Aphonopelma sp 'new river' breeding ...best time of year to mate

[lynn mawdesley]

Hi all,

I have 1.1 of this sp the males not mature yet but i think (hoping) he will be a couple of moults way.
Im just wondering what time of the year is best to mate ..if there is a specific time?
Ive taken into consideration that its best done after the female moults etc
Can anyone share any successful breeding info with the Aphonopelma sp please

Cheers
Lynn

[James Box]

i'm in the same boat as you Lynn! my male's not mature yet either...
Aphonopelma don't seem to be bred an awful lot, especially the slower growing species...but any tips and hints will help

[lynn mawdesley]

i'm in the same boat as you Lynn! my male's not mature yet either...
Aphonopelma don't seem to be bred an awful lot, especially the slower growing species...but any tips and hints will help

Funnily enough i was gona PM u later lol ...but seen as tho your in the same boat as me hopefully we will get some good detailed replies

Did you get yours from the spider shop?

Also i was reading on a forum earlier on and someone had suggested they were a different colour form of A chalcodes?

Lynn

[James Box]

lol! yeah i'm still hoping my chalcodes female drops at some point in the future, at least i still have the male (been 5 months or so since he matured)...so can't give you much help there.
i suppose anything is possible, they could be classed as a regional varient of chalcodes...there was discussion about them possibly being the same as sp flagstaff orange, but there's scope for different species in those regions i'm told...
they may all have varying breeding habits as well...but i'll be bugging some people at the BTS lectures, so will share what i learn!

[lynn mawdesley]

lol! yeah i'm still hoping my chalcodes female drops at some point in the future, at least i still have the male (been 5 months or so since he matured)...so can't give you much help there.
i suppose anything is possible, they could be classed as a regional varient of chalcodes...there was discussion about them possibly being the same as sp flagstaff orange, but there's scope for different species in those regions i'm told...
they may all have varying breeding habits as well...but i'll be bugging some people at the BTS lectures, so will share what i learn!

Great stuff James it will be interesting to see what they get classified as.
So is the mating with your chalcodes your first breeding attempt or have you had others ?

[James Box]

well it's my first go by myself, really...aside from allowing a male Pandinus imperator to cohabit with two females (nothing's come of that at least yet).
i did have a male GBB that went to a friend's female, sadly he got munched and she died not long after though...so am hoping this chalcodes thing works out better.
the male just needs to get a move on and mate with my second female!
as for the new rivers, i have two females and a male, (at least i hope i do! won't know til i have moults to prove it though)...so best of luck to both of us, would be great to have these circulating around a bit. i think they are a lovely and subtle species.
if they're like chalcodes at all though, we can expect a loooong childhood, maturing in probably 8 years or more...but hey it's a labour of love!

[lynn mawdesley]

Just been having a scout on the net at other Aphonopelma sp and i have found so far that A smithi, A iodius & A chalcodes look very similar.

Is anyone at present looking into the taxonomy etc of the A 'new river'

Cheers
Lynn

[Ray Gabriel]

Hi Guys,

Glad to read you both have sub males, Ok the way I would go about this is firstly find out the climatic data for the "new River" area,

The next thing to do would be for you both (and anyone else reading this) to house all your specimens identically so that they all get the same wet/dry summer/winter seasons.

obviously if you (the breeders) cannot do this as a group then individually.

I estimate 2 seasons (years if you are lucky) and the males should mature sometime around the females moulting BUT if as W J Bearg states in his book the Tarantula (Fitzgerald or google should get you copies) some males mature later than others (almost a season later). This will give you a rough time to mate the females. After mating then the same climatic procedures should be followed and the female should produce in response to these and a greater food intake.
Now then, food should be offered in larger quantities during the wet seasons as these are the seasons where more food will be available, if all goes OK you should or your females should produce eggsacs near the end of a shorter rainy season if there is one or the start of the rainy season.

If the eggsacs are produced nearer the cold season then there is a good chance the spiderlings will not feed until they have had a " winter/cold season", offer any resulting young food, if it is not taken a couple of weeks after maturing into spiderlings (Aphonopelma and some Grammostola only) then they need an artificial winter.

If it gets to this stage let me know and we can take it from there

Ray

BTW the above is not "proven 100%" but it is the best suggestion i can come up with not haveing kept or bred this species.

Ray

[lynn mawdesley]

Hi Guys,

Glad to read you both have sub males, Ok the way I would go about this is firstly find out the climatic data for the "new River" area,

The next thing to do would be for you both (and anyone else reading this) to house all your specimens identically so that they all get the same wet/dry summer/winter seasons.

obviously if you (the breeders) cannot do this as a group then individually.

I estimate 2 seasons (years if you are lucky) and the males should mature sometime around the females moulting BUT if as W J Bearg states in his book the Tarantula (Fitzgerald or google should get you copies) some males mature later than others (almost a season later). This will give you a rough time to mate the females. After mating then the same climatic procedures should be followed and the female should produce in response to these and a greater food intake.
Now then, food should be offered in larger quantities during the wet seasons as these are the seasons where more food will be available, if all goes OK you should or your females should produce eggsacs near the end of a shorter rainy season if there is one or the start of the rainy season.

If the eggsacs are produced nearer the cold season then there is a good chance the spiderlings will not feed until they have had a " winter/cold season", offer any resulting young food, if it is not taken a couple of weeks after maturing into spiderlings (Aphonopelma and some Grammostola only) then they need an artificial winter.

If it gets to this stage let me know and we can take it from there

Ray

BTW the above is not "proven 100%" but it is the best suggestion i can come up with not haveing kept or bred this species.

Ray

Hi Ray ,

Thankyou for the good advice i will be sure to do as much research as possible and to mimic their climate to the best of my abilities and i know James will too.

I will also record everything thing i do and any outcomes, hopefully between the two off us we can get these girls to produce some healthy slings in the near future

Thanks once again
Lynn

P.S i will be bringing you a dead male specimin of this sp to the BTS show in May.

[James Box]

thanks Ray, that's fantastic! definitely something to be going on

[lynn mawdesley]

James describe your S/A male to me, mine looks pretty much like a mature male already but without the tibial hooks & i would say 5" + legspan.

Cheers
Lynn

[James Box]

i really couldn't say which it is. in fact, i'm being optimistic that there is a male in the bunch, as it would've been sexed ventrally...something in which i have next to zero faith. let's just say i'm aware of several "males" turning out to be female, and vice versa...
if these are anything like chalcodes though, they'll probably look VERY different as a mature male...for instance, my chalcodes which turned out to be male, went from pure sandy blonde to entirely black with red setae on the legs etc, and i am aware of other specimens going mostly black but having a golden carapace...so there is a marked difference in colour.
so far i'm just crossing my fingers that one of my new rivers (and only one!) is male...see how it goes i guess!

[lynn mawdesley]

i really couldn't say which it is. in fact, i'm being optimistic that there is a male in the bunch, as it would've been sexed ventrally...something in which i have next to zero faith. let's just say i'm aware of several "males" turning out to be female, and vice versa...
if these are anything like chalcodes though, they'll probably look VERY different as a mature male...for instance, my chalcodes which turned out to be male, went from pure sandy blonde to entirely black with red setae on the legs etc, and i am aware of other specimens going mostly black but having a golden carapace...so there is a marked difference in colour.
so far i'm just crossing my fingers that one of my new rivers (and only one!) is male...see how it goes i guess!

We can only hope hey James, i cant wait untill mine moult so i can see for myself

[lynn mawdesley]

www.city-data.com/city/New-River-Arizona.html found this James if you scroll down the page there are detailed graphs on temp, humidity etc ....something to go on hey

Lynn

ooops link does not work just copy & paste into your browser lol

[James Box]

nice one, Lynn! i'll consult that and once i have things set up better will try to get conditions right...
this pretty much requires moving though! which i'm planning on doing anyway, so it's all good.