A few questions about my spiderling

[Catch Smiley]

A week ago I bought my first tarantula (not true, I had a pink-toe when I was about 13, didn't know what I was doing, it didn't live very long). This time, I've done a lot more research and am pretty confident I can take care of one now, but still, the more information and input I can get from people that have tarantulas, the better. I bought a Chaco Golden Knee, I hear they're really calm and great for starters, plus they get huge.
Right now, it's just a spiderling. When I bought it (about a week ago) it was about the size of a quarter, and I'm not sure if it's in my head or not, but I think it's already bigger than that. Right not, it's in a container about 1.5"x1.5" wide and 3" tall, how long until I should move it into a bigger container and how much bigger of a container? I have a 20 gal fish tank that I plan on moving it into later down the road, how big should it be when I move it in there?
Right now I feed it three small crickets a week, two on Monday one on Thursday. Is that too much or too little?
I'll really appreciate any advise, like I stated earlier, can never have too much info.





Thanks for reading
-Scott

 

[Solucki]

First of all, congrats on your new pet. http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html
Here's your new pet owners manual. This is for a grammostola rosea but it applies to your Chaco(grammostola Pulchripes) as you can see they are in the same genus so they are very similar. For enclosure size, 2 leg spans wide by 4 legspans long is comfy for them. Not too tall as they can climb and fall which can cause injuries when it gets bigger

 

[Catch Smiley]

Thanks for the link!

-Scott

 

[RyTheTGuy]

First of congrats! Unfortunately you will not need that 20 gallon for a few too many years. I have two G.pulchripes I bought over to years ago. They are still very small. Look at my pictures for size reference.

 

[iPippin]

Just feed once a week and it will be fine. Feeding it thrice a week is powerfeeding and it will die early. Tarantulas aren't picky of their containers. As long as they fit but not too big or they might be pacing the whole enclosure non stop which would stress them out. 3 dls for the floor and 2 dls for the heigh

 

[grayzone]

just for the record, i recently purchased an easy 6" female as a rescue and it came in a 20gal long tank. The thing looked very tiny in it, and just stuck to one corner of the tank.
It is now in a large KK, but i plan to moving it to a 10gal (max) eventually.

If you want to see a 6+" chaco in a 20 gal click here> http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?245579-Awesome-Craigslist-Rescue you can just make her out in the bottom right hand of the tank.. WAY too big imo (plus the tank was disgusting) so i moved her

---------- Post added 03-21-2013 at 09:09 PM ----------

also want to add that God only knows how old this chaco is. I know that i raised some slings for like 17 months and they went from the size of a pinkie nail to the size of a silver dollar max. Hell, one of them grew freakisly slower and is STILL probably that size haha.
For the record, the larger and faster growing one WAS female.

For your sake i hope you got a faster growing individual. I could imagine it becoming very boring with a t growing super SUPER slow if it was my 1st.
I recommend you getting a 2nd

 

[Curious jay]

As Grayzone said that 20gal is going to be too big (in terms of the spider using the ground its given) could be used for something larger like something from the Theraposa genus (they have high humidity requirements so may not be suitable as you are just starting out) or something from the Lasiodora genus which may or may not use the space depending on the individual.

Also as said its gunna be a few years until your G. pulchripes is of a decent size to move into a large tank (you could still use that tank for it but a lot of space will be wasted). I'm sure by the time its got to a decent size you will have a lot more Ts to make room for lol.

 

[MarkmD]

Yeah your T is very VERY slow growing, at max will need a 10gal (adult size), T's like to feel secure so with a nice hide should do the trick, but since yours is a sling a food container is more than adequate for now.

 

[Stan Schultz]

First of all, congrats on your new pet. http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html
Here's your new pet owners manual. This is for a grammostola rosea but it applies to your Chaco(grammostola Pulchripes) as you can see they are in the same genus so they are very similar. For enclosure size, 2 leg spans wide by 4 legspans long is comfy for them. Not too tall as they can climb and fall which can cause injuries when it gets bigger

Apparently, G. pulchripes does not experience as profound a "Hemisphere Shift" as G. rosea. I don't think caring for pulchripes like a rosea will do much harm, but not seeing it go on an 18 month fast may be a bit of a surprise.

Also, neither species will undergo a Hemisphere Shift if they are captive "born and raised." They are automagically adjusted to the correct hemisphere from "birth."


Enjoy your little 8-legged wonder!

---------- Post added 03-22-2013 at 06:12 PM ----------

A week ago I bought my first tarantula (not true, I had a pink-toe when I was about 13, didn't know what I was doing, it didn't live very long). ...

[SIZE=+1]WELCOME TO THE HOBBY!

:biggrin:

WELCOME TO THIS FORUM![/SIZE]

:laugh:

DID YOU HEAR THAT? THAT WAS THE NEWBIE ALARM!

Ah! So we're a newbie. You've done what everybody else does: Read all the Internet care sheets. Listened attentively to everything the expert down at the local pet shop told you. Spent a lot of money on things you shouldn't have. Incorporated a lot of things that were useless or even dangerous. Stressed out over meaningless details while ignoring the real issues. Way overkill. That's not a criticism; I'm just delineating the problems. It's just the way humanoids are, I suppose. We can deal with all that.

There's nothing wrong with being a newbie as long as you do something about it. After 45 years of keeping tarantulas, I still consider myself a newbie. We can trace a tarantula's ancestry back over HALF A BILLION YEARS. They've had that long to develop and fine tune their lives and lifestyles. They're incredibly complex and detailed creatures. We're gonna be playing catch-up (that's the newbie part) for a long, LONG, LONG time!

The first thing you need to understand is the KISS principle, not to infer that you're stupid. Inexperienced, maybe. Stupid, I don't think so. As proof, you can speak, read, and write English (arguably one of the more difficult languages on Planet Earth), and use a computer just fine. But, I digress. As long as you supply the basic necessities of life for your captive tarantula, the less you incorporate into its cage and care regimen, the less there is to go tragically haywire. KISS, indeed!

The second thing you need to understand is that tarantulas are like no other creature you've ever kept or even heard of before. All the ingrained assumptions and prejudices that you've been taught since childhood don't apply, and may even be dangerous to them. They're neither tropical fish, reptiles, canaries, nor gerbils, and you don't take care of them like any of those animals. One of the biggest problems with newbies is trying to get them to abandon all their prejudices and begin to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider.

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT.
MAKE SURE YOUR SEAT BACK AND TRAY TABLE ARE SECURED IN THEIR UPRIGHT POSITIONS.
THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE H*** OF A RIDE!​

Because tarantulas are so bizarre and unique, you have a lot of homework to do. To begin, you need to read the following webpages.

1) Stan's Rant. ESPECIALLY, READ THE PART ABOUT NOT TRUSTING ANYTHING A PET SHOP TELLS YOU! AND ESPECIALLY, [Strike]READ[/Strike] STUDY THE FOUR RECOMMENDED BOOKS.

2) Myths.... Read the entire webpage tree.

3) Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula. IF YOU HAVE A CHILEAN ROSE TARANTULA (Grammostola rosea) YOU NEED TO READ THIS WEBPAGE! If you don't have a Chilean rose you can safely ignore this one for now. Just remember that it's here for whenever you do get a rose. Or, you can read it out of curiosity. It contains a lot of hints applicable to other arid species.

4) Substrate. Because you need to know about this very basic, underlying part of a tarantula's existence.

5) Growing Your Own. This is a global, game plan for caring for your newfound little buddy. You need to figure out where it is in the vast scheme of growth and development, then start taking care of it properly from that point onward.

6) If you can possibly spare the time, at least skim through the entire Spiders, Calgary website.

Lastly, be aware that this system is not the only one available. Neither is it necessarilny the best one. You'll see and hear all sorts of other ideas as you go along. But, Marguerite and I have spent decades selling tarantulas to all kinds of people of all ages, and fine tuned this system so as to make it pretty much as bullet proof as it can get. Use our system at first, until you begin to understand these weird animals. Then maybe you can experiment with some of the no-so-conservative approaches recommended by others.

You need to learn to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider.


___________________________________

Sorry. I got this a little backwards. I should have offered you this first, then appended the previous post about the Hemisphere shift.

Your little Chaco is still a baby and should be cared for as such until maybe it molts one more time. At the size of a quarter, you shouldn't have it in a container larger than a large peanut butter jar to 2.5 gallon aquarium. Trade the 20 gallon tank off to someone for a couple of 5.5 gallon tanks or Kritter Keepers, and get another spider!

NEVER, EVER TRY TO DIVIDE A LARGE AQUARIUM OR CAGE INTO SMALLER SECTIONS TO KEEP MORE TARANTULAS IN THE SAME CONTAINER. One always manages to slide around, dig under, crawl over or teleport through the barrier. And, the cheaper one always eats the most expensive one!


Best of luck. Remember, your little 8-legged Yoda is going to be giving you pop quizzes daily!

 

[vixsta]

Listen to Pikaia, buy his book and trawl this website. They are all invaluable sources of information I'm still learning all the time after a year

Enjoy your G pulchripes, I've always wanted one

 

[grayzone]

I don't think caring for pulchripes like a rosea will do much harm, but not seeing it go on an 18 month fast may be a bit of a surprise.

very true indeed. I have owned a good handful or so G. pulchripes and honestly cant recall a "fast"...well, aside from premolt, but thats not the same thing.
They are MUCH better eaters than G. rosea, and ive never had one that wasnt entertaining (to say the least) at feeding time. BEASTS!

 

[Catch Smiley]

Thanks, that was some pretty good info

-Scott