# Tarantula YouTubers



## SethM16 (Oct 3, 2020)

I always read on AB about all the misinformation there is on youtube regarding tarantulas. But there are 4 particular creators that I love to watch for pleasure that also seem to give out what seems like valid information. But before I put any of this into practice, I'd like to hear second opinions that you all might have on these YouTubers and the information they give out:

- Tom Morran's Big Spiders
- *The Dark Den*
- Exotic Lair
- *The Tarantula Collective*

I've heard lots of good things about Tom Morran. But I'm especially curious about The Tarantula Collective because he seems like a really nice guy and his husbandry appears to be pretty extensive. I've also heard some not so good things about The Dark Den. Please, let me know what you guys think and your opinions on all of these YouTubers.

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Poonjab (Oct 3, 2020)

Tom Moran is best. Tarantula collective is decent. But he has a few habits I’m not fond of. Handling and tong feeding. Dark den is purely entertainment. Has bad husbandry practices. Exotic lair. Ooohhhh boy. Don’t even get me started.

Reactions: Like 12 | Agree 9 | Award 1


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## DomGom TheFather (Oct 3, 2020)

Tom moran is good.
My daughter likes tarantula collective.(flashy)
The others I could do without.

Reactions: Like 4 | Agree 2


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## SethM16 (Oct 3, 2020)

DomGom TheFather said:


> Tom moran is good.
> My daughter likes tarantula collective.(flashy)
> The others I could do without.


Good to know, I really like tarantula collective as well.


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## justanotherTkeeper (Oct 3, 2020)

Personally, I became interested in t's from Exotics Lair, eventually that lead to The Dark Den, and I was subbed to both for a long time. But I stopped watching Exotics Lair. Ugh. His content is just garbage now. He used to have semi-decent videos where he did his best to be educational and show his t's the respect they deserve. But his content went downhill quick once his "OOOooohhhh MY GOSH" attitude gained such attention.

I still love The Dark Den, because he respects his t's and gives them the best of care in his experience, while also being charismatic and making his videos enjoyable. Some disagree with some of his keeping practices (lacking water dishes being one of the main hot points), but he generally provides his t's with a healthy life. He also admits when he makes mistakes and asks the community for their opinions when he's not sure about something. We're all human and we're not perfect. All keepers, no matter how experienced will sometimes have different opinions about the best possible care for t's, and I think Petko does his best, in addition to being entertaining.

Just my two cents 

What are your thoughts on this topic, @petkokc ?

Reactions: Like 5 | Agree 6 | Informative 1


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## SethM16 (Oct 3, 2020)

justanotherTkeeper said:


> Personally, I became interested in t's from Exotics Lair, eventually that lead to The Dark Den, and I was subbed to both for a long time. But I stopped watching Exotics Lair. Ugh. His content is just garbage now. He used to have semi-decent videos where he did his best to be educational and show his t's the respect they deserve. But his content went downhill quick once his "OOOooohhhh MY GOSH" attitude gained such attention.
> 
> I still love The Dark Den, because he respects his t's and gives them the best of care in his experience, while also being charismatic and making his videos enjoyable. Some disagree with some of his keeping practices (lacking water dishes being one of the main hot points), but he generally provides his t's with a healthy life. He also admits when he makes mistakes and asks the community for their opinions when he's not sure about something. We're all human and we're not perfect. All keepers, no matter how experienced will sometimes have different opinions about the best possible care for t's, and I think Petko does his best, in addition to being entertaining.
> 
> Just my two cents


Agreed about dark den, his content is fantastic and he’s a really nice guy. I also find his accent amazing But i definitely think i’ll stick to tom morran for more information and leave dark den for the amazing entertainment that it is.

Reactions: Like 2


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## justanotherTkeeper (Oct 3, 2020)

SethM16 said:


> I also find his accent amazing


Same! I'm a California native, and something as exotic as his Croatian accent always gets me!


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## jay5597 (Oct 3, 2020)

Checkout on birdspidersCH. Great channel.

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 7


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## KaroKoenig (Oct 3, 2020)

Recently, I stumbled across a channel called Dave's little Beasties. That guy is awesome. Very 'european' approach, and pretty relaxed rehousing practices. Seems to be a very successful keeper and breeder. Love his motto. Be calm. Be gentle. Love your spiders. 

Definetly recommended.

Reactions: Like 7 | Agree 5


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## Tigger (Oct 3, 2020)

Around here they love Tom Moran and hate all other YouTubers. I'll let you in on a little secret. Don't tell anyone. Tom Moran handles his Tarantulas.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Ic4ru577 (Oct 3, 2020)

Depends what you are looking for. I go to Tom Moran and T collectives for information. Dark den for fun. My son loves exotic lair coz it is hillarious. Mind you he is 11 this January.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## Lazaru (Oct 3, 2020)

I'm with the consensus  Tom Moran and tarantula collective  are the only channels I really watch nowadays 

I use to watch the dark den but got disinterested pretty quick


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 3, 2020)

I think Tom Moran is by far the most informative and kinda no nonsense. Easily the best of this group. 

I think people like The Tarantula Collective simply because of the high production value, it looks like a professional video, but really it doesn't contain any more info than you could find with a quick Google search. 

I avoid every Dark Den and Exotics Lair video. I've seen a few and that's all I need to see. 

I do like birdspidersCH and Tarantapedia simply for getting to see T's in situ. 
Also Tarantula Haven isn't too bad.

Reactions: Like 2


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## LucN (Oct 3, 2020)

Out of those mentioned, Tom Moran is obviously the best. I know that if I ever venture into arboreal or fossorial territory, he has some really good guides on setting those up.

The Tarantula Collective is nice for the close ups of his animals, has good husbandry practices (aside tong feeding) and his enclosures look great. 

The Dark Den I watch every now and then. At least Petko admits his mistakes and learns from them. I also have issue with no water dishes in his setups, but if it works for him, more power to him. 

I used to watch Exotic's Lair, but after some stupid vids, such as when he made his arachnophobic friends feed his Ts, I stopped wasting my time with his channel.

Birdspiders.ch has been mentioned, another one that features Ts in their native habitat along with some historic info is Andrew Smith's lovetarantulas.com. There's also Guy Tansley's bugsnstuff that has really beautiful location footage.

Jon3800 and RobC were two active channels that I enjoyed over 10 years ago, nowadays Jon rarely uploads and Rob's vids aren't as fun as they used to be.

If you're looking for short and sweet vids of Ts being fed and such, I have to throw a recommendation to Basin79. His vids aren't flashy (they don't need to be), there's some really nice slow-mos of takedowns which I really like.

My 0.02 cents.

Reactions: Like 1


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## viper69 (Oct 3, 2020)

I don’t need YouTube for T husbandry.

It is good at times to see videos of species in their native environment. That’s where I find it has value for me.

My favorite is seeing Avics swim in a river.

And seeing fat Brachys escape from slender spaces or move lids to escape, ie things one might think are impossible.

Reactions: Like 5 | Agree 3


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 3, 2020)

Tigger said:


> Around here they love Tom Moran and hate all other YouTubers. I'll let you in on a little secret. Don't tell anyone. Tom Moran handles his Tarantulas.


Eh? He has two different posts on his blog about why he doesn't handle his Ts.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 3, 2020)

Tigger said:


> Around here they love Tom Moran and hate all other YouTubers. I'll let you in on a little secret. Don't tell anyone. Tom Moran handles his Tarantulas.


And you know this an ocean away by what means?

Reactions: Like 1


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## Stormsinger (Oct 3, 2020)

Tom Moran is the best source for good tarantula keeping on youtube. It's not just that he has good husbandry, it's good husbandry that he presents in a manner that is easy to follow.

In my opinion everyone else is balancing husbandry with entertainment and some do it better than others. 
Tarantula Collective has high production value but his content has failed to hold my interest, since it tends to be aimed at beginners looking around for suggestions for their first tarantula and basic care. 

Dark Den tong feeds and handles Ts fairly often, but mistakes and bad habits aside, you don't go around spending the time and money building your own furniture and tons of enclosures for animals you don't care about. Of the youtubers being discussed here, I think he is genuinely trying to be an entertainer with good husbandry.

Exotics Lair has a long history of bad husbandry, from housing conditions and his sensationalizing attitude, to his absolute insistence on doing everything one handed. I don't think he started out treating his animals as props for his comedy routine, but they are now. At least he has been putting his Ts in better enclosures. I don't know if someone managed to talk sense into him, or if he had a close call and realized that he needed to make changes, but at least he has made that one improvement lately.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 3, 2020)

I don't mind the Tarantula Collective, but I was puzzled when he put T. vagans at his list of top defensive/angry Ts over several OWs. Am I just dreaming or does T. vagans not have that kind of reputation?

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Liquifin (Oct 3, 2020)

SethM16 said:


> - Tom Morran's Big Spiders
> - *The Dark Den*
> - Exotic Lair
> - *The Tarantula Collective*


*Tom Moran* is a great guy and while I accept the majority of his methods, I don't follow all of them. The tarantula hobby is subjective and so anyone and everyone will have similar yet varying care at the same time. Tom Moran set pretty good standards in terms of care and information videos. But I still don't agree with all his methods such as the P. metallica communal. Doesn't mean I hate him, but I honestly tell people to use him as a standard and not a golden rule because the tarantula hobby is subjective so care could change in the future.

*The Dark Den *is a person, that's why I respect him a lot. I was one of his long time subscribers, so I've been around his community from the older days. While he isn't perfect, he's accepting of mistakes and learns and fixes them. I literally watch The Dark Den for his journey since he started and I don't watch his videos out of entertainment. Still at least he is a decent person and a passionate tarantula hobbyists.

*Exotics Lair* is probably the most controversial of the bunch here since he's quite hated. If I'm totally honest, my opinions about him have changed somewhat. I used to severely dislike him, because of how he cared for his T.'s. But he's slowly improving on husbandry and his enclosures now are a much better upgrade than those small glass enclosures with little ventilation. The big problem comes from his hit-or-miss information. Also crickets having parasites as a problem is such a weak and blatant excuse he tends to use. I'm not a big fan of Youtube "personas", but it seems people like or dislike his youtube persona. I honestly couldn't care less about it since it's just a front used as entertainment. So my overall thought: not there yet, but very slowly getting there. Still has a lot to learn.

*The Tarantula Collective* is decent guy, he's well rounded from what I see and to be honest he seems to be average all around. While not perfect, he's not horrible either. So he's just normal in a decent way.

This hobby does have standards, but it's highly subjective. Meaning your standards can be much different than others yet you both can be keeping them right. I personally think people should do there own research and not solely rely on just Youtube videos alone. Do your research on the standards and experience will build on itself with time with your own collection. I certainly don't rely on Youtube videos alone and neither should you. Maybe seek entertainment once in a while, but that's about it.

Reactions: Like 6 | Helpful 1


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 3, 2020)

Stormsinger said:


> Tom Moran is the best source for good tarantula keeping on youtube. It's not just that he has good husbandry, it's good husbandry that he presents in a manner that is easy to follow.
> 
> In my opinion everyone else is balancing husbandry with entertainment and some do it better than others.
> Tarantula Collective has high production value but his content has failed to hold my interest, since it tends to be aimed at beginners looking around for suggestions for their first tarantula and basic care.
> ...


Yeah what's with the one handed thing from Exotics Lair? Why not just get a Go Pro and strap it to your head? Then you have both hands free and you get the keepers POV.


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## Tigger (Oct 3, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> And you know this an ocean away by what means?


The horse's mouth.


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 3, 2020)

So hearsay and rumor. Got it.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Stormsinger (Oct 3, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> Yeah what's with the one handed thing from Exotics Lair? Why not just get a Go Pro and strap it to your head? Then you have both hands free and you get the keepers POV.


In an old video he mentioned that he lost his tripod to hold his phone, and I think from there he realized that he got a better response from his audience when he struggled to do things one handed so it became his 'thing'. I'm waiting for the day he posts a video showing him getting bit or having an escape because he won't put his phone down and use two hands.


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## Tigger (Oct 3, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> So hearsay and rumor. Got it.


Do you not know what "from the horse's mouth" means? Or can you just not admit when you are wrong? Either way you come off as rude and ignorant.

Reactions: Disagree 1 | Funny 1


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## moricollins (Oct 3, 2020)

Tigger said:


> Do you not know what "from the horse's mouth" means? Or can you just not admit when you are wrong? Either way you come off as rude and ignorant.


So you're saying that Tom Moran himself told you he handles his tarantulas?


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## mellow (Oct 3, 2020)

Tom moran and the tarantula collective are very informative, the dark den and exotics lair are more entertaining than informative.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1


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## Matt Man (Oct 3, 2020)

exotics lair does too many questionable things for me to give them 'hits' to add to their revenue stream. Dark Den has the kooky attitude and accent that makes it entertaining, but again I don't like to support people making $ from bad husbandry. Tom seems the best and his videos are good but I typically don't get tips from him. I would fall under 'gets any advice on husbandry from here' group

Reactions: Like 1


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## Craig73 (Oct 3, 2020)

Tom Moran, Tarantula Collective, and Dave’s Little Beasties I think it’s called.

As far as Moran, he has handled T’s, but I wouldnt say he’s done it for pleasure or joy.  He clearly isn’t advocating it by any means that I’ve seen.  He knows his stuff.  If he tongue feeds or handles his T’s  there’s probably a good reason; that’s my opinion and I‘d take his advice hands down any day of the week.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kichimark (Oct 3, 2020)

I have watched all those that are listed and I agree that Tom's is the most educational. I do enjoy the tarantula collective as well and will occasionally see Dark Den.  Petko (?) from Dark Den does appreciate and care for his animals. I was impressed when he would admit his failures since it takes a lot to do that publicly and using his channel to not only educate but to also receive feedback and serve as a warning to others, he gets an "A" in my book. 

I watched a few of the exotics lair and although his one hand style is unique, it is rather annoying. I stopped watching his vids when he kept tapping on the glass of his enclosures and annoying his T's. It was really obvious to me he was doing it for the views so I stopped.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Jess S (Oct 4, 2020)

Poonjab said:


> Tom Moran is best. Tarantula collective is decent. But he has a few habits I’m not fond of. Handling and tong feeding. Dark den is purely entertainment. Has bad husbandry practices. Exotic lair. Ooohhhh boy. Don’t even get me started.


I 'm giving the tarantula collective another go. Richard seems like a nice guy and he is a pretty knowledgeable keeper.  But what the heck is 'substrit' ?

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 4


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## The Grym Reaper (Oct 4, 2020)

Tom Moran is by far the most consistent with his info and doesn't go with a lot of the gimmicky/stupid crap that other channels are so fond of.

Tarantula Collective is pretty iffy with his info/lists and his videos are over-edited to the point that they're almost unwatchable for me.

Stopped watching The Dark Den ages ago.

Exotics Lair is pyar AIDS.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## KaroKoenig (Oct 4, 2020)

Dave's Little Beasties. Seriously. Check out this guy.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## mack1855 (Oct 4, 2020)

Ya,I no longer watch many on YT anymore.
I’ll probably get some reaction here, but I would rather watch DTG over either Dark Den or Exotics Lair.Tom Moran is good .And back in the day liked Jon3800.
Tarantula Collective seems to just repeat info found here on AB.
And I really enjoy Tarantula Haven if I watch any youtubers.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jess S (Oct 4, 2020)

I love Dave's Little Beasties and it will become a huge channel in time.

He's not afraid to be controversial. If something works for him and it's not generally advised, he's not afraid to put it out there. But he'll show exactly how he does it, and makes no bones about the risks. I respect that.

His results speak for themselves, he seems to be quite a successful breeder. One of his recent videos showed him removing 2 female obts from enclosures where he had allowed their eggsacs to hatch out, so he could collect up the slings. He did say he wouldn't be letting them hatch out like that again, as they were a nightmare to collect, but he had no problems removing the females.

His confident, calm approach coupled with his excellent commentary makes for good viewing.

I've learnt a lot from the way he behaves with his t's and they seem like putty in his hands

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Kichimark (Oct 4, 2020)

Jess S said:


> I love Dave's Little Beasties and it will become a huge channel in time.
> 
> He's not afraid to be controversial. If something works for him and it's not generally advised, he's not afraid to put it out there. But he'll show exactly how he does it, and makes no bones about the risks. I respect that.
> 
> ...


Hmmmm....I am going to have to check out his channel.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Benson1990 (Oct 4, 2020)

I just can't comprehend how anyone could look at Exotics Lair, I find everything about him and his content extremely annoying.

I'm new to the tarantula hobby, but I definitely think Tom Moran is the stand out T channel.

Reactions: Like 2


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## RezonantVoid (Oct 4, 2020)

The dark den was the one that got me started with serious invert keeping. Im still a huge fan of him and generally agree with most of his husbandry practices, but the only thing that pains me to see is the now regular handling of T's. I handle trapdoors during rehouses as they dont have the density of sensitive foot hairs that T's have, but T's make it so plainly obvious they dislike being handled. Thats the one complaint i have over TDD, but i still prefer him over most other youtubers anyday. 

And on this note, I'll be starting YT on my Aussie collection in the next couple of weeks! I promise no T handling!

Reactions: Like 6 | Love 1


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## Tarantuland (Oct 5, 2020)

Tom's Big Spiders is by far the best, but his podcast is even better than his videos.  

Tarantula Collective has some good info, but half the videos are him plugging other companies and I hate how he refers to some tarantulas as evil. 

Tarantula Haven is really good
BirdspidersCH has some really good content coming from more of a scientific perspective
Tarantupedia is great for seeing wild tarantulas

Deadly Tarantula Girl and TarantulaGuy1976 are pretty good for husbandry as well IMO

Tarantula Kat bugs me sometimes but i like her podcast with BirdspidersCH

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 5, 2020)

I will say on one hand I don't like constantly bashing certain Youtubers since that's a swell pastime of all of us here, but my main issue is and will continue to be that sensationalising tarantulas (and inverts in general) does nothing positive for public perception. Are the general public watching Tom Moran/Tarantula Collective/any of the decent ones? No not really. Hobbyists and aspiring hobbyists are. But the general spider-fearing public IS watching ExoticsLair, Dark Den, or any of the ones with more of a negative reputation from those of us in the hobby. And the general public gains typically nothing but shock value through the very popular tarantula videos. That's my beef because I dislike anything that confirms to the GP that spiders are evil and scary and gross and bad.

Reactions: Like 4 | Agree 3


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## Psychocircus91 (Oct 5, 2020)

moricollins said:


> So you're saying that Tom Moran himself told you he handles his tarantulas?


To be fair, I am a fan of Tom Moran's information.  His information is sometimes geared towards beginners, but I get some takeaways or at least new thoughts from him occasionally. 
I listen to his podcast regularly.
Tom Moran does not draw a hard line for or against handling.
He states he generally does not handle.
HOWEVER, he has stated in the podcast a few times about him handling historically and occasionally lets guests he trusts handle one or two specific tarantulas from his collection. (I can think of at least one occasion that was certainly in recent history).  Not that I think this makes him any less credible, but he has told us (listeners) that he handles on rare occasions by choice.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Matt Man (Oct 5, 2020)

RezonantVoid said:


> The dark den was the one that got me started with serious invert keeping. Im still a huge fan of him and generally agree with most of his husbandry practices, but the only thing that pains me to see is the now regular handling of T's. I handle trapdoors during rehouses as they dont have the density of sensitive foot hairs that T's have, but T's make it so plainly obvious they dislike being handled. Thats the one complaint i have over TDD, but i still prefer him over most other youtubers anyday.
> 
> And on this note, I'll be starting YT on my Aussie collection in the next couple of weeks! I promise no T handling!


I am mostly jealous he has the sweet invert room


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## mack1855 (Oct 5, 2020)

RezonantVoid said:


> The dark den was the one that got me started with serious invert keeping. Im still a huge fan of him and generally agree with most of his husbandry practices, but the only thing that pains me to see is the now regular handling of T's. I handle trapdoors during rehouses as they dont have the density of sensitive foot hairs that T's have, but T's make it so plainly obvious they dislike being handled. Thats the one complaint i have over TDD, but i still prefer him over most other youtubers anyday.
> 
> And on this note, I'll be starting YT on my Aussie collection in the next couple of weeks! I promise no T handling!


Looking forward to that.Lets us know when.

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Jess S (Oct 5, 2020)

RezonantVoid said:


> And on this note, I'll be starting YT on my Aussie collection in the next couple of weeks! I promise no T handling!


I will sub straight away as soon as I know the channel.

I sub to all you guys on here channels soon as I become aware of them.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 5, 2020)

Jess S said:


> I will sub straight away as soon as I know the channel.
> 
> I sub to all you guys on here channels soon as I become aware of them.


Who here has a YouTune channel? Let yourself be known, I'll subscribe and watch.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## Jess S (Oct 5, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> Who here has a YouTune channel? Let yourself be known, I'll subscribe and watch.


Shall I 'out' one or 2 that I know of, or would that be bad form?

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 5, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Shall I 'out' one or 2 that I know of, or would that be bad form?


Do it.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Jess S (Oct 5, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> Do it.


Ooh...you twisted my arm 

I'll out the 2 that come to mind.

@Liquifin has one under the name 'Laxow' and has some good videos there.

You're probably already aware of @basin79  under the same name. Fantastic channel.

Please guys don't kill me!!

Hopefully other people will respond with their channel names too. I can never be subbed to enough tarantula channels. I love nosing at other people's collections and seeing what beautiful T's and enclosures they've got

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 2


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## Liquifin (Oct 5, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Ooh...you twisted my arm
> 
> I'll out the 2 that come to mind.
> 
> ...


Yes, my Youtube alias is under the channel name of Laxow, from the idea of Lax and Low thus forming Laxow. I don't recommend following or subscribing to me if you want consistent uploads because I tend to just upload whenever I have free time or when I'm in the mood to do so. But hey, it's your call so don't be mad if I don't upload for a while or if I'm not in the mood.

Reactions: Like 2 | Thanks 1


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## Jess S (Oct 5, 2020)

Liquifin said:


> Yes, my Youtube alias is under the channel name of Laxow, from the idea of Lax and Low thus forming Laxow. I don't recommend following or subscribing to me if you want consistent uploads because I tend to just upload whenever I have free time or when I'm in the mood to do so. But hey, it's your call so don't be mad if I don't upload for a while or if I'm not in the mood.


No worries. I subbed to you ages ago and enjoy your occasional content. 
Love seeing your collection and the recent sling videos were great

Reactions: Like 3


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 5, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Ooh...you twisted my arm
> 
> I'll out the 2 that come to mind.
> 
> ...


I already stalk @basin79 on Instagram and YouTube

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## Craig73 (Oct 5, 2020)

Subbed for the tongue feeding, handling, and one handed commentary/rehousing.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Jess S (Oct 5, 2020)

Craig73 said:


> Subbed for the tongue feeding, handling, and one handed commentary/rehousing.


Tongue feeding? Subbed!!

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Arachnopets (Oct 6, 2020)

Jess S said:


> <snip>
> Hopefully other people will respond with their channel names too. <snip>


Sorry to be a party pooper, but that's going to be a hard no. 

Sharing other people's YouTube channels are one thing. Sharing one's own, is considered soliciting/advertising and not allowed. However, one can definitely share a link to their own YouTube channel in their signature. 


Debby

Reactions: Like 2


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## Jess S (Oct 6, 2020)

Arachnopets said:


> Sorry to be a party pooper, but that's going to be a hard no.
> 
> Sharing other people's YouTube channels are one thing. Sharing one's own, is considered soliciting/advertising and not allowed. However, one can definitely share a link to their own YouTube channel in their signature.
> 
> ...


Understood. I didn't even think of that Debby.  Gives a new perspective on why some great channels belonging to members don't have the subscriber count they deserve.

From now on I will definitely be paying more  attention to signatures! So come on guys, if you have a channel, get it on your signature!

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## GratefulSpider (Oct 6, 2020)

huge fan of Tarantula Collective. Richards videos are informative and editing is top notch. no one is perfect and the critics are always going to find SOMETHING about their husbandry that they disagree w. Toms big spiders is another go to.


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## Hoxter (Oct 6, 2020)

Tom's Big Spiders youtube channel and podcasts are for sure my favourites. He always tries to give best information he can and does it only after experiencing it himself which is a huge plus. He really cares about his animals and doesn't look for sensation, unlike some others.

Dark Den is purely entertainment, I don't agree with some of his husbandry practices but hey, if they work for him then why not. Also his quality is always high. Can't say no to something like that.

I love both Birdspidersch and lovetarantulas for footage from natural habitats.

In past I used to watch Exotic's Lair and Tarantula Collective a bit. EL's sensationalism was just a big turn off, unsuitable enclosures, disrespecting and aggreviating his pets... and all that 'oh my gosh' and 'calm down' stuff. 
And TC, I didn't watch him long enough to get a general idea how good his information is, but the lighting and music he uses make it unwatchable.

Reactions: Like 4


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## basin79 (Oct 7, 2020)

Hoxter said:


> Tom's Big Spiders youtube channel and podcasts are for sure my favourites. He always tries to give best information he can and does it only after experiencing it himself which is a huge plus. He really cares about his animals and doesn't look for sensation, unlike some others.


The other great thing with Tom is his experience will often be from sling to adult. So the care will cover pretty much everything.

Will always advise those who ask about care to sub to Tom. And he's worth subbing to even if you feel you don't need help. A channel like Tom's deserves loads of subs. Far more than the "Devil tarantula wants my blood!" types. 

The bigger Tom's channel gets the more good it'll do.

Reactions: Like 6


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## Vanessa (Oct 7, 2020)

Tom Moran is the only channel worth the time on your list. 
Tom has always set high standards with his care. He shows respect for his animals and it is extremely clear that he is doing what he does to share above average husbandry information that he has spent years practicing. No, he is not perfect, because nobody is, but he is not using his animals to garner completely worthless approval from strangers, or win some sort of popularity contest, when all the others on your list have done exactly that. 
Doing reckless and dangerous things with animals for entertainment purposes should never be acceptable for any hobby.
Antagonizing and provoking animals for ratings should never be acceptable for any hobby.
Falling for fear-mongering, clickbait, advertising should never be acceptable for any hobby. 
Those are all cheap, unimaginative, selfish approaches to this hobby that nobody needs. And we see the result of that here with the amount of people who come here claiming that they get their information from those sources and have their animals living in a deathtrap. I don't even want to think about all those people who never learn any better than the rock bottom husbandry standards that they learn from most tarantula themed YouTube channels.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Love 1 | Award 2


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## Jess S (Oct 9, 2020)

I think that the average person, often an arachnophobe, goes looking up scary tarantula videos on YouTube. The first channels they stumble across are EL and the Dark Den.  They watch and see all these amazingly colourful tarantulas they had no idea existed. They are surprised to see the keepers showing no fear, happily rehousing these animals and are surprised that they don't get bitten. They begin to realise that the tarantulas aren't out to get the keeper.  They start to enjoy watching and make a habit of it, until they eventually want their first tarantula. 

They look up suitable species to buy and at that point they seek out species specific care videos. This is the point they stumble upon Tom Moran and other good husbandry channels. Then they realise there is more to keeping than doing everything one handed while yelling "Calm down! Are you serious?!!"

IMHO even the less regarded (by keepers) channels serve a purpose, even if it is just to show that spiders aren't scary monsters out to get us. I think of them as 'gateway' channels.

 If anyone is serious about keeping tarantulas they will research and find Tom's channel and the like fairly quickly.

The ones that don't are usually the type that buy whatever pet on a whim with no idea how to care for it properly.

Reactions: Like 6 | Agree 2 | Informative 1


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> I think that the average person, often an arachnophobe, goes looking up scary tarantula videos on YouTube. The first channels they stumble across are EL and the Dark Den.  They watch and see all these amazingly colourful tarantulas they had no idea existed. They are surprised to see the keepers showing no fear, happily rehousing these animals and are surprised that they don't get bitten. They begin to realise that the tarantulas aren't out to get the keeper.  They start to enjoy watching and make a habit of it, until they eventually want their first tarantula.
> 
> They look up suitable species to buy and at that point they seek out species specific care videos. This is the point they stumble upon Tom Moran and other good husbandry channels. Then they realise there is more to keeping than doing everything one handed while yelling "Calm down! Are you serious?!!"
> 
> ...


While I do agree that a lot of people begin to appreciate Ts because of the very popular YouTubers, a quick glance at the comments will show that the vast majority of the audience is still vehemently against spiders in general. Which I find disheartening.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Rigor Mortis said:


> While I do agree that a lot of people begin to appreciate Ts because of the very popular YouTubers, a quick glance at the comments will show that the vast majority of the audience is still vehemently against spiders in general. Which I find disheartening.


I admit I don't read the comments! I looked once or twice at EL's comments and they all seemed to have been written by the same 12 year old girl.....lol

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> I admit I don't read the comments! I looked once or twice at EL's comments and they all seemed to have been written by the same 12 year old girl.....lol


I read them because I hope in vain I'll see someone commenting a thought other than "omgggg i Hate spiders SO MUCH youre's are SOOO SCARY"

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 1


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Rigor Mortis said:


> I read them because I hope in vain I'll see someone commenting a thought other than "omgggg i Hate spiders SO MUCH youre's are SOOO SCARY"


It's all just "I be like Aaarrggghhh" and EL  be like  YES"  over and over

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> It's all just "I be like Aaarrggghhh" and EL  be like  YES"  over and over


Yes, lol. I definitely agree with what you said originally about the curious arachnophobe gaining an understanding of spiders through YouTube. I feel like a broken record harping on the pros and cons of invert youtubers but as the hobby continues to gain people every day I think it's important to discuss how popular yt'ers are helping or hindering it. As of NOW I think the hinderances are mostly harmless but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 13, 2020)

If you think the invert hobby is bad, check out some of the snake hobbyists videos. I can't believe we don't hear about a venomous snakebite every day.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 13, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> If you think the invert hobby is bad, check out some of the snake hobbyists videos. I can't believe we don't hear about a venomous snakebite every day.


Exotic pet hobbyist side of YouTube in general, really. But that's an entirely different can of worms.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## z32upgrader (Oct 13, 2020)

Tom's channel really is the only one worth watching of the channels mentioned.  I subscribed to the Dark Den back when he had around 8k subs, but quit after he made mistake after mistake with clickbait title and thumbnails and was clearly doing it for the views. When he was throwing around the idea of paring Honduran and Nicaraguan albos, I left. I hate yelling "No Petko, what are you doing?" at my computer screen, and writing helpful corrective comments only to be attacked by his legions of fanboys who haven't a clue what they're talking about either.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Rigor Mortis said:


> Yes, lol. I definitely agree with what you said originally about the curious arachnophobe gaining an understanding of spiders through YouTube. I feel like a broken record harping on the pros and cons of invert youtubers but as the hobby continues to gain people every day I think it's important to discuss how popular yt'ers are helping or hindering it. As of NOW I think the hinderances are mostly harmless but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it!


I totally agree and get where you and everyone else are coming from.

I take a more relaxed approach because I think it's the charismatic personalities of EL and The DD that attract the newbies as they watch for thrills and entertainment. They may learn some stuff along the way.

Some of those viewers will become keepers themselves. If they take keeping live animals seriously, they will do their research and move on to the more serious channels. 



Frogdaddy said:


> If you think the invert hobby is bad, check out some of the snake hobbyists videos. I can't believe we don't hear about a venomous snakebite every day.


Have you seen a channel called DavidsFeed? How is he still alive???!!!!

Reactions: Like 4


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Have you seen a channel called DavidsFeed? How is he still alive???!!!!


Wow! I just checked out a couple of his vids. Crazy to sit on a park bench free handling a 10ft King Cobra. That guy is nuts.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Craig73 (Oct 13, 2020)

The mainstream channels will remain popular because they tend to be higher caliber editing, showcase a wide variety of T’s, and consistent content pushed out...all very attractive to new comers. I still watch many of them, but less frequently because the content becomes stale, redundant or gimmicky.

The responsibility of reliability of information is not one sided though.  Anyone owning a T or getting into it bears the responsibility of doing their due diligence in research as well and should not rely on one source as the say all be all.  I started off viewing videos and that lead me to googling and eventually here. So in some aspects You Tubers brings people to AB...and vice versa as channels get mentioned on AB.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Vanessa (Oct 13, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> If you think the invert hobby is bad, check out some of the snake hobbyists videos. I can't believe we don't hear about a venomous snakebite every day.


I will bet you a good portion of those who watch Dark Den and Exotics Lair subscribe to those god awful snake channels as well. It's all about being a shock jock and not about quality content. More than a couple of those venomous snake guys have ended up dead, but that doesn't seem to discourage people from doing what they did to get dead.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> Wow! I just checked out a couple of his vids. Crazy to sit on a park bench free handling a 10ft King Cobra. That guy is nuts.


Every single one of his videos is the same if not worse.  Then he'll get comments telling him he's the greatest freehandler of venomous ever, just eggs the kid on to keep risking it.


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## Hakuna (Oct 13, 2020)

This guy is awesome if you like documentaries about wild tarantulas

Reactions: Like 4 | Thanks 1 | Agree 2


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Hakuna said:


> This guy is awesome if you like documentaries about wild tarantulas


He's a legend

Reactions: Like 2


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## Vanessa (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Every single one of his videos is the same if not worse.  Then he'll get comments telling him he's the greatest freehandler of venomous ever, just eggs the kid on to keep risking it.


I just watched about 30 seconds of him antagonizing a Vietnamese Viper by waving his fingers/hand in front of it's face while it's in strike position.
They're all the same - antagonizing animals for kudos from strangers on social media.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 13, 2020)

Hakuna said:


> This guy is awesome if you like documentaries about wild tarantulas


Thank you. I just subscribed and I have plans to watch 1640 in it's entirety tonight.

Reactions: Like 1


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## SethM16 (Oct 13, 2020)

Hakuna said:


> This guy is awesome if you like documentaries about wild tarantulas


Watching the Brachypelma documentary right now!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## corydalis (Oct 13, 2020)

z32upgrader said:


> Tom's channel really is the only one worth watching of the channels mentioned.  I subscribed to the Dark Den back when he had around 8k subs, but quit after he made mistake after mistake with clickbait title and thumbnails and was clearly doing it for the views. When he was throwing around the idea of paring Honduran and Nicaraguan albos, I left. I hate yelling "No Petko, what are you doing?" at my computer screen, and writing helpful corrective comments only to be attacked by his legions of fanboys who haven't a clue what they're talking about either.


Same here. (Still waiting for your Arizona adventure part 2 vid btw. )




Jess S said:


> Have you seen a channel called DavidsFeed? How is he still alive???!!!!


I came across his channel through Chandler's Wild Life.. the same question comes to my mind whenever I watch him dealing with those "danger noodles", Viperkeeper, has a more "sober" approach, to say at least.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

corydalis said:


> Same here. (Still waiting for your Arizona adventure part 2 vid btw. )
> 
> 
> 
> ...


One of his friends has a channel called Chris Weeeks (I think I've spelt it right, 3 e's and all!)
This guy is the owner of the 10 foot King Cobra that David 'plays' with. He owns several more and plenty of other venomous besides.
He is also a young chap, and is incredibly likeable. But he has nearly lost his life twice to snake bites. And still continues to handle and pet these snakes, and breed them.
One video in particular, he's filming one handed with the massive King Cobra on the floor. While he, with this free hand, pulls off a piece of stuck moult from the mouth of the snake. I felt sick with nerves watching.
I just wish they wouldnt take such chances.


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## Frogdaddy (Oct 13, 2020)

Jess S said:


> One of his friends has a channel called Chris Weeeks (I think I've spelt it right, 3 e's and all!)
> This guy is the owner of the 10 foot King Cobra that David 'plays' with. He owns several more and plenty of other venomous besides.
> He is also a young chap, and is incredibly likeable. But he has nearly lost his life twice to snake bites. And still continues to handle and pet these snakes, and breed them.
> One video in particular, he's filming one handed with the massive King Cobra on the floor. While he, with this free hand, pulls off a piece of stuck moult from the mouth of the snake. I felt sick with nerves watching.
> I just wish they wouldnt take such chances.


You're referring to Chris Sweeet.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Jess S (Oct 13, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> You're referring to Chris Sweeet.


Haha I'm useless!! Yes, that's the one I meant


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## KaroKoenig (Oct 14, 2020)

Frogdaddy said:


> ...to watch 1640 in it's entirety tonight.


How did you like the massive... story twist at the very end?


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## mack1855 (Oct 15, 2020)

Got to say,just watched a couple of Daves Little Beasties videos,and I was impressed with him.I guess hes doing his YT thing in the last 6 months or so?.
But,ya,he was great to watch.Just finished the one where he separated his H.mac from her babies.I must say,there were a few moments I held my breath in suspense.
And really liked the way his shelf unit looked.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Jess S (Oct 17, 2020)

mack1855 said:


> Got to say,just watched a couple of Daves Little Beasties videos,and I was impressed with him.I guess hes doing his YT thing in the last 6 months or so?.
> But,ya,he was great to watch.Just finished the one where he separated his H.mac from her babies.I must say,there were a few moments I held my breath in suspense.
> And really liked the way his shelf unit looked.


Without knowing him personally, I really like the way he presents himself and he's really encouraging to everyone.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


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## KaroKoenig (Oct 18, 2020)

Jess S said:


> Without knowing him personally, I really like the way he presents himself and he's really encouraging to everyone.


I am slightly surprised that the way he handles rehouses and other manipulations of his spiders - as well as his relaxed way of obtaining substrate, wood and moss - didn't cause a medium-sized shitstorm from some of the more cautious members here .

It looks like he has quite some experience under his belt, including lots of successful breeding projects, and has a good feel for his animals. Would I as a beginner work with pokies and H.macs like he does? Most probably not.

I appreciate a lot that this channel is out there. It shows that there are several approaches to successful tarantula keeping. In other words: some of the seemingly unbridgeable chasms between husbandry philosophies across the pond are maybe a little exaggerated.

Now, if you excuse me... I am off to a nice morning walk in the woods. I have two terrariums to set up .

Reactions: Like 2


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## Minty (Oct 18, 2020)

Dark Den was my favourite one to watch. Met Petko twice at the BTS expo and he’s a great guy. I don’t watch many videos of tarantulas these days because it ultimately becomes a bit repetitive.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Iamconstantlyhappy (Oct 21, 2020)

Dave's Little Beasties is really quite good.  No sensationalism, just pure information.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Jaromysfuneral (Oct 21, 2020)

Tom’s big spiders
love spiders (Andy smith archaeologist, longer documentaries and a lot of history)
Daves little beasties (best way to handle any spiders ever, highly recommend)
Dav Kaufman’s animal adventures has some great ones
tarantula haven (needs to Rehouse more often)
dark den&exotic layer which everyone knows
tarantulaguy1976(bam)
birdspidersch
arachnotube(over 30 years experience and worked at spider world uk)
Basin79(feeding videos and stills, calls everything sweetheart)


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## Cemykay (Oct 22, 2020)

*EL* ( As a beginner, i found his watering videos funny, but the more i see from him the more i facepalm..)
*DD* (Petko seems like a kind dude und his production is great. I enjoy his videos but would fact check his husbandry advice)
*TarantulaCollective* (I enjoy his videos, great production value and a lot of work from his side. Very passionate guy)
*TarantulaKat* (She seems nice, production is okay, i would fact check her advice though)
*Tom Moran* ( I like his presenting style and information. In the last videos he used a better camera and the videos are getting more enjoyable. Too few uploads )
*Tarantula Haven* ( ok, a bit too slow in his speech and presenting for me.)
*BidspidersCH* ( really good husbandry advice and setup but his presenting style is a bit bland. But a lot of potential!)

Reactions: Like 3


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## VukSRB (Nov 3, 2020)

I find Petko(Dark den) most enjoyable to watch, but there are 3 things that annoy me very much:
1)70% of his enclosures are too small(slings and juveniles can't turn around)
2)no water dishes...
3)guy doesn't have balls

Tarantula collective is great, very proffesional shots and good voice for a speaker; has some awesome podcasts on the other channel! I don't like his husbandry videos; are copy-paste, no personal experience stuff. Boring...

Exotic lair... sorry admins for this but I must say that I DREAM OF PUNCHING HIM IN THE FACE... enough for most

Birdspiders CH is great, really like the main content. But the way he speaks(voice) is a bit dull.

TarantulaKat nothing special

Tarantula Haven isbhard for me to watch because he speaks so soft and girly so i can't personaly listen him. So I don't know.

My 1 cent

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## basin79 (Nov 3, 2020)

Jaromysfuneral said:


> Basin79(feeding videos and stills, calls everything sweetheart)


That's because they are.

Reactions: Thanks 1 | Love 1


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## thatdadlife619 (Nov 3, 2020)

Tom Moran tops my list for needing husbandry and rehouse tips.

BirdspidersCH goes out in the wild and finds t’s in their natural habitat from all around the world which I find fascinating, definitely a lesser known channel.

the_tarantula_collective isn’t too bad either, just does things a bit different for my taste.

And my 4 year old daughter can take care of t’s better than exoticslair.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Matt Man (Nov 3, 2020)

thatdadlife619 said:


> And my 4 year old daughter can take care of t’s better than exoticslair.


My daughter started at 6 and I would agree


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## thatdadlife619 (Nov 3, 2020)

Matt Man said:


> My daughter started at 6 and I would agree


I’ve never seen someone be so proud of taking care of inverts so bad and getting paid well for it too. If you feel like annoying yourself check out his net worth.


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## Matt Man (Nov 3, 2020)

thatdadlife619 said:


> I’ve never seen someone be so proud of taking care of inverts so bad and getting paid well for it too. If you feel like annoying yourself check out his net worth.


I'm gonna pass as maybe he's a spoiled rich kid which is why his husbandry is so bad


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## matypants (Nov 3, 2020)

Did Petko’s bearded dragon die yet? If it hasn’t I’m thinking it won’t last much longer. After it got really sick from what looked like low calcium uptake and improper lighting, I clicked the “don’t recommend”.


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## VukSRB (Nov 3, 2020)

matypants said:


> Did Petko’s bearded dragon die yet? If it hasn’t I’m thinking it won’t last much longer. After it got really sick from what looked like low calcium uptake and improper lighting, I clicked the “don’t recommend”.


Watch his next video, he does everything right, but his beardie was refusing anything that isn't salad for some time. And he had to forcefully feed him. He is super fine now...


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## matypants (Nov 3, 2020)

VukSRB said:


> Watch his next video, he does everything right, but his beardie was refusing anything that isn't salad for some time. And he had to forcefully feed him. He is super fine now...


That’s great news. Beardies are special


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## Braden (Nov 4, 2020)

justanotherTkeeper said:


> Personally, I became interested in t's from Exotics Lair, eventually that lead to The Dark Den, and I was subbed to both for a long time. But I stopped watching Exotics Lair. Ugh. His content is just garbage now. He used to have semi-decent videos where he did his best to be educational and show his t's the respect they deserve. But his content went downhill quick once his "OOOooohhhh MY GOSH" attitude gained such attention.
> 
> I still love The Dark Den, because he respects his t's and gives them the best of care in his experience, while also being charismatic and making his videos enjoyable. Some disagree with some of his keeping practices (lacking water dishes being one of the main hot points), but he generally provides his t's with a healthy life. He also admits when he makes mistakes and asks the community for their opinions when he's not sure about something. We're all human and we're not perfect. All keepers, no matter how experienced will sometimes have different opinions about the best possible care for t's, and I think Petko does his best, in addition to being entertaining.
> 
> ...


That's how I feel, except I think TheDarkDen got me into T's



KaroKoenig said:


> Recently, I stumbled across a channel called Dave's little Beasties. That guy is awesome. Very 'european' approach, and pretty relaxed rehousing practices. Seems to be a very successful keeper and breeder. Love his motto. Be calm. Be gentle. Love your spiders.
> 
> Definetly recommended.


I started watching his Vids too, good stuff



Frogdaddy said:


> I think Tom Moran is by far the most informative and kinda no nonsense. Easily the best of this group.
> 
> I think people like The Tarantula Collective simply because of the high production value, it looks like a professional video, but really it doesn't contain any more info than you could find with a quick Google search.
> 
> ...


Whats wrong with TheDarkDen, from what I see he is pretty interesting. Im just curious on your opinion

Reactions: Like 2


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## The Grym Reaper (Nov 4, 2020)

Braden said:


> Whats wrong with TheDarkDen, from what I see he is pretty interesting. Im just curious on your opinion


Makes too many mistakes and has some questionable husbandry practices. 

I pretty much stopped watching after he was going to hybridise is Honduran & Nicaraguan albos (pretty much everyone who told him why he shouldn't do it got dogpiled by his fans) but someone shared on here that he made 2 communals of 15 N. incei (1 olive communal & 1 gold communal) which resulted in around two thirds of them getting nommed within the first few months, instead of separating them after he discovered this he rehoused both communals to new communal setups, I heard pretty much all of them got nommed in the end.


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## justanotherTkeeper (Nov 4, 2020)

The Grym Reaper said:


> Makes too many mistakes and has some questionable husbandry practices.
> 
> I pretty much stopped watching after he was going to hybridise is Honduran & Nicaraguan albos (pretty much everyone who told him why he shouldn't do it got dogpiled by his fans) but someone shared on here that he made 2 communals of 15 N. incei (1 olive communal & 1 gold communal) which resulted in around two thirds of them getting nommed within the first few months, instead of separating them after he discovered this he rehoused both communals to new communal setups, I heard pretty much all of them got nommed in the end.


Haven't we all made a crapload of mistakes in our own keeping practices? As far as I know, Petko was new to keeping any incei communals, and he expressed regret when it didn't go so well. Also, if I remember correctly, he made a video ASKING the community IF he should breed those two albopilosus - and after the overwhelming response NOT to breed them, he didn't. One other thing he is criticized about is the lack of water dishes, and that also seems to be a hobbyist-particular habit - some keepers remain steadfast to their trusty water dishes, while others insist on spraying and/or keeping one corner moist in the enclosure... and Petko is very consistent in the misting method

As far as I can tell, he's just a fellow hobbyist, more experienced than some of us, and less experienced than others. He widely publicizes his practices, and then takes full responsibility for his mistakes - which not all of us have the balls to do. To me, he seems like he raises and keeps all his animals in the best care he can provide.

This is just my opinion, absolutely no disrespect to anyone else's opinion

Reactions: Like 7 | Agree 2


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## chucklenut (Nov 4, 2020)

i hate exotics lair, obnoxious click baity obnoxious personality that reeks of copy and paste youtuber format. just annoying

dark den is more entertaining and has awesome camera work but is also lately gone into the cookie cutter youtube format

tom morran and the collective videos seems to have more actual info

i dont like tarantula kats videos for some reason

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Grym Reaper (Nov 4, 2020)

justanotherTkeeper said:


> Haven't we all made a crapload of mistakes in our own keeping practices?


Can't speak for anyone else but none of mine have resulted in dozens of dead tarantulas.



justanotherTkeeper said:


> Petko was new to keeping any incei communals


It's not a case of being new to them, they don't work, *they are not a communal species*.

His two were the latest in an ever-growing line of failed incei communal attempts and instead of cutting his losses when he lost nearly two thirds of them to cannibalism he carried on with it.



justanotherTkeeper said:


> Also, if I remember correctly, he made a video ASKING the community IF he should breed those two albopilosus - and after the overwhelming response NOT to breed them, he didn't.


Pretty sure he just straight-up said he was going to do it and then eventually changed his mind after being bombarded with comments on all of his platforms telling him why he shouldn't do it.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## justanotherTkeeper (Nov 4, 2020)

The Grym Reaper said:


> It's not a case of being new to them, they don't work, *they are not a communal species*.





The Grym Reaper said:


> I'm sure I read somewhere that these can only be kept communally up until they hit juvenile/subadult sizes, your experience would seem to back that up somewhat.


Interesting conclusions



The Grym Reaper said:


> Can't speak for anyone else but none of mine have resulted in dozens of dead tarantulas.


Same here, but I certainly have had my fair share of _Oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that_ - this is kind of what I meant by making mistakes in keeping t's



The Grym Reaper said:


> Pretty sure he just straight-up said he was going to do it and then eventually changed his mind after being bombarded with comments on all of his platforms telling him why he shouldn't do it.


You made me curious, so I rewatched his videos regarding this, and you're right, it appears he was going to go forward with the pairing despite the comments advising against it. However, he ultimately didn't pair them, which is all we could ask for under the circumstances, right?

Regardless, thank you for all your input


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## The Grym Reaper (Nov 4, 2020)

justanotherTkeeper said:


> Interesting conclusions


If they can can only be kept together up to a certain point before they start eating each other then they aren't communal 

Also, the posts you quoted are in the wrong order, the one from the communal fail thread in which I said I recall reading that they start cannibalising as juveniles is from June 2017 (I'd been in the hobby for just shy of a year at the time) so all that really proves is that it took me less than a year to find out they might not actually be a communal species and I didn't kill the best part of 30 spiders in the process.

Reactions: Helpful 1


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## Liquifin (Nov 4, 2020)

I think there are two lines where tarantula youtubers cross that becomes a problem for me.

1. Entertainment Value: Yes, I'm not a fan of the entertainment value over T.'s aka. personalities (WOAH, OMG, EMOJI ), the "Tickling", "watering", or "handling", etc. I'm not a fan of energetic entertainment as it gives the wrong perception of tarantulas. Tarantulas are slow, patient, and quite a solitary animal, but Youtubers can take them and make them like "WOAH". I actually prefer videos when it's just laid back and not kicked from the start from 0 to 100. I really wish tarantula youtubers would stop blowing out so much energy or exaggeration on an animal that is almost the complete opposite of it. Seeing a tarantula in a video is already more than enough for entertainment, so why do the "persona" or crazy dumb stuff when a tarantula just wants to be a solitary and independent animal. 

2. Information and Mistakes: I'm gonna say it, No one is perfect. Yes, T. youtubers make mistakes, but the line where it's drawn for me is the ones who accept and learn which they then re-inform and re-educate their fans and the ones who are eagerly dumb and are fan driven because of the internet fame. I really don't like it when tarantula youtubers make mistakes, but I hate it when they try to validate their reasons or try to shift blame or play victim. No offense, but parasites on feeder crickets is ridiculous, too much calcium from mice or certain feeders is crazy, and trying to start tarantula communals on "NON-COMMUNAL" species is foolish.



justanotherTkeeper said:


> Also, if I remember correctly, he made a video ASKING the community IF he should breed those two albopilosus - and after the overwhelming response NOT to breed them, he didn't


Wrong, he had the intentions to breed them. He didn't really ask his community as it's obvious that if he did his fanbase would've been with him or at least encouraged him to do so. If you go see his comments, the majority of people where telling him to do it. It was me who made a thread on this forums about it regarding about how it was a line to never cross. And thankfully with the help of the community of this forums we got the message across. He had intentions and at least he learned not to cross the line. I'm still glad I made that thread and got this forums to comment "no" or there would be a huge hole of hybrids all over the hobby.

Reactions: Like 2


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## VukSRB (Nov 5, 2020)

Thanks to this thread I've found my favorite youtuber: "Dave's Little Beasties"

Reactions: Like 6 | Agree 2


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## dream (Nov 5, 2020)

VukSRB said:


> Thanks to this thread I've found my favorite youtuber: "Dave's Little Beasties"


I think Dave is awesome, I love his slow steady relaxed manner and it’s obvious his priority is the care of his animals. He’s one that deserves a shed load of subscribers. Looks like I’ll be getting a sling from him.

Reactions: Like 4


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## Kieran Brant (Dec 28, 2020)

SethM16 said:


> I always read on AB about all the misinformation there is on youtube regarding tarantulas. But there are 4 particular creators that I love to watch for pleasure that also seem to give out what seems like valid information. But before I put any of this into practice, I'd like to hear second opinions that you all might have on these YouTubers and the information they give out:
> 
> - Tom Morran's Big Spiders
> - *The Dark Den*
> ...


Hey guys,

<edit>

A few other youtubers id recommend are Daves little beasties, toms big spiders, the tarantula collective, birdspiders ch and arachnotube!

These channels are all pretty much on point, i tend to find a lot of the bigger channels without naming names can be missleading with inacurate information quite consistently and are more for entertainment rather than information. Everyone makes mistakes but sometimes there can be too much.

<edit>

Reactions: Like 3


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## 8 legged (Dec 28, 2020)

VukSRB said:


> Thanks to this thread I've found my favorite youtuber: "Dave's Little Beasties"


I really love this guy! This is how tarantula keeping should be!
But I would lie if I say I did not learn from the mistakes of other YouTubers
I don´t want to judge them!

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Jess S (Dec 28, 2020)

Kieran Brant said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> <edit>
> 
> ...


Hi Kieran! Recognised your avatar straight away. I subbed to you a while back. What I  respect about your channel is your willingness to share information on your breedings.  When you find out what works, you get that info out to other keepers. I really appreciate you for that (and I have no interest in breeding).  There are channels that just want to trumpet their successes with no interest in educating others on the 'how's'.  Then there are channels like yours and Dave's that are there to help and support their subscribers.  Thank you!

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1


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## Kieran Brant (Dec 28, 2020)

Thank you Jess for the kind words! Its great to see people get information and some enjoyment from what we do. I feel its important to share any success to help others, if we all win together its a lot better for the hobby especially with breeding to reduce tarantulas being extracted from the wild. 

Im currently waiting for a few breeding threads to be created on here that i have requested and i will be uploading some breeding reports for H.himalayana and H.mac, and phormingochilus rufus

Reactions: Like 1


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## VaporRyder (Jun 30, 2021)

I like Dave, Tom, and Collective best. 
And Kat, I have a crush on Kat! 
And must check out BSCH.


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## TheHound (Jun 30, 2021)

I don't watch many of them but Dave, Tom and Richard are decent, even if Richard sometimes gets a little sensationalist for my liking. I think Dark Den is vastly preferable and more palatable than Exotics Lair, which I avoid like the plague, but Petko still has his offputting moments.

I was pleased to discover Bird Spiders CH from this forum - they have some remarkable footage. I really enjoyed this recent one of the Caribena versicolor in the wild:

Reactions: Like 2


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## 8 legged (Jun 30, 2021)

birdspiders.ch is a clear exception. M. Hüsser hides behind it. Anyone who has been in the hobby for a long time knows this name - the only one on YouTube who really knows about animals, taxonomy, etc.!

Reactions: Agree 2


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## VaporRyder (Jun 30, 2021)

TheHound said:


> …even if Richard sometimes gets a little sensationalist for my liking.


I thought that was just natural yank exuberance, rather than sensationalism…

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Wolfram1 (Jun 30, 2021)

I second "Tom Moran", i havent watched enough of "Dave's Beasties" to form a definitive opinion yet but he seems fine as well.

I have not watched "Exotics Lair" or "The Tarantula Collective" so i cant voice any opinions on them.

"The Dark Den" i sometimes watch for entertainment, really a nice guy, but i too disagree with some of his practices, mainly the water dish issue and the fact that he uses just plain coco fibre that looks way too dry most of the time but thats just my personal opinion.

"Dave's Biesties" seems to collect an awful lot of moss which i find a little disturbing as moss is usually protected were i come from.

I have found "Jhon3800" i believe thats the name of the channel and "Mark's Tarantulas" quite good. The dude is a fitness freak but i find his early videos especially intersting.

Maybe not the best to learn the basics but interesting.

oh yea and birdspiders.ch of course


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## TheHound (Jun 30, 2021)

VaporRyder said:


> I thought that was just natural yank exuberance, rather than sensationalism…


Haha, well one has to take that into account of course. Some of his video titles are a bit click-baity; I guess I was thinking of that to a degree, along with all the top 10 of this and that stuff. But his content never makes me cringe or anything, he clearly cares about his animals and is open-minded about learning more rather than considering himself an authority, and his husbandry advice seems solid for the most part (based on my understanding as an admitted novice, albeit one who has done a hell of a lot of research since commencing the hobby). Combined with his production values it's a decent package overall, though for pure husbandry I'd go with Tom or Dave.

Reactions: Like 1


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## VaporRyder (Jun 30, 2021)

Checking yours out this evening @Kieran Brant


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## Timc (Jun 30, 2021)

Wolfram1 said:


> I second "Tom Moran", i havent watched enough of "Dave's Beasties" to form a definitive opinion yet but he seems fine as well.
> 
> I have not watched "Exotics Lair" or "The Tarantula Collective" so i cant voice any opinions on them.
> 
> ...


Oh man I forgot about john3800. I’d like him just for his lawn mower videos. They’re so funny (even though he’s being totally serious, and I respect that).

Reactions: Like 1


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## IronMaiden (Jul 1, 2021)

I rank them: Tom Moran>Tarantula Collective>Dark Den>Exotics Lair.


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## Manny (Sep 4, 2021)

Tom Moran is light years ahead of the Tarantula Collective and The Dark Den. Personally I would never house a T with skulls or anything to make it look “dark” or “edgy.” It’s very cringy, and feeds on the notion that all T keepers have this dark side. If you’re really a dark or edgy person, then caring for animals probably isn’t the agenda. Serial killers are dark, anything other than that doesn’t constitute to me.
I saw another video of some other person making a “graveyard scene” for their T enclosure. Again, super corny.
Exotic Lair should not even be on the list other than his videos getting so many views. He is absolutely awful and his “humor” is that of a young teenager going through puberty.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

Tom Moran - More than the videos, that in end its all about catching cups and doing things responsibly and safely, i like to hear his podcast.

Dave's little besties - I love to watch the bioactive enclosures and his respect for his animals.

Exotics Lair - Shrug, im not into teen stuff.

The Tarantula Collective - Flashy and over edited, it would fit in any streaming service i guess.

The Dark Den - He seems to be a nice guy, but quite irresponsable in a lot of things (likes to disturb his animals just for the sake of being fun). I am not very fond of his channel and try to avoid it.




Manny said:


> It’s very cringy, and feeds on the notion that all T keepers have this dark side. If you’re really a dark or edgy person, then caring for animals probably isn’t the agenda. Serial killers are dark, anything other than that doesn’t constitute to me.


I do agree that it's cringy, but cant agree about the dark side, it's all about personal taste. Or would you say that a person that drops those awful resin sunken ships in their aquariums are also dark people that like death and tragedies? It's a cliché and that's where it ends.

Reactions: Like 2


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## LucN (Sep 4, 2021)

I can't decide who's on top between Tom and Dave. Both display a calm demeanour when working with their animals, with slightly different approaches on husbandry that meet the same goal.

I liked TC at first, but his Top 10 lists are getting tiring and the hip hop style music he uses at times is really jarring, if annoying. 

I no longer bother with Dark Den or Exotic's Lair. Most other channels are just way too cringy for me. One I miss is Jon3800, too bad he rarely uploads nowadays.


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## KenNet (Sep 4, 2021)

Dark Den. Fun, inspiring and good video quality.

Dave's little besties. Drenched in ads make it not so fun to watch.

Exotic's Lair. What?


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## Manny (Sep 4, 2021)

@Yigzatoth  I totally agree with you about Tom’s podcast. Those are very enjoyable.
You are also correct about skulls or sunken ships being cliche, however when your Halloween videos include “spookier” species and whatnot, it comes off as someone trying to be dark. This isn’t me singling out Tarantula Collective. Tons of people do this and personally it comes across to me as someone attempting “dark.”
I am also an avid planted aquarium guy and I’ve never seen anyone post any sort of Halloween specials on sunken ships.


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## KaroKoenig (Sep 4, 2021)

I think I said it before. Skulls are for babies. Complete skeletons is where it's at:

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 5


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

Manny said:


> I am also an avid planted aquarium guy


100% with you on that, heavy planted aquariums with cleaning crews co2 etc.

Since i remember i always listened to really heavy stuff, loved thriller/horror movies, but that's where it ends.
Fantasy is just fantasy, reality is far more scary than movies or music.  I always thought that if you love something you don't actually need to advertise it just to show off especially when you like uncommon things.
To me bragging and showing off is just unresolved teenage issues. As for the "spookier" species videos i just roll eyes and cringe.

Reactions: Like 1


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## 8 legged (Sep 4, 2021)

Everyone should do what he / she wants. I don't care, I feel more pubescent when I point my finger at others ...
It always depends on the eye of the beholder...

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

8 legged said:


> Everyone should do what he / she wants. I don't care, I feel more pubescent when I point my finger at others ...
> It always depends on the eye of the beholder...


As long as it doesn't hurt the animal i couldn't care less about others taste.
What is tasteless to me can be loved by others and vice versa.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Manny (Sep 4, 2021)

@Yigzatoth  Dude we have many things in common. I completely agree 100%. I enjoy the worst of the worst horror/thriller/mentally screwed movies, but I’d never advertise it. As a matter of fact, the scariest stuff on film I’ve found to be documentaries. 
@8 legged I totally agree with you as well, however when you put out videos on YouTube, then you will be compared to others in the same “genre.” That’s just life. However, ultimately if it doesn’t harm the animal, I could care less.


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## Craig73 (Sep 4, 2021)

The beauty of designing enclosures is people get to express themselves and incorporate their creativity.  As long as the animal has the essentials covered then have at it.  I’m not going to knock someone for rocking what’s being referred to as a ‘dark’ setup.  It’s an opinion of taste and expression, we all have them and if we all thought the same the world would be a pretty bland place.

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 3


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## KaroKoenig (Sep 4, 2021)

Craig73 said:


> It’s an opinion of taste and expression, we all have them and if we all thought the same the world would be a pretty bland place.


The world is a very colourful place. I definetly don't like all colours, but man, it would be so boring if it were all black and white.

Reactions: Like 2 | Award 1


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## Craig73 (Sep 4, 2021)

KaroKoenig said:


> The world is a very colourful place. I definetly don't like all colours, but man, it would be so boring if it were all black and white.


Perfect way to put it.  

Now is this a baby skull, or do I have to tuck my tail between my legs and turn in my keeper card?

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## KaroKoenig (Sep 4, 2021)

Craig73 said:


> Now is this a baby skull, or do I have to tuck my tail between my legs and turn in my keeper card?


Baby dragon, as far as I can see. Cute. I approve.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## The Grym Reaper (Sep 4, 2021)

KaroKoenig said:


> Skulls are for babies.


Khorne wants to know your location.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## Manny (Sep 4, 2021)

Whomever uses skulls has the right to do so. I still think it’s cliche because it’s an opinion. Personally, as close to nature holds the best aesthetic.
@Craig73  Literally the corniest reply to an opinion. Tuck your tail, turn in your card, do whatever you do, but if an opinion struck a nerve, then you’re a perfect example of what I’m talking about. The whole Karen response because you don’t agree is childish.


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

The Grym Reaper said:


> Khorne wants to know your location.


May grandfather Nurgle forgive you for that blasphemy.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## The Grym Reaper (Sep 4, 2021)

Yigzatoth said:


> May grandfather Nurgle forgive you for that blasphemy.


If he doesn't then I'll just bully Tzeentch into setting a bunch of pink horrors loose in his garden.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Craig73 (Sep 4, 2021)

@Manny my response was in fun to what Karo posted in fun, there is no nerve struck.  Quoting the posts so you can see the context.  



KaroKoenig said:


> I think I said it before. Skulls are for babies. Complete skeletons is where it's at:





Craig73 said:


> Perfect way to put it.
> 
> Now is this a baby skull, or do I have to tuck my tail between my legs and turn in my keeper card?
> 
> View attachment 398013


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

The Grym Reaper said:


> If he doesn't then I'll just bully Tzeentch into setting a bunch of pink horrors loose in his garden.


I guess Mortarion will have to settle it then.


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## Manny (Sep 4, 2021)

@Craig73  Let’s call it a misunderstanding and at least agree that we all want what’s best for the animals.

Reactions: Like 1


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## JPG (Sep 4, 2021)

Dark Den has inspired me a lot on my DIY stuff and work on bio-active as my final goal in my Ts keeping.

Tom Moran and Dave's Little Beasties have given me great information on husbandry and was able to develop it into my own ways of keeping

I like watching Tarantula Collectives for the entertainment and great cinematics.


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## The Grym Reaper (Sep 4, 2021)

Yigzatoth said:


> I guess Mortarion will have to settle it then.


Pretty sure he's busy getting slapped around by Guilliman


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 4, 2021)

The Grym Reaper said:


> Pretty sure he's busy getting slapped around by Guilliman


Meh, ultramarines

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Craig73 (Sep 4, 2021)

I’ve personally never been influenced to do anything based off any one vlogger’s stance.  I watch a lot of them still, whether I like what I see or not, and weigh that against other sources and come to my own conclusion.  

With that said though, newer keepers or prospects are probably more likely to gravitate to videos they find appealing and entertaining, but would like to think over time they’d have enough interest to do deeper research and find different perspectives that improve their understanding of husbandry and care.  

I do notice many vloggers don’t really reference AB all that much even though they are aware of it.  There’s a reason,  maybe that’s something to think about.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Benson1990 (Sep 4, 2021)

I'm surprised Daves little Beasties gets such a glowing review from everyone on here, he does a lot of things that a lot of people on here are vehemently against...

Tong feeding, semi arboreal setups, humidity talk and keeping fossorials on shallow substrate.


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## Jonathan6303 (Sep 5, 2021)

Manny said:


> Tom Moran is light years ahead of the Tarantula Collective and The Dark Den. Personally I would never house a T with skulls or anything to make it look “dark” or “edgy.” It’s very cringy, and feeds on the notion that all T keepers have this dark side. If you’re really a dark or edgy person, then caring for animals probably isn’t the agenda. Serial killers are dark, anything other than that doesn’t constitute to me.
> I saw another video of some other person making a “graveyard scene” for their T enclosure. Again, super corny.
> Exotic Lair should not even be on the list other than his videos getting so many views. He is absolutely awful and his “humor” is that of a young teenager going through puberty.


That’s so petty. If someone likes the way skulls look then put a skull in your tarantula enclosure as long as it doesn’t hurt your tarantula. You sound like a helicopter mom

Not big with YouTube but do watch tcollective
I think he is a nice guy who loves spiders. As for as husbandry goes I do think it’s common but if that husbandry works why on earth would you change it. My view is as long as your not hurting or misusing your t then be as edited and flashy as you want. Why does everybody expect so much and try to quickly fault all these youtubers. There flesh and blood like all of us.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Neonblizzard (Sep 5, 2021)

LucN said:


> I liked TC at first, but his Top 10 lists are getting tiring and the hip hop style music he uses at times is really jarring, if annoying


Omg yes haha he posted a top ten FLUFFY tarantula you MUST SEE so CUTE the other day and it made me laugh out loud how absolute corn it was. 

I think the difference is tom is a teacher and normal working dude who isn't doing what he does with TBS to make a living, whereas Richard's brand is his job and that means having to do stupid lists for the youtube views. 

When you become interested in the hobby you either take the red pill with richard or the blue pill with exotics lair

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Manny (Sep 5, 2021)

@Jonathan6303  apparently if an opinion isn’t your opinion then it isn’t valid. Dude it’s a forum, I don’t care if you agree, I stand by my statement 1000%. I think it’s petty to react to an opinion the way you do.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## LucN (Sep 5, 2021)

Neonblizzard said:


> Omg yes haha he posted a top ten FLUFFY tarantula you MUST SEE so CUTE the other day and it made me laugh out loud how absolute corn it was.
> 
> I think the difference is tom is a teacher and normal working dude who isn't doing what he does with TBS to make a living, whereas Richard's brand is his job and that means having to do stupid lists for the youtube views.
> 
> When you become interested in the hobby you either take the red pill with richard or the blue pill with exotics lair


How about no pill at all ? I'd rather something plain and simple like Tom, Dave or Basin79. That last doesn't do real husbandry vids, and that's totally cool. His feeding vids are short and to the point. Incredible macros, I really need to point that out.

Don't need over-edited vids or stupid moves (doing things one handed like EL) to have a good channel.


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## Jonathan6303 (Sep 5, 2021)

Manny said:


> @Jonathan6303  apparently if an opinion isn’t your opinion then it isn’t valid. Dude it’s a forum, I don’t care if you agree, I stand by my statement 1000%. I think it’s petty to react to an opinion the way you do.


Yea sorry. I do agree I jumped down your throat a little.

Reactions: Like 1


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## KaroKoenig (Sep 11, 2021)

KaroKoenig said:


> I think I said it before. Skulls are for babies. Complete skeletons is where it's at:


A little update with a recent photo. She's been busy, and the webbed-over skeleton looks pretty sweet. 




There's just one small problem. It was my son's idea to have the plane crash scene in the terrarium, and it is his model. But now he wants it on the shelf again. Guess I'll have to get a second kit...

Reactions: Like 1 | Love 1


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## 8 legged (Sep 11, 2021)

KaroKoenig said:


> A little update with a recent photo. She's been busy, and the webbed-over skeleton looks pretty sweet.
> 
> View attachment 398667
> 
> ...


Very, very well done! Reminds me of the movie "The Jewel of the Nile", at the very beginning, when they find the crashed smuggler plane!

Reactions: Like 2


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## YungRasputin (Sep 11, 2021)

Tom Moran + Dave from Dave’s Little Beasties are both legit keepers who make good content - Dark Den and TC are good but as others have said, i have some criticisms of some practices 

Exotic Lair is a complete joke, a compendium of what not to do - like how many “I’m going to leave the OW enclosure completely open and walk away to be babble on about some useless bs - WOAHMYGOSHUGUYS the OW escaped and is running around the room how could this have happened ” vids is this dude going to put out? lmao

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Timc (Sep 11, 2021)

YungRasputin said:


> Tom Moran + Dave from Dave’s Little Beasties are both legit keepers who make good content - Dark Den and TC are good but as others have said, i have some criticisms of some practices
> 
> Exotic Lair is a complete joke, a compendium of what not to do - like how many “I’m going to leave the OW enclosure completely open and walk away to be babble on about some useless bs - WOAHMYGOSHUGUYS the OW escaped and is running around the room how could this have happened ” vids is this dude going to put out? lmao


As many as continue getting views unfortunately…

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Thearachnidaddict (Sep 11, 2021)

Tom moran: has good husbandry and is good for care guides.
T collective: has good video/photo quality however a few minor things that i dont agree with
The dark den: very intertaining but a few cons when it comes to care.
Exotics lair: spineless and should not be within 20 miles of any living creatures. He once made a video where he was picking up portugese man o wars on the beach and said wHAT arE THeSe BlUe ThInGS


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 11, 2021)

Thearachnidaddict said:


> The dark den: very intertaining but a few cons when it comes to care.


A friend shared with me his latest video, he let a P. reduncus fall and laughs. No words just a huge facepalm.

Reactions: Wow 2


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## Wolfram1 (Sep 11, 2021)

i feel the moment their youtube channels become their main "job" the quality of videos may go up but the quality of the content goes down.

i really enjoyed the content of Marks Tarantulas back when he was still doing it as a way to record his own experiences but now i dont watch him much anymore.

Tom and Dave seem to be the exeption as their channels are huge despite them not doing this for the views. Their content is more about the information than entertainment and thats what i value.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 4


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## Jonathan6303 (Sep 11, 2021)

Wolfram1 said:


> i feel the moment their youtube channels become their main "job" the quality of videos may go up but the quality of the content goes down.
> 
> i really enjoyed the content of Marks Tarantulas back when he was still doing it as a way to record his own experiences but now i dont watch him much anymore.
> 
> Tom and Dave seem to be the exeption as their channels are huge despite them not doing this for the views. Their content is more about the information than entertainment and thats what i value.


I agree. The celebrity aspect of YouTube is valued over the tarantula care.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Thearachnidaddict (Sep 11, 2021)

Yigzatoth said:


> A friend shared with me his latest video, he let a P. reduncus fall and laughs. No words just a huge facepalm.


Oh I have not watched him in a while. That sucks.


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## nolyroly (Sep 11, 2021)

Tarantula kat is my favorite! Her videos are a joy to watch and I think she sets a good example for people learning.


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## Staehilomyces (Sep 12, 2021)

As someone who has a YouTube channel myself (although it lately has become a more education focused as opposed to pet/husbandry oriented channel), I feel like everyone cares about views to some extent, but what matters is whether or not one considers the welfare of their animals to be more important. I want my videos to get views; I enjoy informing people about arthropods and other inverts, and it's impossible to do that without an audience, but at the same time I'd never put one of my animals in danger for it. Exotics Lair seems like the opposite, and I think it's clear that his animals are little more than "props" for viewership. His centipede videos make me absolutely cringe, and he's doing nothing whatsoever to make people less afraid of these misunderstood animals.


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## IronMaiden (Sep 12, 2021)

I don't watch any of them like I used too. I watch Tom the most out of all them now. Before I owned tarantulas and even for like a year after I watched a number of channels but after awhile it starts feeling repetitive.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Staehilomyces (Sep 12, 2021)

IronMaiden said:


> I don't watch any of them like I used too. I watch Tom the most out of all them now. Before I owned tarantulas and even for like a year after I watched a number of channels but after awhile it starts feeling repetitive.


That last bit is definitely something I agree with. Channels that focus entirely on invert husbandry are doomed to become highly repetitive after a while. Feeding, unboxing, rehousing, enclosure setups, maybe the occasional care guide...that's kind of it.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## LucN (Sep 12, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> Tarantula kat is my favorite! Her videos are a joy to watch and I think she sets a good example for people learning.


Are you serious ? I find her videos to be so cringy ! She's still very new to this hobby and tries to pass herself like some sort of expert, which she isn't. She and Dark Den are people with good intentions, but end up doing mistakes that could have been prevented. Case in point when she attempted to breed her T. vagans on the second time. First up, the female vagans was freshly rehoused. She should have allowed it to acclimate to its new enclosure and feed it several days prior to pairing. So that poor male did his best and probably succeeded, but got munched in the end.  And also the fact that she seems to get spooked easily when a T grabs a prey item. Sorry, no thanks.

Compare with Dave's attempts. The only male he was unable to save was a Chilobrachys sp. He managed to take out T. stirmi, O. violaceopes and even M. gigas males without much trouble.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


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## viper69 (Sep 12, 2021)

Wolfram1 said:


> i feel the moment their youtube channels become their main "job" the quality of videos may go up but the quality of the content goes down.
> 
> i really enjoyed the content of Marks Tarantulas back when he was still doing it as a way to record his own experiences but now i dont watch him much anymore.
> 
> Tom and Dave seem to be the exeption as their channels are huge despite them not doing this for the views. Their content is more about the information than entertainment and thats what i value.


Same with DarkDen, he used to be an active AB member then he went to StupidTube- first some were fine, then it was entertainment up, quality down at times it seemed




Staehilomyces said:


> unboxing


Im shocked that unboxing is something that has taken stupidtube by storm in all areas from animals to perfume.

Aliens landing:

“ooo now we watch primates open a box with tools- how primitive compared to us”

Reactions: Agree 2


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## viper69 (Sep 12, 2021)

D


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## 8 legged (Sep 12, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> Tarantula kat is my favorite! Her videos are a joy to watch and I think she sets a good example for people learning.


I can't look at it, it reminds me too much of my work: it doesn't mean anything bad, but she looks just like my patients with an eating disorder...

Reactions: Dislike 1 | Agree 1 | Disagree 1


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## mack1855 (Sep 12, 2021)

8 legged said:


> I can't look at it, it reminds me too much of my work: it doesn't mean anything bad, but she looks just like my patients with an eating disorder...


I have never actually watched any of her postings all the way through.It,s just....I don’t care.Silly comes to mind.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## nolyroly (Sep 12, 2021)

Misogyny? On this forum? That's a shocker lol.

Reactions: Like 1 | Dislike 5 | Agree 1


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## 8 legged (Sep 12, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> Misogyny? On this forum? That's a shocker lol.


Not in the least, that may be more due to your point of view.
What does cachexia have to do with gender???


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## YungRasputin (Sep 12, 2021)

8 legged said:


> Not in the least, that may be more due to your point of view.
> What does cachexia have to do with gender???


her appearance and the judgement or perception thereof should be wholly irrelevant and it’s in this respect that such comments are misogynistic because absolutely no one cares or talks about the appearances of Tom, Dave, Richard, or any of the other male YouTubers - they’re just judged strictly on their content

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 6


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## mack1855 (Sep 12, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> Misogyny? On this forum? That's a shocker lol.


Are you serious?.Because if your not     ,you need to explain that comment.


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## 8 legged (Sep 12, 2021)

YungRasputin said:


> her appearance and the judgement or perception thereof should be wholly irrelevant and it’s in this respect that such comments are misogynistic because absolutely no one cares or talks about the appearances of Tom, Dave, Richard, or any of the other male YouTubers - they’re just judged strictly on their content


What a nonsense. I work with those affected and only wrote that I don't need it in my free time! Men also have bulemia etc ...
Emotional disaster


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## nolyroly (Sep 12, 2021)

YungRasputin said it pretty well. We're 9 pages deep in this thread and no women have been mentioned. Then, when one is mentioned, her appearance is immediately criticized which didn't happen to any of the male youtubers. Plus people are calling her pejorative names like silly and cringy which, again, seem rooted in misogyny.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3 | Funny 1 | Face Palm 1


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## Wolfram1 (Sep 12, 2021)

everyone is entiteled to their thoughts, this whole blame game is annoying

Reactions: Like 1


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## YungRasputin (Sep 12, 2021)

8 legged said:


> What a nonsense. I work with those affected and only wrote that I don't need it in my free time! Men also have bulemia etc ...


the existence of male bulemics doesn’t negate anything previously stated in my comment - which was fairly straight forward so what these non-sequitur responses are supposed to contribute here by way of refutation is unclear



> Emotional disaster


emotional input isn’t required to make the argument that was made in the aforementioned comment




Wolfram1 said:


> everyone is entiteled to their thoughts, this whole blame game is annoying


if people can’t defend their opinions and positions they don’t deserve to have them

Reactions: Agree 2 | Disagree 1


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## mack1855 (Sep 12, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> silly


In regards to her interaction with her animals,in particular T,s.I suggest you look up and watch some Deadly Tarantula Girl episodes if you want to see
a woman with  great husbandry .This forum has always had great respect for women in this hobby.And the t community in general.
@8 legged can defend themselves,but dont throw this forum and its members in a pile,thanks.


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## mack1855 (Sep 12, 2021)

And......to add..EL is just as "silly".


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## 8 legged (Sep 12, 2021)

For the sake of the community. Sorry for my comment, even if - not for the first time - my words are interpreted very individually.

Reactions: Like 1


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## mack1855 (Sep 12, 2021)

8 legged said:


> For the sake of the community. Sorry for my comment, even if - not for the first time - my words are interpreted very individually.


Apology accepted.Now,we can wait for @nolyroly to post being sorry for lumping everyone,and this forum, being misogynistic...waiting.


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## Benson1990 (Sep 12, 2021)

I think people are being a bit too harsh on some, nobody is infallible, the only person who deserves harsh criticism is Exotics Lair as he purposefully endangers his animals for views.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2 | Award 1


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## Marcostaco (Sep 13, 2021)

Benson1990 said:


> I think people are being a bit too harsh on some, nobody is infallible, the only person who deserves harsh criticism is Exotics Lair as he purposefully endangers his animals for views.


Letting his so called arachnophobic friend and girlfriend to rehouse a tarantula and centipede 
Not only endangers the animals but also the people


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## Edan bandoot (Sep 13, 2021)

so do we have to call the dudes fat now to balance it out?

Reactions: Funny 5


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## The Grym Reaper (Sep 13, 2021)

Edan bandoot said:


> so do we have to call the dudes fat now to balance it out?


I already referred to Exotics Lair as "pyar AIDS" earlier in the thread so I guess I'm a misandrist

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Skullion (Sep 14, 2021)

justanotherTkeeper said:


> Personally, I became interested in t's from Exotics Lair, eventually that lead to The Dark Den, and I was subbed to both for a long time. But I stopped watching Exotics Lair. Ugh. His content is just garbage now. He used to have semi-decent videos where he did his best to be educational and show his t's the respect they deserve. But his content went downhill quick once his "OOOooohhhh MY GOSH" attitude gained such attention.
> 
> I still love The Dark Den, because he respects his t's and gives them the best of care in his experience, while also being charismatic and making his videos enjoyable. Some disagree with some of his keeping practices (lacking water dishes being one of the main hot points), but he generally provides his t's with a healthy life. He also admits when he makes mistakes and asks the community for their opinions when he's not sure about something. We're all human and we're not perfect. All keepers, no matter how experienced will sometimes have different opinions about the best possible care for t's, and I think Petko does his best, in addition to being entertaining.
> 
> ...


I agree. I've just started watching Dark Den, so take my words with a grain of salt, but he does seem to be trying his best, despite some minor mistakes. He's admitted to making mistakes in the past and is learning. I think he cares about his spiders, despite some slight husbandry disagreements. As long as they are healthy and happy, that is all that matters.


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 14, 2021)

Skullion said:


> I agree. I've just started watching Dark Den, so take my words with a grain of salt, but he does seem to be trying his best, despite some minor mistakes. He's admitted to making mistakes in the past and is learning. I think he cares about his spiders, despite some slight husbandry disagreements. As long as they are healthy and happy, that is all that matters.


Like someone previously said, he started ok but now... meh. 
Last videos i saw were all about him whining regarding a green tree monitor and how someone tried to scam him. Or him poking a Harpactira just to force a threat posture, i guess he is all about likes now.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Skullion (Sep 14, 2021)

Yigzatoth said:


> Like someone previously said, he started ok but now... meh.
> Last videos i saw were all about him whining regarding a green tree monitor and how someone tried to scam him. Or him poking a Harpactira just to force a threat posture, i guess he is all about likes now.


Oh, okay. Well, that sucks. I've mostly been watching some of his older videos.


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## Marcostaco (Sep 14, 2021)

Skullion said:


> I agree. I've just started watching Dark Den, so take my words with a grain of salt, but he does seem to be trying his best, despite some minor mistakes. He's admitted to making mistakes in the past and is learning. I think he cares about his spiders, despite some slight husbandry disagreements. As long as they are healthy and happy, that is all that matters.


I don't think purposefully poking your tarantulas just to show people how "aggressive" it is, is a good thing to show people that are potentially gonna get into the hobby.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Yigzatoth (Sep 14, 2021)

Skullion said:


> Oh, okay. Well, that sucks. I've mostly been watching some of his older videos.


Don´t get me wrong i wish him all the best. His content its just not for me thou.



Marcostaco said:


> I don't think purposefully poking your tarantulas just to show people how "aggressive" it is, is a good thing to show people that are potentially gonna get into the hobby.


Forcing a fight or flight reaction just to show how "evil and aggressive" they are is just sad. Besides false information is also fear mongering that ultimately can lead to accidents and bad things to the hobby.

Reactions: Agree 4


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## LaughingLunatic (Sep 15, 2021)

nolyroly said:


> Tarantula kat is my favorite! Her videos are a joy to watch and I think she sets a good example for people learning.


 I saw one of her videos where she had an enclosure, way up on some piece of furniture and a molting tarantula in it. She decided it would be as good idea to bring the enclosure down so she could keep an eye on the spider. A) don't ever move an enclosure with a molting tarantula in it, LEAVE IT ALONE, and B) If you MUST move it, at least move it slowly and try to keep it level. She did neither. The number of times she'll drop prey items ON the spiders. She does it constantly. Not impressed with her, to be honest. Nothing to do with her being a woman, everything to do with her.... questionable... practices with her spiders.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Skullion (Sep 15, 2021)

I think that Tom Moran and Tarantula Haven are pretty good. They're my favs. Especially Tarantula Haven. He just seems like a really nice person and I admire the passion he has for his animals.

(That said, if either of them has some pretty major husbandry mistakes, please let me know so that I can avoid making the same mistakes.)

Reactions: Like 1


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## LucN (Sep 16, 2021)

Skullion said:


> I think that Dan Moran and Tarantula Haven are pretty good. They're my favs. Especially Tarantula Haven. He just seems like a really nice person and I admire the passion he has for his animals.
> 
> (That said, if either of them has some pretty major husbandry mistakes, please let me know so that I can avoid making the same mistakes.)


Dan Moran ? Don't you mean Tom Moran ?  Arguably one of the best youtubers. What made me drop Tarantula Haven from my list is that he sometimes rambles on too much about unrelated stuff. No real beef with his husbandry, he really is a decent guy, just I could do without the excessive rambling.

As for Tom Moran, he and Dave from Dave's Little Beasties (Check him out if you haven't yet) are at the very top since neither do clickbait or oversensationalism. They're 100% about their spiders and the great thing is that they explain two very different views on husbandry that actually work. Rarely do we hear of a spider dying with them unless it's old age or just meant to go no further. They don't put their animals in danger for the sake of getting views. That for me is what I want in a T Youtuber.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Skullion (Sep 16, 2021)

LucN said:


> Dan Moran ? Don't you mean Tom Moran ?  Arguably one of the best youtubers. What made me drop Tarantula Haven from my list is that he sometimes rambles on too much about unrelated stuff. No real beef with his husbandry, he really is a decent guy, just I could do without the excessive rambling.
> 
> As for Tom Moran, he and Dave from Dave's Little Beasties (Check him out if you haven't yet) are at the very top since neither do clickbait or oversensationalism. They're 100% about their spiders and the great thing is that they explain two very different views on husbandry that actually work. Rarely do we hear of a spider dying with them unless it's old age or just meant to go no further. They don't put their animals in danger for the sake of getting views. That for me is what I want in a T Youtuber.


Glad to hear it. And yes, I did mean Tom. Just forgot his name. lol
I'll definitely check out Dave's Little Beasties. Thanks for the recommendation. <3

Reactions: Like 1


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## JonnyTorch (Oct 5, 2021)

I really enjoy Dave's Little Beasties. I think his rehousings are excellent. While he's rehousing he talks about the importance of being calm and gentle and it shows fantastically, his rehousings usually go without an error. I tend to look at his when I like seeing a good rehouse video and temperaments of species when they are rehoused. 

I check out T Collective when I want a general overview of any species I haven't researched yet: where it's from, growth rate, good close up shots, but most are the T's people already know about, but it's still a great source of footage. 

Tom's footage isn't the best footage but his knowledge and in-depth info outweigh the rest previously mentioned. I go there for in depth info about husbandry advice and information.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## coolnweird (Oct 6, 2021)

I like Tarantula Haven's personality, but I haven't watched in a while. I noticed some of his juvies in very tiny enclosures, and when he finally rehoused them it was into something barely big enough. I'm well aware that I probably give my Ts more space than most people, but they should at least have a hide and be able to walk in a circle

Reactions: Agree 1


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## mctenor (Oct 6, 2021)

SethM16 said:


> I always read on AB about all the misinformation there is on youtube regarding tarantulas. But there are 4 particular creators that I love to watch for pleasure that also seem to give out what seems like valid information. But before I put any of this into practice, I'd like to hear second opinions that you all might have on these YouTubers and the information they give out:
> 
> - Tom Morran's Big Spiders
> - *The Dark Den*
> ...


I love all of these and am a subscriber to all, but I would also add Tarantula Kat to the list. Tarantula Kat to me, is the most relatable as a person always wanting to know more. She will specifically put links to certain videos from your list of YouTubers that pertain to what ever video she is making. Kat also leads a lot of collaborative videos between many channels, those are my favorite.

Exotics Lair is very entertaining, mostly for his personality, but also has been on YouTube the longest and has an absurd amount of expertise that he shares in whatever order he feels like. He's a very spur of the moment guy. Also, he's protective of his privacy so you only see his hands.

Dark Den is great now, his older stuff is kind of cringe. But I love that he shares his mistakes so others don't make them. Personality wise reminds me of Exotics Lair but 15 years older.

I haven't really seen many of Tom's videos so I can't say a lot there.

The Tarantula Collective is one of my favorites, because I love to know stuff, and he talks a lot about the biology behind spiders and even has made some short documentaries on certain species. He's also done a lot of podcasts with arachnologists such as Dr. Linda Rayor from the Cornel University and co-host of the Discovery Channel's "Monster Bug Wars. " Richard also has such an intense passion for spiders. His energy makes his videos exciting.

In Short:
Tarantula Kat- very relatable, talks about common problems and solutions. 10/10

Exotics Lair- super energetic, very sporadic, but also super smart and fun to watch. 10/10

Dark Den- seriously could be Exotics Lair's brother. Slightly less sporadic. 10/10

  The Tarantula Collective - very intellectual but fun. Loves to learn and share his findings. Also, a skilled photographer. 10/10

I know I rank them all as 10s, but I mostly look forward to *The Tarantula Collective* and *Tarantula Kat*'s videos.

Also, all these channels have great info and include how they've messed up in the past so viewers don't make the same mistake. Mad respect to all of them.

Reactions: Like 1 | Dislike 2 | Disagree 7 | Thinking 1


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## courtney1027 (Oct 6, 2021)

RezonantVoid said:


> The dark den was the one that got me started with serious invert keeping. Im still a huge fan of him and generally agree with most of his husbandry practices, but the only thing that pains me to see is the now regular handling of T's. I handle trapdoors during rehouses as they dont have the density of sensitive foot hairs that T's have, but T's make it so plainly obvious they dislike being handled. Thats the one complaint i have over TDD, but i still prefer him over most other youtubers anyday.
> 
> And on this note, I'll be starting YT on my Aussie collection in the next couple of weeks! I promise no T handling!


Yes!!!!!! Need more Aussie T content where can I see it?


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## Dorifto (Oct 6, 2021)

mctenor said:


> I love all of these and am a subscriber to all, but I would also add Tarantula Kat to the list. Tarantula Kat to me, is the most relatable as a person always wanting to know more. She will specifically put links to certain videos from your list of YouTubers that pertain to what ever video she is making. Kat also leads a lot of collaborative videos between many channels, those are my favorite.
> 
> Exotics Lair is very entertaining, mostly for his personality, but also has been on YouTube the longest and has an absurd amount of expertise that he shares in whatever order he feels like. He's a very spur of the moment guy. Also, he's protective of his privacy so you only see his hands.
> 
> ...


You have to be trolling

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 7 | Funny 1


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## JonnyTorch (Oct 6, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> You have to be trolling


I was about to comment the same thing lol.

@mctenor all those guys are ok to be honest. Toms Big Spiders and Dave's Little Beasties are the most knowledgeable and by far outweigh the others. Whereas the others are for entertainment purposes. Kat is decent but slides on the border of _general _in formation and entertainment, but I've seen her videos. They are pretty general. Toms and Dave's are strictly for information, no entertainment value.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Yigzatoth (Oct 6, 2021)

mctenor said:


> Exotics Lair is very entertaining, mostly for his personality, but also has been on YouTube the longest and has an absurd amount of expertise that he shares in whatever order he feels like. He's a very spur of the moment guy. Also, he's protective of his privacy so you only see his hands.
> 
> Dark Den is great now, his older stuff is kind of cringe. But I love that he shares his mistakes so others don't make them. Personality wise reminds me of Exotics Lair but 15 years older.


Exotic Lair puts his animals at risk just for the sake of likes and clicks. He has always a lot of problems with is tarantulas, sometimes quite weird problems even. His husbandry is questionable to say the least. 0/10

Dark Den was entertaining at the beginning, he had some tutorials with DIY enclosures. Today he has far too many stuff going unrelated with tarantulas, he seems a honest guy but a bit careless with his animals.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 4


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## JonnyTorch (Oct 6, 2021)

Yigzatoth said:


> Exotic Lair puts his animals at risk just for the sake of likes and clicks.


I've seen one of his OBT rehoused where he did it on the edge of a table and the thing jumped TWICE to the hardwood floor and landed on it's stomach, twice in 5 minutes while he's saying "Don't do this."

The spider was ok fortunately.

Reactions: Wow 2


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## Yigzatoth (Oct 6, 2021)

JonnyTorch said:


> I've seen one of his OBT rehoused where he did it on the edge of a table and the thing jumped TWICE to the hardwood floor and landed on it's stomach, twice in 5 minutes while he's saying "Don't do this."
> 
> The spider was ok fortunately.


I find it quite amazing/careless when he is rehousing lightning speed tarantulas with just one hand while shouting YO YO YO.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Sad 1


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## Benson1990 (Oct 6, 2021)

mctenor said:


> I love all of these and am a subscriber to all, but I would also add Tarantula Kat to the list. Tarantula Kat to me, is the most relatable as a person always wanting to know more. She will specifically put links to certain videos from your list of YouTubers that pertain to what ever video she is making. Kat also leads a lot of collaborative videos between many channels, those are my favorite.
> 
> Exotics Lair is very entertaining, mostly for his personality, but also has been on YouTube the longest and has an absurd amount of expertise that he shares in whatever order he feels like. He's a very spur of the moment guy. Also, he's protective of his privacy so you only see his hands.
> 
> ...


It takes a lot for me to publicly bash someone, it never sits well with me, but honestly he is the exception, sure no one is perfect and I don't expect anyone to be, we all make mistakes and that includes veterans of T keeping...but he is just terrible in every way, he makes mistake after mistake and at this stage one can only assume it's on purpose to get views, he also lets his friends/girlfriend rehouse and interact with his old world T's, one case an OBT ran up his friends T-shirt or something...I mean that is shocking behavior to me, that is intentionally putting your animal at risk for fun...he also let an OBT take a massive fall when rehousing because he was intentionally careless...the list goes on and on.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## mctenor (Oct 6, 2021)

JonnyTorch said:


> I was about to comment the same thing lol.
> 
> @mctenor all those guys are ok to be honest. Toms Big Spiders and Dave's Little Beasties are the most knowledgeable and by far outweigh the others. Whereas the others are for entertainment purposes. Kat is decent but slides on the border of _general _in formation and entertainment, but I've seen her videos. They are pretty general. Toms and Dave's are strictly for information, no entertainment value.


@JonnyTorch   Thank you for your feedback. I'm new to the Hobbie and that's what limited knowledge I have. I'll make sure to check out Tom and Dave more. Legit thanks bro, if there are any other channels or sites you'd recommend I'd greatly appreciate if you shared them.

Reactions: Like 1


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## JonnyTorch (Oct 6, 2021)

mctenor said:


> @JonnyTorch   Thank you for your feedback. I'm new to the Hobbie and that's what limited knowledge I have. I'll make sure to check out Tom and Dave more. Legit thanks bro, if there are any other channels or sites you'd recommend I'd greatly appreciate if you shared them.


You're very welcome. Even with those two guys, people here may have "beef" with them about the way they may do things, but most of the people that think that way have also been doing things for a very long time their own way or have their preferences from years of their own experiences. Those other ones are ok, a lot for entertainment, and I've said before, T Collective is pretty decent with footage but it's a good general overview. I'm sure he cares a lot about his spiders. Check out those other two, Dave's Little Beasties and Tom's Big Spiders (Tom Moran) on YT and you'll see what we are talking about. It's very good for a new person to watch those compared to the others.

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Dorifto (Oct 6, 2021)

Exotic Lair is a good channed to learn what not to do.

Tom and Dave are very good channels if you are really interested in learning good practices, they also explain in a very easy way, things that others don't touch, like humidity, moisture, moisting frequencies etc. 

The others are good for entertaiment purposes. But not for advices, at least for now

Reactions: Agree 2


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## HeartBum (Oct 6, 2021)

I used to really enjoy Richard's content but got bored of it very quickly. The thing is, his jumping point was his photography, which is where it all started. It makes sense for his channel to be massively edited and beautifully shot, but people who are actually in the hobby don't really care for the flashiness, and most of us can see the real thing every day. However, I do think it's great that he shows T's off wonderfully, which could help people appreciate them more.

Just putting it out there that the only real reason I'm considering going to the Brighton Invert Show here in the UK is because Dave might be there   He's such a kind, gentle man and I want him to adopt me as his granddaughter. Now please.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Dorifto (Oct 6, 2021)

I forget to add tarantula collective, who sits between the both groups.


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## LucN (Oct 6, 2021)

mctenor said:


> @JonnyTorch   Thank you for your feedback. I'm new to the Hobbie and that's what limited knowledge I have. I'll make sure to check out Tom and Dave more. Legit thanks bro, if there are any other channels or sites you'd recommend I'd greatly appreciate if you shared them.


Here are two other channels you can look into : bugsnstuff and lovetarantulas. Bugsnstuff is Guy Tansley's channel, a well respected U.K. breeder. Some of his clips show mating attempts in captivity but most are about seeing various species of tarantulas in their natural environment. Very, very well done. Lovetarantulas is Andrew Smith's channel, a reknown expert in the field with a few species being officially described by him, like Brachypelma baumgarteni. There are fantastic documentaries with plenty of historical information on tarantula discovery and taxonomy. I would expect a lot of people to be put off by his monotone voice, but the man knows tarantulas and their history quite well. Both channels come highly reccomended.

Reactions: Like 2 | Thanks 3


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## joossa (Oct 7, 2021)

This was uploaded today and is a great example of just how much wrong can be jammed packed into a video that will end up passing along very wrong husbandry examples to those that only use videos like these to educate themselves. Beyond the main issue with the cork falling and how she handled the situation (brushing off substrate from the T?), look at the enclosure type, setup, and note the lid. Good lord.

Reactions: Agree 3 | Sad 5 | Wow 1


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## JonnyTorch (Oct 7, 2021)

joossa said:


> This was uploaded today and is a great example of just how much wrong can be jammed packed into a video that will end up passing along very wrong husbandry examples to those that only use videos like these to educate themselves. Beyond the main issue with the cork falling and how she handled the situation (brushing off substrate from the T?), look at the enclosure type, setup, and note the lid. Good lord.


That video made me cringe.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## YungRasputin (Oct 7, 2021)

joossa said:


> This was uploaded today and is a great example of just how much wrong can be jammed packed into a video that will end up passing along very wrong husbandry examples to those that only use videos like these to educate themselves. Beyond the main issue with the cork falling and how she handled the situation (brushing off substrate from the T?), look at the enclosure type, setup, and note the lid. Good lord.


i saw this earlier and i’m still at a loss as to why people insist on using small tongs for things that would be easier done with wide kitchen tongs with the wide soft tips - additionally, her enclosures do suck a lot of the time and this is one of those times; not mentioning the problems associated with foam backgrounds, i don’t think a spot of foliage is a sufficient hide option for an adult specimen of this type

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## mctenor (Oct 7, 2021)

joossa said:


> This was uploaded today and is a great example of just how much wrong can be jammed packed into a video that will end up passing along very wrong husbandry examples to those that only use videos like these to educate themselves. Beyond the main issue with the cork falling and how she handled the situation (brushing off substrate from the T?), look at the enclosure type, setup, and note the lid. Good lord.


@joosi I haven't seen it yet, but I got the notification from YouTube and as soon I saw the title my mind went, "damn, spoke too soon." But for reals, I'm new to the hobby and as such am soaking up as much information as I can, so if you have any websites, blogs, videos, books, etc, you would recommend, I would greatly appreciate if you shared them. 

In my head this reads kind of rude, but I'm honestly being sincere and legit welcome advice. I've had my 3 slings for about a month now and things are great, everyone's eating and drinking regularly,  only had one molt so far but it went well and another is in premolt, and everyone seems contempt. I always welcome advice because I might be doing things ok, but I want to do great.

Reactions: Like 3


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## mctenor (Oct 7, 2021)

LucN said:


> Here are two other channels you can look into : bugsnstuff and lovetarantulas. Bugsnstuff is Guy Tansley's channel, a well respected U.K. breeder. Some of his clips show mating attempts in captivity but most are about seeing various species of tarantulas in their natural environment. Very, very well done. Lovetarantulas is Andrew Smith's channel, a reknown expert in the field with a few species being officially described by him, like Brachypelma baumgarteni. There are fantastic documentaries with plenty of historical information on tarantula discovery and taxonomy. I would expect a lot of people to be put off by his monotone voice, but the man knows tarantulas and their history quite well. Both channels come highly reccomended.


@LucN  thank you very much. I'll be sure to check them out Thursday when I have free time. I'm very fascinated in their taxonomy and love animal documentaries, that sounds perfect for me. Thank you.


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## LucN (Oct 7, 2021)

joossa said:


> This was uploaded today and is a great example of just how much wrong can be jammed packed into a video that will end up passing along very wrong husbandry examples to those that only use videos like these to educate themselves. Beyond the main issue with the cork falling and how she handled the situation (brushing off substrate from the T?), look at the enclosure type, setup, and note the lid. Good lord.


H... How ? HOW ?! Well... This vid proves my point that she's so cringy and is still very much inexperienced. After several years of T keeping, I would have expected for her to learn that Exo-Terra are not suitable for terrestrials. Mesh lid, hard objects for the spider to fall on, dropping the cork bark and the list goes on and on. Moments like these makes me not regret in the least that I unsubscribed to her channel pretty quick. Too many no-nos.

Edit : For the record, I couldn't watch the vid till the end, I was shaking my head the entire time and my blood was boiling the more I watched. Terrible, TERRIBLE example to follow.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Timc (Oct 7, 2021)

Tarantula kat strikes me as a person that tried to become a YouTuber doing other things before discovering the niche that is tarantula keeping. I’m probably totally wrong, but that’s the vibe I get watching her.


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## Rigor Mortis (Oct 8, 2021)

YungRasputin said:


> i saw this earlier and i’m still at a loss as to why people insist on using small tongs for things that would be easier done with wide kitchen tongs with the wide soft tips - additionally, her enclosures do suck a lot of the time and this is one of those times; not mentioning the problems associated with foam backgrounds, i don’t think a spot of foliage is a sufficient hide option for an adult specimen of this type


Personally I feel like I have the best grip with my tongs, but I also put shrink plastic on the ends of them so they grip way easier. 

I'm curious to know why she used that Exo tall. At this point I'd expect her to know how inappropriate it is for that tarantula.

Reactions: Helpful 1


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## YungRasputin (Oct 8, 2021)

to respond to several comments at once - i’m v much a fan of Exo Terra enclosures; they’re top notch and easily modified and they don’t have the small gaps in the glass like Zilla, ReptiZoo, etc 

if I’m not mistaken i think she used an 12x12x12 but where she went wrong was not setting up the enclosure properly - she should have taken out the background which would’ve opened the enclosure up, provided a bit more substrate, subtracted a lot of the nonsensical items, provided pre-made burrow hide and so on

i have my M. Balfouri, A. seemanni, and several other specimens in such a set up and it’s worked real well and they seem v content - the blue baboon in particularly has its own little underground fortress

Reactions: Like 1


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## HeartBum (Oct 8, 2021)

Honestly that video made me see her in a new light. I knew she wasn't exactly the best keeper out there, especially on YouTube, but this was something else entirely. Yes, we do all make mistakes, but the issue is that, as many of you have said, dropping the cork wasn't the only mistake made in this particular video, or her others. However, that isn't picked up by people watching her, who are probably "casual" or very new keepers, or maybe just viewers with no T experience, judging by the comments. And this is where the problem lies - new keepers who will emulate her husbandry. No, it isn't the worst, but it could definitely be improved. No one's perfect, but let's not forget she's getting paid to make silly mistakes and gush over how guilty it made her feel, whilst her views go up for the drama, and the change in pace from a feeding or unboxing video.

Also to add, she lost her grip because she freaked over the UrS. As soon as that T kicked, the cork was gone. No one seems to have mentioned how incredibly jumpy she is around her animals.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 7


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## YungRasputin (Oct 8, 2021)

HeartBum said:


> Honestly that video made me see her in a new light. I knew she wasn't exactly the best keeper out there, especially on YouTube, but this was something else entirely. Yes, we do all make mistakes, but the issue is that, as many of you have said, dropping the cork wasn't the only mistake made in this particular video, or her others. However, that isn't picked up by people watching her, who are probably "casual" or very new keepers, or maybe just viewers with no T experience, judging by the comments. And this is where the problem lies - new keepers who will emulate her husbandry. No, it isn't the worst, but it could definitely be improved. No one's perfect, but let's not forget she's getting paid to make silly mistakes and gush over how guilty it made her feel, whilst her views go up for the drama, and the change in pace from a feeding or unboxing video.
> 
> Also to add, she lost her grip because she freaked over the UrS. As soon as that T kicked, the cork was gone. No one seems to have mentioned how incredibly jumpy she is around her animals.


that’s my thing too - i wear gloves and a mask no matter if I am working with my NWs or OWs but being that petrified of the hair kicks was something else - they’re truly not that bad, mildly unpleasant, even if you’re sensitive to it

i could see reflexively being jumpy if you’re trying to actively avoid getting tagged by an H. mac or L. quinquestriatus or some such thing but even still - you have to discipline yourself to keep calm, keep cool, don’t jump, focus on working the problem or issue

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Hakuna (Oct 8, 2021)

I’ve noticed some have become elaborate commercials/ads for T Cribs.  I understand selling out, but that is the only content of the video. Smh

Reactions: Agree 3


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## joossa (Nov 8, 2021)

Dave says people keep B. boehmei and G. pulchra too dry and says 75% humidity is ideal for them.


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## Dorifto (Nov 8, 2021)

joossa said:


> Dave says people keep B. boehmei and G. pulchra too dry and says 75% humidity is ideal for them.


And he is correct.

Check where they really live and you'll get a surprise. They are far from being an arid species. Same goes for most Brachypelmas. Other different thing is that they can be kept drier, it doesn't mean that they are an arid species. Their substrate retains some moisture, even in the dry season.

I personally kept my pulchra at 70% RH, and I provide her different spots, with different moisture and temp levels. Even if she usually prefers the driest spot (not dry, driest), it doesn't mean that she doesn't enjoy some moisture (a bit) on the substrate, as she wanders from one place to the other depending on my house or/and external conditions.

You can clearly see here that the substrate has some moisture:

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3 | Love 1


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> And he is correct.
> 
> Check where they really live and you'll get a surprise. They are far from being an arid species. Same goes for most Brachypelmas. Other different thing is that they can be kept drier, it doesn't mean that they are an arid species.
> 
> ...


I agree. A nice balance will let them flourish

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Wolfram1 (Nov 8, 2021)

you also have to consider he used mesh tops for ventilation so more humidity doesn't mean more humid stagnant air.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Wolfram1 said:


> you also have to consider he used mesh tops for ventilation so more humidity doesn't mean more humid stagnant air.


That I don’t agree with


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## Dorifto (Nov 8, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> That I don’t agree with


Simple, a pond in a open field or a glass of water in a poorly ventilated enclosure, with one will increase the humidity more? 

I believe he want to explain the same principle.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Most of his content I agree with and I don’t mind that his males get eaten.


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## Dorifto (Nov 8, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> Most of his content I agree with and I don’t mind that his males get eaten.


You don't agree about Wolfram or Daves? Now I'm lost


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> You don't agree about Wolfram or Daves? Now I'm lost


Sorry daves



Jonathan6303 said:


> That I don’t agree with


Sorry i met that I wish his enclosures had cross ventilation not only the top. I completely agree with wolfram. I misread the text

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## Wolfram1 (Nov 8, 2021)

No worries i didnt express myself very well. Dorifto got it. If your ventilation is different you can't just adopt the same watering tipps without adapting them to your setup. Is what i wanted to say...


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## Dorifto (Nov 8, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> Sorry i met that I wish his enclosures had cross ventilation not only the top. I completely agree with wolfram. I misread the text


Well in his case, I have to say that being the substrate close to the top, makes those enclosures act like a open enclosure, so they have plenty of ventilation for what he wants to achieve.

Also he keeps them in a controlled environment, so the amount of moisture needed to achieve that goal is minimum. I believe he keep the room at around 65% humidity, so the substrate needs a very light amount of moisture to increase it to that number. Not a major issue in reallity.

Another different thing are enclosures with a small hole on top, those are another story.

Now for setups like mine, or to the ones that need to keep it high in more humid environments then yes, they should use a better design that makes the air movement cleaner, like convection type ones imho. But it could be achieved easily on those enclosures if done right.


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> Well in his case, I have to say that being the substrate close to the top, makes those enclosures act like a open enclosure, so they have plenty of ventilation for what he wants to achieve.
> 
> Also he keeps them in a controlled environment, so the amount of moisture needed to achieve that goal is minimum. I believe he keep the room at around 65% humidity, so the substrate needs a very light amount of moisture to increase it to that number. Not a major issue in reallity.
> 
> ...


Yes the way he sets it up is adequate. The cross ventilation for me is just peace of mind. In fact I really enjoy how he approaches his animals from a scientific perspective. I also don’t mind that he uses wild material as long as it does not mold. I don’t mind all his bio active enclosures, in fact I wanted to do one myself, but from what I heard on these boards they are not particularly useful. I know he kinda has to show the spider for the video but i am not in love with how he prods the animals so they can show up on camera. Other than that and some few other minor thing, he is a wonderful content producer with a wealth of information.

I’m also jealous of that macrothele phago male because I have one and it turns out to be a female I don’t know what to do.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Dorifto (Nov 8, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> I’m also jealous of that macrothele phago male because I have one and it turns out to be a female I don’t know what to do.


Time to buy another one? Hahahahahaba

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 8, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> Time to buy another one? Hahahahahaba


If I can find one

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Edan bandoot (Nov 8, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> Yes the way he sets it up is adequate. The cross ventilation for me is just peace of mind. In fact I really enjoy how he approaches his animals from a scientific perspective. I also don’t mind that he uses wild material as long as it does not mold. I don’t mind all his bio active enclosures, in fact I wanted to do one myself, but from what I heard on these boards they are not particularly useful. I know he kinda has to show the spider for the video but i am not in love with how he prods the animals so they can show up on camera. Other than that and some few other minor thing, he is a wonderful content producer with a wealth of information.


They're not useful but they're pretty, if you have the time and you already know how to keep your spider's alive go ahead.

The issue is with newbies doing it really.


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## Dorifto (Nov 9, 2021)

Edan bandoot said:


> They're not useful but they're pretty, if you have the time and you already know how to keep your spider's alive go ahead.
> 
> The issue is with newbies doing it really.


They are more useful than people suggest. Unfortunatelly there is a lot of missinformation about them. Like that they are very hard to keep, that you need a lot of skills... etc etc. You only need the right information nothing else.

Ask me how many time I removed a bolus or a dead prey in the past 4 years? Zero. How many mold issues I had? Zero.

I only see benefits. They keep substrate cleaner and healthier. They provide a nice and stable moisture and humidity gradients, reducing molt and dehydration issues, they look awesome... and etc etc etc

You only need to trim the plants once or twice a year if you use them.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Edan bandoot (Nov 9, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> They are more useful than people suggest. Unfortunatelly there is a lot of missinformation about them. Like that they are very hard to keep, that you need a lot of skills... etc etc. You only need the right information nothing else.
> 
> Ask me how many time I removed a bolus or a dead prey in the past 4 years? Zero. How many mold issues I had? Zero.
> 
> ...


I've never removed a bolus since I added springtails and I have no issue maintaining moisture. You can die on that hill, and I'm sure you will, but you won't change my opinion of my original statement.


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## Dorifto (Nov 9, 2021)

And it never was my intention, if it's not "useful" for you, it doesn't mean that it isn't useful for others.

And I quoted "useful" because you are using somewhat a bioactive enclosure by adding springtails, not a fully bioactive enclosure of course, but closer to it. So useful, it is.


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## Edan bandoot (Nov 9, 2021)

Dorifto said:


> And it never was my intention, if it's not "useful" for you, it doesn't mean that it isn't useful for others.
> 
> And I quoted "useful" because you are using somewhat a bioactive enclosure by adding springtails, not a fully bioactive enclosure of course, but closer to it. So useful, it is.


Lol stretch the definition as far as youd like


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## Dorifto (Nov 9, 2021)

Edan bandoot said:


> Lol stretch the definition as far as youd like


It's pretty obvious that I love stretched things


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## Arachnophobphile (Nov 9, 2021)

SethM16 said:


> I always read on AB about all the misinformation there is on youtube regarding tarantulas. But there are 4 particular creators that I love to watch for pleasure that also seem to give out what seems like valid information. But before I put any of this into practice, I'd like to hear second opinions that you all might have on these YouTubers and the information they give out:
> 
> - Tom Morran's Big Spiders
> - *The Dark Den*
> ...


Tom Moran is educational and further promotes the hobby in a positive light. The only reason, (per what I heard say himself) is he does the videos on YT to reach more people. IMO it's to reach people with low attention spans.

Dark Den is a videographer or however you spell it, not educational but leans more to entertainment.

Tarantula Collective is a confusing mess. It has some helpful info but the rest is questionable at best leaning heavily more towards flashy entertainment with bad information.

Exotics Lair is the shining example of exactly how not to properly care for your T's or care at all. From his obt getting it's legs stuck on the carpet to drowning one of  his T's in soapy water as a way to euthanize it. His channel is most hated by responsible T keepers everywhere on this planet. At this point for all the bad he has done to living animals I'm surprised PETA hasn't gotten involved.

Reactions: Thanks 1 | Agree 2


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 9, 2021)

Right now I watch Tom Moran, TC, and daves little beasties.
Tom Moran I consider to completely and wholeheartedly care about the animal. He puts his complete attention on that and not on flashy content.
TC I only watch for entertainment. He basically shows basic husbandry but is mostly just flashy. I also don’t agree with his tong feeding and handling.
Daves little beasties is very educational and really captivates the “want to learn” side of me. I really enjoy his content. Although, I don’t particularly agree with how he prods his ts to get them out in the open.

Just watched TC top 5 aphonopelma sp
1. seemanni
2. chalcodes
3. hentzi
4. mooreae
5. bicoloratum
Honorable mention was
1. Jonnycashi
2. eutylenum
You got over a hundred ts and that’s what you come up with. Maybe paloma, pallidum, moderatum.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1 | Agree 1


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## Arachnophobphile (Nov 9, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> Right now I watch Tom Moran, TC, and daves little beasties.
> Tom Moran I consider to completely and wholeheartedly care about the animal. He puts his complete attention on that and not on flashy content.
> TC I only watch for entertainment. He basically shows basic husbandry but is mostly just flashy. I also don’t agree with his tong feeding and handling.
> Daves little beasties is very educational and really captivates the “want to learn” side of me. I really enjoy his content. Although, I don’t particularly agree with how he prods his ts to get them out in the open.


I've seen some of Dave's videos only because it popped up on my list. I watch YT for horror movies, (if I can even find something worth watching) or non T related except for Tom Moran.

Dave is a very likeable guy. He seems to do mostly feedings and rehouses which is benneficial.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1


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## mack1855 (Nov 9, 2021)

Thanks for putting this thread back on topic.


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## Arachnophobphile (Nov 9, 2021)

mack1855 said:


> Thanks for putting this thread back on topic.


I'm guessing it went off topic somewhere didn't read every reply.


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 9, 2021)

What’s wrong with side conversations

Reactions: Clarification Please 1


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## mack1855 (Nov 9, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> What’s wrong with side conversations


You can start a new thread about isopods.I never said anything was wrong?.
But,if you want to talk YT videos,great.If you wish to talk bioactive enclosures,then great.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jonathan6303 (Nov 9, 2021)

mack1855 said:


> You can start a new thread about isopods.I never said anything was wrong?.
> But,if you want to talk YT videos,great.If you wish to talk bioactive enclosures,then great.


I think it’s a bit excessive to create a thread for every thought that comes to your mind. In a normal conversation your not gonna be talking about your dog and say “and for the another topic, here is my doghouse”.


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## mack1855 (Nov 9, 2021)

Jonathan6303 said:


> I think it’s a bit excessive to create a thread for every thought that comes to your mind. In a normal conversation your not gonna be talking about your dog and say “and for the another topic, here is my doghouse”.


It went off for a half dozen posts,as opposed to a thought,IMO.I can voice a thought,and then the discussion goes back to what was the intent of the start of the thread.
But I get your point.thanks.

Reactions: Like 1


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