# Grammostola Rosea with Egg Sack



## shellshock187 (Apr 19, 2011)

Hi All, I purchased Grammostola Rosea 13/10/11, with a large abdomen looking well fed,,,well it would seem pregnant now lol good buy!!, and about 1 week ago well maybe 3 to 4 days ago, she started to lay eggs and now i have an eggsac, i am not sure if the eggs are fertilised or not, but she seems well defencive and has not left her vigil of said eggsac...the only problem is i am not very experienced with T's and even less experienced with incubating eggs and rearing slings....ok so as you will appreciated i have a few questions..

can i tell if the eggs are fertilised?

Once a male and female G Rosea mate how long will it take for the female to produce an eggsac? 

once mated is it possible for her to store the sperm for a latter date?

Should i leave the eggsac with her if so for how long?

Do i need to up the humidity and or temperature in here enclosure?

if i leave the sac do i remove the nymphs(eggs with legs) or wait till they are fully formed.?

if i was to pull the sac what would be the best method for incubation?

an i guess keeping the slings would be in the same kind of environment as the adult but micro versions and feed on pin heads ?

here is a shot of her on the eggsac, sorry for all the questions its become an immediate issue and the best method for answers is to get advice from those that know and so any advice will be well received .....however in the mean time i will carry on researching......many thanks....Arry


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## hysterocrates* (May 18, 2011)

Hi

Those things happen quite often and the reason is that most of Roseas adult females are wild caught and they're already mated/gravid.

Did she roll the eggsac or left it like its shown on the pic? If the eggsac is rolled means it's alright, but if it's like on the pic you can put it in the bin already because nothing is gonna hatch from that. 

And answers for your questions:

1) Not really.

2) Femal can lay eggsacs even after two months, but can takes much longer (I know the female that laid the eggsac after almost one year). It depends of the conditions such as temp, humidity etc.

3) As I said before, the time can stretch. Female usually wait for the right conditions; conditions can be stimulated by the breeder. 

4) Yes, you can pull it out after 3-4 weeks, or leave it with her until she's going to open it by herself.

5) Keep humidity around 70% and the temperature around 26C daytime, and about 20-22C at night. When you suddenly change the conditions while female already have the eggsac, she can destroy it (eat it).

6) Personally I pull the eggsac out and incubate the nymphs, so I can have more control and can save time when seperating them in different pots. You can obviously leave them with female till they are fully formed cause that's they way it happens in the nature. (Decision is left for the breeder).

7) I'm using two methods and both are good. You can put eggs/nymphs to the pots with dry paper towels on the bottom of the pot and put it on the bigger container with wet substrate or wet paper towels which will keep the humidity. For the 2nd method you'll need plastic container filled with water (about 3cm) and lid with cut out middle part of it (so you get kind of frame) and piece of tights. You should easily find the pics of incubators in the internet or you can check my photo thread on the spider and inverts pictures section, I just uploaded some pics with the eggsac nymphs incubator. 

If you got any further questions you can PM me, I'm happy to help. Also, if you want I can send you some pics of my incubators by PM. I hope that will help. : victory:


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## shellshock187 (Apr 19, 2011)

Many thanks PM sent:2thumb:


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## shellshock187 (Apr 19, 2011)

ok some progress she has rolled the eggsac up into a ball


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## 8and6 (Jan 19, 2010)

I had a female Grammostola that laid a viable and successful eggsac 2 years after pairing when i worked on the genus back in the 90s.
Grams are not well documented for laying infertile sacs so the odds are it's a good one.
In my experience Its best if you dont pull the sac before they first become nymphs (or EWL's, Eggs with Legs) to make sure that all the eggs have been inseminated by the females massaging, but it is hard to judge with Grams seeing as N1 can be as little as 4-5 weeks after laying, but almost as much as 3-4 months.

I would always advise leaving the sac with mum, especially with slow developers like this, and pulling it when you first see signs of life within the sac. She will only eat it if things aren't right, be that bad eggs (for whatever reason), enviromental or stress


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## shellshock187 (Apr 19, 2011)

excellent many thanks...

quote Steve "I had a female Grammostola that laid a viable and successful eggsac 2 years after pairing when i worked on the genus back in the 90s.
Grams are not well documented for laying infertile sacs so the odds are it's a good one"

This is very encouraging..

it would seem that once a successful pairing has been made the females can store the sperm until the conditions are right for the eggs to be laid, this can be right up to the next molt however long that may be,,,the sperm is deposited by the male into the spermatheca and actually stored in the spermatheca, Oocyte develop in the female, does she pass them past the spermatheca during the laying process thus depositing a film of sperm on each Oocyte?

quote Steve "to make sure that all the eggs have been inseminated by the females massaging"

So once the eggs have all been layed and passed the spermatheca she wraps them up and moves them around "massaging" this helps to ensure the eggs are all inseminated and i guess keeps them from becoming stagnant...

fascinating stuff this...

OK so time periods 4 to 5 weeks but possibly 4 months, i guess i have to be checking regular but not so much as to stress her out so that she eats them...and realistically are they all going to hatch at around the same time or will it be a steady trickle of face huggers lol

She has also taken two crickets and so is eating, i read that you should not disturb them during this time so as not to stress them, but i also read that feeding them may reduce the need to eat the eggs??

Nature vs nurture??.... interesting! i can see the benefits of incubation to reduce variability and maintain constant conditions thus ensuring maximum viability from the sac, but given the lack of my T husbandry / incubation skills i think i may just leave and watch taking notes and learning from nature....


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## shellshock187 (Apr 19, 2011)

well seems that the eggsac may not be viable or she felt uneasy for some reason and hasn't tended to it, she hasn't moved the sack from the position in the picture its not well webbed and its starting to smell so i am guessing thats it for that one.....still not a total loss because i have learnt plenty, constructed an incubator(thanks to hysterocrates for the pictures and advice :2thumb and she may yet lay another before her next molt.....

lessons..

Be more critical and look more closely when purchasing my next Tarantula to aid in preparation

Have constructed an incubator...have a better understanding of the whole incubation process

am turning my weights room into a T room, with weights jheeeez its gonna be warm, plus side... less injury!!! lol...anyways less disturbance from kids dogs, more constant temps / humidity and generally better

have learnt the type of behaviour exhibited by a gravid female of this genus,,,prior to egg laying and during the natural incubation process well this T anyways...shame i missed the mating....if this wasn't a phantom job??

Place a better hide hole in her tank..

plus lots more

have gained a much greater understanding for the species and respect for the hobby in general ...but have a LOOOOOOOOONG ways to go....

any comments welcome

thanks for ya help!!!


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