Craig73’s Tarantula Diary

[Craig73]

So this whole T in the closet thing really bummed me out. I love seeing my T’s and was beyond over the moon to finally have them out again. As I was feeding I had a couple of molts I missed seeing.

First is my versicolor. No pic, but has to be 3” at least now. I dunno, men always lie about size, so don’t take my word in it.

Next is my A. purpurea. So excited to see it finally molt. I swear this thing will be a sling for two years.

Finally one of my T. Panama. It was in its burrow, but colors look like they are popping more. For now I just have a pic of its old suit. One of the T’s that will get a new enclosure this week.

 

[Charliemum]

Thanks. I wanted to do some molding to finish off the look of the shelves, but with wood prices beyond reasonable that’s on hold. I do have some rehousings to do that will likely give me more jump
scares than humanly possible, so that’ll be coming real soon.

Sounds like you'll have fun just remember deep breath n you got this

 

[Craig73]

Sounds like you'll have fun just remember deep breath n you got this

We will see. The Homoemma sp. gold no problem, that one always wants out and it’s a struggle to keep it from
crawling on me and it’s slow. The others, I may finally find out how high my voice can get. I’ll be doing an inventory of all the rehouses needed and it will include a couple of speed freaks. I fully expect it to be a show of one kind or another.

 

[Charliemum]

We will see. The Homoemma sp. gold no problem, that one always wants out and it’s a struggle to keep it from
crawling on me and it’s slow. The others, I may finally find out how high my voice can get. I’ll be doing an inventory of all the rehouses needed and it will include a couple of speed freaks. I fully expect it to be a show of one kind or another.

Fingers crossed its a good show then n not too many jump scares can't wait to see how it goes

 

[Frogdaddy]

Thanks. I wanted to do some molding to finish off the look of the shelves, but with wood prices beyond reasonable that’s on hold. I do have some rehousings to do that will likely give me more jump
scares than humanly possible, so that’ll be coming real soon.

What about using just a regular piece of round dowel rod cut in half lengthwise? Just make the dowel rod wider than the thickness of your shelves. It will give you a rounded bead trim on the outside and a lip that will prevent enclosures from falling off on the inside.

 

[Craig73]

Shelf Lights From Hell
So I’ve literally broken my brain on shelf lighting with my ocd. I started maybe a month ago, I don’t even know anymore, and had to walk away for a bit. @Smotzer you are banned from giving me ideas.

Nothing was working the way I sketched it as far as how to route the strip led’s and I did what seemed like hundreds of trial and error attempts. I ended up using aluminum channels with diffusers and sawed small pieces, big pieces, thought I had it but nope! I would get to the corner to route the lights up to the next shelf and the adhesive side of the strip would be on the wrong side. My main goal was to get the lights as close to the wall so they did not shine down directly on enclosures and I achieved that.

Pics below of the first 16ft. I still have the other set of wall shelves to do and dealing with routing it from one wall to the other. So done with the room looking like a war zone.

Adios and New Additions
Adios to the P. metallica. He molted two weeks ago and it was time to say our farewells. No way I was going to try packing this ~3” guy for shipping and lucky for me @BoyFromLA was kind enough to drive 5+hrs round trip to take him off my hands. The P. met was just too much for me and I couldn’t get over my fear.

@BoyFromLA was generous and hooked me up with a Bumba cabocla, dairy cow ispods, and a 3” Hadrurus arizonensis scorpion. I’m over the moon.

Pic time! I don’t have a pic of the B. cabocla ready yet but will be coming. Little guy kicked hairs at me the other day when I picked up the enclosure.

 

[Edan bandoot]

Shelf Lights From Hell
So I’ve literally broken my brain on shelf lighting with my ocd. I started maybe a month ago, I don’t even know anymore, and had to walk away for a bit. @Smotzer you are banned from giving me ideas.

Nothing was working the way I sketched it as far as how to route the strip led’s and I did what seemed like hundreds of trial and error attempts. I ended up using aluminum channels with diffusers and sawed small pieces, big pieces, thought I had it but nope! I would get to the corner to route the lights up to the next shelf and the adhesive side of the strip would be on the wrong side. My main goal was to get the lights as close to the wall so they did not shine down directly on enclosures and I achieved that.

Pics below of the first 16ft. I still have the other set of wall shelves to do and dealing with routing it from one wall to the other. So done with the room looking like a war zone.

Adios and New Additions
Adios to the P. metallica. He molted two weeks ago and it was time to say our farewells. No way I was going to try packing this ~3” guy for shipping and lucky for me @BoyFromLA was kind enough to drive 5+hrs round trip to take him off my hands. The P. met was just too much for me and I couldn’t get over my fear.

@BoyFromLA was generous and hooked me up with a Bumba cabocla, dairy cow ispods, and a 3” Hadrurus arizonensis scorpion. I’m over the moon.

Pic time! I don’t have a pic of the B. cabocla ready yet but will be coming. Little guy kicked hairs at me the other day when I picked up the enclosure.

View attachment 395979 View attachment 395980 View attachment 395981 View attachment 395982

I'm glad you got something out of the deal.
@BoyFromLA good guy.

 

[Smotzer]

So I’ve literally broken my brain on shelf lighting with my ocd. I started maybe a month ago, I don’t even know anymore, and had to walk away for a bit. @Smotzer you are banned from giving me ideas.

Nothing was working the way I sketched it as far as how to route the strip led’s and I did what seemed like hundreds of trial and error attempts. I ended up using aluminum channels with diffusers and sawed small pieces, big pieces, thought I had it but nope! I would get to the corner to route the lights up to the next shelf and the adhesive side of the strip would be on the wrong side. My main goal was to get the lights as close to the wall so they did not shine down directly on enclosures and I achieved that.

Ohhh yeah……forgot to mention the lights were a royal pain in the butt to do….!!! It was truly the hardest part of the shelf

But you did in the end achieve it and it looks good!!

and congrats on the trades! I’ve yet to get a colony of Porcellio laevis ‘Dairy Cows’ but they are a classic! I think I’m going to start another isopod colony in the near future

 

[Craig73]

The shelf project after all the bumps and procrastination is just about done. Lighting complete, shelves secured to the brackets and only thing left is to trim the non-slip shelf liner, patch some paint chips on the wall, put the desk back and start the scorpion enclosure build…maybe a years worth of stuff, ha!

What a freaking PITA this was; OCD problems is real. Pretty sure I stalled the project because I didn’t think I could pull anything decent off. Didn’t quite get lights on the second set of shelves from the top because I came up short, but I can deal. Props to @Smotzer all the way for the idea and inspiration. Truly, thanks man!

My Pelinobius muticus sling sits high and mighty on top with Avicularia kwitara to the left and Carabina versicolor to the right. Lights were on brighter just for the pic.

And had an awesome surprise last night from the obt and Theraphosinae sp. Megacarapax; both felt photogenic.

 

[Smotzer]

Wow man!! It truly looks wonderful!! You did a much cleaner job that me with the lights!! And your welcome anytime! It looks awesome! Glad yours worked out so well for you….in the end I remember how much of a pain it was!

Mine has become my isopods and stone display shelf now I reorganized it all and moved the T’s to my room, and got the pods up there!

 

[Frogdaddy]

Wow that looks great!!!

 

[Craig73]

Today was by far the biggest T I’ve taken out of an enclosure and pretty stoked it went smoothly. I gave myself a big ‘atta boy’.

My G. iheringi has been climbing the enclosure walls the last two days and last night fell upside down onto its hide from the lid . It was a good 2”. The spot in the enclosure was within the 1.5x leg span, but fully upside down on the lid, that’s still quite the fall. All appears to be good, no rupture and it ate and otherwise acting like a normal T. Since it was eating I felt confident to leave the enclosure as is overnight. It’s my favorite T, I was horrified.

I was able to get it catch cupped with no problems, put a lot more sub in and transfer it back into the enclosure. Didn’t bother cleaning the inside too much since the next molt it’ll get rehoused (I don’t have the enclosure for it yet). I reused all of its substrate for the top layer, so used gloves so I wouldn’t end up touching any hairs.

To think how far I’ve come with tarantulas
over the last 1.5 years.

 

[Craig73]

So I put off feeding and cleaning water dishes the other day and tonight was the night. What a strange feeding, I don’t even know how to explain it, a wave of depression hit me when the last T was fed.

I typically take the time to do a more thorough inspection of enclosures and overall T appearance taking an hour or so to go through the 33. I feel like I did that and you’d think I’d be happy all is good with a couple of premolts and the rest eating and looking good. For whatever reason after I finished up feeding the feeders I felt sad. I don’t know if it’s realization they’re growing and no longer kiddos. So stupid.

The OBT has decided to expand its empire and web over the water dish, what a jerk. I’m always saying I have arachnophobia but now wondering if that’s even the case anymore. What would once be a horrifying thought of going in and pulling out that water dish that was webbed over was not even a thought. As I pulled the water dish out some of the webbed sub came with it and I didn’t have the ‘ooh lawd it’s gonna come flying out’ panic attack.

The Bumba horrida in premolt. This one is a real ass, I went to water it and got the usual hair flick and then stuck its abdomen straight up for 10 minutes. Looking forward to seeing the new suit.

 

[Craig73]

I have a couple of rehouse pics to share. All five were easy. I jump scare easy, but today it really wasn’t an issue. I was proud of myself, it‘s a milestone in my book even if they’re still slings.

T. Panama (rehoused 2)


Tliltocatl albopilosus


Bonnetina cyaneifemur


Homoeomma sp. gold

 

[Craig73]

Houston we have a problem! I won’t even go into how my obt, Wiener, is strong suspect female...name change in order. Problems for another day.

Bumba horrida recently molted and is officially ready to rehouse. I initially wanted to rehouse her when I got her but she’s a nasty hair kicker; just touching the enclosure triggers her which triggered me to say ‘heck no!’.

Now she’s molted and hardened, I need to rehouse her. She recently burrowed, so this is going to be a battle royal, I’m sure of it. She’s like an ex and a boss you can’t stand all rolled up into one. I’m thinking Sunday, it’s the end of my weekend…I have a feeling I will get my first ever hair in skin experience. I’m going in with gloves, a mask and eye protection. So not looking forward to this one, I’d almost rather do the 3” obt.

This is before her molt, so yeah, yay me.

 

[Craig73]

Grammostola, favorite of all time. I’ve got four ranging from 1” - 4.5” (pulchra, pulchripes, and iheringi). I’ve come to the conclusion that pre-made burrows are not appreciated. Every one of them has sealed off the burrows I made for them and either don’t use it or make their own. Seriously, under appreciated owner distress syndrome has got to be a thing.

 

[CommanderBacon]

Houston we have a problem! I won’t even go into how my obt, Wiener, is strong suspect female...name change in order. Problems for another day.

Bumba horrida recently molted and is officially ready to rehouse. I initially wanted to rehouse her when I got her but she’s a nasty hair kicker; just touching the enclosure triggers her which triggered me to say ‘heck no!’.

Now she’s molted and hardened, I need to rehouse her. She recently burrowed, so this is going to be a battle royal, I’m sure of it. She’s like an ex and a boss you can’t stand all rolled up into one. I’m thinking Sunday, it’s the end of my weekend…I have a feeling I will get my first ever hair in skin experience. I’m going in with gloves, a mask and eye protection. So not looking forward to this one, I’d almost rather do the 3” obt.

This is before her molt, so yeah, yay me.

View attachment 405396

You could name her Dawn Wiener, after the awkward protagonist of Welcome to the Dollhouse.

That's what I would do, anyway.

 

[Craig73]

My big boy pants are arriving tomorrow, got my basic concept for the new enclosure build for my 4” P. irminia figured out, 99% sure it’s a girl so going with my largest enclosure. Nervous as heck, she’s not really skittish but I’ve seen here move, so hoping things go smooth and I don’t end up with a pissed T during the transfer, or one bolting.

Next thing to do is tear the enclosure down, get rid of sharp edges, rebuild, secure and add some moss and
leaf litter touches in. I’m sure I’ll drag my feet and look for any excuse to run out of time, but this is long overdue.

If anyone wants to hope on a plane, train or automobile and put in your volunteer hours hit me up. There’s only a 30 page release of liability document that needs to be signed, hahahaha!

 

[Craig73]

No fun pics to share. Feeling a bit down and disappointed. I have one major rehouse to do and I’m stalling. My insides are ‘yes, let’s do this, I’m scared but let’s go!’, but my ocd is giving me the feeling I didn’t set the enclosure up good enough. I need to just let go and let it be what it is and do this rehouse.

Just generally feeling stupid and hypocritical because I’d tell someone with a T in its current enclosure like mine it needs rehousing now.

Enough of the pity party. I just need to own it and get ‘er done. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. And even if it was in my eyes, tarantulas are gonna tarantula and make it their own anyways.

 

[JonnyTorch]

@Craig73 I use Herpcult too. Love them. Although for adult fossorials I don't find them to work, but great for terrestrials and juvenile arboreals and juveline fossorials they're great for sure! I'm jealous of your T. Panama

Great blog. Good read.