Fried tarantula?

[Stuart Baker]

Does anyone have experience of keeping tarantulas outside of their “normal” temperature ranges? I'm looking at keeping groups of spiders at 20°c and 30°c (68°f and 86°f), for several months as part of my dissertation project. While I realise these temperatures are either side of what may be considered ideal, I would not expect any problems keeping spiders at 68°f. I am a little more concerned that 86°f might be too much. Does anyone have any experiences to the contrary? I’m not sure species would be involved, but a South American species is most likely, with P. cambridgei and B. albopilosum the front-runners.


Stuart

[Colin D Wilson]

In short, and without getting too technical, the correct temperature and humidity for spiders has a bearing on their growth, feeding habits and mating capabilities.
If you don't mind a little critisism, and this is my own opinion, i wouldn't alter the living conditions for an animal so much as it may affect the animals stress and health levels just for, at the end of the day, a glorified essay.

Hope you don't mind me being blunt, but i've heard of a few "experiments" go wrong ending in the loss of the subject.

[Stuart Baker]

In short, and without getting too technical, the correct temperature and humidity for spiders has a bearing on their growth, feeding habits and mating capabilities.
If you don't mind a little critisism, and this is my own opinion, i wouldn't alter the living conditions for an animal so much as it may affect the animals stress and health levels just for, at the end of the day, a glorified essay.

Hope you don't mind me being blunt, but i've heard of a few "experiments" go wrong ending in the loss of the subject.

For most biological processes an increase in temperature results in acceleration of that process. For exothermic animals (such as spiders) the Q10 value is usually 2. This means that for every 10°c temperature rise, the animal’s metabolic rate doubles. This is the reason I would like a 10°c temperature difference between my treatments. The amount of food offered will also be varied, with some subjects being offered considerably more food than others. Combing these two variables will give me a total of four treatments. The humidity will remain constant. Feeding habits and growth rate will be the dependent variables that I am measuring. I will be using spiderlings, housed individually, so mating capabilities will not be assessed.

This experiment will not need to vetted by the university ethics committee, nor will it fall foul of any animal welfare laws. It will form the basis of the dissertation for my zoology degree, which I hope will be of sufficient quality to be published in a peer-reviewed journal full of “glorified essays”.

By asking this question during the planning process I’m aiming to minimise the risk to the spiders in my care.

Stuart

[Colin D Wilson]

After reading that i can gather you have thought through the process, and touché regarding "glorified Essays" In reality i hope you do get published,

Some of my own thoughts regarding your experiment.

I think the cambridgei would be the better of the two for you as they are a faster growing species, although the albopilosum is generally a hardier animal i think it's too slow growing for you to get the results you need in the time you have.

You say you are taking records from four subjects, do you think you would benefit from adding a fifth as a control subject?

The enclosures would have to be identical cosmetically to, again, get a contol environment, are you thinking of a natural enclosure or clinical / sterile type with minimum decor, and regarding the temperature differences what thoughts have you about keeping the humidity constant in all enclosures?

Finally, in a paper that i compiled many years ago (herpetological parasitology) i was advised to include further differenciating information regarding exothermic (the reaction or process), ectothermic (temp from external source) and poikilothermic (matching ambient temp), i know this primarily brings reptiles to mind for most people but it's relevant here too so would you be including this?

regards
Colin

[Stuart Baker]

I'd love to see my work in print. I won't be holding my breath just yet though.

I didn't really expalin myself clearly in my earlier post. There will be four treatments, with 20 replications of each, for a total of 80 subjects. I agree that the cambridgei would be the better choice, but with the numbers I'm planning to use, my wallet has other thoughts! We shall see. On the subject of B. albops. growth rates, have a look at this.

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=9305

I'm not really sure what I could use as a control, as far as temperature is concerned, as what ever I decided would just be higher or lower than the other groups, and not really a control as such. As far as feeding regime, I suppose I could withold food altogether, but I'm fairly sure what effect that would have on growth rate after a few months.

As far as humidity goes, I'll be using the same amount of water in each container, with a standard amount of ventilation. I won't be recording any data for humidity. I don't think relative humidity will have an effect on the growth rate of a tarantula, but it's certainly one to keep in mind as a confounding variable.

The reference to exothermy in my previous post should have read ectothermy. My bad. The write up of this experiment won't be happening until next year, so I'm not sure what it will include yet. Less than I would like is usually the answer as there are penalties for exceeding the word limit.

All of this does of course have to be approved by my project supervisor (appropriately enough, a Dr. Andrew Smith).

Thanks for the input Colin

Stuart

[Colin D Wilson]

No problems for the input, if i can help out in any way just ask.

anyway....80 subjects !!! ouch !! thats the credit card hammered as well !!

That albopilosum of Leon's did well in seven months eh?

good luck mate


p.s. i can relate to that SPIDSPUD fellow as I studied symbiotic and parasitic ticks and mites on reptiles for one of my subjects.

[Stuart Baker]

So what do people think about keeping spiders at 30°c (86°f)?

[Colin D Wilson]

I never really answered your question,
In my opinion 86 is not too high to cause any long term effects, the temperature exeeds this in the wild in some areas for several months per year(and with high humidity) and the spiders do not suffer any ill effects.

also found this on web (you've sparked my interest Stuart)

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall01/FinalArticles/FINALLABPACKET.Tarantulas.html

You may find some data / charts helpfull.

Regards

Colin

[Stuart Baker]

Thanks Colin. The link was most useful. The temps I have in mind seemed ok to me. I just wanted to hear it from somebody else I suppose.

Stuart