does anyone know...

darth skippy · does anyone know...

at what size do B vagans males usually mature at? my male just molted and when i picked him up today i noticed he has hooks! he's still kinda small though so i thought there might be a small possibility that he wasn't what i thought he was

so... anyone know?

BayLee

Can you post a picture?

Males are sometimes significantly smaller than females.

Females reach about up to 6” +/-, I can see the male reaching anywhere from 4.5 - 5.5”.

darth skippy

here he is:

not trying to be a baller or anything here, purely for size reference

BayLee

What is he like 3.5"?

Looks like a vagans to me.

darth skippy

i thought so too, he just looks so small

i'm in the process of acquiring him a GF though since he's a handsome if slightly undersized specimen

BayLee

That would be a good plan to get him a G/F.
Would be nice to pass down his genes.

Ricky Ortiz84

Man you know what I think... since it is in captivity I think most male tarantulas mature way early in their lifes due to the fact that how well they are fed like OBT i've seend some tiny MM OBT's and ken just got a shipment from africa in and in it were MM OBT and man they were massive compared to what I normaly see so maybe we spoil them to death lol

llamamama

Good observation, Ricky. Maybe if they were fed less and growing more slowly, they would grow bigger and age slower. If one had a few years, it would be an interesting experiment to try.

BayLee

That is correct Ricky, the males in captivity do grow much fasten, experiments have been done in the hobby.
Our T's seem to live the live style of the Rich and Famous! lol

darth skippy

one would think that if they grow faster that would be larger when they mature though. at least, this one would

i thought that they had a specific # of molts to go through before they matured? wouldn't that imply that a ready food source would produce larger specimens? or is it perhaps that more nutrition allows them to mature in fewer molts, thus producing smaller MMs?

BayLee

This is most likely one of those things in live.
This little guy could have been the runt of the litter.

I had a weird thing happening with my Males versicolor.
It developed just fine. I did not realize till about 2 month after his molt an increase in roaming around. There were not hooks, none what so ever, so I thought he was still a mot away but his behavior was a good indication that he had matured.
Poor guy had matured, never build a sperm web and had no hooks. It eventually died of course without passing on his genes.
It was a sad day in my Tarantula World.

darth skippy

that sucks... did he develop the enlarged palpal emboli?(at leat i think that's what it's called) or was he sterile?

Ricky Ortiz84

I two have a MM P.pederseni and a tigrinawessi but none have made sperm webs the P.tig is rather small I feel for a MM but hey who knows.

BayLee

darth skippy

weird...

i'm not too worried about my little man, he looks perfect... just petite