So, you want to keep a pet tarantula?

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Right Ho!

Lots of time has passed, my eyes are now bright red, but at least 20 pages of stuff is here.....

LINKAGE !!


http://www.arachnophiliac.com - Excellent site, loads of decent info

http://www.bighairyspiders.com - Huge Archive Detailed Information

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/html/tarantulas.html - Detailed Collection Of Spiders By Breed

http://hem.spray.se/minax/index/welcome_e.html - Good General Info

http://tarantulas.differentdawn.com/general/species.html - Detailed Information On The Naming Of Species

http://www.birdspiders.com - HUGE Galleries

http://atshq.org/ - The American Tarantula Society

http://www.thebts.co.uk/ - The British Tarantual Society

http://www.hobospider.org/ - Info On Hobo Spiders ;)

http://www.mantisuk.com/ - Praying Mantis Specialists

http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/tarantula/ - Brillient Site Full Of Loads Of Information

http://www.tarantulaspiders.com/pages/breedingloans.htm - Information About Breeding Loans


Shops/Sources

http://www.bugsdirectuk.com/
http://www.bugsdirectuk.com/
http://www.bugsnstuff.co.uk/
http://www.easyexotics.com/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.blades1/index.htm


I will at some point find the time to go through the rest but atm i'm going blind :D Enjoy!

DHR.
 
Originally posted by Lopéz

I can only assume this means he has not had a chance to spin his sperm web and charge his palps.
I'll try again in a few days - one good thing to come from this is I now know Pepper is responsive and willing to mate. :)
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:( No spider lurve. How long does it usually take for a male to build a sperm web?
 
Originally posted by Bungee
Some good pics of the 2 future lovers Lopez :cool:

Hows Carabobo?
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He's alive...
I've tried feeding him mushed up crickets but he seems uninterested. Tried a live crick (very small one) the other day - he attacked it with vigour but was unable to actually kill it. :(

I'm just giving him plenty of water at the moment in the hope he will survive long enough to moult again. At the next moult he should regenerate properly.

He's quite uncoordinated, but seems to be webbing and acting as normal otherwise.
 
Originally posted by Pinhead
[hijack]
hey skootoer, on a side note, how is yer mantis getting along? mines just done its 5 ths shed and the size difference between this and the last is huge!!
[/hijack]
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You could have mailed him, and not posted stuff about mantis' in the tarantula thread :p
 
Calm down now children :p

Seems I might not even get Pepper laid!
Tried once more, and Roger did his running away act all over again. :(

I think I've been sent a gay spider.
 
Well Tachira (Greenbottle blue) has finally hardened off nicely, so I thought I'd do a photo shoot to show you all how beautiful he's getting.

I decided to get him out of the tank for a little walk on my hand. He's surprisingly active and will escape from the tank at any given opportunity... so he escaped onto my hand;

His colouring has become even more stunning since his moult. His legs have turned fawn and inky blue stripey towards the feet, with metallic emerald green femurs. His carapace is deep gold with black lines running through it, and his bright orange tiger strip abdomen just finishes off this little rainbow-on-legs nicely
Tachira15.jpg


This is just to give an idea of size. I didn't have a 10p, sorry. He's about 2 inches long if fully stretched out.
Tachira18.jpg


Both mind and Leon's greenbottle blues do something really odd when they get a bit defensive, they lift their bums really high in the air. It's really funny to see and I can't think of any possible advantage they could gain from sticking their bum in the air. Anyway, Tachira decided to get all defensive on me and went into bum-sticky-uppy posture... bless.
Tachira20.jpg


And finally, I popped him back in his tank and gave him a grub to eat. He took it straight away and then stood up really tall on his tip toes.. This gave me a perfect opportunity of showing off those gorgeous colourings and lovely velvety green legs.
Tachira25.jpg



I'm currently sitting around drumming my fingers waiting for Jezabel and Louis to hurry up and moult! Neither have eaten for well over a week now and I'm getting bored of waiting. I've also fallen in love with Leon's hire-a-boyfriend, Roger. I'm thinking of half inching him in the dead of night when Leon's at work :p
 
Lostkat, I wonder if they are lifting their abdomen up as some kind of a warning sign, using those bright colours. I know it's usually yellow and black colourings on things that are a warning, but you know, it's just a thought.

On another note, how often do you other guys feed your Ts? I love watching them eat but I know I shouldn't really feed them every day. What do you think, 2-3 times a week? Tom will get fat if I'm not careful.... :rolleyes:
 
In all honesty, it varies.
Generally I feed them once a day (one cricket)
The smaller slings get fed twice, sometimes three times a day - I'm power feeding them in an effort to make them grow and mature faster.
When a T looks "fat" I stop the food for a few days. Swollen abdomens are liable to rupture and cause moulting problems.
 
Well, I fancied taking some new pics tonight so here are a couple

Pelé

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pele06

This fat little chunkster looks fit to burst. Even though it's only 3 weeks since he last moulted, his dark legs (normally pink) tell me it's going to be shedding time soon. The darkness is the new cuticle forming beneath the old one. Maybe he'll start to show some of his adult (green) colours this moult? Who knows - but his regenerated front leg should get bigger at least.

Idi

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Idi21

After his dramatic leg surgery a few weeks ago I was very worried about little Idi - but he's back on the food, eating well and has made an excellent recovery. Hopefully that leg will regenerate next moult, and he'll lose the scab on his injured right rear leg at the same time

I'll try and shoot some of the others tomorrow - the light in here is too crap to focus properly :(
 
I've been getting quite a few threat poses off my psycho T's recently, so I decided to take some pics to show you.

Now you all should know by now that Sanchez is my psychotic Brachypelma vagans. She usually just waves her legs at me or strikes my forceps/kicks hairs, but the other fay she went into full threat pose. All I did was drop a mealworm in front of her (as you can see). You can tell she's not that brave though because a few pokes of her legs and she backs off and hides.

Sanchez48.jpg



Now you might find that a little daunting, but until you've seen Zuila (Psalmopeous irminia) doing her stuff, you ain't seen nothing. All I have to do is loosen the lid a little and I'm greeted with this.

Zuila22.jpg


ERK! After hours of building up the courage to lift the lid off and get a shot, I'm faced with this amazing threat display

Zuila21.jpg


I know if I was a potential predator, I'd leg it after seeing this. Her fangs are wide apart (compare to Sanchez) and she's certainly ready to strike. She's saying 'just you try it mate and I'll have your arm off'. She doesn't back down either, she'll edge up her bark every time you move... and if you blow on her gently, she starts striking the bark mutiple times. It's extremely unnerving.

Anyway, after all the excitement, I decided to go and play with my most docile T, Zico (Avicularia geroldi). I actually had him on my hand, but he's impossible to take a pic of because he walks so fast :D I was trying to take a video to show you the clumsy avic walk, but he was too fast for that too... maybe Leon can help me when he's next up. Anyway, altogether now.... AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Zico32.jpg
 
OOh, nasty. I notice on the picture of Zuila that the lid is only slightly open. Don't blame you, looks like she'd fly through the air and sink her fangs into your neck given half the chance. Have to say, looks more like a promise than a threat as the saying goes.
 
Right on cue, I got home to find one freshly moulted Pele.

I picked out his old skin to straighten it and he started running all over my hands, so I took a few snaps.
Here he is, Mr Ghost spider!

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pele07

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pele08

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pele09

http://www.vsupermarket.co.uk/~lopez/MySpiders/Pele10

If you compare Pele (Avicularia avicularia) to Kate's Zico (Avicularia geroldi) you can see the common characteristics that put them in the same genus

  • Elongated front legs
  • Large padded "feet"
  • Difference in colour between leg and "foot"
  • Small, striped abdomen
  • Similar chelicerae and carapace shape
 
:eek: I can see the headlines now "Terantula Gal killed by blood seeking spider!" Rather you than me Kate

Pele is dead cute. How big is he now?
 
I went back down to my local pet shop on Saturday. They hadn't got that much in. They still have the H.Minax which I can't see them selling anytime soon; they have changed it into a nice container now, as when I last saw it it looked like a wild caught spider in a container full of flies and stuff and it really stank.

They had a decent size H.maculata, it was nice to see what kind of spider Idi is like in the flesh.

Anyways, my reason going down there was to buy crickets. They only had adult sized left, so I picked one out that had a few smaller crickets in with them and also brought a container of mealworms.

Firstly, the mealworms wreak! The stuff I read said they were pretty odourless, I can't see anything in the container which would cause a smell.

Now the adult crickets!! Argh, they are so noisy, the males and their chirpping. I've had to move them into the spare room next to mine, but I can still hear them through the walls. If there annoying me, my housemates cant be too pleased.

I'm hopeing the females might lay some eggs, because at the momment these adults are way bigger than my biggest T, and with all the noise they are making I'd quite like to sacrafice the males.
 
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