Heteroscodra maculata grow rate

[Kirdec]

Hi everybady, my question is mostly for those have kept them from spiderling to maturity, how fast is the grow rate of a female and male if the specimen are kept well fed and at a temperature of about 25 degres celcius.

I know its impossible to say how long it will take to mature, but just to have an idea ... I've 3 specimen here that I can hardly see to see adult

[Paul Carpenter]

Hi Kirdec, I have been keeping H maculata for over 10 years and have bred them a number of times. I have a female that lives in a bamboo tube on my spider room wall. She has lived there for 5 years know and although she is free to go wherever she wants she rarely leaves the tube. Compared to S calceatum H maculata is quite small and females will be sexually mature before reaching full size. My last male matured in about 2 years but was a small specimen. A well fed female should be mature in about 2 years, it would certainly be worth introducing a male to a female of that age. I believe keeping your spiders well fed, will in the longterm shorten their lifespan. The reason they can go for long periods without food is because in the wild they have to. I often leave some of my adults without food for weeks even months if their abdomens look ok. You may be able to get them to full size in less than 2 years, but I don't think it will be of much benefit to you or them.

Paul

[Kirdec]

Ok yeah I understand, and that is interesting. My main idea was to take them to maturity as fast as I could, breed my female if i've one and send my males if its the case. And then with the babys I would'nt over feed them for maturation.

Personally I have a diet for my ts, 1 cricket a week seem's perfect, they keep ther abdomen about 1x to 1.5x their prosome size. You're not the first experienced ppl that tell me we can be a "long" period without feeding, something interesting I might try with the babys i'll have with the specimen I keep actually, i'll take 5 of them and call 'em Group A, take another 5 and call them group B, feed well group A and feed much less the group B, well when I judge its necessary by the abdomen size. Then I can note the difference.

They must be more visible this way ?