Thinking of Communal Avic. avic, suggestions?

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Crazy0monkey

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So it would be my first communal are avics even communal i know there prety docile and iv heard they are so jsut checking.
Also would they need to be under a certain size to introduce them together with less of a chance of fatalitys
 
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JimM

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Not a communal species.
Yes you can put them in a big enough enclosure to support multiple territories, but you can do this with
any species in theory...that's different than communal.
 
jayefbe

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I've never actually heard of an Avic communal that worked long-term, and have heard of some outright disasters. Pokies, OBTs and Holothele species would all be better bets.
 
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forrestpengra

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Crazy0monkey said:
So it would be my first communal are avics even communal i know there prety docile and iv heard they are so jsut checking.
Also would they need to be under a certain size to introduce them together with less of a chance of fatalitys
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Your liable to end up with a Megatron of spiders, one big one built from the others in the end.

To echo, avoid the avics, if you want a communal arboreal setup go with pokies (look up talkenlate04s regalis setup). If you want terrestrial communal go with H. incei.

Good Luck
 
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varanidfan

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I'll look for the link, but i've seen reports of A. minatrix being communal, similarly to pokies.
 
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blazetown

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forrestpengra said:
Your liable to end up with a Megatron of spiders, one big one built from the others in the end.

To echo, avoid the avics, if you want a communal arboreal setup go with pokies (look up talkenlate04s regalis setup). If you want terrestrial communal go with H. incei.

Good Luck
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Not to annoy but wouldn't that be more of a devastator made of constructicons than a megatron? I'm actually surprised someone suggested OBT as a type for this project (I still don't have that much experience though). All I can say is I wouldn't be putting my hand into a that colony.
 
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forrestpengra

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blazetown said:
Not to annoy but wouldn't that be more of a devastator made of constructicons than a megatron? I'm actually surprised someone suggested OBT as a type for this project (I still don't have that much experience though). All I can say is I wouldn't be putting my hand into a that colony.
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Yes yes, you're right... bahhhahaha... I wouldn't want to clean that one out either. The downsize of doing OBTs in a communal would be the webbing.. One webs enough, can you imaging 5-10 :eek:
 
Moltar

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forrestpengra said:
Your liable to end up with a Megatron of spiders, one big one built from the others in the end.

Good Luck
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blazetown said:
Not to annoy but wouldn't that be more of a devastator made of constructicons than a megatron?
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I agree that Devastator (Deceptaconus devastratus) would be correct here. Really though, I think Transformers are the wrong choice, the obvious analogy here is Voltron. Depending on the size of the original colony it would be either the lion one (Voltranus leo) or the cheesy spaceship one (Voltranus spaceshipii)

I've heard smits and smatters about OBT's having communal tendencies but if it really worked I think there would be threads about it by now, P. murinus being so inexpensive and easy to breed and all. Most accounts i've heard of Avics were about how they started out OK but eventually ended in just a few well fed "kings of the cage".
 
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scottyk

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Moltar said:
I agree that Devastator (Deceptaconus devastratus) would be correct here. Really though, I think Transformers are the wronng choice. The obvious analogy here is Voltron. Depending on the size of the original colony it would be either the lion one (Voltranus leo) or the cheesy spaceship one (Voltranus spaceshipii)
.
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I'm thinking a comparison to The Highlander could work as well. They will kill each other off in combat, with the winner taking the losers life essence.

Plus, in the end, "There can be only one"! {D

Yes, I realize that I just publically tagged myself as a closet sci fi dork :rolleyes:
 
Mack&Cass

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This thread made me happy simply for all of the Transformers analogies. We have our big OW terrestrials named after Decepticons (with C. crawshayi being Megatron) and our big NW terrestrials named after Autobots (with T. blondi being Optimus Prime...we don't have a blondi yet, but when we do its name will be Optimus Prime). I'm a genius.

Anyways, to get back on topic, I would suggest H. incei communal as a first commune project. We don't have any communes set up, but from what I've heard, H. incei are one of the best as far as communal tendencies go.

Cass
 
scottyk

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xhexdx said:
I agree with H. incei.

Although, I do have three OBT communals going right now, and I haven't observed any cannibalism at all thus far.
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Joe-

What are the largest sizes your communally kept OBT's have reached thus far? Judging from the known size of the B. lateralis, some of the them look to be past the 2" mark, correct?

I may have an OBT sac this year and have been thinking about trying something along these lines. Do you have a seperate thread with more details on this project???
 
dopamine

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Spyder 1.0 said:
Avicularia species are not communal. As Joe said, I would love to see proof as to why you think this.
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I've read this theory in many books. Don't know for sure though. My buddy wants to try an avic commune as well. I assume he must have read about it somewhere too.:?
 
jayefbe

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dopamine said:
I've read this theory in many books. Don't know for sure though. My buddy wants to try an avic commune as well. I assume he must have read about it somewhere too.:?
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I've read multiple threads on communal species of tarantula that have Avicularia species listed as communal. But when delving into further research, I haven't heard of a single successful communal. I don't know where the idea that Avics are communal came from, but apparently it is out there.

On OBTs being communal, there are a TON of threads about it. I personally have a group of 5 OBTs, and if I ever get to breeding them the whole eggsac is gonna go in a single container. While they aren't as interactive as my regalis communal, I've seen no aggression or cannibalism in my OBT communal so far.
 
thevez2

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forrestpengra said:
Your liable to end up with a Megatron of spiders, one big one built from the others in the end.
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I believe you meant Voltron, right? If you're talking transformers then the Constructicons did merge to form Devastator.

varanidfan said:
I'll look for the link, but i've seen reports of A. minatrix being communal, similarly to pokies.
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xhexdx said:
Can you provide a link? I'd be curious to see.
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From ATS Forum 5(1) 1996
Excerpt from "Social Behavior in Poecilotheria" by Robert Bustard (Scotland)

"As far as Avicularia are concerned, I am not an expert. I do not keep them together other than as spiderlings, with the one exception of Avicularia minatrix Pocock. These spiders do very well as a group. I know; I keep two groups together and there have been no attacks, even when they were (unavoidably) underfed on occasion. This is a species that behaves like Poecilotheria."

I also have a note that says that Mikhail F. Bagaturov mentioned A. minatrix as a good species for communal keeping.
 
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Merfolk

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I have witnessed communal of Avics, Pokies and OBTs and they all seemed to work for a time. However, in my personal keeping, the downfall of the commune always came when a male suddenly grew like weed, becoming 4-5 inches while some of the others are still under 3" and he invariably start chomping on them (I directly witnessed this with P pederseni). I think that in nature, those usually wander away from the group and that forced proximity is the main cause of cannibalism. Removing juvie males or any individual that is more than 150% the average legspan of the group would surely increase its durability. I don't have the time to go through all the documentation but I remember that in many pictures of communes that I saw both in captivity or in the wild (M balfouri, Pamphoebetus Chiken Spider, Pokies, Avic) mature and sub adult males where nowhere to be seen.
 
jayefbe

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Merfolk said:
I have witnessed communal of Avics, Pokies and OBTs and they all seemed to work for a time. However, in my personal keeping, the downfall of the commune always came when a male suddenly grew like weed, becoming 4-5 inches while some of the others are still under 3" and he invariably start chomping on them (I directly witnessed this with P pederseni). I think that in nature, those usually wander away from the group and that forced proximity is the main cause of cannibalism. Removing juvie males or any individual that is more than 150% the average legspan of the group would surely increase its durability. I don't have the time to go through all the documentation but I remember that in many pictures of communes that I saw both in captivity or in the wild (M balfouri, Pamphoebetus Chiken Spider, Pokies, Avic) mature and sub adult males where nowhere to be seen.
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Can you give some background on the Avic communals you've witnessed?

Also, talkenlate04 has had large pokie communals in which males matured and subsequently died of old age without any cannibalism. So it definitely is possible to keep males in a communal without problems.
 
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