Keeping Olios Giganteus

[Fox402]

I found a beautiful little Olios Giganteus in my house yesterday. A search didn't reveal much information regarding this species. Any tips on good care? What are their water and ventilation requirements? As of now I'm keeping it like I would an arboreal T. It's already eaten a cricket, so it seems fairly comfortable.

 

[antinous]

I think @Galapoheros has kept them before

 

[chanda]

I caught one last summer and brought her home. I just kept her in a pop-up mesh butterfly enclosure, misted a couple of times a week, and fed her a cricket once a week or so. I had intended to set her up in a proper enclosure, but she was gravid - and I didn't want a bunch of babies getting loose, as always seems to happen. (I've spent way too much time rounding up baby fishing spiders, wolf spiders, and orb weavers with a paintbrush and cup! Those mesh pop-ups are so much better for keeping tiny spiderlings - and fruit flies - contained.) Their needs seem to be pretty simple - like other huntsman spiders, good ventilation, room to run around, stuff to climb on and hid behind/under. I don't think the type or amount of substrate matters much, since they'll rarely even touch it - it just helps to keep up the moisture levels. Being a desert species, they won't require as much moisture/humidity as the tropical huntsman spiders.

In any case, she closed herself up in a web sphere just slightly smaller than a billiard ball with an egg sac and spent maybe a month or so in there. During that time I continued with the mistings (just to keep the ambient moisture levels up) but quit trying to feed her because she was sealed up inside her little dome anyway. The spiderlings hatched about a week ago, but stayed inside the little dome until yesterday. They finally chewed a hole in the dome and emerged, but no sign of mom. I can't find anything conclusive on whether Olios are supposed to practice matriphagy or not, but given her failure to reappear when the babies emerged, I'm assuming the little guys have eaten her.

Edit: just checked on them, and mom is alive and well! I guess she was just waiting for the last of the babies to emerge - there are about twice as many now as there were yesterday.

I have some pictures on my phone, so I'll try to get those posted when I find time to download them.