Tarantula age?

[ColinJP]

Is it possible to determine a Tarantulas Age? I have a female Brachypelma Boehmei I bought from a lady last year. It was roughly around 1 1/2 inches. It just previously molted few days ago and looks like it got LITTLE bit bigger lol. The lady said she acquired it in 2020 as a sling. With Brachys being slow growers, does anyone have an idea roughly how old it COULD be, or is it just impossible to even guess unless you've owned it since 1/4"?
Thanks

 

[Wolfram1]

no, the best you can do is get the contact information of the original breeder, and hope he noted down when the sack was layed

depending on the temperatutes and other conditions the development within the sack and post haching will vary by a few months, for example my clutch of Lasiodora parahybana slings remained in its larval stage (L1) for about 2-3 months but about half were passed on to a friend who contributed the male and he kept them above 24°C during the winter months, with some reaching Nymth stage 3, 4 or 5, while mine remained in Nympth stage 1 for about 5-6 months, only starting to reach further development when Temperatures started to rise again in spring.

so even here, during the very early stages, its impossible to determin the exact age based on the size.

 

[Brewser]

Remove a Leg Segment from a Recent Molt, and using a Microscope or Magnifying Glass carefully count the Exoskeletal Rings.

 

[viper69]

no

 

[darkness975]

Is it possible to determine a Tarantulas Age? I have a female Brachypelma Boehmei I bought from a lady last year. It was roughly around 1 1/2 inches. It just previously molted few days ago and looks like it got LITTLE bit bigger lol. The lady said she acquired it in 2020 as a sling. With Brachys being slow growers, does anyone have an idea roughly how old it COULD be, or is it just impossible to even guess unless you've owned it since 1/4"?
Thanks

Not unless you hatched it yourself.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Is it possible to determine a Tarantulas Age? I have a female Brachypelma Boehmei I bought from a lady last year. It was roughly around 1 1/2 inches. It just previously molted few days ago and looks like it got LITTLE bit bigger lol. The lady said she acquired it in 2020 as a sling. With Brachys being slow growers, does anyone have an idea roughly how old it COULD be, or is it just impossible to even guess unless you've owned it since 1/4"?
Thanks

Sounds like a good estimate .

 

[cold blood]

Growth rates are so highly variable....not only within the species, but also within individual keepers.....as all our little variances in things like housing, temps and what they are fed and how often would show such astronomically different growths that you would realize that a guess would be all that could be mustered.

You could hypothetically give 3 different people each a sling from the same sac on the same day and at the end of say, 18 months the results could easily look like this"

Sling #1 3.5"

Sling #2 1.5"

Sling #3 3/4"

And all could be raising healthy slings. You could even expand this hypothetical experiment and give each person 5 slings each, and you would even see, sometimes significant variance, within each growth group.

There are so many variances not only within individuals of each species, but also within the keepers themselves. Because there are so many nuances that go with raising ts, there are also a myriad of variance within results, especially concerning things like the temp where you live, or your heating practices, housing, and the food fed as well as the size and frequency, so you see there is a ton of variables that lead to a wide variance in growth rates.

I will give you a recent personal example. About a year or so ago I hatched out a T. albo sac. Nearly all the slings are housed individually, kept in the same heated room, and fed a fat diced meal worm every 2 weeks. They are right now ranging between 3/4" and 1,25" and even the biggest looks like a sling still.. But there is the surprise here. When re housing them from the incubator, 2 ended up falling into a roach bin somehow, with a small species of roach. I just found them 2 weeks ago and they are both juveniles showing adult colors.....but even within the slings that had it all, constant food, slightly warmer temps (they are right next to the heater as I try to keep this roach bin as warm as possible) one is 1.75", the other is a little better than 2.5". That is a good variance within 2 groups.

I raised 2 Hamorii in my life from a sling. One grew so fast it shocked me, like genic fast, the other grew at a more typical glacial Brachy pace....both turned out female.

This is why I don't even like to guess when someone asks what age could be. I prefer not to even guess, but when I do offer something, my answer contains a gigantic potential age...like 2-10 or something.

 

[fcat]

Growth rates are so highly variable....not only within the species, but also within individual keepers.....as all our little variances in things like housing, temps and what they are fed and how often would show such astronomically different growths that you would realize that a guess would be all that could be mustered.

You could hypothetically give 3 different people each a sling from the same sac on the same day and at the end of say, 18 months the results could easily look like this"

Sling #1 3.5"

Sling #2 1.5"

Sling #3 3/4"

And all could be raising healthy slings. You could even expand this hypothetical experiment and give each person 5 slings each, and you would even see, sometimes significant variance, within each growth group.

There are so many variances not only within individuals of each species, but also within the keepers themselves. Because there are so many nuances that go with raising ts, there are also a myriad of variance within results, especially concerning things like the temp where you live, or your heating practices, housing, and the food fed as well as the size and frequency, so you see there is a ton of variables that lead to a wide variance in growth rates.

I will give you a recent personal example. About a year or so ago I hatched out a T. albo sac. Nearly all the slings are housed individually, kept in the same heated room, and fed a fat diced meal worm every 2 weeks. They are right now ranging between 3/4" and 1,25" and even the biggest looks like a sling still.. But there is the surprise here. When re housing them from the incubator, 2 ended up falling into a roach bin somehow, with a small species of roach. I just found them 2 weeks ago and they are both juveniles showing adult colors.....but even within the slings that had it all, constant food, slightly warmer temps (they are right next to the heater as I try to keep this roach bin as warm as possible) one is 1.75", the other is a little better than 2.5". That is a good variance within 2 groups.

I raised 2 Hamorii in my life from a sling. One grew so fast it shocked me, like genic fast, the other grew at a more typical glacial Brachy pace....both turned out female.

This is why I don't even like to guess when someone asks what age be. I think their t might and why when I do offer something, my answer contains a gigantic potential age...like 2-10 or something.

An all you can eat roach coach