# Macrothele gigas...



## Halcyon (Jul 15, 2009)

Hey all,

I just bought a sweet pair of M.gigas, they are little 1.5cm juveniles at the moment, but im already getting psyched for when they grow up  

Does anyone have any experiences or tips for keeping these beasts? ive got plenty of experience with Theraphosids, but i must admit that even as babies, these guys seem way way more fiesty!

Has anyone been tagged by them? cos ive been finding conflicting reports, some suggesting fatality, others suggesting bad but not too serious...

Any knowledge wud be great!

Andy


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## Venom (Jul 18, 2009)

Macrothele is not fully understood, in terms of its venom. Here are the things we do know:

Macrothele is in Hexathelidae, alongside Atrax and Hadronyche.
No deaths or reports of life-threatening envomations for Macrothele spp. are known.

It is assumed that a bite would be extremely painful, and a wet bite could involve some unpleasant effects, the extent of which is unknown. Treat them like a toxic animal, because we don't really know how toxic they are. My hunch is that they would, at most, be on par with the effects of the Selenocosmiinae tarantulas, maybe a bit more--who knows. A hands-off policy is the sanest way to go, simply for their close relation to the Australasian funnelwebs. But, so far, we don't believe them to be life-threatening in otherwise healthy humans.


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## spiders4life (Jul 19, 2009)

I got 10 og them, same size as yours, I have raised them from 1 molt, Iwe newer had one die on me. They are kept moist, I feed them flies and crickets of suitable size. They have a great food response and everything thrown down their small box, will be eaten imedialy.

I dont know anything about their venom, that you cant find at google, but as mentioned, I think its the best thing to avoid getting bit.


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## Halcyon (Jul 19, 2009)

Thanks for the responses. ive got them in double locked tanks, so hopefully a bite will be avoided  They seem to grow very quickly, they have doubled in size in the first month ive had them. such awesome display spiders as well!


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