Just thought I would share the history how my communal got to this stage/started

I started off by buying one H.incei sling from a fellow member (Freak) on the 30/03/09 for R100.
It matured on the 05/07/10.
It then got sent off on a breeding loan where it was put into a communal set-up. Funny enough the breeder also had some H.incei mature into males shortly after my male was introduced into the enclosure.

I can't remember the amount I got out from the breeding loan, but I think it was 180 odd slings.
So I sold allot off and gave a good couple away, I then took 30 H. incei and put them together in a communal set-up, out of the 30 I had a couple deaths, and 15 mature males with 7 females, in turn they breed and I ended up with 150 or more slings, which I gave away a couple and sold some,
I kept a 100 spiders in total with the females.

I lost a couple of slings along the way, but that is the story of how I started my communal with just one spider and a male at that.
From 2009 till present day, my communal is still growing and I'm looking forward to it getting larger and with that the tank upgrade to 200 litre enclosure. noob

Update. 28/01/13

Up till date I have seen 5 mature males, I have removed 1 male, and have 2 males still in the colony with 2 missing in action.

One thing that I have noticed and fine it very interesting, there seems to be a large female that is staying in the back left hand corner, which seems to be controlling that side of the tank and chasing all other spiders from her domain.



This evening around about 18:45 the female was webbing this area up, and all of a sudden a smaller spider came running out from he's hiding spot with the female sitting behind him. you can see her legs if you look carefully.



The female sitting by her entrance.



This is the bigger one of the males in the communal at the moment. He sat on the rock for most of the day, and while he was sitting on the rock he decided it was time to get ready for another visit to one of the many ladies in the area, so he gave himself a bath.







You can see the difference between H.incei unsexed and a Mature male H.incei



Just a very interesting scene, H.incei, mature male and roach.




Can you spot the roach and the H. incei male in the leaves??

Update: 09/03/13 14:02

Finally something has emerged from the females lair!!! :spider:

I was contemplating moving the communally out of the house into the flat where it gets much hotter, over 30 degrees during the day.
As nothing seemed to be happening with the couple of females that had been mated.
The temps and humidity was a bit of a worry for me.
But again this species proves itself, that they don't require much breeding husbandry.

The highest temps was 22-24 degrees and the humidity 60%.

So this is a good sign, I have seen one female out in the open a bit more so thinking she might be the next one to start webbing up for her babies to start climbing on.

The slings sitting out in the open.





Something interesting, There is one male that has been living with the mother of the slings and hanging around the left hand corner of the tank, which is interesting as he has not been killed yet.

When I was busy taking photo's he was bugging a smaller female and trying to push himself onto her.
She eventually ran away and the male went back into the webbing.

probably a stupid q... but i just started one of these (thanks to tarantulas.co.za) but in a small enclosure... but how do you clean it out as ive noticed some mould on some uneaten food?

Well you can clean it by using tweezers and just remove the uneaten food or get yourself some Isopods they will take care of most cleaning issues for you.

Also fair amount of ventilation will prevent the mold issue.

and where can i find isopods? i was thinking tweezers.. but dont want to ruin their beautiful webs! sad