About my T's

Part of this blog will be to go into more info on each of my Tarantulas, what they are up to, photos, sizes etc, so I thought I should first of all take the opportunity to say a little about each one. I refer to them all as He, even if they are unsexed ;)

I'll start off with Skittles, the A. avicularia.

Avics come from South America and are arboreal which means that they like to live off the ground and should grow to about 5 inches. Being arboreal they have slimmer bodies to carry less weight and longer legs fo climbing about. You can also notice the differences with their feet, being flatter and larger, again adapted for their climbing nature. Saying that, skittles usually thinks that he is terrestrial (lives on the ground) and enjoys hiding under some cork where he has made his home, but does sometimes come out to venture up the plant to sit in the leaves. He is the fuzziest of my fuzzy friends, on the whole black but with some dark red on his abdomen, and of course, he has pink toes! hence the common name of the Pinktoe Tarantula. Avics are generally docile, and dont really bite or flick hairs, but Skittles is quite skittish so not really one to be held as he will readily jump from your hand to something else nearby in his tank. He has never been brought out, I'd be too afraid of loosing him :)

On the whole tarantulas should be kept alone, otherwise they can fight and possibly eat each other, only a couple can be kept communally, of which Skittles is one, however unfortunatly he doesnt have any friends at the moment, but not ruling it out for the future.. there was another Avic which he lived with before I got him so.. perhaps that one is getting lonely? He lives in a 12" glass Exo Terra terranium which he also shares with my (currently 7) spiderlings, who are kept individually in vials and kept seperate from Skittles in a well ventilated cricket box.

Junior and the other B. smithi's

I currently have 5 spiderlings, all residing with Skittles, 4 are really small about 1 to 1.5 centimeters in legspan and live in vials, and dont really look anything like a Red Knee at the moment, and dont seem to do much except eat, and possibly sleep! A couple of them have laid down slight webbing on the ground but not alot yet. The largest is called Junior, he has a legspan of perhaps just over an inch and is starting to show his proper colouring with his knees being lighter than the rest of him, but still pretty much brown. In his past life he was a JCB digger as everyday there is new excavations in his box, he seems to enjoy digging about, and filling in the holes again, and if your lucky you might catch him stomping about with a cricket in his jaws doing the happy dance.. looks like he will be quite an active spider, should be interesting to see how he is when he grows a bit more. In the wild, this species is on the CITES II list of endangered animals, and it is illegal to catch a wild specimin, however they are regularly bred in captivity so are still very much available. They are a terrestrial tarantula and come (as their name suggests) from Mexico. They can grow up to perhaps 6 inches and are generally the thing most people think of when they imagine a tarantula, again they dont really bite but are known to flick their urticating hairs into the air. The purpose of this is to ward off an attacker, causing itching in the eyes or irritation to the skin.

Euathlus Truculentus and Euathlus Vulpinus

Having just recieved these two yesterday I dont really have a huge amount to write about them as individuals. Although both come from Chile and will grow to about 12cm, the end spiders couldnt be more different. E. truculentus is a terrestrial spider with a docile temperament and will eventually have a wonderful metallic green carapace and femurs, and fluffy pink and red hair on his abdomen. He should certainly live up to his common name of Chile Beautiful.

E. vulpinus on the other hand is a different kettle of fish, although all tarantulas from Chile are nice and calm, there has to be an exception and this is it! He is semi arboreal and can make the most of both ground cover as well as in the trees, and very much unlike any other tarantulas who are generally nocturnal, he should enjoy coming out in the daytime so in order to survive in the open he must be able to defend himself well, which equates to flashing his fangs and biting predators. Tarantulas like this will use a threat pose which is their way of saying back off or you will be hurt, by spreading their front legs into the air and raising their fangs to put them on display. Sometimes they will also thump the ground for added effect. In this case when I was unpacking him yesterday he threw his legs up in the air, but I'm not convinced if it was this, or just a reaction to get out of the way.

Spiderman the Grammostola Rosea

Rosies are one of the most popular beginner species of tarantula, and this was the same for me, again these come from Chile and are usually docile, but they can change their temperament just like that and can grow up to 14/15 cm. Although he has a burrow in his flowerpot, he prefers to be out on display most of the time, and enjoys sitting on his web molting mat which he made for his recient molt. He doesnt really eat alot, and will just .. well, hes a hairy pet rock, but what a lovely rock he is! After his recient molt the his colours are much brighter, with mainly brown colouring but with a brighter rose coloured hairs on his carapace. Ive also noticed since then that in the correct light he has a dark metallic blue colouring to the top of his legs. Its likely that he will mature first as he is the largest in my collection, however being male, he will not live for very long once he matures and so will hopefully be sent away to get a special friend to breed with.

Spongebob the Grammostola Aureostriata

Spongebob is one of my favourite T's, he looks great with his dark colouring and golden stripes on his legs, most prominantly on his legs. He comes from Argentina and is one of the larger species of tarantula, growing up to 9 inches, although Spongebob has some catching up to do to get there! Being quite docile, he and Spiderman are really the only two which, with care, I will occasionally handle.

Usually he is quite active, exploring his home, but for the last couple of weeks, Spongebob has been digging within his burrow, building a large mound covering most of the entrance, and in the mornings he will either have filled the rest of the gap with webbing, or taken it down to leave an opening. Hes not been seen out in the open for a little while, and has been off his food a bit so, expect to find him slightly larger and shinier one morning ;)

Monster Munch the Heteroscodra Maculata

Again Monster Munch just arrived yesterday so theres not too much I can say about him other than.. he's fast! He is currently the only Old World tarantula that I own (I say currently, something else is in the pipeline lol) and comes originally from Africa where tarantulas are often known as Baboon Spiders. Their difference is that they lack the urticating hairs of the New World species from America and so have to rely on speed and aggression, and are not afraid to bite if they feel threatened. He is dark brown in colour, with lighter brown ornamental markings on his abdomen and carapace and is about half grown, he should reach up to 13cm. He is the one spider that will never be brought out or handled in any way.

He is a fast arborial spider and has been set up in a higher tank to give him climbing space, and quickly set up home inside some hollow cork bark with the entrance at the top. He seems to have settled in nicely, as can be seen by the trails of web where he has been exploring through the night and also the amazing wall that he has constructed at the back of his home using web with dirt mixed in. Being quite a webbing tarantula it will be interesting to see what renovations he has planned for his house!