Yay, new arrivals!

[Kate Arbon]

Got my delivery from the spider shop this morning. Had to wait a week for it so I was like a kid on christmas when the post came, lol.

2x 1cm Euathlus truculentus slings, who were very lively. Not fast, just determined to go trooping off the second I opened their vials. These guys are giving my P. cambridgei slings a run for their money as the cutest baby spiders I have ever seen!

1x juvenile Euathlus truculentus, because I wanted slings but also didn't want to wait years to see what they would look like! This one (who I've named Floyd, I don't know why it just popped into my head a few days ago) was also very keen on stretching its legs when I unpacked it. Got some pics but they are a bit off-centre cos it kept walking out of shot.








And the MM G. rosea RCF that is (hopefully) going to pair up with my red girl. I was surprised how small he looked when I unpacked him, but I measured him stretched out and he's virtually identical legspan to my female. Just all legs with no meat on him. I just hope she sees him as a boyfriend and not a snack!






This is him and her side by side in their tanks. They have a very noticable colour difference, he is more caramel/orange and by contrast she is very ruby. No idea how old he actually is because I got him from a store not an owner. Just hope he's up for the job




Gonna give him a few days to settle in, and see if he wants to eat something, then start the stressful proceedings of seeing what she thinks of him

[Nicola Dolby]

Congratulations Kate! Can't wait to get to the BTS show, my purse is already beginning to itch!

[Tom Forman]

congrts Kate, both thoose G. Rosea have great colour to them. That ruby red colour is probably the nicest RCF I have seen. You should be proud owning her.

Gl with the mating and the new arrivals.

I really need to get myself a cork slab like you have got, thats all I am missing at the moment :P

I was just wondering, if you are going to breed these two you really should be raising temperatures to get her in the right mood. It seems hard enough getting T's to produce some viable eggs, I could not see it working without just a simple heat mat. I couldn't see one on your pic...

I would highly recommend one.

[James Box]

I was just wondering, if you are going to breed these two you really should be raising temperatures to get her in the right mood. It seems hard enough getting T's to produce some viable eggs, I could not see it working without just a simple heat mat. I couldn't see one on your pic...

I would highly recommend one.

there are other means besides heatmats of keeping the temp up...the overall temperature might be high enough already.
i'd personally like to get rid of my mats in favour of more natural heating from the top down, but not sure i can organise that at the moment.
good luck Kate! nice new arrivals too

[Kate Arbon]

Thanks for the kind words people

With regards to temperature for the RCF, thanks for mentioning that Tom I will definitely look into it some more. My room is fairly warm at the moment, at least on sunny days, as have big south facing windows, but I may use a heatmat if I find reports suggesting I need consistantly high temps at any time in the process. Louise off this forum has had success breeding these guys and she actually said in her experience sac-laying seems to be encouraged by cooler temps. But maybe higher temps are better for actually getting fertilised. I will have look around tonight and hopefully find some articles on rosea breeding.

[James Box]

definitely ask Lou, she knows her stuff.

[Kate Arbon]

Oh and Tom, just cos you said nice things about my female RCF I can't help showing her off again



You're right, I am proud of her, couldn't believe my luck when I found her in a pet shop. Didn't particularly want a rosea but when I saw her I couldn't resist, and when she turned out to be female it was just a huge bonus. I hope I have her for a good long time and get many red babies from her.

[Peter Lacey]

must admit that's a beautiful G. rosea
Does it matter that you have 2 different colour strains as breeding partners?

[Kate Arbon]

must admit that's a beautiful G. rosea
Does it matter that you have 2 different colour strains as breeding partners?

They are both RCF rosea. I assume the colour difference is just natural variation between individuals of a species, plus the usual difference between mature males and females.

Even if they were different colour forms they would be the same species so I don't think breeding together would be a problem, it would just result in fewer RCF slings.

[Peter Lacey]

I have no idea Kate, curious though. I assumed the colour strains were sub-species, not something I've read but hopefully someone can explain.
Makes me wonder, as I have about the colouration of many Ts, when the same species has differences in colour. Surely with good husbandry species could be bred to have much more colour than that of wild specimens. I know this exists with tropical fish and on a visit to Thailand I was surprised to see some species in their natural habitat with rather dull colouration.

[Richard Shah]

Nice Kate, I wish my so-called juvenile was that size!!

[Colin D Wilson]

If it's any concolation Kate, and to hopefully put your mind at rest about any age concerns you have of your male.
I have a MM rosea here that matured TWO years ago this May, he's only just successfully mated again with a nice female and has since produced another sperm web and has taken a little cricket to tide him over.

It's going to be a sad day when i lose him as he's been a right soldier throughout his maturity. (16 matings to date, not all successful due to moult outs by some females but legendary non the less )

Colin

*edit* forgot to add....most of my aged MM RCF's have faded a little and have got the same ginger appearence as yours.

[Kate Arbon]

Thanks for the reassurance Colin, that's pretty much what I expected. I know a freshly molted MM rosea RCF would be a LOT brighter and more colourful than this guy so I suspected he has been mature for a little while. But he still looks healthy and he's definitely alert (a bit jumpy in fact).

I have a MM G. aureostriata who matured 10 months ago and yesterday saw him making a new sperm web, so he's still going strong. I've heard Grammastolas can last quite a while after maturing so I'm not too worried. It's all part of the learning experience anyway


EDIT: Can you suggest how much I should feed him? I've heard feeding males a lot can shorten their lives but obviously I don't want to starve him so if you can advise as to how well fed you like to keep yours that would be great. My MM aureostriata takes 1 or 2 large crickets every 3 or 4 weeks at the moment. He eats well, but I'm trying to keep him on the slimmer side in case what I've heard about it hastening their end is true.

[Colin D Wilson]

I personally haven't noticed any real difference in lengevity of a MM no matter what feeding regimen it decides on, this is over the last 25 odd years of me concentrating on Grammostola as a genus.
The 2 year mature NCF has only had about a dozen crickets in this time. i have another RCF male that has not eaten for over a year and is still able to perform.
I've noticed they will be more inclined to drink a little more than what's considered "usual" for the species.