[cacoseraph]

Guess How Old I Am! (G. rosea, answer known)
how old would you say this is? that is my hand and my penny =P



i know the answer


p.s. a penny is .75" (2cm) in diameter.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/tarantula/babies/G_rosea_how_olda.jpg
zoom --> http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cac...ea_how_oldb.jpg

[greaser]

hhhmmmm...going by the incredibly slow rate of growth of this genus and depending on how warm you keep it, how often you feed it...etc. 5-7 months?

[cacoseraph]

nope!





i will tell in about a week

[greaser]

I'll guess younger then...3-4 months?

[cacoseraph]

nope.

[greaser]

Wow that IS a slow grower! Its someone elses turn to guess though.

[bell]

I've had some random B smithis take a 1 - 1.5 years to get to that size and G rosea tend to grow slower than Brachys so I'd say that bug is close to 2 - 2.5 years old... Is that, uh, 5th or 6th instar?

Unless, of course, this is a trick question and it's actually, like, two months old because you keep it hot and powerfeed it but it's bottom doesn't lead me to believe that.

This post has been edited by bell: 14 May 2009 - 07:02 PM

[Fran]

Buf... 1 year old.
Man..If a smithi takes 1.5 years to get to that size, theres a feeding problem there! :D

[greaser]

I keep my t room HOT for just that reason (78deg). My Buddy got some P. irminia slings the same time as me and mine are 3-4 times bigger already.

[cacoseraph]

2.5 years is within the acceptable range


they are 2y 7-9m old (i thought they were 3y when i posted, then calculated and found they were younger :/ )


they have only eaten something like 15 times :)

bell is the winner

[greaser]

Yeah Bell!!!
:fireworks: :hail1: :fireworks:

[bell]

Yea! That's awesome... those guys are going to live forever.

I don't keep my bugs hot or power feed to any extent of that term... I would like to enjoy my bugs as long as possible. I know it's much debated if tarantulas have a set amounts of molts per lifespan or what have you but I guess Cacoseraph shows the less you feed the longer you may possibly the bug around.

[cacoseraph]

well, i don't know that they will live longer... it is pretty likely they will be smaller when they die, though =P

and since i am already 30 i probably will die before them. oh well.

[Anubis]

cacoseraph, on May 16 2009, 03:21 AM, said:

well, i don't know that they will live longer... it is pretty likely they will be smaller when they die, though =P

If tarantula physiology follows normal biological rules, they would definitely live longer with less caloric intake as long as their nutritional needs were met. I think that's the key. Providing them with a variety of foods while keeping feedings sparse.

Theraphosids seem like fairly poor test subjects though. Decades from now, we probably won't have much beyond anecdotal evidence and sporadic data on their potential captive lifespans under a variety of conditions. No real benefit from researching such long-lived animals when something like the very research-conducive Caenorhabditis elegans and Mus musculus are around. I don't see the average hobbyist becoming interested in sacrificing the novelty of a huge spider for a long-lived spider either, especially when their average lifespans aren't that low.

Araneomorphae, to me, looks like it has better prospects for efficiently furthering at least hobby-level knowledge of what and how certain conditions affect arachnids; something we can directly apply to our theraphosids. Though, of course I enjoy the idea of my own batch of potential 40 year tarantulas. One of them seems to want to live to see the next century.

[Chest]

cacoseraph, on May 16 2009, 12:21 PM, said:

well, i don't know that they will live longer... it is pretty likely they will be smaller when they die, though =P

and since i am already 30 i probably will die before them. oh well.

man do not say those kind of things.. hehe anyhow I cant believe that this specimen is 2 years and 7 months already.. in here it just takes 2 months for that specimen to grow in that size and instar.. i just wonder LOL