brachypelma albopilosum or grammastola pulchripes?

chanda

chanda

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Both are fantastic spiders! My very first tarantula was a B. albopilosum sling, years ago, and she's really the one that got me hooked. I went from "Am I really sure I even want a tarantula?" and "Why on earth would anyone want more than one tarantula? They're all just big, hairy spiders." to the proud owner of 20+ tarantulas - and I'm still looking for more, if I can just figure out where to put them!

"Surly Temple" (the B. albo) was an absolute sweetheart as a sling, juvenile, and young adult, then got moody as she got a bit older (hence the name) and gave me a few threat poses when I reached in to pick her up for classroom demonstrations, but she's back to her old, sweet self again now. She does tend to stay in her hide a bit more than either of the G. pulchripes - but then, she's also quite a bit older. One of the G. pulchripes is a juvenile (about 2" DLS) and the other I'd say is probably sub-adult (maybe 5" DLS? Never measured and don't really see them "stretched out" the way my arboreals do.)

My G. pulchripes are more aggressive feeders, tackling their crickets right away, while the B. albopilosum generally prefers to take her time.

None of them are really hair kickers and - aside from the aforementioned threat poses years ago - are quite docile and easy to take care of. Of course, every spider has its own unique personality, so not all G. pulchripes or B. albopilosum will behave in exactly the same way.
 
Haemus

Haemus

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notanarachnophobe said:
I just don't like house spiders because of the way they look and how fast they are. I like t's because they are slow.
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It's interesting how sometimes arachnophobia doesn't translate into Ts, or the other way around. My sister was in a similar spot, and used T keeping as a way to fight the fear as well. Now arachnophobia isn't in her vocabulary.
 
notanarachnophobe

notanarachnophobe

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Haemus said:
It's interesting how sometimes arachnophobia doesn't translate into Ts, or the other way around. My sister was in a similar spot, and used T keeping as a way to fight the fear as well. Now arachnophobia isn't in her vocabulary.
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I know, right! After a battle with my parents which spanned about three years, we even talked about the price today.
 
cold blood

cold blood

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EulersK said:
For a beginner, it is indeed bettererer. G. pulchripes grows much quicker and is much more active than B. albopilosum.


@cold blood, you got any more of them there Grammy's?
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Unfortunately I do not....I already have less to keep for me than I originally intended....I just sold one to a teacher for a classroom. The students had a spider incident and the teacher wanted one because she saw a "learning experience" in all the mayhem.
 
chanda

chanda

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Haemus said:
It's interesting how sometimes arachnophobia doesn't translate into Ts, or the other way around. My sister was in a similar spot, and used T keeping as a way to fight the fear as well. Now arachnophobia isn't in her vocabulary.
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Yeah, I was kind of the same way. As a kid, my mom taught me to fear spiders - particularly black widows - and that translated to a fear of anything with eight legs, but it was the small, fast, sneaky, naked spiders that really freaked me out. Tarantulas and wolf spiders were big and furry like "proper" animals (like kittens and puppies), so they seemed more friendly or at least less threatening. Fast-forward to me as an adult and I finally got over my fear of spiders by keeping a black widow as a pet. (I also became a blood donor to get over my fear of needles.) Sometimes you just have to face your fears.
 
notanarachnophobe

notanarachnophobe

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chanda said:
Yeah, I was kind of the same way. As a kid, my mom taught me to fear spiders - particularly black widows - and that translated to a fear of anything with eight legs, but it was the small, fast, sneaky, naked spiders that really freaked me out. Tarantulas and wolf spiders were big and furry like "proper" animals (like kittens and puppies), so they seemed more friendly or at least less threatening. Fast-forward to me as an adult and I finally got over my fear of spiders by keeping a black widow as a pet. (I also became a blood donor to get over my fear of needles.) Sometimes you just have to face your fears.
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That's why I want a T.
 
The Grym Reaper

The Grym Reaper

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EulersK said:
G. pulchripes grows much quicker and is much more active than B. albopilosum.
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Apparently mine are broken, I always see my B. albopilosum doing something or other whereas my G. pulchripes is a rock 75% of the time (the other 25% is spent digging part burrows, dumping sub in the water dish when I'm not looking or going for a wander when I open the lid to sort out the aforementioned water dish).

chanda said:
G. pulchripes are more aggressive feeders, tackling their crickets right away, while the B. albopilosum generally prefers to take her time.
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Again, I think mine are broken, my B. albopilosum is like Death incarnate to crickets, my G. pulchripes casually approaches prey and is almost gentle in its takedowns lol.
 
chanda

chanda

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The Grym Reaper said:
Apparently mine are broken, I always see my B. albopilosum doing something or other whereas my G. pulchripes is a rock 75% of the time (the other 25% is spent digging part burrows, dumping sub in the water dish when I'm not looking or going for a wander when I open the lid to sort out the aforementioned water dish).
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That's just like my B. albopilosum - she seems to have a vendetta against her water dish, not only filling it with substrate but webbing over it as well, just to make sure her position on the matter is quite clear!

It might not be your spiders that are broken, though - I've also got a sub-adult suspect male P. metallica who seems to think he's terrestrial or even fossorial. He spends most his time in a little burrow that he's dug below his dirt curtain. My A. geniculata, on the other hand, is trying her best to be arboreal. Spiders. :rolleyes:
 
notanarachnophobe

notanarachnophobe

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chanda said:
That's just like my B. albopilosum - she seems to have a vendetta against her water dish, not only filling it with substrate but webbing over it as well, just to make sure her position on the matter is quite clear!
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T's are clever like that. Not brain dead like many assume. Quirky.
 
The Grym Reaper

The Grym Reaper

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chanda said:
My A. geniculata, on the other hand, is trying her best to be arboreal. Spiders. :rolleyes:
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Mine does this too on occasion, either that or I hear scraping noises and look over to see this...

(She can't get her body out, the tank is too close to the wall)
DSC00001.JPG
 
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