H.gigas vs p.murinus

[tristan4033]

I know they are not a beginner species but I am pretty confident in my skills that I can take care of one. The problem is which one should I care for. Can anybody please tell me?

 

[Exoskeleton Invertebrates]

Neither one.

 

[Oliverhenderson]

how many tarantulas do u have and what species

 

[tristan4033]

Rose hair arizona blond

But I want to get something challenging

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Neither one.

Ah ah :-s

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Rose hair arizona blond

But I want to get something challenging

Then learn first how to deal with a bit of speed... buy a 'GBB' and a P.cambridgei :-s

 

[tristan4033]

I want to jump to a challenge I may just get a king baboon

 

[EulersK]

A story that's been told a million times. Someone gets a couple tarantulas and suddenly they're ready for the advanced species.

It's a bad idea. You won't enjoy it. The spider will likely die because you don't know how to care for it. You put yourself and everyone you live with at risk. Blah blah blah, we say this every time another one of you come along. It gets exhausting. Do what you want, just don't expect open arms when you come back asking questions.

 

[Sarkhan42]

While I admire the aspiration, I gotta go with the others here- you may wanna start with a smaller challenge, like Chris said, P cambridgei are a fantastic stepping stone species- and are actually one of my favorite species, after keeping for years now. Old worlds like the ones you mentioned are more unpredictable than you know. Just the other day, after keeping all kinds of Ts, I had my tiny H mac sling surprise me, and with great shame I have to admit it became my first escape(don't sound the alarm, he's dead.). They are incredibly easily underestimated, and you don't want to deal with the bad they can dish out.
TLDR
No need to jump so soon, there are plenty of species to enjoy that you can handle just fine, take it slow.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I want to jump to a challenge I may just get a king baboon

Well, I can't discourage someone that wants to Embrace the Goddess: It's like that law for robots, you know :-s

 

[WeightedAbyss75]

I know they are not a beginner species but I am pretty confident in my skills that I can take care of one. The problem is which one should I care for. Can anybody please tell me?

Just like @EulersK said, you will either kill them or get bit and go to the hospital. Both the T's you have owned are very much beginner. No offense, but you have not worked with any T that will really prepare you for a baboon. Both you mentioned are very fast. One requires a massive amount of humidity and is a pet hole (mostly). The other is a hyper defensive fireball of a T that will not hesitate to bite and dash. I understand you wanting to step it up, but it's a terrible idea. Tbh, if those are the only T's you have worked with, I would bet you don't really understand the defensiveness or speed of such tarantulas. I would suggest a Pampho at least before owning a H. gigas or a P. cambridgei before an OBT. I would just hate to see anyone get bit or have a thread titled "My OBT Escaped, How Do I Find It?". I wouldn't do either, but up to you OP.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

But I want to get something challenging

Define challenge and challenging, man, one moment. Challenge for the 'care' part (so parameters etc) or for the 'handle' (attitude, speed etc) one?

I can guarantee you that (considering everything at 360°) had more threat display (and bite to the air) from certain NW rather than Africans and Asians in all of those years (and years) of arachnid keeping. And this not because I was/I am more 'relaxed' with NW's. Not today and not tomorrow either.

Temperament vary always from specimen to specimen, don't forget this.

 

[14pokies]

I'm not trying to fuel your leap into the deap end but the gigas is the lesser of two "evils"... They usually sit at the bottom of there burrows or retreat into there burrows when disturbed instead of running around blindly biting and slapping at a thousand miles an hour...

I have a couple of big girls and rehousing is always exciting.. Just a heads up though exciting to a long time keeper like myself usually equates to pure terror for inexperienced keepers ..

If your looking for a challenge get married have kids etc..

Keeping Tarantulas should be about enjoying yourself take your time and get something with speed and color then maybe something color full and defensive that lacks potent venom.. Then work your way up from there..

 

[PanzoN88]

not to be discouraging, I feel it is my duty as a hobbiest who has been at it a few years to dish out some useful advice based off experience. I did not dive in to the hobby right away and really I still haven't. Once you start feeling good about caring for species like the A. Chalcodes, G. Porteri than work your way up the ladder. the GBB is a good beginner/intermediate species as they are easy to care for but are fast moving. After that, A. Geniculata is a fantastic intermediate species that has size to go with good looks, plus they eat well and have a bit of an attitude. Once you feel confident with these species (there are many other choices, I am just going off intermediate species I currently own), then as an introduction to the defensiveness and speed of old worlds like the OBT, P. Muticus, and H. Gigas look no further than the P. Cancerides. While they may not be quite as fast as many old worlds, they are fast enough to overwhelm even the most advanced keeper. They are also I would say the most defensive new world species around. My juvenile female gave me fits when I first got her she actually bolted up the tweezers and onto my shirt (thank the lord it was a thick, long sleeved shirt) and proceeded to bite. All I was doing was pulling the paper towel off for her to come out like any other unpacking.

Here is a picture of her for reference that I took a few months ago a week after a molt:

 

[viper69]

I'm not trying to fuel your leap into the deap end but the gigas is the lesser of two "evils"... They usually sit at the bottom of there burrows or retreat into there burrows when disturbed instead of running around blindly biting and slapping at a thousand miles an hour...

I have a couple of big girls and rehousing is always exciting.. Just a heads up though exciting to a long time keeper like myself usually equates to pure terror for inexperienced keepers ..

If your looking for a challenge get married have kids etc..

Keeping Tarantulas should be about enjoying yourself take your time and get something with speed and color then maybe something color full and defensive that lacks potent venom.. Then work your way up from there..

Couldn't have written it better.

 

[viper69]

I would strongly suggest you learn how to ride a bicycle before asking what Ferrari you should get.

 

[Ungoliant]

Well, I can't discourage someone that wants to Embrace the Goddess: It's like that law for robots, you know :-s

Mortification of the flesh through Her sacred venom sanctifies man to receive the blessings of the Goddess. The desire to do such penance should not be checked by our cold counsel.

 

[cold blood]

I know they are not a beginner species but I am pretty confident in my skills that I can take care of one. The problem is which one should I care for. Can anybody please tell me?

The biggest problem, and I mean no disrespect, because it happens with a lot, if not most new keepers, is that they are convinced that they know what they want, but without any real experience, they don't actually know, they've just got a species in their head for one reason or another....and lets face it, with enough time, any of us can convince ourselves of a poor choice....we've all made them in life.

The ts we covet when starting out, are rarely the ones we covet when we are experienced.

I will use myself as an example...when I started out, I thought H.lividium was the straight up coolest looking t ever, I wanted one so bad.......soooooo glad I didn't, because now, with nearly 2 decades of experience, its a species I probably wouldn't take if it were free and much like these 2 you are looking at, would have most certainly been 100% the wrong t for me at that time.

See, the reasons both your choices are bad (beyond the obvious), is because as a beginner, you want to observe...well...something...whether its the t, its handiwork or its feeding response...but with these ts you almost never get that, especially as they grow (you will get a network of webbing to cover your nicely set up enclosure though with OBT). Neither of these ts are really observable if kept properly (allowed to burrow). With either you could just as well get a jar of dirt, make a hole and tell everyone you have one of them...cause it will be the same basic thing from an observation standpoint.

I haven't seen my gigas since re-housed 8 months ago. I saw my OBT for the first time last week in over a year.....yeah, the thing is blaze orange and i still saw nothing for a year....in fact had I not accidentally poured water down the burrow (missed the dish), I still wouldn't have seen it.

As a beginner, species like this are pretty impossible to learn from as you can't learn from a t you can't observe. They are much easier to enjoy when you have many others and one going bye bye for a year or forever won't really matter.

Taking it slow was my choice, and I did it because I knew all those species would still be there when I was ready, and along the way I fell in love with many many species I didn't know existed or didn't think I liked at all back when I started.

Definitely get a P. cambridgei...they grow fast, eat like pigs and are often visible, especially as adults. And their way of life and speed will prepare you for more advanced species...They're quite literally, my favorite species and part of a remarkable genus. Although the size and visibility of a cam is different than most of their cousins who hide much more and don't grow as large.

Psalmopoeus cambridgei

• cold blood
• Mar 11, 2017
• 7
• cambridgei psalmopoeus psalmopoeus cambridgei trinidad chevron tarantula

cam...the camster..the caminator, the cam-meister...Dr. Camenstein...Cam-a-lama-ding-dong...mass...

Another area that would be good is some of the large south American terrestrials...many can be more skittish and defensive than even a lot of those OWs. P. cancerides immediately comes to mind.

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• cold blood
• Nov 20, 2016
• 2

P. cancerides 3.5"

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• cold blood
• Feb 7, 2017
• 1

cancerides...about 4"

As do Nhandu species like chromatus and coloratovillsus

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• cold blood
• Feb 19, 2017
• 12

An example of hunting posture....from a t always hunting.

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• cold blood
• Mar 5, 2017

A. geniculata fits in there as well. All spectacular eaters, pretty fast growers and they all look great and may protest your maintenance more than your current stock.

Or get a T. ockerti, they're great eaters, very nice looking, but a skittish hair flicking, butt posturing monster, that may provide some of what you are looking for. (you definitely don't need to jump into the deep end to find it)

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• cold blood
• Mar 10, 2017

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• cold blood
• Feb 19, 2017
• 1

ockerti female

In the end you do what you want...but I can say from experience, that I am very glad I took advice and took it slowly...as I now enjoy most of those parts of the hobby I thought I had little interest in when I started.

 

[smitje]

I have a P. murinus also, its called "Bolt". Absolutely fantastic T, like the first two days. Then it got dug in and I never saw it for months untill just a few days ago. As I am relatively new to the hobby and their reputation of being wild hogs on crack is pretty much agreed upon, I transfered it very carefully. I loosend the lid of the delicup and put it in a critterkeeper. Got my tweezers and took out the lid. Nothing happend, it just sat there. That wasnt to bad. Then I used a brush to get it out of the delicup...... as soon as I touched it it started running arround the enclosure. Well I think, I just noticed a ring of fire and was just in time to retract the brush and close the lid. It stared at me through the lid while I breathed heavily. Im still trying to figure out if I enjoyed that Im putting it up for sale, with my irminia, you just never see them.......

 

[grayzone]

Dont let anybody tell you what you "shouldnt" be getting.


Once upon a time i entered this hobby knowing ZERO about ts, and only owned a 5" Lp.. after about a month i dove in and started buying every t i could.
My 2nd t was a P regalis, and got an obt as a freebie.


I would say that if you feel comfortable, go with the obt. Absolutely zero care involved with those bastards.
Just always remember they are insanely fast and tend to be very defensive. As long as you never open its enclosure when its out of its burrow youll be fine haha