p.formosa community.

[Martin Lees]

Has anyone had any success keeping p.formosa communily?I have currently got 5 p.regalis and 5 p.striata(from pete lacey) together.does anyone know which pokies cant be kept together?I know p.ornate is a no no?ANY ADVICE.Would be appreciated.
cheers
martin

[Colin D Wilson]

from experience......
formosa will live together fine, just keep on top of the temp and humidity (they do very well with a bit of a seasonal fluctualtion in temp and the odd soaking to simulate a monsoon )

ornata do actually go ok together, they need to be kept even tighter than usual regarding space as they get territorial very easily, the time to seperate them is when the males start to overtake the females size wise as this can lead to a bit of a battle of wills and suprisingly the males lose out.... so not really reccommended

If you mean that you have the regalis and striata together then this again will work, the ethics behind this means that you need to seperate any mature males that appear as cross breeding is a masive no no (or just keep females )

Had quite a bash at communes years ago when i was more inquisitive and wanted to know what went with what etc, after all it's science to find out the unknown or the seemingly impossible ...... after attempting quite a few (you'll be suprised what will live together comfortably) i've come to a decision personally that its not only a bit of a moralistic and ethical task but actually a waste of some nice spiders i could keep seperate and rear to adulthood.

[Nicola Dolby]

Just adding an aside There are species which live as communities quite happily together even in adulthood, as a mixed commune, for example P. rufilata. In fact under these circumstances the males lived for uncommonly long lifespans in my experience. The only problem I have found with these was when I had one "rogue" spider who went nuts and attacked all the others the devestation could be immense. This begs the question of sociodynamics within a group though I wonder if that is too complicated for theraphosids?

[Martin Lees]

thanks for the feedback.i have two seperate communities.5 p.striata and 5 p.regalis.all seem to be doing fine at the moment.i didnt realise people had tried different species of pokies together.its not something i,ll try though.

[Peter Lacey]

Ive had 1 success with ornata and 2 failures, all 3 communities having 4 of each. I personally think we're missing something with ornata, possibly the lack of a need to conserve humidity by communal living. Ive kept them in small enclosures but this didnt make it successful. Ive noted that very early on the separate and don't seem to show signs of communal life apart from when they're slings.
Ive had success with 20+ regalis to subA, 23 regalis + mum, 23 striata + mum, 8 striata (to maturity), 4 striata (to maturity), currently have 15 & 20+ striata slings, 5 subfusca (just split the 2 remaining AF), currently 19 subfusca slings, 3 miranda (to maturity), currently 2 miranda, 5(3) miranda, 4(3) miranda, 4 pederseni, 4 pederseni (to maturity), 3 rufilata (to maturity), 15(9) rufilata, 5 formosa juves, plus a few others.