# What invert species can be kept communally



## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

There is so much chat about 'Can I keep this species communally' I thought it might be a good idea to do a crowd-sourced definitive thread on the matter. I've done a little digging and drawing info from other forums etc so I guess the best way to do it is if I update the list in this initial post as people add suggestions below. I'll include DWA just for the sake of completeness. 

Also, I guess it's only really worth including the predatory inverts here as obviously herbivores can be kept communally. I also do only mean that they can be kept with their same species - not mixed!!

So I'll get things started!

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*Tarantulas* (T-list from tarantulas.us)

*Very communal* (almost no cannabilism, social behavior noted)

Pamphobeteus sp. Chicken Spider

Holothele incei 

Heterothele villosella “extremly tolerant, hunting together, hiding together in a big ball of spider, lol. No canibalism observed. H. villosella will eat all together, and not only that, they will all be at the same area of the prey, which result in a big ball of Butt pointing the sky, lol. It is very interesting the ''language'' they use on each other, they will analyse their brother and sister with their leg and will never attempt to bite, attack or even challenge it.”

*Somewhat Communal *(some cannabilism noted, social behavior possible)

Monocentropus balfouri

Poecilotheria sp. (some) NOT P. ornata or striata - cannibalistic
P. fasciata - some success, but some bad reports too 
P.formosa
P. hanumavilasumica - some success, but some bad reports too
P. pederseni 
P. regalis
P. rufilata (most communal?) - "more success keeping them communally than singly"
P. subfusca

Hysterocrates sp.
Hysterocrates gigas and ederi do ok but will sometimes cannibalize siblings when they break into neighboring burrows as they expand their own tunnels, ive never seen any cannibalization occur above ground. Social feeding observed

Avicularia minatrix – best communal avic - behave like Poecilotheria communally


*Merely tolerant* (no social behavior noted, tolerance may end abruptly)

Yamia sp. Koh Samui "will coexist, just in separate burrows. No social behavior noted"

Heterothele gabonensis – “are just ... tolerating each other, but not hiding and hunting together. In the wild i'Ve had the chance to find group of over 20 individu in a single three, which mean they should tolerate each other even at adult size. No canibalism been observed. When food is introduced, they will challenge each other to see who will have the best part No biting or attack , just hitting each other with leg's, to see who is the bravest of them lol.”

Avicularia avicularia, possibly other Avicularia sp.

Pterinochilus murinus

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*Mantids*

I'm not really sure any mantids can be described as communal but they'll not kill each other!

Gongylus gongylodes
Phyllocrania paradoxa 

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*Scorpions*

As I understand it, the only truly communal ones are DWA, the others are just tolerant of one another, however, there are always exceptions.

Pandinus imperator
Heterometrus spinifer
Euscorpius flavicaudis
Vaejovis Carolinianus
Hadrurus arizonensis (to some extent - however, I've just disbanded mine due to cannibalism)

Centruroides Vittatus (DWA)
Centruroides Sculpturus (DWA)
Mesobuthus martensii (DWA)
Lychas mucronatus (DWA)
Babycurus jacksoni (DWA)

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*Others*

All Assassin bug species (though I'm having cannibalism problems personally)
Anthia sp (Tiger beetles)
All Tailless whip scorpions


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

Interesting thread, lets see what other people have to say about it.


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## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

That's aggravating... it seems I can no longer edit the post to add new things...


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

Yeah, I meant to mention, posts can only be edited for about half an hour I think.

That's why ph0bia's care sheet thread was a succession of similar posts as he updated the list.

If this were to be stickied you could always ask a mod if they could change that, some of the mods will be able to change that I think.


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## Muze (Jun 20, 2007)

EDIT :lol see you already mentioned em...teach me to speed read doh!

You say you are having probs with your assasins. How are you keeping them?

We keep ours on a mainly sand mix, keep them dry with plenty of hiding spots(big pieces of wood) and room to get away from each other. Also keeping plenty of food in with them. Never had a problem with them eating each other.


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## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

Muze said:


> EDIT :lol see you already mentioned em...teach me to speed read doh!


Already mentioned what?

...on another note, I think it would take someone with an iron-clad ringpiece to have the intestinal fortitude to cope with the nerves caused by attempting an M. balfouri commune. That is one seriously risky business!


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## Muze (Jun 20, 2007)

jakakadave said:


> Already mentioned what?
> 
> ...on another note, I think it would take someone with an iron-clad ringpiece to have the intestinal fortitude to cope with the nerves caused by attempting an M. balfouri commune. That is one seriously risky business!


Roy's kept em communally, if you are after info PM him : victory:

Wouldnt advise it tho unless you can afford to lose em


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## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

Muze said:


> Roy's kept em communally, if you are after info PM him : victory:
> 
> Wouldnt advise it tho unless you can afford to lose em


Exactly my meaning! Just imagine you wake up and find one standing on top of a pile of it's former compadres. That would be a crappy way to start the day knowing you were several hundred squids poorer than you were the day before!


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## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

No one got anything to add?


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

Don't be daft, no one on here _ever_ does a forum search before starting a new thread. Why would people add when they can make their own thread asking a question, rather than reading through previous threads on a subject in case your answer is already there... :lol2:

I'll add that maybe change "_Avicularia avicularia_" to "_Avicularia sp._" (sorry, I've spent this afternoon reading threads on avic taxonomy). Also I question their status as "Merely tolerant", from what I've heard they'll allow others to live a few feet from them, and mostly don't eat those because they're too lazy to leave their tube webs. They only really tolerate until their 3rd-4th instars I think.


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

I find threads like this more confusing than general discussions tbh. Unless you can edit the thread or unless you've done extensive resourcing its likely to be full of errors. I fully understand the desire to create such a thread, but it looses credibility rather fast. How can you determine the difference between failure and death for other reasons. What is your personal experience of communities?
I don't mean to sound negative, but it seems a little hollow.

Lets start off with this:
Pamphobeteus sp. Chicken Spider - who has these? nobody as far as I know, they don't have a proper ID and therefore have only been observed in the wild.

P. striata - I have a colony of 7 living well within a sweet jar at approx 4-5". I also have a colony of 20+ 1"+ living with mum!

P. ornata - I managed a colony of 4 living together til one reached over 4" which was double the size of the other 3. I had 2 other colonies of 4 which depleted to 1 in each enclosure. 

P. regalis - I have 20+ living communally between 1 - 3". I also have a colony of 6+ at 1". I have an adult female that ate the 2 other siblings and I had 2 regalis that needed to be separated at 4".

P. subfusca - successfully raised 5 to adult

P. rufilata - successfully raised 3 to adult males. But, in a community of 15 I'm now left with 6 or 7. In a community of 6 it was reduced to 2.

P. hanumavilasumica - who has these? and who would experiment with them? extremely rare and only bred within the last year as far as I know.

Avicularia do NOT behave like a Pokie community. At best they behave well prior to 3rd moult (debateable) but are prone to cohabitating rather than communal living. Nearly all reports Ive come across suggest no Avics, with the exception of A. minatrix, are successful communal species.

P. murinus & P. cambridgei - I have communities of these but they do not suggest communal living, merely cohabitating - Aug 09 to present, approx 1".


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## jakakadave (Dec 29, 2009)

Poxicator said:


> I find threads like this more confusing than general discussions tbh. Unless you can edit the thread or unless you've done extensive resourcing its likely to be full of errors. I fully understand the desire to create such a thread, but it looses credibility rather fast. How can you determine the difference between failure and death for other reasons. What is your personal experience of communities?
> I don't mean to sound negative, but it seems a little hollow.


I haven't actually kept any T's communally before, but it's something which interests me greatly. As I state in the thread that T-list is copied from a thread on tarantulas.us, not my own findings. Others are a mixture of my own findings and consensus from other posts and forums. I wish I could edit the thread, I thought i would be able to but it seems that editing is limited to a certain time frame.

Questions of communal keeping come up constantly so it seems like a good idea to have a thread which discusses it rather than loads of disparate threads answering the same questions over and over again.


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