Introduce Yourself

[amystattoo]

Hello. I'm Kathy from London U.K.
I'm interested in spiders, tarantulas in particular. I want to learn all about them. I used to be terrified of spiders but now I'm okay.
I have joined the British Arachnological Society and the British Tarantula Society and I'm enjoying all the reading material.

I look forward to learning from this forum and hopefully I'll make some friends.

 

[smc]

Hello everyone I'm new here. Looking to learn a lot. I want to own a tarantula to get over my fear of them. What tarantulas do you recommend and breeders to deal with. Also what kind of enclosure will be best...

 

[CarbonBasedLifeform]

I'm Bryan from the northeastern part of the US. I have been keeping bugs of various kinds since I was a kid and tarantulas for about 8 years now. I've lurked these forums for the great info here since I got into the hobby and finally decided to join.

 

[bluecatfish]

Hello! I just got my first T, a Brazilian Black, yesterday. Was sold as a possible female 1 1/2", but I think she's closer to 2". Luckily she was sold with her last molt, so hopefully I can confirm sex soon. I haven't wanted to bother her and figure I'll let her get settled a bit before I pull the exo out to examine it. I am sure I will have loads of questions, but for now just wanted to introduce myself. Thanks!

 

[CarbonBasedLifeform]

Hello! I just got my first T, a Brazilian Black, yesterday. Was sold as a possible female 1 1/2", but I think she's closer to 2". Luckily she was sold with her last molt, so hopefully I can confirm sex soon. I haven't wanted to bother her and figure I'll let her get settled a bit before I pull the exo out to examine it. I am sure I will have loads of questions, but for now just wanted to introduce myself. Thanks!

What an awesome choice for a first T! (assuming Brazilian black means G pulchra). They are beautiful tarantulas and I hear they are pretty docile. Unfortunately this species has been rare around here. Definitely upload some pictures once your T settles in!

 

[bluecatfish]

What an awesome choice for a first T! (assuming Brazilian black means G pulchra). They are beautiful tarantulas and I hear they are pretty docile. Unfortunately this species has been rare around here. Definitely upload some pictures once your T settles in!

Yup, it does. I researched a bit before buying and Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens were also on the list, but I prefer the G pulchra because it looks like the species native to where I used to live in CA. I would play with them as a kid. LOL! There's a shop two hours from me that was selling G pulchra and they came to town for a reptile show, so I was able to pick up locally. I even had a couple to choose from! I'm pretty excited about her.

 

[CarbonBasedLifeform]

Yup, it does. I researched a bit before buying and Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens were also on the list, but I prefer the G pulchra because it looks like the species native to where I used to live in CA. I would play with them as a kid. LOL! There's a shop two hours from me that was selling G pulchra and they came to town for a reptile show, so I was able to pick up locally. I even had a couple to choose from! I'm pretty excited about her.

This won't be your last T so you may get that C cyaneopubescens eventually. I just picked a 3" GBB, hopefully a female but I'll find out with the next molt. They are pretty sweet, mine completely ignored the hide and webbed up a hammock to hang out on after the first night! They all have their individual weird habits, I'm sure your G pulchra will too. The CA species you played with wouldn't happen to be an Aphonopelma johnnycashi would it? =-)

 

[bluecatfish]

This won't be your last T so you may get that C cyaneopubescens eventually. I just picked a 3" GBB, hopefully a female but I'll find out with the next molt. They are pretty sweet, mine completely ignored the hide and webbed up a hammock to hang out on after the first night! They all have their individual weird habits, I'm sure your G pulchra will too. The CA species you played with wouldn't happen to be an Aphonopelma johnnycashi would it? =-)

Yeah, I figure once I get some experience I might get one.

Haha, no! A eutylenum.

 

[Kayv]

Signed up for this forum 13 years ago. Kept and bred many T'S, scorps, and pedes. Left the hobby and forum for a few years and now I'm back. Still getting used to the new forum, it works a lot differently. Picked up 4 m balfouri slings as my welcome back T.

 

[CakeLore]

Signed up a few years ago when I was first learning how to properly take care of my Ts. I only purchased 2 and so I stopped following the forums frequently. I'm thinking about getting more inverts, so now I'm back to learn more.

 

[BCspiderman7]

Hi everyone Fairly new to the hobby except that I owned a couple of tarantulas way back in my 20s. A year and a half ago I bought a 3 month old Grammostola Rosea (pink form) and a 3rd instar Brachypelma albopilosum. I love them........It is very cool to watch them grow big from slings to almost adults. I now want to get a third terrestrial tarantula but want a colorful one. Which terrestrial tarantulas would you recommend that are very colorful?

 

[Nikke]

Hi peeps.

Niklas from Finland. 24yrs old, In hobby for 4 years now. Usually chatting in finnish arachno boards. But after long time just reading this forum, I decided to sign up.
Working as a Field Service Engineer in dairy industry.

Currently having 5 T's
0.1.0 B.Smithi
0.0.1 B. sp angustum
0.0.1 T. Ockerti
0.0.1 B. Kahlenbergi
0.1.0 C. cyaneopubescens
0.1.0 P.Metallica

H. Which terrestrial tarantulas would you recommend that are very colorful?

And for BCspiderman7 i recommend Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens (Greenbottle blue). As the common name says, its blue and webs like maniac!

 

[Pec85]

Hey guys I JUST bought my first Tarantula it's a Chilean Rose Hair about 7 months old and I'm curious about some things but I'll post them in the proper area anyway I'm new! Hello

 

[valkyrie4488]

Hello my name is JR, and I just got my very first T a few days ago so I'm extremely new, but I will post a thread about that soon as I have a few question's and concern's. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to meeting awesome new friends here. ^^

 

[SDahmer]

Hi everyone, I'm new to arachnoboards and relatively new to the hobby. I started keeping tree frogs and fence lizards at a really young age and later went to raise different species of reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates (including coral), fresh and saltwater fish. I'm a self proclaimed tetris master at this point, I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean by that. I currently have over a dozen T's and I seem to be all in. I've read a lot of info on this forum and four different books; Tarantulas Breeding Experience & Wildlife and the Tarantula Keepers Guide included and highly recommended (from a newb). I look forward to cramming as much info as I can into my thick skull. Thanks!
-Ted

 

[Orchidist]

Hello people! I'm a senior in high school who has wanted to get into the hobby for ages and finally took the plunge two months ago. As my name suggests, I mainly care for orchids and have been ever since I was six (over 100 different species along with freshwater planted aquariums and two lizards). Because of this, I really love small arboreal animals since it allows me to do naturalistic setups with my beloved plants. My first T was an A. versicolor sling. So once again, hello friends and I will be looking forward to communicate through this forum!

 

[Ichor]

Hey there friends!
My name is Chase, and I only recently got into tarantula husbandry, although it's been an interest of mine for some time. Mostly I raise snakes and lizards, and I use them to educate the children at my local schools, both as a conservation effort and to help the kids interact with critters they'd otherwise find 'scary' in a controlled and safe environment. I also enjoy making bioactive enclosures, and occasionally make them for others who want their scaly pets to have natural enclosures.

My first T is an H. Lividum named Morgoth, and she's lovely as can be. I hope to learn more about her and other Ts while I'm here!

 

[TarantuLover81]

Hello Guys my name is Jennifer from Alabama. I hope I'm doing this right. I grew up around all sorts of reptiles,arachnids, etc. my dad was a cop and they would always call him to get critters out of people's yards and he would bring them home. He ended up bringing a timber Rattler, many, many rat snakes. We had a 13 ft Bernese python, a Ball python that was given to us after the owner let it sit on a heat rock so long that it had second and third degree burns on its belly. We didn't think it would survive but with some Silvadine and a strict schedule of treating and unfortunately having to force feed it after putting it in an enclosure more appropriate...it survived! We NEVER used heat rocks with our reptiles...they may be better constructed now but there was no way to regulate the heat with them when I was young. We also had an great albino Bermese, a beautiful female Colombian red-tailed boa, her name was "Chaos"....she was my favorite, a pure Ian Red-tailed that we successfully We had several Bearded Dragons, a G. rosea, a very large adult Iguana that someone had put out and it found its way to the Pizza Hut parking lot. They called my dad...it came home with him. We had around 7 ferrets and a squirrel. The craziest thing we had was by far our 3.5 ft crocodile that someone fished out of a local river. That size is not including its tail. We could never get it still long enough to get the tail measured included with the body...we didn't se the need to stres it out that much. It was always just me and my dad when I was growing up and I am so grateful for the education and exposure to wildlife that I had. Many people I come across think I have a few screws loose because I choose to raise these creatures that many would happily kill if they crossed paths, however, when/if they start asking questions which happens more often than not they tend to come around and want to see one. I love being able to change someone's image or opinion they have in their mind into something positive from something they though very negatively about. I can't stand movies that stereotype spiders/tarantulas into being these outrageous creatures who's sole purpose is to seek and destroy any and all humans they come across. They don't make a battle plan and counter all of our moves...not trying flee from the danger they are in....things like that just aren't real.

I would like to tell you guys what happened to me this past March and see what you would have done/how you would have reacted.

I was at a reptile show, Repticon, here in Birmingham, AL. The key phrase in that sentence..."Retile show". Anyway, I ways paying for my adult (confirmed Female) B. smith. The tarantula was in a medium sided, clear container. An older woman (around maybe 65-70?) walked up to me and making it as obvious as she possibly could that she was a far better person than I was and how much more money (probably inherited) than I did and how much more of an education she had than me,(Not bragging or shoving it in anyone's face but I happen to hold 2 degrees...I'm not a lawyer or doctor but I guarantee I have a better education than she does). Anyway, I was in the middle of my transaction and she put her hand on her hip and in a very condescending tone said "and just WHAT are you planning to do with THAT?" It kind of surprised me because I had never encountered someone so extremely rude. I say this because of what she she said after I answered. I told her that I planned to study it, watch it grow, keep notes and possibly, when I feel like I'm ready...possibly breeding but I'm nowhere near that as of now. I'm happy just to keep them and watch them grow. (this was before I got my 5 slings who are thriving!) her answer back to me was "What? What are you? Some kind of weirdo?" I said "Well, no ma'am, it's just something I really enjoy...along with my dogs and my horses...I hope those are normal enough to offset these guys" as I gestured to my new T.

I really wanted to let her have it but if had let her have it the way I wanted to then I probably would have ended up in jail. I really wanted to ask her if she knew where she was...surrounded by tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, frogs and toads, sugar gliders...did I mention all manner of snakes and tarantulas....???

I took the high road and just walked away. I don't understand why it seems more "accepted" when men keep T's than women keeping them. We have an exotic pet store nearby and I stood there talking to those guys for over an hour talking T's and they took my name and # in case they came across an adult (confirmed Female) GBB. They said that since it seems like I know what I'm doing or at least have a bit of experience, they will call me if they have one. They told me how many times they will take names and numbers but won't call that person because they are not knowledgeable at all. I'm not a professional but I do know the major not to do and particular species that you can get away with more but they do not get attached to you and do not have the same emotions that we do. They are very primitive and act strictly on instinct.

Sorry to be so long-winded but that is me. Please let me know what you guys think of how that woman treated me when I was purchasing my B. smithi at the reptile show. Has anything like that ever happened to any of you guys?? Especially at a show that is specifically there to sell these maxing creatures?? Any response on this kind of think would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading you guys!!!

---Jen

 

[TarantuLover81]

Im so sorry guys....I didn't realize just how long that "introduction" was. Thanks for hanging in there!!! You guys rock!!!!

 

[Victor Kuluris]

Hi

I'm new to the forum but I've been a part of the Facebook Arachnoboards group for quote a while. I'm Victor, I'm in Cleveland, Ohio and I'm mainly into Old-World arboreals. My favorite spiders fall into the Poecilotheria or Lampropelma genera, but it would probably be very difficult to find an arboreal T i don't adore haha. Besides spiders I have a lot of experience in a wide array of different snakes and lizards, and I am excited to share my knowledge as well as learn on this forum!