Introduction
Once upon a time, I was terrified of spiders. I ran a mile if I ever saw one and even once moved all my room around so I wasn't sleeping under a spider, which later turned out to be dead, or a molt. It was getting silly and I was getting fed up with having to do the least manly thing possible and ask my long-suffering girlfriend to remove them from the house for me.
We were in a garden centre one day after having a few pints in the adjacent pub and I spotted one. Intrigued (and suddenly full of alcohol induced courage) I walked up to the enclosure and found myself captivated by the creature within. I watched how it moved with grace, so slowly and carefully. Well, to cut a long story short, we bought him and he was probably the best drunken purchase I have ever made. Unsure of the sex, we called "him" Ozzy and he was a Grammostola rosea (Chilean Rose Tarantula).
Whilst I was still a little nervous, my intrigue grew and grew. I became more comfortable around him and eventually held him (I later learned that this is a bad idea unless you take precautions and understand the tarantula and spiders in general). It felt really weird, almost like velcro on my hand. I put him back and that was it, fears over.
Fast forward a few years (after the unfortunate death of our arachnid friend) and I bought another, a Caribena versicolor (Antilles Pink Toe) and I was hooked. Since buying Fuzz Lightyear I have purchased another 7 spiders and plan to keep going untill I hit the 100 mark. Ideally, I would buy 1000 so I could call the last one T1000, but that's a little silly even by my standards.
Anyway, I have written this thread to introduce Hackforums to my furry friends and to openly ask any questions that people may have. Spiders are so often misunderstood and I hope to clear some misconceptions and to answer those questions that people may have about general spider husbandry.
My Spiders
Here's my current collection. I have so many photos of spiders, it was a massiv chore to try and dwindle the photos down a little. So many to choose from. I will write the spider's name, it's scientific name, it's common name and I'll follow with a little about the spider. In the hobby we normally talk in scientific names and many different species can share the same common name causing confusion. Because of this, one or two of the common names below may be incorrect.
Name: Fuzz Lightyear
Species (Scientific Name): Caribena versicolor
Species (Common Name): Anitilles Pink Toe
Fuzz Lightyear was our first spider after Ozzy Oz Bomb. C.versicolors are known for their beautiful colours and calm demeanor. They are known to "teleport". Of course this isn't a literal term but that's how it seems. One minute they are in the enclosure and the next can be on your arm. You won't see them move. Fuzz hangs around in her web a lot of the time and occasionally comes out for a stroll. She likes to jump onto your arm when you're doing enclosure maintenance.
Name: Franz Furry Fangz
Species (Scientific Name): Acanthoscurria geniculata
Species (Common Name): Giant Brazillian White Knee (Bird-Eating Tarantula)
Fangz is by far my favourite tarantula. She sports a stunning colouring and is always out and about in view. A.genics are fantastic display pieces however, their aggressive nature an large size when fully grown make them a bad choice for a beginner. Fangz has an amazing feeding response and has never turned down a meal (unless in pre-molt). She has been known to jump fro the side of the enclosure and onto the feeding tongs to eat the prey. I don't even get a chance to drop it and this can be a little scary at times. Fangz is still a juvenile but will grow to around 8 inches diagonal leg-span.
Name: The T.stiminator (Arnie)
Species (Scientific Name): Theraphosa stirmi
Species (Common Name): Burgundy Goliath (Bird Eating Tarantula)
The T.stimi is arguably the largest tarantula by mass on the planet. They are also aggressive little buggers and like to shoot urticating hairs at you by kicking their legs on their abdomens. Urticating hairs cause extremely itchy rashes and are a total pain in the arse. These hairs are the reason you see me wearing gloves in Fangz picture. As agressive as she is, I love this beauty. Arnie is also a juvenile
Name: Mooch
Species (Scientific Name): Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
Species (Common Name): Green Bottle Blue/GBB
Mooch is an odd goose and a heavy webber. She lives in her web and only comes out to feed. Ferocious eater, however. She's a sling (spiderling) at the moment but will grow to have beautiful green and blue markings.
Name: O B Twan Kenobi
Species (Scientific Name): Pterinochilus murinus
Species (Common Name): OBT / Orange Baboon Tarantula
OBTs are famous in the hobby for being agressive giving them the nickname "Orange Bitey Things". O B Twan Kenobi is my only old world tarantulas. Old worlds, particularly this species, are super aggressive, lightning fast and their venom packs one hell of a punch. This spider is the only one that makes me nervous during feeding and cage maintenance. She mostly lives in her burrow and only comes out for feeding.
Name: Shelby
Species (Scientific Name): Brachypelma albopilosum
Species (Common Name): Curly Hair Tarantula / Pube Tarantula
Shelby is one of my newer tarantulas and evidently a very slow grower. Like O B Twan Kenobi she likes to sit in her burrow all day. This makes it really hard to write about her. They look super cute as adults. I will post an image below (not mine) as an example. Mine is the sling.
Name: Mimic
Species (Scientific Name): Brachypelma vagans
Species (Common Name): Mexican Red Rump(?)
Mimic is my only fully-grown tarantula. We called her mimic due to a meme in the tarantula hobby "looks like my B.vagans". It's now something that someone always comments on practically every tarantula picture. So we named her Mimic because she looks like everybody's.
Mimic is super calm but has once attacked the feeding tongs when I was trying to retrieve a locust carcass. She sits in her plant pot hide and occasionly has a wander around the enclosure. Stunning spider to watch and has a dark velvety colour with vibrant red hairs on her abdomen.
Name: Trinity
Species (Scientific Name): Phidippus regius
Species (Common Name): Regal Jumping Spider (Boing, Boing, Boing)
Trinity was the only true spider I owned. Technically, she belonged to the missus but let's not split utricating hairs here. She was super cute and the calmest spider I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Trinity sadly died a few months ago. Jumping spiders can move their "heads" up and down and is really cute and almost gives the illusion of personality. Especially when they look up at you.
[size=x-large]Fun Facts[/size]
Outro
So, there's some information on one of my favourite creatures. I could have wrote a hell of a lot more but this thread is already turning into a novel. If you have any questions just post below and I will do my best to answer.
For more pictures you can check out my IG @tarantulair.official. It's been dowmant for a whille but I am going to start posting on it again.
FULL PHOTO GALLERY (the brown patch on my thumb when I'm holding Mimic is from making 8 hash joints prior to the poto lol
Once upon a time, I was terrified of spiders. I ran a mile if I ever saw one and even once moved all my room around so I wasn't sleeping under a spider, which later turned out to be dead, or a molt. It was getting silly and I was getting fed up with having to do the least manly thing possible and ask my long-suffering girlfriend to remove them from the house for me.
We were in a garden centre one day after having a few pints in the adjacent pub and I spotted one. Intrigued (and suddenly full of alcohol induced courage) I walked up to the enclosure and found myself captivated by the creature within. I watched how it moved with grace, so slowly and carefully. Well, to cut a long story short, we bought him and he was probably the best drunken purchase I have ever made. Unsure of the sex, we called "him" Ozzy and he was a Grammostola rosea (Chilean Rose Tarantula).
Whilst I was still a little nervous, my intrigue grew and grew. I became more comfortable around him and eventually held him (I later learned that this is a bad idea unless you take precautions and understand the tarantula and spiders in general). It felt really weird, almost like velcro on my hand. I put him back and that was it, fears over.
Fast forward a few years (after the unfortunate death of our arachnid friend) and I bought another, a Caribena versicolor (Antilles Pink Toe) and I was hooked. Since buying Fuzz Lightyear I have purchased another 7 spiders and plan to keep going untill I hit the 100 mark. Ideally, I would buy 1000 so I could call the last one T1000, but that's a little silly even by my standards.
Anyway, I have written this thread to introduce Hackforums to my furry friends and to openly ask any questions that people may have. Spiders are so often misunderstood and I hope to clear some misconceptions and to answer those questions that people may have about general spider husbandry.
My Spiders
Here's my current collection. I have so many photos of spiders, it was a massiv chore to try and dwindle the photos down a little. So many to choose from. I will write the spider's name, it's scientific name, it's common name and I'll follow with a little about the spider. In the hobby we normally talk in scientific names and many different species can share the same common name causing confusion. Because of this, one or two of the common names below may be incorrect.
Name: Fuzz Lightyear
Species (Scientific Name): Caribena versicolor
Species (Common Name): Anitilles Pink Toe
Fuzz Lightyear was our first spider after Ozzy Oz Bomb. C.versicolors are known for their beautiful colours and calm demeanor. They are known to "teleport". Of course this isn't a literal term but that's how it seems. One minute they are in the enclosure and the next can be on your arm. You won't see them move. Fuzz hangs around in her web a lot of the time and occasionally comes out for a stroll. She likes to jump onto your arm when you're doing enclosure maintenance.
Name: Franz Furry Fangz
Species (Scientific Name): Acanthoscurria geniculata
Species (Common Name): Giant Brazillian White Knee (Bird-Eating Tarantula)
Fangz is by far my favourite tarantula. She sports a stunning colouring and is always out and about in view. A.genics are fantastic display pieces however, their aggressive nature an large size when fully grown make them a bad choice for a beginner. Fangz has an amazing feeding response and has never turned down a meal (unless in pre-molt). She has been known to jump fro the side of the enclosure and onto the feeding tongs to eat the prey. I don't even get a chance to drop it and this can be a little scary at times. Fangz is still a juvenile but will grow to around 8 inches diagonal leg-span.
Name: The T.stiminator (Arnie)
Species (Scientific Name): Theraphosa stirmi
Species (Common Name): Burgundy Goliath (Bird Eating Tarantula)
The T.stimi is arguably the largest tarantula by mass on the planet. They are also aggressive little buggers and like to shoot urticating hairs at you by kicking their legs on their abdomens. Urticating hairs cause extremely itchy rashes and are a total pain in the arse. These hairs are the reason you see me wearing gloves in Fangz picture. As agressive as she is, I love this beauty. Arnie is also a juvenile
Name: Mooch
Species (Scientific Name): Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
Species (Common Name): Green Bottle Blue/GBB
Mooch is an odd goose and a heavy webber. She lives in her web and only comes out to feed. Ferocious eater, however. She's a sling (spiderling) at the moment but will grow to have beautiful green and blue markings.
Name: O B Twan Kenobi
Species (Scientific Name): Pterinochilus murinus
Species (Common Name): OBT / Orange Baboon Tarantula
OBTs are famous in the hobby for being agressive giving them the nickname "Orange Bitey Things". O B Twan Kenobi is my only old world tarantulas. Old worlds, particularly this species, are super aggressive, lightning fast and their venom packs one hell of a punch. This spider is the only one that makes me nervous during feeding and cage maintenance. She mostly lives in her burrow and only comes out for feeding.
Name: Shelby
Species (Scientific Name): Brachypelma albopilosum
Species (Common Name): Curly Hair Tarantula / Pube Tarantula
Shelby is one of my newer tarantulas and evidently a very slow grower. Like O B Twan Kenobi she likes to sit in her burrow all day. This makes it really hard to write about her. They look super cute as adults. I will post an image below (not mine) as an example. Mine is the sling.
Name: Mimic
Species (Scientific Name): Brachypelma vagans
Species (Common Name): Mexican Red Rump(?)
Mimic is my only fully-grown tarantula. We called her mimic due to a meme in the tarantula hobby "looks like my B.vagans". It's now something that someone always comments on practically every tarantula picture. So we named her Mimic because she looks like everybody's.
Mimic is super calm but has once attacked the feeding tongs when I was trying to retrieve a locust carcass. She sits in her plant pot hide and occasionly has a wander around the enclosure. Stunning spider to watch and has a dark velvety colour with vibrant red hairs on her abdomen.
Name: Trinity
Species (Scientific Name): Phidippus regius
Species (Common Name): Regal Jumping Spider (Boing, Boing, Boing)
Trinity was the only true spider I owned. Technically, she belonged to the missus but let's not split utricating hairs here. She was super cute and the calmest spider I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Trinity sadly died a few months ago. Jumping spiders can move their "heads" up and down and is really cute and almost gives the illusion of personality. Especially when they look up at you.
[size=x-large]Fun Facts[/size]
- Despite common misconception MOST spiders are known to take the latter option in the fight or flight scenario. They are MOSTLY timid and aren't out to eat you and your family
- If a tarantula loses a leg it will grow back gradually over the next few molts
- Tarantulas ARE NOT posionous. This term is often used as an adjective when talking about a whole manner of creatures. The difference is explained very well in this picture:
- There's little need to worry if a new world tarantula bites you. It will be similar to a bee sting. Old worlds a whole new story.
- A new world tarantula's second defence is to flick hairs. It's first is to run
- Tarantulas don't possess the capability of cognitive thought
Outro
So, there's some information on one of my favourite creatures. I could have wrote a hell of a lot more but this thread is already turning into a novel. If you have any questions just post below and I will do my best to answer.
For more pictures you can check out my IG @tarantulair.official. It's been dowmant for a whille but I am going to start posting on it again.
FULL PHOTO GALLERY (the brown patch on my thumb when I'm holding Mimic is from making 8 hash joints prior to the poto lol
