communal P regalis setup

[Immortal_sin]

Martin Huber is one of the guys that I know of who have succeeded in raising P. fasciata communally - so it can be done ;-)

Søren

nice to know! Maybe someday I'll attempt it when I have 1/10th the experience he has

 

[abstract]

Okay - likely a stupid question, but I don't remember anyone bringing this up in the thread.

What about the possibility that the more "socialized" pokes - be able to live in an inter-species communal environment? Is this right out? If they're from similar geographic areas, of the same genus, and proven social - why not?

 

[Martin H.]

Hi,

Okay - likely a stupid question, but I don't remember anyone bringing this up in the thread.

What about the possibility that the more "socialized" pokes - be able to live in an inter-species communal environment?

crosslinking: >>click here<<

all the best,
Martin

 

[abstract]

AWESOME!!!!! Who wants to try it? How cool would it be to have a giant tank with multiple species of poec in there....

Heck, why not throw in an A. metallica or H. immanis just for variety? :?


EDIT: I just wanted to add that Martin rocks. Thanks for that link.

 

[RazorRipley]

I probably was not clear with my post. My P fasciata are a breeding pair. I haven't and wouldn't attempt to try a fasciata setup...the regalis setup at the moment is the only true 'eggsac mates living together' pokie arrangement I have.

I have 3 social terrariums regarding pokies, one has 4 regalis adult females that have been randomly added, and are awaiting 6 more who are too little. One has 3 rufilatas all of which are from different places, Im not sure of the sex, they are all sub-adults. and the third is 2 female formosas, one is giant, and twice (at least) as old as the other medium size adult female.... Thus far I am having nothing but success after a year, so Im pretty confident about these 3 species.... My girlfriend wants to take her 3 pedersenis and my one ped, and put them in one, thats why Im nervous when I hear things about peds being not so tolerating of each other. Maybe we will find out the hard way. Its only a loss of one, and we all will know.
THanks for everyones info

 

[Ker]

Your girlfriend is being a chicken right now, and has her three pederseni in seperate jars until either she wins the lottery and can keep buying more, or until she hears someone else was successful !!

 

[Immortal_sin]

I've officially ended my communal setup today. Not because they were not getting along (they were) but because my tank lid is way too easy to bump open, and some members of this family were not taking care to keep an eye on it. I should say, it's in the living room in a corner that opens onto the hall. The lid is a sliding one, and if you bump it wrong, it opens and leaves a 1" or so gap. Well, it happened last night, and my regalis sub adult male got out. I found him this morning under the TV, trying to stay warm. Obviously the tank is not secure where it is.
To recap:
I had 5 left in total. One I euthanized because it molted and had no fangs. It wouldn't eat and was starving to death. One matured out and I put him with my large unrelated female. They cohabitated for about 2 months before she ate him.
Out of the 3 that are left, I have one sub adult male around 3.5" legspan, a LARGE female at around 4.5" legspan, and one tiny runt, that is still around 2" legspan. I observed the largest and smallest together sharing webs most of the time. The male was constantly moving and making a new home. There was no aggression toward each other.
I am amazed at the different growth rates they showed. The male that matured was MONTHS ahead of the rest of them. The size difference in the ones left is also surprising to me.

 

[Immortal_sin]

might as well post pics for comparison. Forgive the runt pic, it's in a glass jar till I'm done rehousing.

 

[Immortal_sin]

ok...I lied! I didn't want to rehouse them in separate containers, so I cleaned out the tank, put it on the kitchen (!) table, and popped them back in. Here's the picture

 

[Malkavian]

Wow wish I could get away with that kind of kitchen centerpiece. Are they still doing well?

 

[Immortal_sin]

Oh, I was hoping to not answer that
About an hour after I put them back in, I found the large female munching the smallest one.
I have the male separated out too, so she's got this huge tank all to herself.
Here is a list of things I have learned about communal setups:
1~ cannabalism will occur, even with enough food for all
2~ It's difficult to keep track of individual spiders, and thus curb problems
3~ I experienced a high rate of molting problems and failures
4~ I probably won't do it again....

However, I do have a setup in the living room with 10 juvie P murinus, and they seem to be doing much better than the regalis. They are super hardy though, so I guess it's not surprising.

 

[Fenris]

Keep us posted on how the P. murinus do! This is very, very interesting.

 

[DracosBana]

Any updates?

 

[AussieTkeeper]

I agree with CM yes. I could just copy and paste his message. I would much rather just agree with him, and add some more of my opinion.

And about the success. I don't doubt you. I'd wonder how long they have been successful? I wonder how many died on the road to success? I wonder what is gained by this to the average keeper? I wonder if they had more then a ten galon tank? I wonder if they had more then a twig, and two leaves? I wonder if they had there tank vertical?

What you think there is no death rate in the wild??? when you think about it there is more likely a higher death rate in the wild then what would have been in captive care. Yeah he may lose a few Ts but that nothing that would not have happened in the wild any way. You cant learn and advance in your knowlegde about T's if you dont take risks, sure there may be a few setbacks but in the end learning more about their behavior is well worth it.

Jase

 

[AussieTkeeper]

Great, now I'm inexperienced and unpopular because I challenged "elite" posters.

Yep you said it

 

[AussieTkeeper]

Sorry about bringing up very old topics, i didnt see it have 15 pages and i wrote those post after i read about 6 pages.

Anyway i reckon you did a pretty good job, i know i could never do that
i really enjoyed reading your sucesses and faliures thanks for the top post.

Jase

 

[Immortal_sin]

wow, an old thread rears its head again!
Well, I currently don't have any communal setups. The P murinus setup was sucessful, but I separated them after siblings grew up and 2 females laid eggsacs. The resulting offspring are inbred and will consequently not be sold.
As for Poecilotheria spp, I still believe that a communal setup is certainly possible. I may try again in the future. I know that many people have done it with varying degrees of success....

 

[xgrafcorex]

my 2 cents..

while i think it was an interesting idea, i have mostly read that it was a matter of time. and so i have decided to never attempt communal terrariums. im sure there are some set ups that exist and it works fine. but its just like people say about individual ts...they all have their own personality. if you get lucky enough to have 10 that are all potheads and just want to chill and eat crickets. there ya go. perhaps if i had a lot of slings..but even then i doubt it. heh if you're gonna try again with those pokies...keep 3 out this time and send me one.

 

[pwilfort]

Wow! Great set up! Congrats and Good luck!
:clap:

 

[Bearskin10]

I currently have 4 formosa slings together. they are about 2-1/2" right now and have been together since I got them at just under an inch a few months back and probably ever since they were eggs, still young but so far so good... I have had a few communal Avic setups in the past and never had any cannibalism... Greg