# Tarantula Age Terminology  Questions



## Hantsche (Aug 29, 2011)

At what size or age does a tarantula stop being a sling and become a subadult? 

What is the difference in method of care between sling and subadult? Between subadult and mature?

At what stage do tarantulas get their final colors?

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## Stan Schultz (Aug 29, 2011)

Hantsche said:


> At what size or age does a tarantula stop being a sling and become a subadult?
> 
> What is the difference in method of care between sling and subadult? Between subadult and mature? ...


Sorry to disappoint you my friend, but there are no hard and fast definitions for any of these.

We can safely say that a tarantula that has just crawled out of its eggsac is a baby, after a very few molts some begin to refer to it as a spiderling (a.k.a., "sling"). But how many are "a very few molts?" Your guess is as good as mine.

And, what do we even mean by "spiderling?" Perhaps a baby that's beginning to show a little increase in size. But where one leaves off and the other picks up is open to a very wide interpretation.

A "subadult" is a tarantula that is approaching adult size or sexual maturity (but see below). But how much "approaching" does the tarantula have to do to qualify? I dunno.

Maturity is something we have a slightly, but only slightly, better handle on. We can tell when a male is mature by the presence of the clubbed pedipalps. (*NOT* tibial hooks! The males of a bunch of species do not have tibial hooks.) And, we can tell an immature male by confirming its sex by other means, correlated with the lack of the clubbed pedipalps.

But, females pose a special case. Their morphology changes little or not at all as they mature. The only sure way we know that one is mature is that it produces an eggsac full of eggs. Or, that it's so old that it has just got to be mature by now. But, how old might that be? Certainly it differs among different species, and may even differ among individuals of the same species. It may even depend heavily on how well fed the immature female was as she grew. As a "ferinstance" I can point out that female _Avicularia avicularia_ seem to mature at age 2 or 3, give or take. However, female _Brachypelma emilia_ may not mature until they're 10 to 20 years old! By that time the _avic's_ *grandchildren* are already dying or dead!

Re: care. Virtually all baby tarantulas require rather special, but uncomplicated, housing. A container should have the longest horizontal dimension being about 3 or 4 times the tarantula's diagonal leg span (DLS), about an inch (2-3 cm) of damp substrate on the bottom, and a lid or cover that restricts 95+% of the ventilation. I offer this photo to help get the idea across. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.



(Uploaded with ImageShack.us)

At a DLS of about 1.5 inches (~3.7 cm) the substrate should be allowed to start drying out. I usually recommend over a span of 2 or 3 molts. By that time the tarantula usually has a DLS of about 2 inches (5 cm). By then the substrate should be completely dry and you should have supplied a water dish. Maintain the same cage size ratio. This is the normal way to keep adult tarantulas: Dry cage with a water dish. If you live in a dry climate, or you think the tarantula is suffering from being kept too dry, merely cover the open parts of the cage with something. I use plastic food wrap. What you use depends a lot on the construction of the cage.

Thus, while there is a big difference between the care of a wee, tiny baby and a larger spiderling, after that point there is no difference in their care as they grow.

There are several points that I need to bring up that will tend to complicate this whole discussion somewhat.

1> Arid climate (e.g., desert) species can be converted a little earlier than the non-desert species. But, all but a few species of tarantulas can easily tolerate a dry cage as adults if given a water dish.

2> There are those enthusiasts who like to set up naturalistic cages with live plants, scenic rocks, etc. And surprisingly, most of them are moderately successful. However, doing so now means that you are trying to keep a "toy utopia" running instead of concentrating on learning how to keep tarantulas, your original endeavor. I quote the following aphorism to illustrate the point:

*"When one is up to his @$$ in alligators, it is difficult to remember that the original objective was to drain the swamp."*

Many people have a lot of trouble staying focused.

3> There is a relatively small but vocal contingent of enthusiasts who keep the cages of the non-desert species damp and use "pet" isopods as a cleanup crew. (Perform a search on this forum for any of the following search terms: *isopod*, *pillbug*, *pill bug*, *sowbug*, *sow bug*, *rolie polie* - try several different spellings of this name, *woodlice*, or *wood lice*.) This apparently prevents outbreaks of fungi and mites. However, if you do this you need to also learn how to keep isopods alive as well as your tarantulas. For the novice with only one or two tarantulas this may be too much to expect.

Also, there are those of us who simply cannot keep isopods alive. I'm one of those incompetents! I was marginally successful at keeping isopods in their own sweltering, dripping cage, but as soon as I put them in with a tarantula, regardless of how damp I kept the cage, they died within a matter of days. Oh well. I'm only marginally interested in crustaceans anyway.



Hantsche said:


> ... At what stage do tarantulas get their final colors?


That depends on the species, and it's usually a gradual process. If the species in question has a definite sort of color pattern (e.g., _Brachypelma smithi_) you can often see hints of the pattern as varying shades of gray after several molts. Other species remain drab and uninteresting seemingly forever. Then, all of a sudden they fairly glow after a critical molt. Some (e.g., _Avicularia versicolor_, _Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens_) have gorgeously colored babies that become muddy during their adolescence, then almost literally explode in color as they reach maturity. Sorta like people! (Babies are cute as long as they're someone elses. Tweens and teens are gangly, clumsy and ill kept until about age 16 or 17, then most begin to look like real people.  )

I hope this answers your question. Best of luck.

Enjoy your little 8-legged tween-ager!

Reactions: Like 4 | Informative 1


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## Hantsche (Aug 29, 2011)

> Re: care. Virtually all baby tarantulas require rather special, but uncomplicated, housing. A container should have the longest horizontal dimension being about 3 or 4 times the tarantula's diagonal leg span (DLS), about an inch (2-3 cm) of damp substrate on the bottom, and a lid or cover that restricts 95+% of the ventilation. I offer this photo to help get the idea across. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.


I have a 5gal tank for my spider. Can having too BIG of a tank for a smaller spider be detrimental?

Wow, this is the most helpful response I've received on these forums! You definitely cleared up a lot for me, thanks!


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## T Enthusiast (Aug 29, 2011)

Hantsche said:


> I have a 5gal tank for my spider. Can having too BIG of a tank for a smaller spider be detrimental?
> 
> Wow, this is the most helpful response I've received on these forums! You definitely cleared up a lot for me, thanks!


If I may:

Yes it can, if only because of the risk of falling. In an ideal situation, you want the space between the top of the substrate and the lid to be no more than 1.5 times the DLS of the spider. Reason being, if it climbs up ontop of the lid, has a mistep and falls, it could seriously injure itself from the fall or worse. And nobody wants that.


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## Stan Schultz (Aug 29, 2011)

Hantsche said:


> I have a 5gal tank for my spider. Can having too BIG of a tank for a smaller spider be detrimental? ...


While there are those whole will argue vehemently with me, yes it's possible to use too large a cage. My biggest argument against too large a cage for babies is that it makes finding the food too difficult. You'll wind up with a lot of dead, uneaten crickets because they managed to avoid the tarantula until they finally starved to death, died of thirst, or died of old age. Also, too much dead meat lying around and rotting is not a good environment for any tarantula.

One of the arguments that cage size doesn't matter holds that in the wild the tarantula has the whole of planet Earth to rattle around in. I argue that the tarantula *DOES NOT* have the whole of Earth to move around in, but grant that the territory surrounding a tarantula's burrow is much larger than a cage. However, in nature there is *JUST A LOT MORE FOOD* running around, and you don't have to pay for it if it dies. And if it isn't eaten and doesn't immediately die, all that extra uneaten food merely reproduces to produce more food. None of this happens in captivity, so those rules don't apply. And, you still get to pay the bill!

Fifty years of experience by literally thousands of enthusiasts have amply demonstrated that there is little virtue in keeping a tarantula in a monster cage, and it can end up being a big expense. Besides, big cages are a pain in the fundament to clean. And, tarantulas kept in huge cages do not apparently live better lives, reproduce more readily, grow significantly larger (unless you're keeping it in far too small a cage), or live longer than those kept in moderate sized cages.

A five gallon aquarium will easily serve as a permanent home for almost all normal sized tarantulas, say with a DLS from 2" (5 cm) up to about 6" (15 cm). Using anything much larger is a waste of resources. You're much better off trading a monster cage for a couple of smaller cages and buying another tarantula. 

If you have a very small tarantula and the 5 gallon tank is setting empty, keep the baby/spiderling in some container of appropriate size and buy another tarantula that's appropriate for that cage. You really, Really, *REALLY* need another tarantula don't you?



Hantsche said:


> Wow, this is the most helpful response I've received on these forums! You definitely cleared up a...  lot for me, thanks!


You're welcome. We aims to please.


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## morrisnakes (Oct 10, 2011)

I agree with Pikaia and would like to add, if the tarantula dies in the wild because it starved or got eaten by a cricket while molting, you also didn't pay for that tarantula either. And they die in the wild all the time. Money aside, I would be really sad to go check on a T and find it dead.


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## Popsmoke63B (Oct 11, 2011)

Moral of the story....read reliable caresheets, listen to those with considerable experience, and unless you have a T.blondi, or L.parahybana, a 5 gal. tank is fine. I congratulate you on your  journey in this wonderful world of 8 legged companions, and let us all know what your next T is....and the next, and the next, and oh...the next after that!


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## Arachnoholic (Oct 18, 2011)

I was looking for a definition of DLS when I found this and then read it all and it's fantastic information. Thanks so much Pikaia once again for sharing your knowledge!


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