A genic Gestation and advice?

[David Blair]

Hi can anyone give me an Idea of how long the gestation period for A. geniculata takes.
It is my first attempt at breeding and it took a while but got a successful insertion on 11th June and the female is visibly bigger(hopefully gravid)
Also any advice on things to have ready, how long to leave her with the sack, when to pull etc is very welcome.
I have read that some T's first sack isnt always successful, does this depend on species or just luck?

[michaelmckinney]

Well I've done a bit of research David,

I read between 2 and 4 months gestation period depending on the temperature (2 higher, 4 lower). So realistically medium temp. (24-25 celsius) should be around 3 months. Also it is recommended not to leave the sac with the female more than a month after construction, as this species has a bad track record for eating their egg sacs. But then again depends on the individual spider I suppose. It said to artificially incubate the sac from 1 month until hatching.

Hope this is of use to you,

Michael.

[David Blair]

Many thanks for the info Michael, it's given me an insight to what I have coming(hopefully).
I have also looked at some back issues of the BTS journal and found some very informative issues on incubating nymphs so fingers crossed I will be giving it a go.
Thanks again

[matthew spooner]

not sure on the gestation period for the a.geniculata but you should pull the egg sac at 30 days, at this time the young should be at nymph 2, possibly nymph 1 stage. i have found that the best way of incubating is to use a method created by Ray Gabriel, which was featured in a bts journal but i cant remember which one. it would take me ages to try and describe how to do it on here so maybe someone can give you the journal number and you can download it, maybe its one of the journals you have already read whilst doing your research. good luck David

[David Blair]

Thanks Matthew, I searched back and found 2 versions of incubator by Ray the first in Volume 19 Number 2 and second in Volume 20 Number 4 so I am spoiled for choice lol but think I will give the improved method a try(fingers crossed I get a sack and it gets that far).

[matthew spooner]

can you remind me what he difference is between the two versions? would be interesting if he has found a better way than the one i currently use

[David Blair]

Yup sure Matthew the mark 1 uses a hammock formed with kitchen roll and medium petpal and the new version uses a cut away tupperware container and netting to create the hammock which is placed inside a petpal.
There is more to them but that I think is the jist of it. sorry I've never been quite technical

[matthew spooner]

ah so its the old original way i use, well works for me and you know what they say, if it aint broke dont fix it lol