Mating? Sperm Web?

TarantulaObsession

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Jul 26, 2014
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I have a friend who would like to mate my mature male rose hair with his mature female. I just got my rosie about six months ago while he was already mature. The lady knew nothing about him, told me that he was in fact a she. However, he has never made a sperm web in my care. The man who wants to mate them says that he has no idea why my rosie doesn't make sperm webs and the only way they can mate is if I get him to make a sperm web within the next four months. Is there any way to encourage him to make one? Is it possible that he's not comfortable in his tank? Is there anything I could do for him??
Any suggestions?

Oh! Also, he hasn't eaten since two months after I got him so, it's been around four months. His abdomen has gotten noticeably smaller and it's worrying me. I know they fast for a long time but I put him in ICU due to his abdomen shriveling up a little but that didn't help much and now I am out of ideas. Can someone help with this as well?
 
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Hobo

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He could simply be too old. I acquired an old MM who never did make one, and many MM I've kept until the end eventually stopped making them as time went on.
 

cold blood

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If it was mature when you got it, its entirely possible that he did this before you bought him. They're not just gonna do it over and over again.
 

TarantulaObsession

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Aw! This is awful news! He's my first tarantula and I was really hoping I could keep him going for a long time. (him have babies, keep one, have the baby have babies and so on.)
Thank you for replying. I suppose there's nothing I can do then, huh?
 

Poec54

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Mar 26, 2013
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Aw! This is awful news! He's my first tarantula and I was really hoping I could keep him going for a long time. (him have babies, keep one, have the baby have babies and so on.)
Thank you for replying. I suppose there's nothing I can do then, huh?
Adult males last just so long. He's past his prime. If he's stopped eating months ago, he's winding down. You're not going to keep him going for 'a long time.' You should have paired him up when you got him (actually you should have checked if it was an adult male before acquiring him). BTW, males are secretive about making sperm webs, and unless you watch him round the clock, you may have well missed it.

One of the first things to learn is how to identify adult males. When considering making a purchase, look for the emboli at the end of the palps. About 2 dozen genera of tarantulas don't have tibial spurs, so lack of them isn't necessarily a guarantee it's not an adult male. There's a few lessons to be learned with this spider, not the least of which is that at least one of the people in the transaction should know something about spiders.

BTW #2: I don't see what benefit an ICU would provide. If he has a bowl of water, he'll get hydrated from that. Being a desert species, the moist, stuffy conditions of an ICU are likely to do more harm than good. General advice: if you don't know the ailment is, you shouldn't be in a hurry to use a cure you don't understand. Lots of people make this mistake.
 

TarantulaObsession

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Joined
Jul 26, 2014
Messages
96
Adult males last just so long. He's past his prime. If he's stopped eating months ago, he's winding down. You're not going to keep him going for 'a long time.' You should have paired him up when you got him (actually you should have checked if it was an adult male before acquiring him). BTW, males are secretive about making sperm webs, and unless you watch him round the clock, you may have well missed it.

One of the first things to learn is how to identify adult males. When considering making a purchase, look for the emboli at the end of the palps. About 2 dozen genera of tarantulas don't have tibial spurs, so lack of them isn't necessarily a guarantee it's not an adult male. There's a few lessons to be learned with this spider, not the least of which is that at least one of the people in the transaction should know something about spiders.

BTW #2: I don't see what benefit an ICU would provide. If he has a bowl of water, he'll get hydrated from that. Being a desert species, the moist, stuffy conditions of an ICU are likely to do more harm than good. General advice: if you don't know the ailment is, you shouldn't be in a hurry to use a cure you don't understand. Lots of people make this mistake.
I knew he was a male the second I got him. It was quite obvious. He was the only tarantula in the store and the store owner knew less than I did about tarantulas. He was more than likely to pass away sooner if I didn't grab him when I did. My intentions weren't to mate them, I had no want to do it until a man came along with the offer to mate our two since the male he was going to have her mate with had an accident. I didn't know they were so secretive, I knew they devoured the web once they were finished but I can't imagine him making it in less than eight hours.
I have owned a tarantula before, I did quite a bit of research for a few weeks but the T I had was wild and native to where I lived. About a month and a half after I took it in, I took it out and released it.
Sadly, I was unaware that the ICU would do more harm than good. I was only trying to get him back to health because he was the first 'pet' tarantula I've owned and I would hate to see it end badly so soon.
Anyways, thank you for all the insight y'all have given.
 
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