Rescued Ts and/or other Arachnids

[octaJon]

Not sure if there's already a thread like this but here goes. Just curious if anyone has any arachnid(s) that holds a special place in their heart b/c they saved or rescued it from a dire situation. Please share your stories. Here's mine:

Several months ago at a reptile show, I found a seller (who was primarily selling hermit crabs with fancy paint jobs on their shells) with an E. uatuman in terrible conditions . I took this pic of its old enclosure after I rehoused it. As you can see, barely any substrate which was bone dry and consisted of large pieces, a disgusting dried up sponge in the middle, no real hide, etc. The worst part was the spider, which I unfortunately didn't take any pics of. It was emaciated and likely dehydrated. It's prosoma was between the size of a quarter and half dollar while its opisthosoma was about the size of a kidney bean; not shriveled but very disproportionate. As much as I hated to fund this type of irresponsible dealer, I couldn't in good conscience leave it. After an ignored attempt to get a discount due to negligent conditions, I brought this little emerald gem home.

Ephebopus genus get a bad rep for their temperament but this little beauty has been very passive with rehousing and cage maintenance. I like to think it's out of appreciation for having rescued it from such a sorry situation, but that's just wishful thinking.

Fast forward to the present: he/she is in a deep sterilite container w/ approximately 12" of substrate. It is a happy pet hole who is seldom seen, has a voracious appetite and is starting to look like a respectable tarantula again. This little critter is very near and dear to my heart for having such an unfortunate start at life.

Hard to see but here he/she is deep in it's burrow under the hide

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I'm not sure if the term 'rescued' is correct now for what I'm saying because, parameters/set up only talking, the Theraphosidae was housed really fine.

Anyway we are talking about a 0.1 Grammostola pulchripes. Yeah, I like those, don't get me wrong... they are lovely, chubby, fluffy and whatever, but are a 'league' of T's that belongs to more than 20 years ago, when I've started, so not exactly what I want/seek to purchase today.

However, this guy had said spider that basically lived in a class A Ganja/Marijuana environment, lol (he loved to smoke like an 'orange' India holy man). He was also an 'handler', and not even a beginner, just a guy that purchased, on a random day, a spider.

One day he was tired of the bugger (reasons unknow) so he said to my brother if he was interested... my brother took the bugger for me (my bro doesn't anymore keep arachnids).

I was lucky because, after not even a week from the 'delivery', the Army busted that guy and his father for Mafia, so yes, I saved that G.pulchripes, btw pretty grumpy (seriously she acts like an A.geniculata) because now she lives in a no more Ganja/Maria home, ih ih ih

 

[PidderPeets]

I'm not sure if the term 'rescued' is correct now for what I'm saying because, parameters/set up only talking, the Theraphosidae was housed really fine.

Anyway we are talking about a 0.1 Grammostola pulchripes. Yeah, I like those, don't get me wrong... they are lovely, chubby, fluffy and whatever, but are a 'league' of T's that belongs to more than 20 years ago, when I've started, so not exactly what I want/seek to purchase today.

However, this guy had said spider that basically lived in a class A Ganja/Marijuana environment, lol (he loved to smoke like an 'orange' India holy man). He was also an 'handler', and not even a beginner, just a guy that purchased, on a random day, a spider.

One day he was tired of the bugger (reasons unknow) so he said to my brother if he was interested... my brother took the bugger for me (my bro doesn't anymore keep arachnids).

I was lucky because, after not even a week from the 'delivery', the Army busted that guy and his father for Mafia, so yes, I saved that G.pulchripes, btw pretty grumpy (seriously she acts like an A.geniculata) because now she lives in a no more Ganja/Maria home, ih ih ih

You have the craziest stories, you know that?



As for my "rescue" story, it's certainly not as dire or exciting as the previous ones. But I consider it a rescue. Many months ago, I used to lurk the boards but was not an official member. One fateful day I noticed a post on here about a disappointing Craigslist ad for a free A. avic. The ad described it as a friendly tarantula that's handled regularly and it included the infamous "T on face" pic. Upon looking at the ad, I noticed that it was actually only a 20 minute drive from my house. I texted the posted number the following morning and as it turned out, the woman still had it available, so I set up an enclosure as fast as possible, and hopped in the car and headed over.

Upon arriving and being brought inside, I see a horizontal 10 gallon tank on the floor literally in the middle of the living room. There's a handful of crickets wandering about and two short hides on the very bottom of the tank. The woman opens the top and I see a very scrunched up adult T hiding in a web tube just big enough for it to stress pose in.

I try to use the lid of a deli container I brought for travel in order to coax it into the container with as little stress to the T as possible. The woman proceeds to tell me that it's okay to just pick him up, he's friendly and her kids hold him all the time. She reaches her hand in to grab him and he proceeds to run up her arm and try desperately to get away. I managed to get him off her arm and into the cup.

I got him home and put him in his forever home to web up a storm and live out his days free of harassment. A few months later, he molts and "he" turns out to be a "she". So I get to give her even more time than I thought to live stress free and content.

She's particularly special to me because she's an absolute sweetheart, a little bit of a goofball, the most docile of all my Ts, and she must be a saint to be handled like she used to be without biting. Oh, and of course, she's beautiful

 

[cold blood]

I didn't buy my first...wasn't even looking or even interested...I just love animals and respect life.

I come home from work one night and the college kid next door is over (we lived near Marquette at the time) and my bro tells me to look at what the neighbor has...my bro knew I was a bit arachnophobic and probably wanted a laugh himself.....turns out the neighbor has an AF G. porteri in a deli cup. Having worked at the zoo for years, one of the keepers, knowing I was arachnophobic, schooled me a bit on ts...enough to know it was a very long lived species...listed merely as "rose hair".

So I ask, "why did you get a tarantula"? His response was appalling...."I got it to throw at my roommate...its going to be hilarious, I can't wait to see his face".

Luckily at this time I was holding the deli cup...appalled, I asked if he realized this was certain death for a t that could live another decade? And why couldn't he just use a rubber spider?

His "who cares, its just a spider" response made me angry...I then asked him to leave and informed him I would be confiscating his tarantula.....please leave now.


That was 19 years ago....she's still with me.

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• cold blood
• Feb 7, 2017

porteri

 

[Ungoliant]

Twinkle Toes (Mature Female Avicularia avicularia)

The first story is more of an inadvertent rescue. In November 2013, my mother surprised me by getting me a mature female Avicularia avicularia for my birthday. All she knew from the seller was that "it's seven years old, from Brazil, and loves to be petted." (I knew enough to recognize the species and to know that it would rather not be handled at all.)

The enclosure she was in was a barren 10-gallon aquarium with a log laid horizontally on the substrate as the only place to hide. Apparently she had lived in this enclosure for years.

I went out and got her an Exo Terra Small/Tall (12" x 12" x 18") with a vertical cork and climbing vines. She seemed a lot more comfortable in there. She lived with me for over three petting-free years until she passed away in March 2017 (at the age of 10) due to a bad molt.



Miss Hissypants (female Ceratogyrus marshalli)

Another inadvertent rescue. I got her at Repticon last fall. After I got her out of the cramped deli cup she was in and into her new enclosure, I realized she had been living in that cramped deli cup for a while (and not just as a temporary container for the show) as evidenced by the amount of webbing and poop.

Female Ceratogyrus marshalli (My First Old World)

• Ungoliant
• Oct 7, 2017
• 5
• ceratogyrus ceratogyrus cornuatus ceratogyrus marshalli female marshalli mature female miss hissypants straighthorned tarantula

My new female Ceratogyrus marshalli, my first Old World tarantula. (She is about 4".)

I think this claustrophobic experience turned her into a pet hole, because she dug a deep burrow and hasn't come out of the burrow since she dug it.


Orphan Annie (Kukulcania hibernalis)

Lastly, a deliberate rescue (from nature) of a true spider.

In the summer of 2016, one of the southern house spiders (Kukulcania hibernalis) that lived on my porch made an egg sac above my screen door. Awesome! I love these spiders.

However, she died defending the sac from what I later learned was Allochares azureus, a species of parasitoid wasp that specializes in Kukulcania hibernalis. (It lays an egg on the spider's abdomen, and the emerging larva feeds on the spider until it is ready to pupate.)


This left the sac with no mother. Having bred Kuks before, I figured the best course was just to leave the sac alone until it was time for the Kuks to emerge, and then open it up if they didn't come out on their own.

A few weeks later, I found the egg sac on the floor of my porch. I had not planned to open the egg sac for another week or two, but it looked rather shriveled, so I opened it out of curiosity, thinking it was no longer viable.

I saw one viable sling, a bunch of egg casings, and some first instar slings that I likely doomed by opening it so soon. I also saw a carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) in the sac that may have been preying on the slings.


I felt bad that I had inadvertently killed a bunch of slings, so I decided to raise the one viable sling. He is really a survivor. At one time, I thought he had escaped from the enclosure, and I stopped feeding and watering. I went to clean out the enclosure a few months later, and he was still in there, alive. I moved him into a better enclosure, and he is doing well.

Update: he molted into a mature male, so I tried pairing him with two of my females, and then I released him outside where there are some wild females for him to court.

 

[Waylon]

Do you think the pot effected the T?