon them for a snack.

Greensleeves
 
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