Australian After First T Advice

TrinityJayOne

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
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0
Hello chaps & chappettes, apologies if this is in the wrong place.

A little while ago I entertained the thought of getting a pet T (no stranger to exotics here, kept a large number of tropical fish and lizards when I was a kid), but I never got around to it. Yesterday the idea came back to me and I looked into it a bit further, only to find out that Australia sucks and it's illegal to import spiders. It would seem that my chances of (legally) owning a G.pulchripes are very slim if not impossible.

My problem now is that the only native species I can find are not really my cup of tea, being dull browns/blacks and thin & spindley as opposed to the plumper ones that I like. I'm also not sure that they're suitable for a T beginner anyway, as they mostly appear to be without urticating hair and with stronger venom that they're all too happy to share. A painful bite I can handle*, but from what I've read the local varieties can leave you vomitting and/or require a trip to the doctor. Not sure if these would be classified as New or Old World, but they seem to have more in common with the latter.

So, should I even bother with this endeavour? I wanted a Chaco Golden originally because they look plump (and kinda cute :D), are slow and happy to be picked up from time to time. I would have named him/her Charlie. :(

*I grew up in a slightly-rural area with a lot of forested areas. As kids we would go out hunting bugs and one day stumbled upon (and being none-the-wiser kids, disturbed) a bull dog ant nest. A couple of them crawled up the underside of the long stick I was poking their mound with and bit me on the hand. Mum freaked out because I'm extremely allergic to their jumping jack relatives, but I got off with nothing more than some very painful swelling.
 
Last edited:

Rob1985

This user has no status.
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
866
Hello chaps & chappettes, apologies if this is in the wrong place.

A little while ago I entertained the thought of getting a pet T (no stranger to exotics here, kept a large number of tropical fish and lizards when I was a kid), but I never got around to it. Yesterday the idea came back to me and I looked into it a bit further, only to find out that Australia sucks and it's illegal to import spiders. It would seem that my chances of (legally) owning a G.pulchripes are very slim if not impossible.

My problem now is that the only native species I can find are not really my cup of tea, being dull browns/blacks and thin & spindley as opposed to the plumper ones that I like. I'm also not sure that they're suitable for a T beginner anyway, as they mostly appear to be without urticating hair and with stronger venom that they're all too happy to share. A painful bite I can handle*, but from what I've read the local varieties can leave you vomitting and/or require a trip to the doctor. Not sure if these would be classified as New or Old World, but they seem to have more in common with the latter.

So, should I even bother with this endeavour? I wanted a Chaco Golden originally because they look plump (and kinda cute :D), are slow and happy to be picked up from time to time. I would have named him/her Charlie. :(

*I grew up in a slightly-rural area with a lot of forested areas. As kids we would go out hunting bugs and one day stumbled upon (and being none-the-wiser kids, disturbed) a bull dog ant nest. A couple of them crawled up the underside of the long stick I was poking their mound with and bit me on the hand. Mum freaked out because I'm extremely allergic to their jumping jack relatives, but I got off with nothing more than some very painful swelling.
native Australian species are mean. I don't know of any others. I do understand that you guys are pretty limited. :?
 

syndicate

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
4,497
Unfortunately living in Australia you can only keep your native tarantulas!They can be rather defensive at times to say the least and you are correct they have quite nasty venom to.I will say once they are settled in with a nice burrow mine seem to calm down quite a bit.
I don't handle any of my spiders here and tend to consider them more of a look and don't touch pet of sorts so if you can have that attitude with them then I wouldn't give up on keeping them yet!Also if your worried about there speed starting off with a small spiderling will help you get used to them.
Hope that helps!
-Chris
 

TrinityJayOne

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Messages
0
Thanks for the responses, guys.

I wouldn't mind a "look and don't touch" T so much if I had others that I could safely handle. Spiders are about the only bugs I'll actively avoid, so if I started with one that's unfriendly I'd probably never muster up the courage to even feed it! :p
 

kenstarh

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
2
i have to agree with you man, our T's are crap even though i have 3 of them lol i wish they have colours on them.
 

syndicate

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
4,497
i have to agree with you man, our T's are crap even though i have 3 of them lol i wish they have colours on them.
I wouldn't go so far as to call them crap!Most species down under aren't very colorful but there definitely cool spiders!Austrailia is also a big place so I'm sure there's plenty more species left to find ;]
-Chris
 

Mojo Jojo

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 3, 2002
Messages
2,122
A dealer out here in the US is selling North Australian Dwarf (Coremiocnemis tropix), which is overall a brownish tarantula, but he states that its femurs have a purpleish hilights to them especially after a molt. For a brown tarantula, it looks kinda nice actually and he doesn't have a warning on the venom like he does other notorious old worlders. Of course this could just be that there aren't many bite reports. I don't know. Just thought I'd toss that out there for you.

Here is the pic from his website: http://www.swiftinverts.com/pix/C.tropix1.jpg

And here are some different Coremiocnemis species on Rick West's site: http://birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/search?q=Coremiocnemis+tropix&submit=Go

Overall some nice looking ts in this genus.

Oh, and just found this on this site: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=44582&highlight=Coremiocnemis
 

Philth

N.Y.H.C.
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 4, 2003
Messages
2,719
A dealer out here in the US is selling North Australian Dwarf (Coremiocnemis tropix), which is overall a brownish tarantula, but he states that its femurs have a purpleish hilights to them especially after a molt. For a brown tarantula, it looks kinda nice actually and he doesn't have a warning on the venom like he does other notorious old worlders. Of course this could just be that there aren't many bite reports. I don't know. Just thought I'd toss that out there for you.

Here is the pic from his website: http://www.swiftinverts.com/pix/C.tropix1.jpg

And here are some different Coremiocnemis species on Rick West's site: http://birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/search?q=Coremiocnemis+tropix&submit=Go

Overall some nice looking ts in this genus.

Oh, and just found this on this site: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=44582&highlight=Coremiocnemis
Most of the Coremiocnemis you linked to ( with the exeption of C. tropix) are not from Australia so the O.P. will not be able to obtain them. He will most likely only have acces to Phlogius/Selenocosmia , Selenotholus, Selenotypus . Maybe not as colorful as some of the Coremiocnemis in the links, but interesting in there own right with some cool behaivior.

Later, Tom
 
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