Haplopelma breeding

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi,
wonder if anyone could please advise me. I'm about to try breeding H. lividium and I wanted to ask whether it is safe to leave the male in the tank for a few days or, for his safety, does he need to be watched? I know you can leave Poecilotheria males in with the females but I'm not sure about Haplopelma. Can anyone help me?

[Trevor Parsons]

Hi,
wonder if anyone could please advise me. I'm about to try breeding H. lividium and I wanted to ask whether it is safe to leave the male in the tank for a few days or, for his safety, does he need to be watched? I know you can leave Poecilotheria males in with the females but I'm not sure about Haplopelma. Can anyone help me?

Here's what I know:

Haplopelma's are spastic. The slighest disturbance and he could run straight into her chelicerae.

Haplopelma's are burrowers. Chances are it's a good way to "force a mating" he goes down a hole and the female has no where to go.

The thing is you really shouldn't have to co-hab them. Every Haplopelma lividum mating I have seen the male is more than willing. Both of my females are receptive so mating usually occurs in under 20 minutes of waiting.

Also I just mated my younger female last night and watched something fairly interesting. After mating the male stood there I assume just incase she wanted more. After a little while waiting he strolled off like a Brachypelma. He continued until he was out of her enclosure and then stood motionless for minutes. Which makes me believe he wanted out. If he had done that pause in front of the female it could've been really bad.

P.S. I hate co-habitating for numerous reasons.

You never really know if they mated.

Male has higher chance of being a food item (especially bad if you have more than one female you want to mate)

If you leave him "too long" you would have to contend with him and then her to finally retrieve the eggsac.

[Steve McIntyre]

Hi Nicola, when I mated lividum, I left the male in with her for over a week, with no aggression from her towards him! I even had an eggsac, which unfortunately turned bad! Maybe if you leave the lid off the tank or sweetjar (or whatever the female is housed in) then the male can make his escape if need be! Just put some wood / bark strip from the substrate to the exit so he can run up it! If you leave the male in for too long, then she will probably eat him (just cos she can!) If she does eat him soon after the mating, though, please don't blame me!!

[Nicola Dolby]

Thanks for the help. I put them together last night but the male has decided he wants to aclimatise first???? He's just settling in and exploring, hopefully in the next couple of days they'll meet. She's staying in her burrow at the moment.

[Stephen jordan]

Hi Nicola, how did the breeding attempt go? Im about to get a mm H lividum for my girl next week with any luck.
Steve

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Stephen,
Sadly it didn't go too well. All was fine and she was eager, but when he saw the size of her (or at least detected it) he ran for his life! Its the only time I've seen a female up for it and a male not. When you put your male in don't be surprised if he has a personality transplant. They're all big and tough with us humans but when faced with a female tarantula they go all careful and timid (can't think why). I've noticed this with Ornithoctonus too. Good luck and always leave him with an escape route in case she's irritable.

[Stephen jordan]

Hi Nicola, suppose you can't blame him for being a bit intimidated. What did you do to condition the female before introducing the male if any? As I'm recieving a male at quite short notice and I haven't been able to find much solid info as exactly what to do? I'm intending to feed her well, let him settle in and introduce him in several weeks time. He's been mature now for a couple of months? My female last moulted in October 09! Any advice would be apprecitated! I will be writing detailed notes of my attempt.
Thanks
steve

[Ray Hale]

I bred Haplopelma many years ago. Minax, lividum and albostriatum. My experience was that although there was no aggression at the time of mating once the deed was done she became very agitated as if there was some physical discomfort for her during the mating. Often the male would make no attempt to escape and would seem to go willingly in to the jaws of death. My first mating was sucessful and the male was removed but the second time with two differnt spiders the male showed no interest and I left them together. They must have mated as she produced a viable eggsac some time later. however the male took a fang to the carapace and it was game over for him.
The strang thing was and of course it may have been coincidence but the first eggsac where the male survived produced 35 spiderlings whilst the second where he was killed and eaten produced over 90.

Literally.....food for though.

Ray

[Stephen jordan]

Thanks Ray! With any luck he should arrive next week, It'll be my first attempt so fingers crossed. I'll be writing it all up and recording the attempt in anycase wether it fails or not. My female is nice and settled so i'll let him settle in for a few weeks and introduce him to her. I think everything happens for a good reason in nature, why write into an animals instinct to eat their mate if it didnt serve some kind of important function such as improved clutch size! What I am wondering is wether it would pay dividends to implement changes in temp/humidity to assist in the mating? She is kept between 80 - 82f and gets a 4 - 5f drop at night, so do you think a cooling period may aid the attempt or not? I'm thinking if they are rainforest dwellers then just a drying out period would benefit more than temperature to simulate monsoon conditions? Does anyone have any ideas?

[Lisa Ashforth]

When I introduced a male lividum to my female's tank, he marched over to her burrow, drumming as he went, and went straight down there. I was forced to leave him in with her overnight as he was still halfway down her burrow when I went to bed. I left him a small cork tube to use as a retreat and the next morning he was in that. I reintroduced him a couple of weeks later but he showed no interest in the female's burrow and didn't drum, so I removed him straight away. I can only assume he did the deed first time round and lived to tell the tale.

No sac yet as far as I can see, but the female webbed over her burrow entrance about 3 weeks ago and has not been out, so it's a possibility.

[Stephen jordan]

Hi Lisa, thanks.. I guess it's up to them really then. Soon find out anyway won't I I could do with some luck at the moment.

[Lisa Ashforth]

I could do with some luck at the moment.

I know that feeling Hopefully 2010 will be a good year for you!

[Stephen jordan]

If you only knew lol! I'd be chuffed to bits for sure if this attempt worked out.