What made you interested in T's?

[0311usmc]

Bravo! All hail to our benign Mother the Goddess*, my Brother

* 0.1 Pelinobius muticus PBUH (Peace Be Upon Her)

It's not a cult its a way of life.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

It's not a cult its a way of life.

There is no Theraphosidae but the Goddess* and Pterinochilus murinus is her Prophet.

* 0.1 Pelinobius muticus PBUH (Peace Be Upon Her)

Deus Vult!

 

[Mr B Smithi]

Low maintenance and feeding tops it for myself,compared to my mature ant colonies that needed attention every day. I am now happy with my 1x sling hamorii!

 

[Abbio]

I have always been really fond of all insects from a young age! always looking under rocks etc to see who i can find. And always at the front of the queue when there was a handling opportunity.

I got my first T a G.Rosea 5 years ago and i love her she is the perfect pet! very low maintenance, doesn't smell ( a great selling point for mums! ) and above all they're fascinating, an 8 legged hamster i refer to her as for people who are not a fan!

I have recently taken on 2 slings for the first time and i am enjoying these just as much, one of these is a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens and the colour changes i have seen it go through have been so enjoyable its amazing species and growing very quickly! i cant wait to see it as an adult.

I also have 2 ghost mantids which are now fully grown and trying to breed and a crested gecko in my collection, i would love to add some beetles to my collection one day.
And i'm sure i have room for a few more T's

 

[Rittdk01]

Handled a buddies rose hair. I still adore the "golden retrievers" of tarantula collecting. Sweethearts

 

[spotropaicsav]

Handled a buddies rose hair. I still adore the "golden retrievers" of tarantula collecting. Sweethearts

"golden retrievers" of tarantula collecting---- so appropriate

 

[efmp1987]

Ease of husbandry and unique. Discus fish requires mastering water parameters (soft, acidic with a desired Ph range, sometimes calling for expensive water processing devices).

 

[Charlottesweb17]

Got my first Ts this past March after I went to a reptile show in February with my son and held my first g.pulchipres. I ended up getting not one but two my first order as the shop I buy from gave me a bonus T.
As someone here once told me I would not be able to stop at just one.
Ordered 9 more as a present to myself and I got another freebie.
Have now 12 and no plans to stop!

 

[Andrea82]

Never had fear of spiders, used to collect orb weavers as a little kid, along with anything else I could find. I have no idea how I got there, but I saw a video on YouTube from Tarantula Addict and I was like 'you can keep these as 'pets'!? So I dove into books and the Dutch forum and groups and acquired 3 B.albopilosum. Then I found Ab and now I have close to 40 in three and half years time
To me, it is incredible calming and centering to work with these creatures. When relaxed, they do everything slowly. I can watch them for hours and feel as relaxed and centered as if I took a yoga class.
Of course, this effect is quickly counterbalanced when I need to rehouse or do maintenance in the tanks of the fasties and grumpies of my collection. So in a way, keeping Theraphosids makes sure I get my relaxation and adrenaline fix
And I haven't even started on how fascinating their behaviour is. Or how I go squee when my Homoeomma (ex Euathlus) species Red comes staggering out of its enclosure again to come sit on my hand. I don't handle. It handles me. Every darn time I open her tub, out she comes. She's adorable. That's another great aspect of keeping T's, there are SO many to choose from. Although that may be less so in Australia. Did I read it right you had an Australian Theraphosid on your Face?! Not the smartest of moves...but then again, you are Australian after all...being used to everything there wanting to kill you

 

[nicodimus22]

They generally fear and hate humans. We have a lot in common.

 

[AusBugKid]

Never had fear of spiders, used to collect orb weavers as a little kid, along with anything else I could find. I have no idea how I got there, but I saw a video on YouTube from Tarantula Addict and I was like 'you can keep these as 'pets'!? So I dove into books and the Dutch forum and groups and acquired 3 B.albopilosum. Then I found Ab and now I have close to 40 in three and half years time
To me, it is incredible calming and centering to work with these creatures. When relaxed, they do everything slowly. I can watch them for hours and feel as relaxed and centered as if I took a yoga class.
Of course, this effect is quickly counterbalanced when I need to rehouse or do maintenance in the tanks of the fasties and grumpies of my collection. So in a way, keeping Theraphosids makes sure I get my relaxation and adrenaline fix
And I haven't even started on how fascinating their behaviour is. Or how I go squee when my Homoeomma (ex Euathlus) species Red comes staggering out of its enclosure again to come sit on my hand. I don't handle. It handles me. Every darn time I open her tub, out she comes. She's adorable. That's another great aspect of keeping T's, there are SO many to choose from. Although that may be less so in Australia. Did I read it right you had an Australian Theraphosid on your Face?! Not the smartest of moves...but then again, you are Australian after all...being used to everything there wanting to kill you

Not an Australian T, one of our biggest huntsmans (Sparassidae), she has a leg span of 13cm or so. She only has a name because we name all the bugs that come around frequently, it helped me in the beginning to get past my fear.
I promise I have no desire to handle our native T's. Most Australians are "look don't touch", even the people.

 

[JoshDM020]

Honestly, really going back and thinking about it, it aaalllll started with Latrodectus. Widows are probably my favorite spider of any kind. The only reason i dont have one in my closet is because ive yet to find one that wasnt obviously gravid or sitting in a web with 15 freakin sacs. Idk what the deal is with em, but they're incredible. And tarantulas arent that different, i suppose. Less likely to send you to the hospital (in most cases). And like a few others have said, theyre just easy and incredibly diverse.
Once i started researching, i discovered the conservation part of the hobby and now i feel like its just my mission to help keep these guys from going extinct because of all the chainsaws clearing out their native homes.
I dont have any that are major concerns for extinction at the moment (unless psalmos are in danger and i didnt know?), but thats mostly because im only a few months in. Once i really get the groove of things, i basically want em all.

 

[AusBugKid]

Honestly, really going back and thinking about it, it aaalllll started with Latrodectus. Widows are probably my favorite spider of any kind. The only reason i dont have one in my closet is because ive yet to find one that wasnt obviously gravid or sitting in a web with 15 freakin sacs. Idk what the deal is with em, but they're incredible. And tarantulas arent that different, i suppose. Less likely to send you to the hospital (in most cases). And like a few others have said, theyre just easy and incredibly diverse.
Once i started researching, i discovered the conservation part of the hobby and now i feel like its just my mission to help keep these guys from going extinct because of all the chainsaws clearing out their native homes.
I dont have any that are major concerns for extinction at the moment (unless psalmos are in danger and i didnt know?), but thats mostly because im only a few months in. Once i really get the groove of things, i basically want em all.

Conservation is the reason I'm so torn about wild catching. For example we have a wolfie called Hoggicosa bicolor and there are not many breeding populations, if any, so while I would love to wild catch and breed them, I'm also acutely aware of the damage wild capture does to some of our wild spider populations

 

[JoshDM020]

Conservation is the reason I'm so torn about wild catching. For example we have a wolfie called Hoggicosa bicolor and there are not many breeding populations, if any, so while I would love to wild catch and breed them, I'm also acutely aware of the damage wild capture does to some of our wild spider populations

Thats very true, but if you catch a male and a female, mate them, and return the hundreds of babies into the wild to make up for it. One female could probably mate a few times before finally kickin it, so really, thatd probably be one of the BEST ways to help. With native wild caughts.
People in america (or other countries) should definitely not go around releasing wandering spiders or anything not native. We have enough problems with invasive species without a sequel to Arachnophobia.

 

[ccTroi]

I loved collecting orb weavers. And Spider Man is my favorite hero .

 

[WildSpider]

Had a ton of flies in the yard and wanted to get rid of them. Started catching spiders and voila! I think I had over a 100 wild caught spiders at one point but I've let a lot of them go lately so I can focus on my favorites. Also, I got a couple of frogs and they eat a ton! They didn't think there was enough food to go around!

 

[moshpitpanda]

Biology of all creatures is really fascinating to me once I start to learn about them. I dont know, I guess a few years ago I got into the tarantula biology and that led to a lot of youtube keeper videos and how cool I thought it would be to get a giant spider! I was only in middle school so I didnt want to get one then since I thought it was a quick fading interest. A few months ago I found my fascination with the creatures still remained so I went ahead and got one! Like others have said before, their cheap prices and easy maintenance is a big factor in the final purpose. And who can go wrong with that big booty?

 

[Vinny2915]

I saw a G.porteri and got my parents to impulse buy it (I was super young and so I was probably a whiney s.o.b.for sure).

 

[Razzledazzy]

I was bored on youtube and ended up watching some former arachnophobic snake lady's collection of 5 tarantulas. I kept watching videos and then the rest was history.

Okay, that's actually a lie, I ended up making a very spider focused dungeons and dragons character and ended up doing some research on spiders because of her background and abilities. Which then led me to the youtube videos.

 

[Pernicious]

My fear had to be conquered....fell in love right away always kept native spiders but large ts are so magnificent and calm amazing creatures!!