Tarantula help

connjamm19

Arachnopeon
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Sep 10, 2010
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do Lasiadora parahybana, or salmon pink bird eaters make good begginers... are they highly venemouse, or hard to take care of???? thanks for the help
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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I personally would recommend you start with one of the classic "starters" and work your way from there. If you want a giant a grammostola pulchra might be a good one. Grammies are fairly easy to care for, and the pulcras are for the most part rather friendly and calm. But thats just me.
 

Scoolman

Arachnolord
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i personally would recommend you start with one of the classic "starters" and work your way from there. If you want a giant a grammostola pulchra might be a good one. Grammies are fairly easy to care for, and the pulcras are for the most part rather friendly and calm. But thats just me.
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1
 

connjamm19

Arachnopeon
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Sep 10, 2010
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2
I personally would recommend you start with one of the classic "starters" and work your way from there. If you want a giant a grammostola pulchra might be a good one. Grammies are fairly easy to care for, and the pulcras are for the most part rather friendly and calm. But thats just me.
k thanks for the help i really appreciate because i cant wait to get my first T! and i dont wanna get in over my head lol.. but yeah thanks im definitely gonna check out the grammostola pulchra, i just hope that paul becker has some, lol becasue paul and robc are the only sellers i know.... thanks again for the help
 

NikiP

Arachnobaron
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Check out the sale/trades forum :) There are a lot of sellers there. Although you can't go wrong with either of the ones you mentioned :)

I'll also throw G. pulchripes out there. A larger species, but generally even tempered.
 

Venom

Arachnoprince
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k thanks for the help i really appreciate because i cant wait to get my first T! and i dont wanna get in over my head lol.. but yeah thanks im definitely gonna check out the grammostola pulchra, i just hope that paul becker has some, lol becasue paul and robc are the only sellers i know.... thanks again for the help
G. pulchra is stunningly pretty, and a perfect starter. Some other good first tarantulas (and the L. parahybana is better for a second or third tarantula, due mostly to its size ), would be these:

Eupalaestrus campestratus (pink zebra beauty)

Brachypelma emilia (mexican redleg)

Brachypelma albopilosum (curly-hair )

Aphonopelma moderatum (Rio-Grande gold)

Grammostola aureostriata (Chaco golden-knee)

They're all bullet-proof in terms of easy care. They all have pretty good temperaments, and they're all at least 5-6 inchers. (7+ for the chaco). None of these has any kind of venom to worry about. In fact, no tarantula from either North or South America has significant venom--it's the Asians, Africans, and Australians that have the stronger venom.
 

Venom

Arachnoprince
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It's now G. pulchripes ;)
So it is! Thank you. :)

Although, I like the name "aureostriata" better, because it describes the appearance...."aureo" for golden, and "striata" for the stripes, and it has golden-striped knees.

World Spider Catalog V11.0 backs you up:

G. aureostriata Schmidt & Bullmer, 2001 = G. pulchripes (Simon, 1891) (Gabriel, 2009a: 9).
 

connjamm19

Arachnopeon
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Sep 10, 2010
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how are p pederseni, robc told me they are a bit harder than a starter pet, a while back but they are stunning, and based on venoms comment im thinking im gonna go with either a versi, a mexican red leg, or pedersini
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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I personally wouldn't recommend starting with a pokie. They run, they jump and they pack a decent punch if they do bite - and lets face it, for pretty much everyone that's new, stuff of this sort is more likely to happen, as they don't know quite how to handle the situations.

Also, I started with a Versi, and I am super happy about it. She's a sweet little girl, but they do jump and shoot poop. Especially after molt I've found(like when I water them after a molt, they go mad in there!). So if you're gonna handle them, any T for that matter, I would recommend doing it on your bed. If they jump, it's a soft landing.
 

Venom

Arachnoprince
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P. pederseni is one of the more venomous of the Asian tarantulas.

They're beautiful, to be sure. But they're far harder to be careful with than any terrestrial (like the LP.) The bite is no joke, either--often a hospital trip.


The versi is a fine tarantula! Wonderful T's--every bit as pretty as the P. pederseni, but they have negligible venom and are totally not defensive. ( Poecilotheria pederseni....in fact all the Poecilotherias, are both toxic, and unpredictably defensive, skittish, fast...and just a handful.)

If you like colorful tarantulas, there is also the Chromotopelma cyaneopubescens. They're super-hardy, and really interesting with their sheet webs. They're skittish, but not mean-tempered. They do flick hairs, but that's usually all they do besides run around scared. You might also look at Cyclosternum fasciatum, which is similar in temper and care to the C. cyanopubescens.
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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I'm sorry, but this is kinda my nerd field, and I need to say it. They're not toxic. They're venomous. The spider itself is not toxic, the venom however contains a level of toxicity.

Again, I am deeply sorry, but I just have a thing.. Like an eye twitch, just without the twitching of the eye.. YEah, something like that..
 
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Offkillter

Arachnosquire
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Jun 18, 2010
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Go with A.versicolor.I personaly love a good web.Just starting out I would avoid pokies....Your choice though:evil:
 

Venom

Arachnoprince
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I'm sorry, but this is kinda my nerd field, and I need to say it. They're not toxic. They're venomous.
Lol. At least I didn't say "poisonous." :rolleyes:

When I say a T is "toxic," I'm discussing the difference between the potency of venoms. ALL tarantulas are "venomous," of course, but not all have venom that is "toxic" to humans. It's just my way of getting "bite= bad" across.

If I say a T is "venomous," my reader could just think.. "wow really, tell me something I didn't know." I try to make the difference between venom potencies clear, that's all. :)

Incidentally....cool trivia. Did you know that Latrodectus spp. are BOTH "poisonous" AND "venomous" ? I read about an experiment that was conducted, in which several dozen mashed up, pulped, and very dead black widows were fed to a camel. It died, leading the researchers to conclude that Black widows, in addition to be hazardously venomous, were inedible and poisonous. No joke!


Again, I am deeply sorry, but I just have a thing.. Like an eye twitch, just without the twitching of the eye.. YEah, something like that..
Pff..no problem, dude. I'm the same way with "aggressive" vs "defensive." Drives me nuts.
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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Yeah, I know, I edited my post to be a bit more clear in my meaning.. And again, I just have a thing about these kinds of terms being used correctly.. Comes with the trade of being into criminolgy. Not saying that spiders are criminal, but the same definitions apply in this field.. I think I'll just shut up now..

Versi or pulchra would be my recommendations, have a blast, and welcome to the addiction!

Incidentally....cool trivia. Did you know that Latrodectus spp. are BOTH "poisonous" AND "venomous" ? I read about an experiment that was conducted, in which several dozen mashed up, pulped, and very dead black widows were fed to a camel. It died, leading the researchers to conclude that Black widows, in addition to be hazardously venomous, were inedible and poisonous. No joke!
Complete awesomeness! "can I offer you a black widow?" *guy croaks*
 
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Bill S

Arachnoprince
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Lol. At least I didn't say "poisonous." :rolleyes:

Incidentally....cool trivia. Did you know that Latrodectus spp. are BOTH "poisonous" AND "venomous" ?
Since venom is just one type of poison, Latrodectus are not the only spiders that are both venomous and poisonous - all of them are.

As with AbraCadaver's eye-twitch, this is one of mine. Poisons can be absorbed, injected, swallowed, inhaled, etc. There's a popular myth that poisons are only the ones you can swallow. Not sure where it came from, but it's not true. Poisons that spread through veins are venoms. Anything that is venomous is, by definition, also poisonous. As a result of a discussion on a different board long ago I once spent hours in a medical library tracking down and quoting a mountain of definitions that support this. I'm not inspired to repeat that effort - but the information is out there and readily available to anyone interested.

And of course, there are poisons that can function in more than one way. One that comes to mind is that produced by a spitting cobra. If the cobra bites you and injects it, it's a venom. But it can also be absorbed into moist membranes (such as the eyes) and cause strong toxic reaction. The poison produced by the green lynx spider is the same - and green lynx spiders defend themselves against mammals and birds by spraying the poison into the predator's eyes.
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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May I please ask for your source of information, Bill? Everything I have ever read on the subject of toxicology, poisons are ingested,inhaled and absorbed, venoms are injected. I would be most interested in knowing where it has been said that this definiton is no longer viable.
 
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Venom

Arachnoprince
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May I please ask for your source of information, Bill? Everything I have ever read on the subject of toxicology, poisons are ingested, venoms are injected. I would be most interested in knowing where it has been said that this definiton is no longer viable.
That is what I was thinking, too: poisons can be ingested, inhaled, absorbed through the skin, but venoms needed to be carried through the blood supply through direct injection. Most venoms can be ingested safely, as they break down in the stomach.
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
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Indeed, this is what I have gotten to know too.

I probably should fill in the thing about poisons, or else it will certainly be picked on, just really had to pee when I wrote it :D
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
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May I please ask for your source of information, Bill? Everything I have ever read on the subject of toxicology, poisons are ingested, venoms are injected. I would be most interested in knowing where it has been said that this definiton is no longer viable.
As I said, I spent part of a day in a medical library at a local hospital (University Medical Hospital in Tucson). I dug through every medical dictionary I could find in that library (there were several of them) and some of the toxicology reference books there as well. Back when I did this I posted a bibliography in the discussion board where this was being argued. Having done my research, I'm convinced of my viewpoint. I'm not offering to do your research for you - but the information is definitely out there, abundant, and accessible. I only caution that you use REAL medical references - not "amateur hour" sources such as Wikipedia or blogs. If you live near a teaching hospital, there should be a medical library there, and that's an excellent place to start. I'd place more faith in medical dictionaries than in common usage ones, although the common usage ones I've checked have supported the broad use of the term "poison".

If you are of the opinion that poisons need to be swallowed - what do you consider poison gases such as chlorine and phosgene? What about poison ivy and poison oak? (The poisons in these plants, by the way, can be effective if absorbed through the skin, swallowed, and inhaled as smoke. Probably could work though injection too, if someone was dumb enough to try that.) How would you classify the toxin derived from Dendrobatid frogs - which are exuded through the frog's skin, harvested, treated and modified, and finally "injected" through the victim's skin? Curare would be a plant poison that roughly parallels this, and another plant poison used to stun or kill fish is rotenone. Since neither of these is swallowed - do you not consider them poisons? I could go on - but I think you get the message.
 
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