Haplopelma lividum

This is my first real project I've begun. I was lucky enough to have not one but two male H. lividums mature in my collection and one huge female. I was fortunate enough at the last show I attended to pick up two enourmous WC females, one of which already apprears gravid.

1/27/05 - Both my males have already laid webs and are on the prowell. The two new females were set up and left in their tanks for almost two weeks and fed. Both have taken food. The male was introduced into the first females cage and within seconds he lifted her and started pounding. Upon seperating them, I cupped the male and moved him on to the second female. Same procedure, and same results. He approached her akwardly from the side, but then got adjusted and inserted both palps for approximately one minute. He was cupped, and moved on to my third female. Same procedure again, this girl seemed a little more fiesty and I immediately started thinking I should have fed her more. It was tense, but he raised her and got in at least one palp for an insertion than was cupped and removed!

Whew, what a night. This male is a pimp. I defiantely thinks chances of a sac being produced and hatches are good, I have pretty good odds with three girls. I've heard H. lividums lay in early to mid February, so I'll be keeping an eye on all of them. Updates coming soon.

~Lars

EDIT: So far, UNSUCCESSFUL! I was forced to sell one of the females to a regular who offered me a price I couldn't refuse in face of bills and some other orders I needed to make. The female that appeared the most gravid ended up molting! Oddly, shortly thereafter she became extremely lethargic and eventually died. I have one female left who still appears healthy. She has been given a large 10G tank filled with moist substrate. For the last 2 weeks, she has opted not to burrow contrary to traditional H. lividum behavior. Still waiting to see what happens.

I produced two egg sacs of this species in 2004 and three in 2005. The same methods were used both years and seems to be successful, however, I don't know if they are required. It is just what has worked for me.

Females are set up in enclosures with 6 to 8 inches of peat moss as a substrate. The males seem to mature late summer/early fall. The females are kept well fed and the male is introduced into a females enclosure approximately 3 to 4 weeks after maturing. He is allowed to cohabitate with the female for 1 week prior to being moved into another females enclosure. The male is cycled through the different female tanks until he is eaten. If eaten prior to all females receiving a visit, I cycle another male through.

After breeding, when the temps drop outside, I cool the females to a temp in the low 60's. They are left at this temp (still fed and watered) for 2 months. After 2 months, the temps are brought back up into the low 70's and the tank is watered down making the substrate damp and the humidity high. Within a month after raising the temps and flooding the tank, sacs are made.

In the 2004 batch of babies I bred 4 females. The first molted and the remaining three made sacs. One sac was infertile and the other two produced viable offspring. In the 2005 batch, I bred 3 females and all three produced large viable sacs. All three sacs were pulled around 30 days (same was done with the 2004 batch) and all are currently at the nymph stage.

Botar

First attempt failed. :8o There was no insertion. The male tried to lift the female up, but every time he tried to position her she fell back in her burrow :?
After 15 minutes of trying, he gave up and walked away.

I'll try again tomorrow.

I noticed something while they were matting. The female kept rubbing her back leg against her abdominal ! Has anyone had that happen before ? Was she trying to signal, that she was willing to mate ?

I have to figure out a way to get the female out of her burrow so the male can have his way with her in the corner of the tank :evil:



Hello Surena,

surena said:

I noticed something while they were matting. The female kept rubbing her back leg against her abdominal ! Has anyone had that happen before ?

Click to expand...

yep, every time when I successful mate my Haplopelma. =;-) Volker von Wirth does describe this behaviour in his book (VON WIRTH 1996). He thinks that this behaviour of the female after the mating is a "Übersprungshandlung" (English word? "displacement activity"). See also this post: >>click here<<
Another reference which describes this behaviour is VON WIRTH & HUBER (2003).

surena said:

Was she trying to signal, that she was willing to mate ?

Click to expand...

it's a sign, that the mating has been succesful! =


references:

• VON WIRTH, V. (1996): Vogelspinnen richtig pflegen und verstehen. GU Verlag, München.
• VON WIRTH, V. & M. HUBER (2003): Earth Tigers – die asiatischen Vogelspinnen der Unterfamilie Ornithoctoninae. DRACO 4(16): 26-36.

all the best,
Martin

Haplopelma lividum Breeding 09-29-2005

Hello.

Here are the details of the Haplopelma lividum Breeding session.

Date Bred:
09-29-2005 @ 7:15 PM

Conditions:
80 Degrees F & 70% Ambient Humidity

Species Details:
Female Adult 4" freshy molted
4" Male and freshly matured.

Pairing
Male had been inserted into the females encloure using the cupping method. She was in her burrow. The male walked acorss the floor and came upon a piece of cork bark laying on the ground. He must have picked up her scent. He started drumming and the female sensing that came out of her burrow with fangs beared! When she came out she found out that it was a male knocking at her door. Once she touched his front legs, he advanced towards her rapidly hooking the fangs and proceded the mating with several insertions.

Once finished, I took the male out and placce him into his enclosure for future attempts.

Breeding: Successful

Here are some pics for viewing:

1st Attempt

I have no idea when my male molted out mature. He did so quietly in the very bottom of his burrow and then either ate or buried the molt. I just happened to glance in at him and noticed his palps had become boxing gloves and then, sure enough, he had spurs. Rotten spider.

Fortunately, I have two freshly molted females.

Temperature: 78 degrees
Humidity: 65%

The first pairing took place between the male and 1st female on 03/02/06. I observed two good inserts, after each of which the female went into a fury of rapid cleaning.

I then waiting until I saw evidence of a sperm web in the male's enclosure and placed him in with the 2nd female on 03/06/06. There were two inserts here too, both followed by that frantic cleaning dance. Unfortunately, at this point, the male decided he couldn't get out of her enclosure fast enough. Since the lid was off at that point, he ran up the side of the cage and leapt right at me. All I saw was eight legs and an Aliens' flashback before the male landed right on my face, scrambled up into my hair and then sprang four feet through the air onto the bookshelves behind me. I also engaged in a rapid fury of Oh-my-god-it-touched-me heebie-jeebie dancing and took about forty steps backwards on the road to arachnophobe recovery. While I collapsed on the couch in the fetal position, sucking my thumb and whimpering, my husband re-captured the male...and then also the female, who took advantage of the confusion to wander out and see what the murinus's were doing on the other bookshelf.

We're now waiting for evidence of another sperm web before we place the male in with female 1 for a week-long cohabitation. Female 3 is being cooled at 65 degrees, where she'll remain for the next few weeks as punishment for her unauthorized wandering.


Female 1: Status: Successful so far!

Mated: Mated once on 03/02/06, then cohabitated from 03/06/06 - 03/10/06, at which point she had completely sealed up her burrow and excavated a huge chamber on the very bottom of her enclosure.

Special care: I put her into cool-down on 03/11/06 for 2 weeks with a gradual increase in temps for an additional 2 weeks, with careful flooding to increase humidity.

Eggsac: Yes! 53 days from first mating. Actually, I don't know when she laid it because I can only see inside her burrow by lifting her tank and shining a flashlight up underneath. Naturally, I don't want to disturb her, so I've only been checking every 10 days or so. She has the eggsac as of 04/26/06 and so I'm going to start my count as of today.


Female 2: Status: Status: Successful so far!

Mated: One pairing with multiple hook-ups on 03/06/06.

Special care: She also went into cool down for 3 weeks on on 03/06/06 with a slower feeding schedule and a gradual increase in temps which lasted another 2 weeks, with careful flooding to increase humidity. She has completely sealed up her enclosure on 04/15/06 and excavated a huge chamber down on the bottom of her enclosure.

Eggsac: Not yet

Since, for some reason, I can't edit the above entry, I'll finish adding on down here.

Female 2: Status: Successful so far!

Mated: One pairing with multiple hook-ups on 03/06/06.

Special care: She also went into cool down for 3 weeks on on 03/06/06 with a slower feeding schedule and a gradual increase in temps which lasted another 2 weeks, with careful flooding to increase humidity. She has completely sealed up her enclosure on 04/15/06 and excavated a huge chamber down on the bottom of her enclosure.

Eggsac: Noticed she had laid a nice golfball-sized eggsac today 05/24/06.

Conclusion of previous post.

Female 2: Status: Successful!

Mated: One pairing with multiple hook-ups on 03/06/06.

Special care: She also went into cool down for 3 weeks on 03/06/06 on a slower feeding schedule and a gradual increase in temps which lasted another 2 weeks with careful flooding to increase humidity. She has completely sealed up her enclosure on 04/15/06 and excavated a huge chamber down on the bottom of her enclosure.

Eggsac: Noticed she had laid a nice golfball-sized eggsac today 05/24/06.

Nymphs molted into 1st instar late last night and here they are. 101 gorgeous little slings, 15 bad eggs that didn't mature, and about 10 that still need to molt.

H. lividium

Just finished a successful breeding attempt with a freshly molted female h.lividium and a male burrowed from our local pet store.As soon as the male touched the females silk he started shaking, not drumming for about 5 minutes.then the female started drumming loudly in her burrow.the male drummed one time w/one palp and the female came flying out of her burrow.So fast she climbed over the male and had to back up.He then flipped her back and had two inserts and bolted.She instatly started itching w/back legs ,cleaned herself then went back to her burrow.Keeping hopes up . thanks, chris

Haplopelma lividum mating

Ahh! I've never been so excited in my life! I got a beautiful Hap female from reptist today, and I already had a male. It's my first breeding attempt ever and I have never seen tarantulas mate, so it's been a big day for me. It took me a minute to get the female to notice my puny little guy, but soon enough, he had her flipped and inserted, and he bolted in no time. She vigorously cleaned and I just know some happy little slings will be with us in no time! -Sarah

Cobalt slings mistake

Non-success

Although I've had sucessful matings of other species, this sac was from a WC H. lividum specimen kept at 81F for a few months.

Sac was taken at 3 weeks and placed in a t-shirt hammoc in a large condiment jar, suspended over very moist vermic and turned daily (twice seemed better as far as the eggs looking stuck to the sac).
Observation thru a closable slit ensued until, eventually, eggs w/legs were transfered to a cup (single-layer) inside a larger Rubbermaid and continued to do fine. I removed necrotic material and prevented sibling or cup sticking daily. Ideal results continued thru 2nd instar. 22 spiderlings molted into little blues with yellow yolk material in their abdomens, growing less and less evident, as their abdomens appeared more and more like a "bonefide spider's" and they got fast.

Spiderlings were separated into pill bottles. Here's where I think I screwed up. I placed moist 50/50 vermic/peat in the bottoms, but I topped it with a lightly-packed, certainly not "dry" Coco-Soft layer (approx. 1/4 in.). I closed these bottles up to let the humidity distribute and regultate itself for a week before use.

3 days into their new homes they appeared energetic and vivacious, and so I provided either pre-crippled or halved "quasi-pinheads" smaller than the spider (depending on size available -- I'm no stranger to feeding tiny slings successfully). No one ate much. I left home for 2 & 1/2 days, and they were all either dying or dead upon my return. Some even beginning to molder, slightly.

The very top of the coco fiber was starch dry -- the reason for death, I suppose. Why was it so dry? The peat/vermic *just below* this thin CocoSoft layer was soaking wet! I must have ventilated too much and not kept a close enough eye on the humidity! There were but a FEW *TINY* pinholes!
Dry species would have been fine. The humidity in the 81F room was very low at the time ?

Moral: screw Coco-Soft for H. Lividum slings. It either dried them out due to its inability to transfer moisture, or its tannins were too toxic to the H. lividum slings. I hate to think that, and so my first guess is a thoroughly unexpected dessication of humid-species slings. Damn!

Successful

My computer crashed earlier this year, but I'm going to try to reconstruct as best I can.

Breeding took place between my two females and Blackieb06's male. His male only successfully bred H.liv1. Inserts took place on 11/25/06. She was kept in the common spider room, which was wintered. Temperatures were dropped down to 65 during December. She was then lightly flooded in January as temperatures rose back up to 70, and then in February heavily flooded once as temperatures rose again to 75. In March, temperatures returned to 80 and stayed there and a sac was laid around the beginning of April. The sac was pulled at day 15, and on April 25th I got a good picture of both the developing and non-developing eggs. There were around 80 eggs total, only half of which developed into nymphs.

On 05/18/07 these nymphs are finally molting into 1st instar. There are currently 38 of them.

Successful!

Haplopelma lividum- Hali007:
Encounters with males:
10/10/2008: Placed with Hali013 (MM). Male was shark-caged. Left him in there from ~9:00pm until 1:30am. Temp was in mid 70s. Success with 1 palp once he was set loose in her cage.

10/19/2008: Placed with Hali012 (MM). Nothing happened.

12/14/2008: With male Hali013:Success with one palp. Then a short break (not timed). Then success with 2nd palp after he crawled into her burrow and lured her out.

12/22/2008: With male Hali012: No interest by either party.

12/22/2008: With male Hali013:He shook, but nothing happened.

1/13/2009: Hali007's enclosure was set in a larger cage (trying a few different methods with these guys). Her cage was left open and Hali012 was allowed to run loose in the larger cage. Left overnight.

1/22/2009: Same as the set-up on the 13th and again with Hali012.

3/20/2009: Placed with male Hali013. Success.

Eggsac:
4/4/2009: Female seen with an eggsac.

4/13/2009: Eggsac removed. A fungus was growing in the cage and I didn't want to risk the eggs. The sac was pulled, the eggs were removed, and the sac was opened to make sure the eggs were still good. Sac was about 1/2 the size of a ping pong ball and was tightly packed. The sac contained 159 good looking eggs and 1 obvious dud.

Eggs with Legs:

4/19/2009: The eggs were "molting" into the eggs with legs stage.

Jmugleston said:

Haplopelma lividum- Hali007:
Encounters with males:
10/10/2008: Placed with Hali013 (MM). Male was shark-caged. Left him in there from ~9:00pm until 1:30am. Temp was in mid 70s. Success with 1 palp once he was set loose in her cage.

10/19/2008: Placed with Hali012 (MM). Nothing happened.

12/14/2008: With male Hali013:Success with one palp. Then a short break (not timed). Then success with 2nd palp after he crawled into her burrow and lured her out.

12/22/2008: With male Hali012: No interest by either party.

12/22/2008: With male Hali013:He shook, but nothing happened.

1/13/2009: Hali007's enclosure was set in a larger cage (trying a few different methods with these guys). Her cage was left open and Hali012 was allowed to run loose in the larger cage. Left overnight.

1/22/2009: Same as the set-up on the 13th and again with Hali012.

3/20/2009: Placed with male Hali013. Success.

Eggsac:
4/4/2009: Female seen with an eggsac.

4/13/2009: Eggsac removed. A fungus was growing in the cage and I didn't want to risk the eggs. The sac was pulled, the eggs were removed, and the sac was opened to make sure the eggs were still good. Sac was about 1/2 the size of a ping pong ball and was tightly packed. The sac contained 159 good looking eggs and 1 obvious dud.

Eggs with Legs:

4/19/2009: The eggs were "molting" into the eggs with legs stage.

Click to expand...

Update: 5/8/09 Molted into 1st instar.

H. lividum

Female molted on 8-3-09 and was bred the first time on 12-6-09, the pairing was good with her doing the frantic belly rub so common with this sp.. the male was cohabited with the female till his demise on 1-20-10 she was fed heavily and layed eggs on 2-4-10 and im waiting to pull the sac. will update on the sac.

joshuai said:

Female molted on 8-3-09 and was bred the first time on 12-6-09, the pairing was good with her doing the frantic belly rub so common with this sp.. the male was cohabited with the female till his demise on 1-20-10 she was fed heavily and layed eggs on 2-4-10 and im waiting to pull the sac. will update on the sac.

Click to expand...

Pulled sac 2-22-10 2-23-10 eggs with legs 19 days till eggs with legs