A wise interrogator often causes one to reflect upon a number of things and to learn about many others which, without the benefit of questions, one might never have learned.

If I thought that I would offend, I will not give my opinion on such matters; but I could not offend for the sake of argument, not in order to criticize.



To reward ability not to despise poverty; to value methods and institutions to make people love one another; to live without factions; to value public interest above private interests; and other similar principles that could easily suit our times. It is not difficult to be persuaded about these matters. When one think about them enough and studies them in the correct way, for so much truth can be seen in them that any common intelligence may grasp it.

TH

Onyx wrote: I would like to know how would one sex a T in a shop or from a buyer.
No molt is available and its still too small too sex. Lets say a 6cm C Rosea
hmmmm that would be a fitting choice.... some would know why.

This sexing method apply's to all T's.

The method you are referring to may apply to all t's, but how are you going to ventrally sex a 6cm H. lividum or H. gigas that is hiding in it's burrow at the shop? Don't know about you but I'm not brave enough to "ask" him/her to come out and roll over so I can have a look

spinnerkop wrote: You can ventral sex a Poecilotheria from +6cm its dead easy HUGE difference between males and females "ventrally" If you have say 4 or more +6cm Poecilotheria look for your self ventral shots on each of them and you will see a difference unless you have all the same sex then it becomes difficult unless you know what to look for.

I could not disagree more. Some species like P.formosa are most definitely not easy to sex ventrally. Not to mention others like pederseni or striata.
I will agree that certain species like metallica are dead easy, but that's pretty much the only species of Poecilotheria that I would dare put my stamp of approval behind when it comes to ventral sexing..
I have been keeping pokies for over 3 years now, and I will guarantee if you come and have a look at mine, you will not be able to sex a large portion of them ventrally and i have spent enough nights looking through 70+ pokies to know.

Onyx wrote: Admittedly I lost my cool yesterday over something stupid.
I want to publicly apologize to Cerat and Creator for the little outburst.
And I admit to trying to make it too simple to sex Panda's damn T lol. Some methods are better than others and we should be mindful of who we are trying to explain it to. I know I will :whistle:


and still think ventral sexing is a good method :whistle: my opinion.

No problem.
I do admit that I sometimes get a bit carried away too, but its just because I have seen many new tarantulaholics join and get given incorrect information. They then go and spread that and you end up with one big mess.


Will have to agree to disagree with your last point.
IMO, ventral sexing is not much more than a guess with lots of species/genera.
I don't (And never will) buy any female as female unless she has dropped a sac or I have proof on a moult.

To me, ventral sexing still = BS.

I often use ventral sexing, maybe in a petshop or just at home to get an idea what sex it is. I agree its not 100% full proof, but has served me very well. Pokies are pretty easy, maybe not all. What Iv'e found that works is to either google ventralmale and ventral female and compare the differences, in some speices there is a vast difference. Also if you have a few spiders or the same species you can compare. There are some Ts that I'm not able to ventral sex, but the Ts that I have ventral sexed have turned into the sex that I first thought. Obviously it takes some practice. Without being shot down I found a nice place to practice www.arachnoboards.com/ab/gallery/browseimages.php?c=9 You can go look at pictures and try sex and then see what the experts say at the bottom and see if you're right, some are reeeally easy, some not so much. My opinion - if you in the petshop and you want an idea of what the sex could be, its a really good way when you dont have anything else to go on. You might as well try it, and if there are a few Ts you try compare and find the one without the white dot or change in colour between the book lungs. My opinion :) no arguing.

@ T-rad, I won't argue you on this point. Each to his own.

But the thing is, if we as keepers want a failsafe method, we need one that works for all spiders, all the time.

And the only method I see to determine that is by checking spermaticae. Or the bulbous pedipalps and tibial spurs, or if there's an eggsack present.

TH