Feb. and Counting Down

viper69

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Well I don't know how this happened, my AF A. metallica hasn't eaten in a month, she's going to molt, no doubt. I come home today, and sure enough there's this beautiful blue, followed by a deep red/blood colored, enlarged, "bulb" on her pedipalps. I was so disappointed to see emboli on the palps indicate she was a HE! CRAP!!!!

I was hoping to have a nice large female metallica, and for some reason, I'm wondering if I only ventral sexed him. I know I posted pics at one point, and peeps said "female" haha. OH well. I'll be curious to see how much longer he lives.
 

miss moxie

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That's disappointing to say the least. I keep worrying my A. versi is going to molt out male. Avicularia has become one of my favorites, and I'm looking forward to expand my collection. I'm thinking diversipes and amazonica next. I've got a single A. versi and two A. purpurea currently.
 

14pokies

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Well that sucks, on the bright side though I think I saw someone looking for MM in the breeder loan section or fs, trade ,wtb section the other day....
Good luck man I hope you find him a mate!
 

viper69

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That's disappointing to say the least. I keep worrying my A. versi is going to molt out male. Avicularia has become one of my favorites, and I'm looking forward to expand my collection. I'm thinking diversipes and amazonica next. I've got a single A. versi and two A. purpurea currently.
DEF get amazonica, I'll tell you why, EVEN the males are gorgeous. Plus that locality gets pretty big too, much better attitude too than diversipes. Diversipes are really pretty as slings, I wish they maintained those colors as adults. They aren't nearly as brightly colored.

Yeah, it's bummer for sure, but I've enjoyed him incredibly these past 8 years. So I really can't complain other than that. His disposition has been incredible. I was going to buy a few more, but I decided not to because I thought he was a SHE, of course the vendor is totally out of them too!
 

14pokies

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It took him 8 years to mature? That's incredible! I thought avics matured in about 2 years....
 

viper69

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It took him 8 years to mature? That's incredible! I thought avics matured in about 2 years....

Oops..typed too fast, 5 yrs. He's definitely not 2 yrs old, I've had him for longer than that.
 

fuzzyavics72

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I'm sorry to hear viper. I knew your metallica was your pride and joy. :/ but you get him paired and ha e little him. I'm also surprised you sexed him wrong. Avic females have massive lips.

Miss moxie I can trade you a female or some versi slings for your male. 90% of my 25 versi are females. I want more males lol
 

cold blood

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Man you can't win Chris....how can they all end up male for you....unconceivable!!

---------- Post added 01-30-2015 at 11:53 PM ----------

Miss moxie I can trade you a female or some versi slings for your male. 90% of my 25 versi are females. I want more males lol

I'll keep you in mind...I have 2 and am fairly certain at least one is male...2" currently.
 
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miss moxie

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I'm sorry to hear viper. I knew your metallica was your pride and joy. :/ but you get him paired and ha e little him. I'm also surprised you sexed him wrong. Avic females have massive lips.

Miss moxie I can trade you a female or some versi slings for your male. 90% of my 25 versi are females. I want more males lol
Oh, it's just under 2" & unsexed right now. I was saying I'm hoping s/he turns out to be female rather than male. It's one of the first slings I bought, so I'm very fond of it and would like it to be female so it sticks around. I bought two, put them both in their enclosures and the next morning I woke up and it was unresponsive. I let it sit for two days to be sure it wasn't just doing some funny T business, but no. It was dead. The other molted by the end of the week so perhaps shipping in pre-molt screwed it up. Either way, the survivor has molted twice for me and seems to be thriving.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 01:12 AM ----------

Man you can't win Chris....how can they all end up male for you....unconceivable!!
I hate to throw around grievous accusations, but...

I'm thinking steroid abuse.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 01:16 AM ----------

DEF get amazonica, I'll tell you why, EVEN the males are gorgeous. Plus that locality gets pretty big too, much better attitude too than diversipes. Diversipes are really pretty as slings, I wish they maintained those colors as adults. They aren't nearly as brightly colored.
I'll get the amazonica first then. I know diversipes have disappointing adult colors, but the sling colors are too pretty to pass up having at least one of! I'm pretty jealous of your sp. Kwitara River. That green looks stunning in pictures, I can imagine it's even better in person.

I also see you have braunshauseni too. What are they like? I hear they get very large.
 

awiec

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Oh, it's just under 2" & unsexed right now. I was saying I'm hoping s/he turns out to be female rather than male. It's one of the first slings I bought, so I'm very fond of it and would like it to be female so it sticks around. I bought two, put them both in their enclosures and the next morning I woke up and it was unresponsive. I let it sit for two days to be sure it wasn't just doing some funny T business, but no. It was dead. The other molted by the end of the week so perhaps shipping in pre-molt screwed it up. Either way, the survivor has molted twice for me and seems to be thriving.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 01:12 AM ----------



I hate to throw around grievous accusations, but...

I'm thinking steroid abuse.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 01:16 AM ----------



I'll get the amazonica first then. I know diversipes have disappointing adult colors, but the sling colors are too pretty to pass up having at least one of! I'm pretty jealous of your sp. Kwitara River. That green looks stunning in pictures, I can imagine it's even better in person.

I also see you have braunshauseni too. What are they like? I hear they get very large.
braushauseni generally get fluffy, have some intense reds and get to a decent size. I don't have any adults myself but I've seen others in person and they are very impressive. I can vouch to say that my sling matches my pamph in hunger, it has grabbed food right from the tweezers and then jump back down into its cage.
 

Biollantefan54

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Avics are probably my favorite genus, I definitely want more. I have a sub-adult female A. avicularia, a juvenile A. versicolor, and an A. metallica & A. amazonica sling (Who are BOTH in heavy premolt!). I love them, the webbing is awesome, the feeding response is just insane, and they are pretty cheap! Everyone needs at least 10+ avics. ;)
 

Poec54

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Avics are probably my favorite genus, I definitely want more. I have a sub-adult female A. avicularia, a juvenile A. versicolor, and an A. metallica & A. amazonica sling (Who are BOTH in heavy premolt!). I love them, the webbing is awesome, the feeding response is just insane, and they are pretty cheap! Everyone needs at least 10+ avics. ;)
What started off as one genus, was expanded to 4 (with Iridopelma, Pachistopelma, and Typhoclaena), and now 4 more are going to be added (with diversipes, laeta, minatrix, and versicolor all going to separate genera). There's a lot of diversity in that group, and a lot of beautiful, quirky spiders.

When I got back in the hobby I was planning on getting only a few Avics, primarily versicolor. Now I have 90 of them, 10 species, and there's still a few more I'm looking for. Chase Campbell is partially to blame for this. His passion is contagious. Every genus needs a champion like him.
 

Biollantefan54

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Yeah, I have heard about the next revision with Avics. I am very curious as to where they will end up, any idea when it will be known? I would kill to get a Typhoclaena seladonia, they are beautiful. I don't see how people don't like Avics, they are amazing!
 

Poec54

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Yeah, I have heard about the next revision with Avics. I am very curious as to where they will end up, any idea when it will be known? I don't see how people don't like Avics, they are amazing!
There's a preliminary report published. 14 species are officially in Avicularia with 6 more under consideration (and Jacobi lists 47 of them!). 17 have been invalidated. Check it out.

Avics are oddballs, in looks and behavior. They require different conditions than other arboreals. I can see why they don't appeal to some people, just as not everyone likes OW's, or species with urticating hairs. Since arboreals are my favorite type of tarantula, I was bound to end up with some.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 10:36 AM ----------

This is why ventral "sexing", while entertaining, is no real alternative to sexing via a molt.
Entertaining, and accurate a majority of the time by experienced keepers, especially with some species. I have a number that are obvious at 2". If the OP didn't know the sex of his, I don't think he checked the vent.
 

viper69

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In all fairness, I was relatively NEW to sexing Avics, as this is my first adult. I've been a terrestrial person.

While I'm an experienced owner of Ts, I never once considered breeding until the last 6 months. So I'm not experienced in sexing a T.

People often say "it's easy/obvious". It isn't, if it was there wouldn't be so many questions about gender. Also it's not obvious when you only have one specimen to look at. Even with species where I have 3 specimens it is NOT OBVIOUS when looking ventrally. I've read papers, and without someone next to me point out things, it's all the same. With the exception of Poecs "dot method"

Only when I look at molts is it easier to tell.


Also, I posted a pic of him and people with more experience thought female.
Now for whatever reason I didn't molt confirm.

I have molt confirmed on all subsequent Ts[emoji12]

I'm not sad, also before he molted he lost quite a bit of mass, and that's when I thought it might be male.

I've enjoyed this metallica so I'm happy.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 08:32 AM ----------

Man you can't win Chris....how can they all end up male for you....unconceivable!!

---------- Post added 01-30-2015 at 11:53 PM ----------




I'll keep you in mind...I have 2 and am fairly certain at least one is male...2" currently.
Almost all my terrestrials popped out female in the past 2 yrs, just not my Arboreals EXCEPT minatrix! :)

I have a new molt to check for my Goliath Pink Toe if it's not destroyed.

---------- Post added 01-31-2015 at 08:34 AM ----------

...OP didn't know the sex of his, I don't think he checked the vent.
I did, it's not obvious.
 
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freedumbdclxvi

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Entertaining, and accurate a majority of the time by experienced keepers, especially with some species. I have a number that are obvious at 2". If the OP didn't know the sex of his, I don't think he checked the vent.
I've seen a number of experts vent "sex" a spider which turned out to be wrong. I could flip a coin on 100 spiders and be "right" 51, or a majority of the, times.
 

Storm76

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That's disappointing to say the least. I keep worrying my A. versi is going to molt out male. Avicularia has become one of my favorites, and I'm looking forward to expand my collection. I'm thinking diversipes and amazonica next. I've got a single A. versi and two A. purpurea currently.
A. purpurea are gorgeous though! T. violaceus or A. purpurea - I can't decided which is more beautiful.
 
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