Talk about getting your heart pumping!
Here's the story:
When I got to my classroom this morning I went straight to Precious to check on her and see how settled in over the weekend. I very much expected her to still be sitting at the base of her tube. To my surprise, she was out by her water dish all the way on the other side of her enclosure (about 30" from her tube).
I admired her for a bit, then noticed a large number of isopods had drown in her large water dish. There is a large rock in the dish, but I had place it in the center. I decided I should move the rock next to the edge of the dish so the isopods could escape the dish when they fell in.
I carefully slid the lid open, so as not to disturb Precious. I reached down to grab the rock (need I remind you, Precious is sitting at the edge of the water dish). As soon as I touched the rock, SLAAAAPP!!! Precious gave me a solid slap with her two front legs, I felt her tarsal claws drag against my skin as she pulled back, and immediately assumed a threat pose. Surprisingly, I did not jerk my hand out of the enclosure, but I did pull it back toward the end of the tank against the glass, about 3" from where it was.
My heart is pounding just writing this.
If she had wanted to she could have easily sank her huge fangs deep into the soft tissue between my thumb and index finger.
My error? Up to this point all my interactions with her had been at the LPS, where she had always been very lethargic, and sedate. I had worked around her in this manner many times before with absolutely no reaction from her wahtsoever. I think she may have been to cold, and too dry, in the LPS. Now, her enclosure measures 80F on the warm end and 68F on the cool end. I believe the warm temps revitalized her.
I can assure you, I will never reach into her house again without the 10" tongs. Lessoned learned.
Forget the venom, those ~1.5" scare the heck out of me.
Here's the story:
When I got to my classroom this morning I went straight to Precious to check on her and see how settled in over the weekend. I very much expected her to still be sitting at the base of her tube. To my surprise, she was out by her water dish all the way on the other side of her enclosure (about 30" from her tube).
I admired her for a bit, then noticed a large number of isopods had drown in her large water dish. There is a large rock in the dish, but I had place it in the center. I decided I should move the rock next to the edge of the dish so the isopods could escape the dish when they fell in.
I carefully slid the lid open, so as not to disturb Precious. I reached down to grab the rock (need I remind you, Precious is sitting at the edge of the water dish). As soon as I touched the rock, SLAAAAPP!!! Precious gave me a solid slap with her two front legs, I felt her tarsal claws drag against my skin as she pulled back, and immediately assumed a threat pose. Surprisingly, I did not jerk my hand out of the enclosure, but I did pull it back toward the end of the tank against the glass, about 3" from where it was.
My heart is pounding just writing this.
If she had wanted to she could have easily sank her huge fangs deep into the soft tissue between my thumb and index finger.
My error? Up to this point all my interactions with her had been at the LPS, where she had always been very lethargic, and sedate. I had worked around her in this manner many times before with absolutely no reaction from her wahtsoever. I think she may have been to cold, and too dry, in the LPS. Now, her enclosure measures 80F on the warm end and 68F on the cool end. I believe the warm temps revitalized her.
I can assure you, I will never reach into her house again without the 10" tongs. Lessoned learned.
Forget the venom, those ~1.5" scare the heck out of me.
