What brought you to the hobby?

[FluffyTheSpider]

p metallica

No way! Man

 

[asunshinefix]

Arachnophobia did it! Dolomedes tenebrosus was my gateway spider - I was hanging out in a treehouse and realized they were all over the walls. I was a little drunk and for some reason they just didn't scare me. I was fascinated. So I started to pay more attention to spiders. I started handling little ones like orb weavers and cobweb spiders and I fell in love.

I've always been into exotic pets and when I learned about how low-maintenance and long-lived tarantulas are I knew it was only a matter of time. I used to keep rats but the short lifespan was too much for me, and although I've always wanted a snake I don't think I could handle feeding rats to it. So eventually I bought some Grammostola slings and a B. albo and that was that!

 

[MintyWood826]

I don't remember why but one day I decided I wanted a jumping spider. I never did go through with it, but I went off on a tangent and started researching tarantulas (why, I don't remember). My interest died down (a good thing too since I was looking at care sheets then!) but then revived when a teacher talked about living in Costa Rica and mentioned tarantulas/scorpions coming into his house. My interest grew from there, and then I finally got into the hobby.

Actually, I think I've been interested in bugs longer than I thought when I wrote this post. As I have been reminiscing too much lately, I remember going around on 'spider hunts' to count spiders around the house as a child. Caterpillars I know I loved early on too; I remember trying to keep but killing a few when I was too young for it. In third grade I got one of those painted lady kits with artificial diet, and ever since then, I have been mostly successful with butterflies (minus the egg-laying incident). There was also this documentary about inverts I watched and rewatched years ago. I want to find it again and see if it's cringy or good. I can only remember some scenes. (Most likely cringy) I also recall telling someone in middle school that I kind of wanted to have a tarantula despite my spider-themed nightmares.

 

[l4nsky]

A deep and utter fascination with predatory animals, specifically reptiles and other cold blooded varieties. As a kid, I would catch and keep mantids, orb weavers, widows, snakes, lizards, and frogs native to my area. Kept predatory fish for years as well (and community tanks too). I started gravitating towards venomous inverts because I dont have the space to keep what I really want to keep (Crocodilians, large varanids, and tankbuster fish like Hoplias aimara), they require very little in the ways of maintenance like my plants (leaving me relatively free to pursue my career and personal education), and I see them as sort of a stepping stone (albeit a small one) to keeping hot herps in the future. Since I've had more than a decent amount of experience handling less than friendly animals and some native venomous snakes in the field, I jumped right into the deep end. My first exotic inverts were Scolopendra sp., then I jumped to baboons and Poecilotheria and I'm growing from there. Cant wait to see what the future holds.

Thanks,
--Matt

 

[Vanisher]

I have always been intrested in spiders, since i was a child. Tarantulas i always loved and was intrigued about. Some 20 years ago i dive into the hobby cos a friend was a "big tarantula guy" i bought 2 tarantulas from him, a G rosea female ( still with me) and a Aphonopelma seemanni. I have been more or less in the hobby since then!

 

[Daesu]

TarantulaAddict on youtube. Started watching out of morbid curiosity and developed into a love.

 

[LittleGiRLy]

Ten years ago i bought my boyfriend, at the time (now husband), one for his birthday since he used to keep a few. That was it! I couldn't stop myself after that! And to think, i used to hate them!

 

[Clareesi]

A combination of insomnia and photography. I love shooting spiders in the wild (big and small) actually my favorite shot ever of a spider was the tiniest one ever and I kept losing it in the lens while trying to shoot. Ended up getting an amazing shot WOW derailed that one.

Anyway I also cant sleep and found my way to YouTube which led to tarantula videos which led to man those are so cool which led to 9 who bring me great joy.