B Emilia disposition?

[6StringSamurai]

Conventional wisdom suggests that B Emilia is a fairly docile species that may tend towards skittishness and occassional hair kicking. Mine is nothing of the sort.

My Emilia is a beast. In my collection I have four OBTs, three p. irminia, four p cambridgei and I've been close to some pokies in my time. My Emilia out does every single one of those animals in aggression, by FAR.

She will bite at anything near her with no threat display and no warning. She will not back down. I moved her into a larger enclosure yesterday. I couldn't use the traditional method of placing the old container inside the new and waiting for her to make the move on her own so I had to prod her into the new container.

With any other spider I have attempted to move this has been a simple matter of gently touching them with prongs or a brush.

My Emilia lashed out at me, relentlessly biting at my prongs no less than six times in rapid procession before kicking a full load of hairs into the air and biting one more time. I've never seen anything like it from any tarantula before.

...not that I'm complaining. I wish my boring pet hole OBTs had that kind of spunk.

I'm just sharing the story, and I'm curious if anyone else has seen this kind of behavior from their B Emilias.

 

[Mina]

Well, mine is still at the pet hole stage, so I couldn't really say. I've not heard of them being agressive, but all tarantulas are individuals. All that I can tell you for sure is that a friend of mine has a female B. emilia adult, and she is really a sweetie. Very gentle, easy to handle, and pays no attention to a hand in her viv. I got mine because of her. I was under the impression that they are usually nice.

 

[6StringSamurai]

That's another interesting thing about mine, she never went through a pet hole phase. When I bought her she was 1/4 inch or so and she has never dug or even used the hides I've given her.

This kind of thing can usually be chalked up to individual differences but it's still fun to discuss them.

 

[Mina]

That's another interesting thing about mine, she never went through a pet hole phase. When I bought her she was 1/4 inch or so and she has never dug or even used the hides I've given her.

This kind of thing can usually be chalked up to individual differences but it's still fun to discuss them.

Boy, are you lucky!!! I've only seen mine twice in the almost 3 months I've had it. Food disappears, and occasionally a cricket bit or some poo, or a moult get chucked out of the hole. I've dug it out twice and oh man, unhappy emilia!!!!!

 

[6StringSamurai]

Sounds like my costa rican tiger rump, it went through a five month phase like that but now it never hides at all. I hope your Emilia gets over it's shy phase! They are nice looking Ts.

 

[edesign]

while different species of T's (and scorps and inverts) may have typical behavior patterns (docile, nervous, defensive, etc), there are always individuals within each species that will not conform to their stereotype. There are people on this board with docile OBT's, H. lividums, L. parahybanas, and T. apophysis'...and people with crazy G. pulchras and G. roseas, evil Avicularias, and nasty Brachypelmas.

I had an A. metallica that I would have just as soon handled my L. parahybana...well, ok, maybe not quite that bad but it definitely wasn't one that I would want to put my hand near.

 

[Dragoon]

Oh, I'm so surprised at your post!
I've got four emilias at different stages of growth and they're all super-uber-cutie-cuddly tarantulas that don't fling hair or ever get angry. Pixie is the biggest at 4inches and she's a little sweetie. She is the spider I'm most likely to let walk on my hand to show to new visitors here, due to her 'niceness' and good coloration.
She's my little ambassador(out of the hundred spiders here) in my attempts to impress upon people that spiders are cool.

I'm glad you enjoy your emilia still, even if it is a pill...
D.

 

[6StringSamurai]

Yeah, I love my Ts, even the anti-social ones

I'm debating with myself now, should I buy another Emilia in hopes of getting one that I can handle or should I just expand and get a Smithi when I get over my arboreal kick...

 

[PhilR]

I have two female B. emilia. One is the most docile spider you could imagine, and the other is a complete and utter nut job. She kicks hairs at anything that moves, including prey, and is as skittish as heck. I wouldn't trust her for a second. She will attack water and has even been known to strike at a stationary piece of vermiculite that seemed to have seriously annoyed her for whatever reason :wall:

I've also got a few B. emilia spiderlings I was given as a gift. I'm hoping they turn out like the docile one

 

[Socrates]

My emilia was quite skittish when I first got her. With each molt her demeanor has become more and more mellow. At this point she is by far the most laid back spider in my house.

The same applies to my B. boehmei. She was a nutjob for the longest time, kicking hair at anything and everything, even throwing threat postures and attacking the forceps when cage maintenance was performed. After her last molt she's a changed woman. I even handled her last month, and she didn't even flinch.

---
Wendy
---

 

[guitarlust]

my b. emilia is skittish as all get out. i cannot open its enclosure without it darting around and eventually take cover in its hide. from what i just read i do not know what to expect as to demeanor. i hope it calms down, but knowing my luck it will probably end up as my g. rosea and be a demon. now my g. aureostriatum is docile to the core and hopefully will remain that way.

 

[thwarts]

I've been lucky enough to see mine once out of it's burrow/hide in a month. It's still only little (2 inches), but it's deffinately skittish. Even opening the drop in lid makes it run for cover into it's burrow, but i am lucky in that its dug it's burrow along the side of its tank so i can see in.