Tarantulas that attack water drops

[Moltar]

I think this behavior is just them sensing vibrations and having a predatory response; it's prey aggression. They feel the vibrations in the soil, assume it's something edible and thus attack. If you keep pouring/spraying water they figure they missed on the first tag and try again. Because of this i'd say it's not specific to any certain species. Moreso it's going to happen with any t that stays in the open and will stalk prey rather than being strictly 'wait and ambush'. In my collection i see this from N coloratovillosus, G rosea, A geniculata and B albopilosum. So... try NW terrestrials, they'll probably do it for ya'.

 

[cacoseraph]

i think this has to do with transfer of prey agression

i think you could make just about any spider attack water droplets. start off by always dropping live prey RIGHT next to your spider. this should eventually condition it to think anything that drops into its cage is food. this should hopefully make it start attacking the water

if not, you might try getting a few smaller prey items and dropping one right by the spider. let it grab up the prey and definitely figure out it is food. now pour a thin stream of water right next to the spider. once it attacks it feed the spider another prey item RIGHT away. this isn't rewarding it like you do a dog... this is hopefully mixing stimuli and feeding response up.



in trurth, this is the first time i have seen someone who WANTS a waterkiller... usually i see ppl asking how to stop it. heh.

 

[Corranthe]

I just saw my 1" B. smithi sling do this last night. She is always out in the open and gets excited whenever I open the top of her enclosure because she has come to assume that the sudden motion of the top opening means food is about to get dropped in. Well, last night I went and filled her near-empty bottle cap water dish and she practically jumped into it. She had such a startled look on her little face when she realized that she was wet. It was sooo cute. Like a kitten falling into a saucer of milk. lol.

 

[Mina]

This is going to sound crazy but I can hold my P. cancerides, she sometimes puts up a threat pose but she is pretty docile....but if prey is near its history she will nail it with out hesitation. I did get bit by her a week ago but she wasnt after me....a cricket crawled on my hand when I was doing maintence and she nailed the cricket that was on my hand...she didn't get me very good.

No, not to us. We have a very docile penultimate male P. cancerides. He is a sweetheart. He is scary looking though, and quite large. Up until now I thought we were the only people who had a nice one.
I also have a shy OBT, she runs and hides if I even move her house.

 

[kyrga]

My A. avic jumps straight out of tube web and into the water dish when I fill it. My G. rosea usually just comes crawling out of her burrow to investigate.

 

[silieputty]

So far, only my Lasiodora difficilis has done this. I stopped pouring the water in after that - now I remove the soda bottle cap and fill it up manually. It was kinda funny to watch, but probably stressful for the T.

 

[ronin]

I have an A. genic, G. aureostriata, and G. pulchra that do this. No. 1 without question though is the A. genic.

 

[fartkowski]

While we are on the subject of T's attacking water.
My big B vegans was interested in what I was doing with her water dish.
She decided to take a snap at it and in the meantime splashing me with water.
I almost believe she did it on purpose

 

[Akitayoji]

I can't believe NO ONE said Nhandu chromatus! If it so much as tickles the trip wire, he will attack it.

 

[Kwadapok]

My Rosea attacks the water I pour into the dish. She'll even sit there with one foot floating on the water. She'll stay there for awhile too.

My Rosea will do the same thing.

 

[ParabuthusKing]

b. vagans is my only water attacker and she/he gets pissy!!

 

[NeitherSparky]

My a hentzi doesn't attack the water but he has to come over and try to see what's going on when I fill his dish. Sometimes I simply can't fill it because he sprawls over it. A lot of times I can't do any maintenance in his enclosure because he has to come over and get into whatever I'm doing. Never aggressive, never pouncing, just sauntering over and literally sprawling over whatever thing I'm trying to mess with. It's like he's all, "this is MINE".

 

[Pulk]

My L. parahybana, one of two OBTs, and G. rosea (occasionally) do it.

 

[Austin S.]

I took the lid off of my H. gigas enclosure today to fill up the ladies water. There is a MM cohabing with her by the way. Well the water hits the cup, male slowly comes out of her burrow to see whats going on. He walks over to the dish as I'm filling it up, touches it, slaps his front legs at it, touches it again, then dives into it, haha. This guys a character.

 

[omni]

I have 2 water dishes in my adult P.scrofa's habitat, because as soon as I try to fill one, she's on it before it's half full so I just squirt the other one at the opposite end :} I can usually fill the second one before she gets there

 

[Moltar]

I can't believe NO ONE said Nhandu chromatus! If it so much as tickles the trip wire, he will attack it.

Nah, mine doesn't do this. He is the second worst water dish flipper overer (after A genic) but is still to chickeny at 3" to do anything but run for cover when i so much as touch the tank.

 

[kean]

My B. Albo loves chasing water droplets...

 

[Corranthe]

Nah, mine doesn't do this. He is the second worst water dish flipper overer (after A genic) but is still to chickeny at 3" to do anything but run for cover when i so much as touch the tank.

Yeah, mine is the same way. She waits until she is 100% sure that it is a cricket moving around in her enclosure before attacking it. Anything else she just runs away from. But the water dish is ALWAYS flipped or burried.

 

[bassgod]

My P. cancerides is only 1.5 inches and it never fails to attack water dropls.

 

[WyvernsLair]

My female B. smithi, all of my female B. emilia's, and one of my G. rosea's like to attack water even though they know it's not a cricket getting dropped in. O