Best, funny and worst keeping moments for you?

LittleT

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
29
I really enjoy hearing about other people's experiences keeping T's. So thought I would start a fun thread to see what are your favourite, funny and, or worst experiences owning Tarantulas? :)
 

saturnthegrey

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
80
My worst so far has been when I traded my H. vonwirthi. Getting her out of her burrow and into a cup. It was a 45 minute nightmare that had me shaking and work out by the end of it. She was almost falling over in a threat pose the entire time and she struck my tongs at least twenty times.

Don't mess with an OW obligate burrowers home haha
 

Pociemon

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
911
A few years ago i had to relocate several adult haplopelma hainanum. The first 3 went as planned, nr 4 ran away and i did not see WHERE! I searched like crazy for 10minutes and where i have my animals there is 110% secure and NO places for them to hide. But i could not find her, and i search my pants and T-shirts backside, but no T there either. I sat down for a thinking break and had a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Then i look at my shoulder and saw this:

Big surprise, she had jumped from the box and up on my pants and that way up, but she sat at an angle where i could not see her, and i could not get her away from there safely either. So i smoked the rest of the cigarette and drank my coffe finished, took a picture and called my wife to help me get her under control;-)
 
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Tfisher

Arachno-Geek
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
251
A few years ago i had to relocate several adult haplopelma hainanum. The first 3 went as planned, nr 4 ran away and i did not see WHERE! I searched like crazy for 10minutes and where i have my animals there is 110% secure and NO places for them hide. But i could not find her, and i search my pants and T-shirts backside, but no T there either. I sat down for a thinking break and had a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Then i look at my shoulder and saw this:

Big surprise, she had jumped from the box and up on my pants and that way up, but she sat at an angle where i could not see her, and i could not get her away from there safely either. So i smoked the rest of the cigarette and drank my coffe finished, took a picture and called my wife to help me get her under control;-)
my wife would have said your on your own and locked the bathroom door shut. (I still always do my work in the tub) hahah
 

SpiderVooDoo

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
7
I got 2...
I had a green bottle blue, Bruja...anyway I get the spider house set it up look at my husband and said she will be here in 2 weeks, he of course no effing way balh blah blah...bruja arrives...fast forward 3 weeks...I come home from work to see my husband on the bed laying there with her on his stomach....shes just the neatest thing ever....
2....she definitely had personality....when she would finish eating she would put the leftovers on her water dish and sit there facing us all like im finished eating human you can remove this garbage from my presence :p
Sadly she turned out to be a he (fuck backwater reptiles) and passed away a month ago....im getting another GBB what a wonderful species
 

mistertim

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
548
I got 2...
I had a green bottle blue, Bruja...anyway I get the spider house set it up look at my husband and said she will be here in 2 weeks, he of course no effing way balh blah blah...bruja arrives...fast forward 3 weeks...I come home from work to see my husband on the bed laying there with her on his stomach....shes just the neatest thing ever....
2....she definitely had personality....when she would finish eating she would put the leftovers on her water dish and sit there facing us all like im finished eating human you can remove this garbage from my presence :p
Sadly she turned out to be a he (fuck backwater reptiles) and passed away a month ago....im getting another GBB what a wonderful species
Sorry to hear that. Might want to go easy on the language though...
 

crlovel

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
46
A heart attack funny moment, and it happened yesterday.

My Pokie sling, an ornata about two inches long now, molted about a week ago. I was carefully opening the container to drop in a cricket for her. Now, when I open any arboreal cage, I always make sure I know EXACTLY where the tarantula is. Common sense. My eyes were ON the ornata as I carefully opened the plastic arboreal cage she's in - and what pops out instantly on my hand, in my eyes - the ornata! right there, on my hand - even though I'm LOOKING AT HER in the cage, knowing she's fast, but not THAT fast. My heart lurches, I freeze, and look again - it's the molt, positioned right where the enclosure seam is, and it fell out onto my hand when I opened it. About gave me a heart attack, but I was laughing.
 

Toxoderidae

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Messages
1,008
A heart attack funny moment, and it happened yesterday.

My Pokie sling, an ornata about two inches long now, molted about a week ago. I was carefully opening the container to drop in a cricket for her. Now, when I open any arboreal cage, I always make sure I know EXACTLY where the tarantula is. Common sense. My eyes were ON the ornata as I carefully opened the plastic arboreal cage she's in - and what pops out instantly on my hand, in my eyes - the ornata! right there, on my hand - even though I'm LOOKING AT HER in the cage, knowing she's fast, but not THAT fast. My heart lurches, I freeze, and look again - it's the molt, positioned right where the enclosure seam is, and it fell out onto my hand when I opened it. About gave me a heart attack, but I was laughing.
Be careful though! All poec slings I have refuse to dart towards their hide. Instead, they view my arm as a proper means of escape. Not the best situation for me.

Time for my story. This one happened yesterday, when I just learned how grumpy obligates can be. I went to transfer this super calm, WC H. longipes (one of two named spiders now) and I careful popped open the lid to the small little carrier tank. Still super chill, acted like I wasn't even there. I grab my feather (turkey feather, don't worry, got it from a turkey itself) to lightly tap her and send it into the new home, and it BLAM Threat postured, nearly fell over twice trying to defend itself, literally dripping venom. Afterwards, I called my father in, as this was my first threat posture from a spider, and he just looked at the spider and asked it, "What's your deal?" And he started calling her "Grump" We initially were going to use a pair of rubber tipped tongs and lightly pick her up and move her in (dads idea) then he grabbed the entire little cup she was travelling in, and slowly turn it until she just fell into the new tank, still threat posturing! Lots of spice in her.
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
A few years ago i had to relocate several adult haplopelma hainanum. The first 3 went as planned, nr 4 ran away and i did not see WHERE! I searched like crazy for 10minutes and where i have my animals there is 110% secure and NO places for them to hide. But i could not find her, and i search my pants and T-shirts backside, but no T there either. I sat down for a thinking break and had a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Then i look at my shoulder and saw this:

Big surprise, she had jumped from the box and up on my pants and that way up, but she sat at an angle where i could not see her, and i could not get her away from there safely either. So i smoked the rest of the cigarette and drank my coffe finished, took a picture and called my wife to help me get her under control;-)
You lucky :angelic: those are by far, my fav. 'Haplos' of all time. Haplopelma hainanum is the best 'Haplo' ever IMO. Amazing high strung attitude. Never had the pleasure to own one, others of the genus, yes, but never "her" :(
 

Magenta

Arachnosquire
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
55
I had my little A. versicolor (about 3/4in) sling housed in a plastic jar with holes drilled into the sides. I had peeled off the label from the container and it had left a sticky residue. It never occurred to me that it would be an issue. So, one day I open the jar for feeding and she bolted and ran down the side of the jar and got stuck on the sticky residue. It took maybe 45min of painting her feet with water and slipping paper under each foot as it was freed to get her unstuck. Somehow, she didn't lose a leg. Idiot mistake on my part, 100% my fault. Lesson learned. At nearly 2in, she's now housed in an amac box without sticky residue.
 

PanzoN88

Arachnodemon
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
713
I was hoping i would not spill the beans about this, but it is one of those days. Ok, i had just brought my B. Sabulosum home, i was moving it to a jar that i was using as a catch cup so i could change the substrate from topsoil (i may still try topsoil in the future) to eco earth. Well things were going good and it was walking up the side with no issue, then it went in a different direction and bolted up the other side on to my stomach and continued up my face and to my head where i had the jar and lid waiting for it. Now when i move my B. Sabulosum (i rehoused it recently) i use a larger container (one i can just place over the tarantula) and a piece of paper. That is the first and last embarassment in the hobby that will ever happen to me (hopefully).
 

Pociemon

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
911
You lucky :angelic: those are by far, my fav. 'Haplos' of all time. Haplopelma hainanum is the best 'Haplo' ever IMO. Amazing high strung attitude. Never had the pleasure to own one, others of the genus, yes, but never "her" :(
Until 1 year ago i had a huge collection of haplopelma schmidti and hainanum. Got offspring aswell. They are great T´s, but rarely for sale anymore. Especcially schmidti are tricky to work with, they can behave very nice in 5min and all of the sudden just explode in total rage out of nowhere...But get them if you are able to. I can help you out in the breeding department.
 

Venom1080

Arachnoemperor
Joined
Sep 24, 2015
Messages
4,611
id say my favorite experience is seeing my P. regalis jump and catch a moth in mid air for the first time. had no idea that thing could move that fast! it missed the first couple times and repeated the maneuver for the third a time and caught the moth. incredible really.

my worst i guess is my most nerve wracking as well. it happened about 6 months ago when i was rehousing my H. mac for the third or fourth time, she had put on some size and was lightning fast. i had the two cages next to one another and was trying to prod her out into the new cage. she raced around the lid of her old cage and leaped for my paintbrush, she landed on it and started climbing, startled, i dropped the brush. in mid air she jumped and landed on my hand, all that went through my head was; bad venom, lots of pain, hyper defensive and then i threw her backwards.( she was only about 1.5") furious with myself, i frantically checked my bed and walls, found her about 45 min later chilling on my blanket on the floor.
 

mistertim

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
548
Yeah an H. mac is definitely not a spider I especially want crawling around on me.
 

TheInv4sion

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 26, 2015
Messages
485
A couple weeks ago, I went to transfer my H. maculata from the temp enclosure she was housed in at a show and I gently nudged her to get her into her new home, but she ran the opposite direction and onto my hand. I decided to just keep my hand still, but instead of being calm she jumped onto my desk and I spent about half an hour trying to coax her into her enclosure....most stressful moment other than when my B. emilia escaped and I lost it :<
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,223
Sadly she turned out to be a he (backwater reptiles) and passed away a month ago....im getting another GBB what a wonderful species
Moral of the story should be an obvious one...never buy arachnids from a reptile dealer...never...and why would you with all the great dealers specializing in tarantulas....I ask anyone buying from such a place the same question...would you buy your reptiles at a tarantula dealer that just dabbled in reps on the side? I wouldn't.

When my P. nigricolor was small, maybe 1.5-2" I went to feed her early one morning (like 2am), I grasped the cricket in the tweezers, opened the enclosure top, and began to lower the cricket. Still nearly 2 feet away from the enclosure lid the cricket begins to struggle. Instantly (and I mean that quite literally) she turned (she was facing the wall like she had just been reprimanded), ran to the opening and jumped the nearly 2 feet onto the tweezers, turned, snatched the cricket, jumped back down into her enclosure and began to eat...al before I could even react....I laughed so hard and may have even clapped a little....very entertaining spiders Pamphs are.
 

Toxoderidae

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Messages
1,008
Moral of the story should be an obvious one...never buy arachnids from a reptile dealer...never...and why would you with all the great dealers specializing in tarantulas....I ask anyone buying from such a place the same question...would you buy your reptiles at a tarantula dealer that just dabbled in reps on the side? I wouldn't.

When my P. nigricolor was small, maybe 1.5-2" I went to feed her early one morning (like 2am), I grasped the cricket in the tweezers, opened the enclosure top, and began to lower the cricket. Still nearly 2 feet away from the enclosure lid the cricket begins to struggle. Instantly (and I mean that quite literally) she turned (she was facing the wall like she had just been reprimanded), ran to the opening and jumped the nearly 2 feet onto the tweezers, turned, snatched the cricket, jumped back down into her enclosure and began to eat...al before I could even react....I laughed so hard and may have even clapped a little....very entertaining spiders Pamphs are.
They must have insane vision. Feeders literally have to touch my subadult female regalis before she even notices their existence.
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,223
They must have insane vision. Feeders literally have to touch my subadult female regalis before she even notices their existence.
They have an extra sense courtesy of all those hairs...they feel vibrations from great distances. I can't recall exactly where I read it, but supposedly they can tell the size and shape of their prey well before its within range to see....and terrestrials have notoriously poor vision.

I think your regalis is just unusually patient...I have 2 AF regalis and neither is anything like that...they're frantic eaters like most of my poecs.
 

Toxoderidae

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Messages
1,008
They have an extra sense courtesy of all those hairs...they feel vibrations from great distances. I can't recall exactly where I read it, but supposedly they can tell the size and shape of their prey well before its within range to see....and terrestrials have notoriously poor vision.

I think your regalis is just unusually patient...I have 2 AF regalis and neither is anything like that...they're frantic eaters like most of my poecs.
lol all my poecs take forever to eat. The metallicas literally need to touch the food for long periods of time to trust it's food, the striata runs, then comes back around an hour later to eat (he's subadult) and the tigrin won't eat when I'm around. I don't expect my rufilata to eat though, as it hasn't accepted food since I got it, I think it's just a weaker specimen.
 
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