IRL Pets

[Jens]

[kysp]

...

Eeeeh, this turned into a lecture, I'll stop at this point. Buuut if you want, I could start a lecture thread or something. I'll be more than happy to use my little knowledge to debunk myths about spiders and demolish the undeserved bad reputation these fascinating creatures have.

What they eat? How do you feed them? They need water?

What about Phoneutria nigriventer, the most venomous species of spider? You have one? You can handle it?

[Jens]

I usually drop a live cricket of an appropriate size into the enclosure, and they'll hunt it down. I use tweezers of course, not hands. Sometimes I let them snatch it right from the tweezers, and then feed the leg that usually remains in tweezers after the spider savages the cricket to the baby spiders that don't hunt yet.

I keep tarantulas, which are under Mygalomorphae, while P.nigriventer belongs to Araneomorphae. So nope, don't have one and don't plan to, they are quite quick to anger. I've seen a P.fera, another species of the Phoneutria genus, on an expo but that's as close as I want to be near a Phoneutria anyway.
As I said, bite shouldn't be lethal to a reasonably healthy adult with medical care available, but it will make you wish it was.

[kysp]

I usually drop a live cricket of an appropriate size into the enclosure, and they'll hunt it down. I use tweezers of course, not hands. Sometimes I let them snatch it right from the tweezers, and then feed the leg that usually remains in tweezers after the spider savages the cricket to the baby spiders that don't hunt yet.

Cool.

I keep tarantulas, which are under Mygalomorphae, while P.nigriventer belongs to Araneomorphae. So nope, don't have one and don't plan to, they are quite quick to anger. I've seen a P.fera, another species of the Phoneutria genus, on an expo but that's as close as I want to be near a Phoneutria anyway.
As I said, bite shouldn't be lethal to a reasonably healthy adult with medical care available, but it will make you wish it was.

So I'll skip that specie. From what I read, Grammostola spathulata is better to start, right?

[Jens]

now that's a name i haven't heard in a long time..

LECTURE MODE ON

Grammostola spatulata is the junior synonym of Grammostola porteri, which was for LONG time (and still mostly is) labeled Grammostola rosea, natural color form (NCF). The most recent research indicates that this 'natural color form' is, as I said, G.porteri, whereas what was/is labeled as Grammostola rosea, red color form (RCF) is the *real* G.rosea. Head hurts yet?

And well, despite being popular and widespread (They are still being imported from Chile, so almost every pet store has a G.porteri labeled either G.rosea, or some junior synonym in attempt to raise the price, or even just 'Chilean rose hair tarantula'.), I wouldn't recommend them for a starter. First of all, majority of them you are wild caught, as I mentioned, they could have parasites or other problems and die unexpectedly. A pet store might sell you a mature male, too - those don't last long - could be 'unidentified' to rise the price or they simply don't know - lotsa pet store employees don't know anything about spiders. (And that's why you also shouldn't buy any crap they will try to sell you along with the spider, should you decide to get one from pet store) Another major thing is that this species is known for 'mood swings', unpredictability, fasting for months and other peculiar behaviour. You can get one that's a total doll, docile and everything, one that's a psycho, or anything between. Hell, you can have a docile one, then it moults and becomes a psycho.

I'd personally go for a Grammostola pulchripes (Chaco golden knee) or Brachypelma albopilosum (Honduran curly hair), or if you want to spend more money, Grammostola pulchra (Brazilian black) - generally docile and calm, no big quirks (though you can always get a crazy specimen, no species is uniformly calm or defensive), ideal beginner tarantulas. Could also go for other Brachypelmas, such as B.smithi, the tarantula 'icon', or B.emilia, but those can be a bit nervous, skittish and more prone to kicking hairs.

Find a local breeder, visit an expo, or order a spider via Internet dealers. They won't try to sell you heat pads, hygrometers, thermometers and other useless crap and they mostly know what they're doing. Keeping a spider is extremely easy in most cases. You need a sufficient sized terrarium, in your case with more horizontal area than height, for example I like to use 30x30x20 (LxWxH) cm for my terrestrials, some substrate like eco earth, a water dish and something for the spider to hide in, and that's it. This goes for most of the New World terrestrial species, and as a beginner, those are what you should want. Forget about humidity, misting, they drink from water dish (you can use a bottle cap, even) - and anything that is NOT a laboratory grade humidity gauge is an useless piece of crap anyway. Forget about heating - the rule of thumb is that if you're comfortable wearing a t-shirt in the room, so is the spider (sans the T-shirt of course)

Visit arachnoboards.com for more info and advice, I'd also recommend the third edition of Tarantula Keeper's Guide by Stanley Schultz.

[The Legendary Joe]

Have any Web slingers?

[Jens]

You mean I should study arachnology? Nah, I've already chosen another path, and lets face it, arachnology doesn't exactly pay well.

A lot? Nah, this is the basic, really basic stuff, I know almost nothing compared to experts.

[Jens]

Trust me, I am a newbie, I really am.
I do know way more than your average Joe but then again, THAT is not difficult at all.

Oh well, having a lot of text, here is a photo of a cute spiderling from a year ago.



Grew up since then, it's Indy the Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens from the previous page

Have any Web slingers?

Nope, as I said, I keep only tarantulas (suborder: Mygalomorphae, family: Theraphosidae) while the spiders you probably mean, Deinopidae, belong to the suborder Araneomorphae.

[Jens]

Aaaaaaaand I caught Taz in the open after moult :3 Still got the blues.

[Jens]

Yep, it's the blue one that always breaks the ice :3