This isn’t going to be another load of pictures thread but hopefully will show a bit more to the hobby of Ropers and mine.
There are many many spiders to buy, whether they be true spiders such as Black Widows to Tarantula’s that I keep. They are available from tint little spiderlings or slings as we call them, to full grown adults and depending on what you buy, small or large dictates the asking price. Slings are available from a few pounds to hundreds for grown-on adult females of the rarer species. They all grow at various rates and live from a few years up to 30 or maybe even more such as the Red Knee Mexican that is common in our hobby. One fascinating thing though is the growth rate as can be seen in with the following spider, the Salmon Pink Birdeater or Lasiodora parabyhana as it’s proper names is. I have two of these spiders and the first is a 7cm baby seen below munching on a small cricket

I also have a 3 year old female who stretches 9 inches in span – that’s right 9 inches growth in 3 years and she’s still growing too all be it a bit slowly now lol. She’s not been over-fed or anything, it’s just the growth rate for these very large tarantula’s which rank amongst the top 5 largest in the world

She’s quite a gentle giant too and doesn’t mind being handled although startle her and she will flick her legs to send out ‘urticating bristles’ which cause irritation to your skin and damage the eyes of any predator that thinks it can get and easy meal. These urticating bristles are ranked as well ranging from ones that aren’t too bad to some that are truly awful if you get caught by any. They are like daggers under the microscope and stick in your skin or any soft part of your body. A friend of mine was taking some pictures of one of a Theraphosa blondi which has the worst type going and he did so in his bath as he wanted a white background for his website pictures. After taking the pictures he forgot to rinse the bath out and his wife had a bath only to get some of the hairs stuck in her – I didn’t ask where either lol.
As some of you know, spiders actually moult as they grow and they shed their old skins or ‘exuvium’ as it’s properly known and this is a stage that brings joy as you get a new bigger spider or sadness when sometimes they don’t get through the act although it’s not a common thing but it does happen and sadly one of my new additions had a moult and came through it badly disfigured and leaking body fluids with a hole in it’s ‘Prosoma’ or head as people see it as. The spider is a Lasiodora klugi and here it is pre-moult and in perfect condition

It was being kept in ideal conditions, temperature fine, humidity fine and it then had a moult and then I found this

You can see the hole as it’s now scabbed up and is healing but all the legs on it’s left side are either deformed or just not straight and don’t function as they should. BUT – that picture was taken about 2 weeks after it’s moult and it actually moves round it’s home and yesterday I fed it a cricket which it devoured straight away. I was told it was a 50/50 on how it will go but I will feed it by presenting the cricket to it and I will make sure it gets water as well and fingers crossed it will pull through and after the next moult or maybe a few more, it will regain it’s legs back how they should be and it will grow into a large beautiful tarantula.
My collection now stands at nearly 50 with 2 set-ups housing 7 spiders in one tub and 10 in another as this species ‘Poecilotheria’ can live in communes and will tolerate each other even as adults and both Roper and myself keep these. These are my Poecilotheria regalis and mine are still at the baby stage though as can be seen here.

They may come to live together as adults but it’s never a certainty and I may have to split them up as sometimes a female becomes very dominant but they do feed together, even on the same prey at times to but when they are adult they turn into stunning spiders such as this Poecilotheria formosa who has a 6 inch span roughly so still plenty of growing room yet to go

The ‘pokies’ as they are better known are Arboreal and live in trees and so we keep them in tall enclosures to give them the required space they need. I also keep terrestrial spiders, some which don’t burrow and some which do and you don’t see much of. This is my ‘King Baboon’ or Pelinobius muticus as it’s just been renamed and this picture was taken when I re-housed her as she’s a burrowing species and you only see her if you come down in the early hours. These are the largest Baboon species from Africa and have very stout strong back legs for burrowing. Luckily for mine I made a lovely plastic tube burrow for her to save her digging and she’s settled in really well.

Here are a few of my recent additions to my ever growing collection –

Avicularia metallica ‘Metallic Pink Toe’

Ephebopus murinus ‘Skeleton Tarantula’

An old spider of mine – Heterscodra maculata ‘Togo Starburst – kindly given to me by Mr Roper

Lastly my favourite spider called Sonic, a female Poecilotheria metallica. I bought her as a baby and she is now nearly 7 inches and is worth roughly £300 if I were to sell her. Absolutely no chance 🙂

These are my Poecilotheria regalis and mine are still at the baby stage though as can be seen here.

Gangly little bugger!

*stamp*

😉

Hadge,

Is there a rare one that you’d like to get hold of? I mean that ethically of course, in that it’s good for the creature etc.

I’d like to see something near to the three year old female just to get a sense of scale!

I’ve had to warn my wife of this thread in case she sits down at the computer if I’ve nipped off – it would send her into shock and at the moment she’s roasting the lamb, so that can’t happen.

How come spiders don’t eat much but still grow quite big?

Fabulous pictures, I’ve never been interested in keeping spiders as pets(?) But you have piqued my interest.

Out of interest, out of the 50 you have, how many do you handle and how many can’t you handle? Can you discern any kind of character from them? Are some more inquisitive than others?

I could handle only a few of them as most of them are very nasty and will give you serious problems if they bit you. The Togo Starburst up above is one of them and the effects can last for months after, like cramp in your muscles etc. The spiders gain nothing from being handled and it’s dangerous for them as if they fall only a small amount they can go splat and split open. My Mexican Red Knee below is one which can be handled, she does sometimes flick her legs but she’s quite docile but I look at as like keeping marine fish – they’re lovely to look after so why handle them

deluded – I have a most of the ‘pokies’ that are in the hobby and there are some rare ones in amongst them, one which I hope to get a picture of soon as I only got it last week. There are some other very rare ones but they very rarely come up for sale and cost a fortune too. The metallica above is highly sought after dues to it’s colours but their numbers are increasing so they’re getting cheaper.

Here is a picture of the Salmon Pink to show how large she is

They are all different in character too. Some are like rocks and just stand there, never bothering to move even when you mess in their homes. Some show threats as soon as you go anywhere near them – the Skeleton ones certainly do lol. They have very slow metabolism’s and that’s why they need very little food. In fact if you feed them sparingly it’s been found they live longer instead of those that have been give loads of food.

Immense – cheers Hadge.

Yeah, love that Metallica.

Thats an amazing collection!
Do you have pics of the enclosures? just trying to imagine a bank of glass wall with killers in every crevice!

Blue one looks awesome, wouldn’t want any of them near me though!

Nice photos Hadge.
You mentioned you have a “rusty Cameroon” or gigas baboon with an egg sack. Does she look like this?

Or maybe more like your king baboon? Possibly between the two.

Also I’ve finally got round to photographing this

It looks to me like an AF Loxosceles rufescens or Mediterranean recluse spider. Unfortunately you can’t see the classic fiddle that clearly or the leg formation but she has all of the traits of a recluse. Full of reactions to change too.

I only have this one showing the set-ups I do for the arboreal spiders I keep. I’m sort of in the planning stage of how to set up rows of enclosures as I need sort out things like heating for them and controlling temps plus making sure I can work on them safely and easily. I have to be careful of escapee’s as I have a dog and any tarantula is lethal to dogs or cats, even the tiny little baby spiders

Pete, she looks exactly like yours and she’s still turning her egg sac round still – a proper little mother lol.

A friend of mine has a mexican red kneed Tarantula. Can’t handle it as it’s near malting time and she’s a bit grumpy apparently. Was transfixed by her though.

Fascinating,thanks for sharing. That Salmon pink has been on the protein powder, it really needs a leash.

The enclosures look neat – borderline shed porn.

😆 Trout

Great news Paul. They are a great T. They have the attitude of a lot of the Africans but is more on display. Mine comes out when I open her tank to feed. Quite unusual. Do you know they can hunt underwater?
Please keep me updated with how they are getting on. I might be interested in some if you are planning on selling any? Fingers crossed.

That Salmon pink has been on the protein powder

If you keep inverts on a constant high temp and just slightly over feed them you can speed up their growth. It is called power feeding. However you will risk complications when it is time for them to moult, they might be too lardy to climb out of their old skeleton, also you may be shortening their life.

Yes I know they are quite good at swimming and hunting under water – so putting some water in the bath when re-housing isn’t a safe option anymore lol. I will definitely keep you updated on her progress as well, just hoping it’s not a phantom sac that’s all.
I’m going to the BTS show in May so I’ll look for some juvenile P smithi’s and P subfusca ‘Lowlands’ going cheap lol. I’ll look for any rarities too 🙂

Spider threads are great, learnt loads from reading these.

Great shame about the one that had a bad moult, fingers crossed she makes it, never thought I would say that about a spider 🙂

I’m not knocking your hobby, in fact I can admire the beauty of these animals. I can’t get away from the fact they give me the absolute willies. Fricking terrified of the things .

Revisiting a two-day old thread, but this link seems interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17273309