Avicularia sp. "Guyana"

[Scott Pritchard]

I will soon be embarking on a breeding project with these T's (few weeks time). I am aware of the risk of hybridisation with breeding (for want of a better word, which has probably escaped me!) unspecified avics. The source they come from are superbly reputable and if they assure me they are the same, I trust their word 100%.

Having never bred avic's before I obviously have done a lot of research. I am well prepared and have all the necessary equipment and knowledge (hopefully!!).

My question is simple, does anyone have any breeding tips for avics? Things I may not have come across in my reading or little "tricks of the trade" that you have gained in your experience? Any and all information is welcome.

Many thanks,

Scott Pritchard

[Colin D Wilson]

For Guyanan Avics it's really as simple as leaving the male in for a few days then taking him out and trying again a few days later, they're "normally" quite tolerent of each other from my experience. He'll possibly mak a sperm web in her tub and continue to try as long as he's in there.
To play it safe you could pop both their tubs into a larger container and leave them as then he'll have a larger area to escape if needed, this normally ends up in both ofthem mating out of their own tubs when they encounter each other on a nightly roam around.

The crossbreeding scenario isn't really an option at the moment, this is if the seller is 100% sure they were collected from the same area (if wild caught) or bred from adults of the same locality. if successful you could sell the slings as "hobby form guyanan avics"

After this is when things "could" end up in the crossbreeding department through no fault of yours.
for instance ........ you breed and are successful ........ you sell the slings as Avic sp. "Guyana" ........ "Mr Bloggs" buys a couple and they mature as males ..... he see's "Mr Smith" with a female Avic sp. "Guyana" and loans him a male ...... Mr Smiths female comes from a totally different location to his male and in reality they would never naturally meet ....... Mr Smith breeds them and the resulting egg sac is an example of crossbred avics.

There's no way (without disecting the male beforehand) that either of these two people would know they had different species, all they know is they have "sp. Guyana", i've seen dozens of different little blue/green avics that have come from Guyana on different shipments and they've all been different ....even to the eye.
As an extra there have been time where slings of established species (hurrianna, laeta etc) have been labeled as sp. "guyana" just because the breeders just going on what he's bought the parents as, doesn't know what they are, so chooses a common name that in his/her mind "covers it nicely"

Hope this makes sense, and i hope i haven't sounded too "soap boxy" it's just an area of the hobby that Myself, Elaine and other passionate Avicularia hobbyists are concerned about for the future.

I'm sounding hypocritical here probably after you reading my waffle above, but good luck with your breeding attempt Scott



*Edit*
Elaine just wanted me to add this to re-enforce the situation with imports from the "same" local,
From the same area (Kwitaro) we had 4 different spiders (shape size and coloration) in three imports. all labeled as A sp. "Kwitara river" or "kwitara". When attempting breeding we loaned a male from another hobbyist who had bought it with the first shipment, this male was actually a different species (smaller and slightly bluer 4 inches LS) as we'd never seen a Mature "Kwitara" male before we just took it as read that the male was correct, It was lucky she killed him as soon after a spider here from the first import matured and was nearly 7 inches LS. Subsequently we have had moults from all the females from each import, disturbingly the spermatecae shape differs from import to import.
When Elaine has all the data collated this will be an interesting journal article i think

[Scott Pritchard]

Thats a great reply thanks a lot Colin. I am actually REALLY starting to get into the avic genus, fast becoming my favourite genus. I find they have oodles of character, really fun to keep and look amazing to boot. And as I had done a lot of reading around the subject of breeding them, I inevitably came across the issues with hybridisation/cross-breeding.

I just wanted to post on here first before I attempted it as I didn't want to be straying into territory I didn't want to be in. Plus as with my first post just wanted a few tips. You have calmed my nerves about this though and I really appreciate your thorough post!

Many thanks on the good luck, hopefully you will be hearing from me within the next few months saying I was successful