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DesertDweller256

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
Messages
13
Sorry for the awful title to the thread. Whenever I post on here it’s out of curiosity and “what-ifs” at times so pardon me if that’s annoying.

Anyway, I’ve owned my T for about a month and I of course want more. I plan on taking it slow so I only want to add one or two more to my collection anytime soon. But I was wondering, for those of you on here (and I want to open this up to virtually anyone), what was/is your “progression” through the hobby like?

If you started out with a beginner species, when did you decide to move on to something harder? Did you make the jump pretty quickly or did you have many stepping stones along the way? Has your collection grown pretty fast or more moderately?

I don’t want to ask too many questions, and maybe this would belong more in the chat section but I just wanted to hear how people have progressed throughout the hobby. I know everyone is different so I just wanted anyone and everyone to share if they so choose.
 

ghostly

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 9, 2016
Messages
46
Well, my descent into madness (or "the hobby" as we like to call it) definitely happened gradually. Originally I wanted precisely one tarantula (as most of us do I suppose lol). I originally wanted a tarantula because a) a friend of mine had a huge LP at the time and I was just fascinated by this animal and b) I really wanted a pet, but it needed to be low-maintainance and have the ability to survive alone for a few days, due to my work and living situatuon back then. I did research for a few months, watched a bunch of videos, completely fell in love with tarantulas and eventually settled on a B. hamorii (I believe it was genuinely still B. smithi at the time).

So I drove two hours to a reptile expo, found a "reputable" tarantula breeder (there are precisely two in my country I believe), and bought my very first T. A subadult B. hamorii female.
I was over the moon. Loved that fuzzy, alien creature, completely fascinated by it. Then, about a month into T keeping - tarantula on its back! Holy s***!!! Molting!!! How exciting. Afterwards... well... my girl looked weird. Very leggy, small abdomen, weird pedipalps. The hooks also kind of unsettled me. Well. I had been sold a penultimate male for the price of a female because I was young, inexperienced and gullible and... well. There he was. He lived for 7-8 more months I believe, than I had to watch him waste away. (The possibility of giving a MM away for breeding etc. had not occurred to me at this point.) When he died I was gutted and felt like I was done with the tarantula hobby right after I had started.

For over a year I didn't consider buying a new T. Then I stumbled across an a facebook post (by accident, not even looking for Ts). A hobbyist right around the corner had to give away a part of his collection. He was a very experienced and responsible T keeper and all of his animals were in great shape, so I felt confident getting a spider from him. More or less on impulse, I went there and picked up my B. albopilosum female, and just like that I was a tarantula keeper again. About two weeks later, I was completely infected with the spider virus again and I needed to have MORE. So I called this guy again - and he had two more female NWs to rehome - A juvie B. sabulosum and an AF N. chromatus. - and a B. hamorii sling. So suddenly I had 4 tarantulas.

A few months later, the next reptile expo took place, and lemme tell ya, from that point on it was just a trip down the spider addiction road.
I got, I think, six slings and (finally!!!) an actual female B. hamorii. Shortly afterwards, I got my emergency spider (AF A. seemanni) who had to be rehomed asap because her owner was about the leave the country. (I worked at a vet clinic focusing on exotics at the time, so people tended to approach me with all sorts of critters that needed a home.) I kept her and it was a great decision.

I also did A LOT of research around this time and started to look into other species, not just New world terrestrials.
When I felt confident with all my new worlds, I went ahead and got my first baboon (a C. darlingi female). Then my five m. balfouri slings followed, and then, finally, an OBT sling. At the same time, my interest in arboreals got sparked. I had always had a focus on terrestrials, but I fell in love with my p. irminia sling that I had actually received as a freebie - so I decided I needed more arboreals, and a c. versicolor, an avic sling and, when I finally mustered up the confidence, my first two pokie slings followed.
My passion suffered a major blow when my very first pokie (p. vittata) died in a bad molt as a juvenile (2'' maybe). Still no idea what went wrong there, and still my only loss apart from the mature male. But I was too deep in to quit the hobby at this point (thankfully). So I'm still here, 5.5 years since I got my actual very first spider, 3.5 years since I started my current collection, 25 spiders in and planning to add at least 10 more over the next 1-2 years. Also considering getting into breeding at some point. Love this hobby.

Sorry for the novel, I had way too much fun revisiting those milestones of my own spider journey. If you actually read this, thank you I guess. :D

Here's a pic of my very first T the day I picked him up at the expo, because after all, he started this journey. RIP Richard, you will never be forgotten.

 

PanzoN88

Arachnodemon
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
713
This might take a while:

As a former arachnophobe, I obviously started with species suitable for beginners. I got my first tarantula (Honduran B. albopilosum) in 2014, shortly after becoming a member of the forum. I was one of those who thought they would get just one tarantula, but as we all know it never turns out that way.

I eventually accumulated a few more in 2015 (GBB, B. sabulosum, an A. avicularia type 6 or whatever they are called nowadays), after a few more acquisitions, I got my first intermediate species, which is P. cancerides (A. geniculata if you consider them intermediate species), went on getting more additions sporadically over 2016 and early 2017. In late 2017 I received my first OW as a freebie, which was an Orphnaecus sp. 'cebu' (he passed away as a MM last week).

My preferences are really beginning to come into focus (Hsrpactira, Brachypelma, Phormictopus, Aphonopelma, Psalmopoeus).
 

DesertDweller256

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
Messages
13
Well, my descent into madness (or "the hobby" as we like to call it) definitely happened gradually. Originally I wanted precisely one tarantula (as most of us do I suppose lol). I originally wanted a tarantula because a) a friend of mine had a huge LP at the time and I was just fascinated by this animal and b) I really wanted a pet, but it needed to be low-maintainance and have the ability to survive alone for a few days, due to my work and living situatuon back then. I did research for a few months, watched a bunch of videos, completely fell in love with tarantulas and eventually settled on a B. hamorii (I believe it was genuinely still B. smithi at the time).

So I drove two hours to a reptile expo, found a "reputable" tarantula breeder (there are precisely two in my country I believe), and bought my very first T. A subadult B. hamorii female.
I was over the moon. Loved that fuzzy, alien creature, completely fascinated by it. Then, about a month into T keeping - tarantula on its back! Holy s***!!! Molting!!! How exciting. Afterwards... well... my girl looked weird. Very leggy, small abdomen, weird pedipalps. The hooks also kind of unsettled me. Well. I had been sold a penultimate male for the price of a female because I was young, inexperienced and gullible and... well. There he was. He lived for 7-8 more months I believe, than I had to watch him waste away. (The possibility of giving a MM away for breeding etc. had not occurred to me at this point.) When he died I was gutted and felt like I was done with the tarantula hobby right after I had started.

For over a year I didn't consider buying a new T. Then I stumbled across an a facebook post (by accident, not even looking for Ts). A hobbyist right around the corner had to give away a part of his collection. He was a very experienced and responsible T keeper and all of his animals were in great shape, so I felt confident getting a spider from him. More or less on impulse, I went there and picked up my B. albopilosum female, and just like that I was a tarantula keeper again. About two weeks later, I was completely infected with the spider virus again and I needed to have MORE. So I called this guy again - and he had two more female NWs to rehome - A juvie B. sabulosum and an AF N. chromatus. - and a B. hamorii sling. So suddenly I had 4 tarantulas.

A few months later, the next reptile expo took place, and lemme tell ya, from that point on it was just a trip down the spider addiction road.
I got, I think, six slings and (finally!!!) an actual female B. hamorii. Shortly afterwards, I got my emergency spider (AF A. seemanni) who had to be rehomed asap because her owner was about the leave the country. (I worked at a vet clinic focusing on exotics at the time, so people tended to approach me with all sorts of critters that needed a home.) I kept her and it was a great decision.

I also did A LOT of research around this time and started to look into other species, not just New world terrestrials.
When I felt confident with all my new worlds, I went ahead and got my first baboon (a C. darlingi female). Then my five m. balfouri slings followed, and then, finally, an OBT sling. At the same time, my interest in arboreals got sparked. I had always had a focus on terrestrials, but I fell in love with my p. irminia sling that I had actually received as a freebie - so I decided I needed more arboreals, and a c. versicolor, an avic sling and, when I finally mustered up the confidence, my first two pokie slings followed.
My passion suffered a major blow when my very first pokie (p. vittata) died in a bad molt as a juvenile (2'' maybe). Still no idea what went wrong there, and still my only loss apart from the mature male. But I was too deep in to quit the hobby at this point (thankfully). So I'm still here, 5.5 years since I got my actual very first spider, 3.5 years since I started my current collection, 25 spiders in and planning to add at least 10 more over the next 1-2 years. Also considering getting into breeding at some point. Love this hobby.

Sorry for the novel, I had way too much fun revisiting those milestones of my own spider journey. If you actually read this, thank you I guess. :D

Here's a pic of my very first T the day I picked him up at the expo, because after all, he started this journey. RIP Richard, you will never be forgotten.

Very awesome story! Thanks for sharing. There’s an expo coming to me in November and I’m excited yet oddly nervous, but mostly excited. Richard looks to have been very awesome, what a fuzzy little guy. Glad to see you were able to heal enough to want to come back!
 

Uial

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
67
I had my first G. pulchripes for a year, before getting more T's. I bought her form a seller online. The most advanced ones I have is one N. incei and one P. irminia, and honestly, it's about as advanced as I'm gonna go. The P. irminia, the M. balfouri and the C. cyaneopubescens I bought at an expo. The rest I ordered at spidershop Eu. I like the slow pet rock new worlds the most, but the rest add a little spice. Also, I'm only allowed to have 7 T's as per agreement with my landlord and I already have 8, but 2 are dwarf species, so I hope I can argue that they're not real T's. Also, the enclosures are small and easily hidable in a closet^^ But I'm gonna stay at that number now. With 8, one of them is always out and watchable, so I'm satisfied with that.
 
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