H.incei Communal set up.

[Lee Corless]

Just did a search on here for a thread about H.incei Communal set up. There were only a hand full and most of them are over 2 years old. I was wondering if any one who was trying it from the old posts had managed to make it work, or if any one is trying a new colony right now?

I recently got 6 slings (2nd instar) and they have been living well together, but this morning one was missing and there was just a few legs scattered around. Is this some thing that regularly happens and how can I try to prevent such a thing happing again?

Would giving them more space be an idea? At the moment they are in a deli tub with a 10 cm diameter.

Any other advice or observations on community H. incei would be appreciated.

P.S. I will just add that my slings have not ate for a few days and refuse food so I am presuming they are in premoult so I can not understand why they ate their brother.

[Lee Corless]

Just to let you know, that I decided to separate them after another sling was killed but not eaten this time (I know it was killed because its abdomen was half off). It was half way through a moult, so i am guessing this is what happened to the first one. Has any one else noticed this behaviour with communal slings?

[James Box]

hi Lee, sorry just saw this.i *tried* a community too once. went from 10 down to 3 before i realised they are not communal. it's not easy to see what they're getting up to in their burrows. one escaped twice, and after making things more secure, i rehoused her. the other two were on opposite sides of the tank and one walked all the way over to the other burrow just to pick a fight. separated them immediately at that point!

i had more "luck" with Yamia sp "Koh Samui", but that was only because they don't go far from their burrows. cannibalism did occur though, as numbers of slings bred clearly whittled down. they do ok as long as you avoid overcrowding by removing any new slings.

reading the original story about the H incei colony in Canada, there was the caution that cannibalism must've occured as the population seemed to reach a certain point and not grow past that.

i also tried H villosella, and went rather quickly from 10 down to 1. my personal feeling is that Theraphosidae is just not prone to social tolerance with very few exceptions.