Pros and cons of popular tarantula YouTubers?

Ron Fults

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
21
I agree about the Tarantula Kat assessment. I unsubscribed from her channel for just that reason. She also came on this forum for about a day, was sort of snarky, and then left.
I never subscribed to her channel but I did watch it. The one thing that really put me off is when she did a video critiquing other people's enclosures.
I was like who are you to be bashing someone else's enclosures when you yourself are a newbie.
I think because she has a YouTube channel and has some followers that makes her some sort of expert or someone with lots of experience and knowledge. It doesn't.
Having said that I don't mean to be judgemental and if I am I'm sorry. I do not like to pass judgement on anyone for anything. She may be the nicest person, I don't know. I'm just giving my thoughts on what I've seen.
There are a few other channels I watch from time to time but not on a regular basis. And probably one channel I forgot to mention that I also watch regularly that I enjoy is Tarantula Haven.

I’m not an experienced keeper by any means but what I find hard about all the different YouTubers is the wide array of scientific name pronunciations. I come from a background in horticulture and entomology and had to learn the way to pronounce names in Latin and they vary a lot on how each different person either correctly or incorrectly pronounces genus and species names.
I too struggle with the correct pronunciation of some Latin names myself.
 

ThorsCarapace22

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
118
The first channels i watched on YouTube was tarantulaguy1976, Marilynn Moore, and Tom Moran. After watching them I decided to get my first tarantula almost 5 years ago! When I was little I was in love with spiders, I would always draw pictures of them and hopefully catch any glimpse of them on the discovery channel. When I learned about YouTube I hit spiders up pretty fast. So thanks to you all for giving me that push into the hobby. And thanks to you guys on this thread for showing me some great YouTube channels.
 
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Brachyfan

Deactivated account
Joined
Jun 14, 2019
Messages
310
I never subscribed to her channel but I did watch it. The one thing that really put me off is when she did a video critiquing other people's enclosures.
I was like who are you to be bashing someone else's enclosures when you yourself are a newbie.
I think because she has a YouTube channel and has some followers that makes her some sort of expert or someone with lots of experience and knowledge. It doesn't.
Having said that I don't mean to be judgemental and if I am I'm sorry. I do not like to pass judgement on anyone for anything. She may be the nicest person, I don't know. I'm just giving my thoughts on what I've seen.
There are a few other channels I watch from time to time but not on a regular basis. And probably one channel I forgot to mention that I also watch regularly that I enjoy is Tarantula Haven.


I too struggle with the correct pronunciation of some Latin names myself.
I can see some of tbe criticism towards Kat being valid but I took her videos critiquing enclosures to be more focused on aesthetics as opposed to husbandry. But then again the first thing you learn is enclosures so even a newb could accurately critique most beginner species.

Trying to breed G pulchripes while the male had a mouthful of crickets was probably a bad error :(
 

Vanisher

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
2,533
I forgot about BirdspidersCH I watch him cos he makes alot if recordings of tarantulas in their natural habitat. I found this much more enjoyable and intresting than watching feeding and rehouse videos
 

Mr Tea

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 15, 2019
Messages
2
Tom Moran (+ his podcast) and Mark’s Tarantulas are the two that I frequently watch. Both are educational. Mark does an excellent job with the videography and his enclosures are stunning.

I am not that experienced with T’s, but I recognized early on that folks like DTG did not offer an example that I would want to follow.
 

Erica Clemente

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
25
The only one with much credibility to me is Tom Moran. He's more educational than he is clickbaity, so he probably gets a lot less views.
I am still pretty new to this hobby. My husband has kept a small collection for 20+ years so when I fell in love with my first t, an A. Avicularia I asked him if he would help me with her. I bought her from work ( yea I work at Petco...side note that’s better for future T’s at my store as they at least get better treatment now) We are older, I am 54 so we relied on what he know for his terrestrial and fossorial T’s to start and realized stuff was wrong to begin with. Went to google care sheets and found ones with images of other types of Pink Toes as that was the only name I knew. So that led me to reading and watching everything I could find. Quickly saw that DTG was not doing things we thought were correct we did find Dark Den and EL and Tarantula Kat. I will say that I did gain a lot of information. that information did lead me to Tom Moran and here by the way. The good thing about those videos for me is I did learn not to soak her tank and I did learn a lot of things. Some I now agree with, some I didn’t.
So here is where i have to say that posting questions here for me was very intimidating. I am exactly what gets yelled at in beginner questions. I bought a cute tarantula at Petco and learned later. For that reason, it took me from October of getting her to posting here very recently for fear of being yelled at. That made those videos easier to tolerate if not as a stepping stone. I did listen when they discussed the difference between old worlds and new worlds and that handling wasn’t necessary to be a good keeper, in fact maybe dangerous to all and certainly not on the T’s happy list. I did learn not to keep her under constant heat and swampy conditions and about cross ventilation. I made many mistakes and right now I am morning her, but because of the easy access to them I am here and listen to Tom Morans Podcast
 

thatdadlife619

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
207
I forgot about BirdspidersCH I watch him cos he makes alot if recordings of tarantulas in their natural habitat. I found this much more enjoyable and intresting than watching feeding and rehouse videos
I just subscribed to that channel, the guy almost comes off as an entomologist
 

thatdadlife619

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
207
I stand corrected, you’re right. His videos are super entertaining though. I wish I had the money to travel the world looking for t’s in their natural habitat
 
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Colorado Ts

Arachnoangel
Joined
Oct 16, 2019
Messages
831
There was a time, that I had become a YouTube addict...watching hours of YouTube videos. I felt like slug, too much....ugh.

Now I watch the occasional video. Tom Moran, Dark Den and Tarantula Collective are the 3 that I watch most. Unless I'm looking for something specific...then I do detailed searches, or better yet...crack a book or try to find a PDF on the subject. I’m developing a fairly substantial digital documents library.
 

thatdadlife619

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
207
The guy already did publish several arachnological papers. He's not a professional scientist, as far as I know. As in "not having a position at a research facility". Decent science nonetheless.
Yes very informative. Have you seen his video where he reacts to that garbage “Kings of Pain” video of the guy getting bit by “the biggest spider in the world” and it looks to be an aconthoscurria of some sort? It’s cringey to the max and birdspiders just rips it a new one
 

ColeopteraC

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
425
Although channels draw people to the hobby it should be emphasised to spectators of the hobby or beginners that the clickbaity, Nat-geo style ‘junk food channels’ who focus and cherry pick the occasional excitement of an O/W going into a threat pose are simply highlights of the hobby and do not present it in a realistic manner.

It’s the same with pretty much all channels focusing on hobbies. Let’s take fishing for an example, you get the click bait style, background music, panoramic drone camera view channels with video titles such ‘tiny pond holds HUGE ANCIENT FISH THAT NEARLY BROKE MY ROD:rofl:’that focus on the Adrenalin filled highlights whilst their technique of handling fish or their casting can be questionable at most. Or, you get informative, interesting and realistic channels that don’t attract with a shiny wrapper. It’s just the case.

Instead emphasis or greater support of channels such as Tom Moran or BirdSpidersCH as being realistic and more reliable whilst channels such as the dark den are unrealistic adrenaline fuelled highlights of the hobby. It’s like telling kids (and 20 year older kids ;)) that chocolate is tasty and exciting yet a meal of scallops and thinly diced radishes is healthier and overall more wholesome.
 
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ColeopteraC

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
425
Yes very informative. Have you seen his video where he reacts to that garbage “Kings of Pain” video of the guy getting bit by “the biggest spider in the world” and it looks to be an aconthoscurria of some sort? It’s cringey to the max and birdspiders just rips it a new one
Oh my god, what is this you’ve just introduced me too. Reminds me of the ‘cringey tarantula videos thread’
593E37BD-D1F5-40C6-B7C0-04481E2C093F.jpeg
 

Arachnoenthusiast

Arachnoknight
Active Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2020
Messages
286
I've watched dark den and exotics lair. I will still watch dark den, to see all the tarantulas and scorpions, not really for any info. If I'm looking to learn a little something I go for Tom Moran. One other that I enjoy is, the tarantula collective, Richard's videos are always enjoyable
 

Nik2894

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
15
Watching the Youtube community got me over my fears of spiders so that is a big PRO. Con? my fiancee has to put up with tarantulas in the house .

I did however do a lot of research into keeping T's and considered getting them for over a year before making a decision. I also looked into a lot of online research also. For educational, I like Tom Moran, The Tarantula Collective and Mark's Tarantulas as they offer quite a bit of info on different species. For entertainment I like watching The Dark Den also.

I have also learned what not to do i.e. teasing my tarantulas with a piece of grass. I enjoy watching videos on YT, however I may not agree with certain things that keepers do with their tarantulas. I am big on feeding, maintaining, admiring them and also then leaving them the heck alone lol.
 

Rhino1

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
490
Pros- information is readily available, entertainment value and it's nice to be able to watch hobby related vids.
Cons- Bad information, poor practice, poor attitude can be promoted.
Ok so I've had more time to watch some vids, I was recently shown that I can watch YouTube on our TV o_Oand have been watching all the full length arachnid/insect documentaries I can find as well:geek:
I still like DarkDen that dude is entertaining af and I like his vivarium builds plus my wife will watch these with me (she isn't into bugs n stuff)
I tried the Tom Moran vids as he is highly recommended by AB members, for me they are ok, very informative.
Exotics Lair *sigh* I've really tried with this guy but these are really bad vids imo, it doesn't promote anything worthy in the hobby.
Tarantula Collective- I like this guys attitude, very chill and sensible vids.
Jossers Jungle- this chick is a bit cute and has decent vids, my daughter's will watch these vids with me.
Any other worthy youtubers I should watch?
 

ColeopteraC

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
425
It’s just awful I know
The fact he looks to be howling in complete agony is even worse:rofl: Invert and reptile misinformation always pushes my buttons. I have to endure the constant tabloid inspired frenzy of ‘deadly false widow invasions’ constantly thanks to the sun, daily express and more.
 

thatdadlife619

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
207
Same. Especially for something as petty as views or likes on YouTube. Necrotizing venom? I didn’t know if I should laugh or be mad it was so absurd
 
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