What got you started?

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
419
Surely you all did like I did and researched before you started in the hobby... So what was the T that drew you into the hobby?

Not your first, or your favorite, but the T you saw that made you go 'Wow, I really want to get more into this!'.

Mine has to be L. violacepes and the P. metallica. Just love 'em.
 

Chris_Skeleton

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Messages
1,309
GBB. I remember seeing it and being amazed. The second was the A. versicolor. I still have to purchase these two :D
 

TerribleGrizz

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
15
G. pulchra drew me into the hobby, and it just also happens to me my first and only (at least for now) T. {D
 

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
419
GBB. I remember seeing it and being amazed. The second was the A. versicolor. I still have to purchase these two :D
My GBB is boring as molasses in January.... But his webs are sssoooooo nice.

And I absolutely LOVE the versis... they are by far my favorite of the T's I've gotten thus far.

You should DEFINITELY get you a few, they're so awesome.
 

AudreyElizabeth

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 10, 2003
Messages
741
An arachnophobic boyfriend who happened to purchase a G. rosea to conquer his fears!!! Once he brought Mr. Jingles home I was just fascinated..... :D
 

NikiP

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
539
It wasn't just one T for me. It was the variety of colors that did me in. I mean, who would have thought that real tarantulas could come in blue, red, orange, purple, etc?
 

AbraCadaver

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 6, 2009
Messages
296
Ever since I was a kid I've loved spiders. I wanted a tarantula, but me mam wouldn't let me have one, because me brother is horribly afraid of them. So in protest I started bringing home spiders I found outside. Kept them in jars, and chucked some flies in there every now and then. I didn't know how to care for them, so they died rather quickly, but still..

When I got me own flat it just exploded, because I could finally get my highly desired eightlegged babies :D

Since april I've aquired 15 T's, and I really don't want to stop =p
 

BigJ999

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
Messages
188
Hmmm feeding black widow's as a kid and even catching brown recluses in my house. Plus catching jumping spiders and wolf spiders and feeding them. My first T was a Rosea who i fed a centipede to which killed it i was a kid at the time and didn't know any better. Then i got another one :D who lived a long time
 

odiakkoh

Arachnosquire
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
57
An arachnophobic boyfriend who happened to purchase a G. rosea to conquer his fears!!! Once he brought Mr. Jingles home I was just fascinated..... :D
Haha sounds like how my husband might end up. I'm planning on getting a T to help conquer my fear and my husband has started showing interest as well.
 

Pocket Jotter

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
3
Actually about 27 years ago i saw this little Tarantula in my pet shop and said mum i want one! NO! NO! she replied no spiders are coming into my house. I think it was a dwarf rose hair, anyway i met a girlfriend many many years later and for my first b/day together she bought me a Brazilian red and white (although the shop keeper said it was a red knee) hmm how can you mix those two up?? anyway i had no chance to research or anything and eventually lost the T to a stupid mistake. since then i have never looked back and never made a mistake or killed a T. I saved her Cobolt Blue and almost got bit 3 times but luckily enough i was too fast, it must have been that MMA training lol..

ohh yea and i did get that Tarantula i saw in the pet shop some 23 years later!

Bargain absolutely free...
 

MichiganReptiles

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
407
P. metallica. I was watching Robc's YouTube videos - came across them looking for good ways to set up a Dubia enclosure (the dubia were for some of my reptiles). I watched many of his tarantula videos and the one of Robc's P. metallica laying her eggs did me in. I was so fascinated that I continued to watch hundreds more videos and then decided to take the plunge. Prior to that I was terrified of house spiders.
 

Toirtis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
316
Surely you all did like I did and researched before you started in the hobby
Not at all...I came in fairly blind...but then, I was 10, and it was the seventies, where info was not so easily found, or even available.

... So what was the T that drew you into the hobby?
A huge, mature female B. smithi I received as a birthday gift.

Not your first, or your favorite, but the T you saw that made you go 'Wow, I really want to get more into this!'.
Actually, B. smithi fits all three of those criteria.
 

Hentzi

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
169
After going to North America when I was a young boy, I saw a brown Tarantula lovely thing we picked it up and it was so calm and I new I had to get one that's why my firm favourite is the Aphonopelma Hentzi this is what drew me to the hobby.
 

Sodaboy1978

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
8
My wifes Rosie and a pictures of the green bottle blue and Poky Regalis.
The GBB and Poky Regalis I am going to work my way up to though so I am thinking this time next year maybe.
 

AprilH

Petridish
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2005
Messages
85
I got my first T about 16 years ago as a rescue. It was a G. rosea that someone I knew wasn't taking care of, and when he couldn't keep it I took it. I was hooked from there, but didn't have the means to build up a collection. Over the years, I've went through phases of keeping more and less - usually just a few at a time. I kept ending up with males and would get discouraged when I never got anything back from loans. It's only been for the past few years that I've actually taken the step to keeping more seriously and breeding.

I have to admit, I was also a weird child and didn't talk to people much. I was fascinated with animals and bugs and stuff and would feed spiders outside and see how big they would get. Now I can keep stuff like that without looking too strange! {D
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
My first tarantula was a wild caught one - more than half a century ago. Research it? Anybody here remember what little information was available on such things back then? Close to nothing. Over the years after that I went through a few other individual scorpions and tarantulas - all wild caught because that was the only way to come by them. I never intended to have a collection of them though - it was always one animal at a time with gaps of time in between with no arachnids.

Then a couple friends of mine (both researchers) caused a bunch of slings of several different species to be delivered to my door. That's when I went in search of books and other information on how to keep them. Actually, the first problem was to identify them - most had arrived with no labels on the vials. So... a collection got started. Those first tarantulas did so well in captivity that I felt confident enough to consider getting others, and information was far more easily availabe than it had been in earlier years. The more I learned, the more interesting the animals became.

Early on I decided not to acquire a big collection - better to keep it down to a manageable size. However, it grew to the point I had to set up a couple shelves to house the spiders. Then another set of shelves. Then cages started appearing in other rooms and on top of my snake cages. I built another set of shelves last week to help control the clutter of cages and containers, but those shelves are already full and I'm trying to figure out how to redesign the reptile room to be a more space-efficient arachnid room.
 

BillyG

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
Messages
14
at first I just love what they look like(I was a blind newbie as well),the interesting thing is,when you put your love on them,and then you have to get through the scare of roaches or crickets or worms,and then suddenly you just realize you become brave than the old you and open a door to beautifulness.
 
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