What Got You Started

[saturnthegrey]

I've always had a fascination with spiders and I thought "what's better than catching spiders outside and keeping them for a year or two until they died? Having much larger ones that can live 20+. I then found myself on here constantly learning about them for months until I decided I definitely wanted to start collecting them and that it wasn't just a passing interest. Now all I want to do all day is watch my T's and sit on the boards haha

 

[scorpanok]

I don't know how long ago it was when I decided I wanted a tarantula but what finally pushed me over the edge and into the hobby was seeing an add for 2 p.metallica's for a great price only ten minutes away from where I was at the time.

 

[TomKemp]

Growing up in my grandparents old house it was always chock full of spiders. Wolf spiders and Dolomedes Tenebrosus were quite common, as were many others. I had a fear of them as a kid. Watching Kingdom of the spiders as a youngster solidified the interest. I bought a "rose hair" at a local pet store in my early teens out of curiosity mainly and the rest was history. And of course King Diamond made them look cool also.

 

[louise f]

I did it to get over a ridiculous level of arachnopobia. Well, it worked, but I think it worked a little too well.

Welcome to the club friend, same here...Lol

 

[shaneshac]

I have been into all wildlife my entire life and even had a dessicated tarantula (labelled as Peruvian Giant Tarantula) and large forest scorpion on my wall when i was 10

About 7 years ago I bought a house in the countryside and decided to do some macro photography whilst i was out walking the dogs. I found a lot of spiders including Lycosa hispanica (see pic) which were quite skittish so took one home to photograph in controlled conditions. Only then did a i realise I had no clue how to keep this spider alive and well so started looking up online and found the tarantula hobby which was completely unknown to me at the time.

I got an adult male G pulchripes which I paired up with a female from one of the moderators in a spanish T-forum and got a load of spiderlings a few months later

 

[Poec54]

I hate most people... Poec45 please dont school me ln this one.

Oh, you're referring to my brother, Poec45.

 

[Lander9021]

I was at the defence school of transport (my phase 3) I was in the smoking shelter when me and a college saw a spider in the top corner "wrapping" a fly of some sort, now as I consumed my cigarette I kept glancing at the spider just watching it spin a web ect . I gave it some thought and watched a few vids on YouTube (search phase beeing : tarantulas big and deadly.....idiot)
But then I lost interest or was too busy either way same outcome...when I left I got a new job and then stumbled across jon3800 and tarantulaguy1975.
I then watched videos for a few weeks and then woke up one morning when I was off work and headed to the reptile and ivert centre where I got my g.rosea sling. Then found this site got called a ballbag cos I did some dumb stuff and now I'm keeping my sling happy and healthy

 

[LittleT]

Another one who was scared of Spiders! So I started researching about Tarantula's, became fascinated and brought a couple of Euathlus sp. 'Yellow' spiderlings back in 2012 and now I'm keeping 51 species. Nearly all of them are small or dwarf species, still have some more on my want/wish list but I do have a couple of bigger species on there too, I think the larger ones would make me nervous but I hope to be confident enough to own a few at some point in the future.

 

[Lander9021]

I keep wanting to just go out and have a spending spree to get loads of nw terrestrials but the Mrs would freak like mad beeing as she gave birth yesterday

 

[Jerry]

Always have been a big fan of insects and arachnids have had various creepy crwlys for years and for some reason the spiders just caught my attention started out with a bunch of self caught common spiders then I say an A. Avic at the local pet store and it just clicked have HD my avic for a couple months and resontly got a B. Vagans sling and am looking to get more provided my wife will let me LOL there amazing creatures and really injoy them

 

[crlovel]

Growing up, I wanted to be an entomologist. If I could get it into a Bug Zoo (do they even make them anymore?), I brought it home. My mother worked for a distributor, was always bringing home snakes, lizards, and such. I had a newt and frog tank that I took care of when I was five or six, and I had a pair of wild caught box turtles for nearly 20 years, and we had a Burmese python, raised from a baby until it was about 15 feet or so. He went to a local educational program that took reptiles to area schools for programs when he got too big to work with. My parents were heavily involved with AKC show dogs, and dog agility, too, and I worked extensively with dog agility for some time in the 90's.

I'd always had snakes (pythons, mainly), lizards (gold tegu, monitors, iguanas, geckos), turtles (African Sidenecks, and a girlfriend and I had a pair of tortoises), frogs. I was going to breed Horned Frogs, but college (and lack of room for a wading pool) put a damper on much of it. After college (this was early to mid 90's), I kept a few small lizards, but began looking more seriously at inverts. I wound up with an Emperor Scorpion tank, and those things bred like roaches. This was around the late 90's, I guess. I had a few tarantulas now and then, mostly smithi and rosea, as I recall, nothing "serious." I still have the book I used back then, the one by Philipe de Vosjoli, and a few others in the same series on other animals. Badly out-dated now.

Marriage, having a house, career as a government subcontractor, two dogs, three cats, always aquariums, occasionally something else, but the interest was always there. I joined these forums about five years ago, back when I had a porteri, and lurked for ages, reading, seeing the new species, etc. Last year, I picked up an adult S. subspinipes and another porteri. The subspinipes was interesting, but not much to my interest. I had no trouble working with it, though, and its care brought me up to speed with the technology and equipment changes that took place in small terrariums for species that require more heat and humidity, which I hadn't really previously dealt with for inverts. That was my primary knowledge gap, I guess, and that was pretty easily filled in.

The subspinipes up and croaked out of the blue. No idea why, no reasoning behind it. As it was an adult, I suspect it was old age, but it's still a mystery. After it died in January, I did a bit more research, still lurking here, and dove into tarantulas. I attended a local reptile show. I'd always had adults, and I decided to start with slings, primarily NW terrestrials, not to get a handle on dealing with defensive or potent species, but just to ensure that I could deal with delicate slings. By my reasoning, if I could successfully raise slings into juveniles and adults, I could certainly work with the less-delicate adults. I did my research, made a list of what I was looking for, and brought home a few slings: parahybana, geniculata, cyaneopubescens, and an emilia. Somehow, a juvenile female murinus also wound up in my mix. And there it began. Barely three months later, 27 tarantulas, 25 different species, a good mix of NW terrestrial and OW fossorial/terrestrial/arboreal. I plan to start my first breeding project by the end of the year, a colony of H. villosellas.

 

[Toxoderidae]

Been keeping reptiles and amphibians all my life, first pet I remember was a leopard frog I raised from a tadpole when I was 3. Kept various frogs and lizards, a lot being given away as I moved (from WI to AR to GA) with my only pets that were able to stay with me the entire ride was my ball python, 2 Phyllocrania paradoxa, and WC treefrog that I released. The ghost mantids (phyllocrania paradoxa) lived for almost 2 years before dying, had I recorded it I could've set a record for longest lived mantis most likely, (that species is the rosea of the mantis world, they do everything slow except eating) And when I lived in AR, I caught some of the wild aphonopelma, wolf spiders, and black widows, but still got a little spooked around them sometimes. Then, on October 26, 3 days before my birthday, my mum got me an Avicularia avicularia from Petco (I know.) I got hooked, there was a reptile show next month, and I was already going to look for another ball python, so I went hoping to pick up a G. pulchripes (I was still using common names and thought "Chaco gold knees" looked like the coolest things ever) I saw my first "Ornamentals" in person, and to think I was actually scared of them! I said "Ornamentals are really cool, but they're too fast and scary" Then less than a month later, in December I pick up 2 regalis slings, and the collection's been growing since, with 11 OW tarantulas (2 obligate burrowers, "the grumps" and 9 loving pokies) and 3 NW terrestrials.

 

[Toff202]

I think it was a Marpissa muscosa I found in my back yard when I was ten or so, though I've always been fascinated by 'bugs'.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Oh, you're referring to my brother, Poec45.

Muahahahahahah, sounds like a Groucho Marx (with cigar of course) one, this.

 

[Ryuti]

I've always had a fascination with spiders and I thought "what's better than catching spiders outside and keeping them for a year or two until they died? Having much larger ones that can live 20+. I then found myself on here constantly learning about them for months until I decided I definitely wanted to start collecting them and that it wasn't just a passing interest. Now all I want to do all day is watch my T's and sit on the boards haha

I'm not allowed to have any more pets and tarantulas are very easy to hide, so that's a huge reason why i got into them.

I've also just been very fascinated with arachnids and bugs in general since i was a toddler. I was never scared of spiders (unless they were running up my arm or ran when i tried to capture them and let them outside) and used to hold little wolf spiders, and whatnot.

Kept a 2-3 jumping spiders (phiddipus audax?) and one of them laid an egg sac and I had them hatch.

They're just fun to keep and really "different" from your average pet.

I still much prefer keeping reptiles and stuff but i can see myself getting a shelf for tarantulas when I move out of my house.

 

[pnshmntMMA]

I had always wanted scorps so I got a few and did a nice naturalistic setup. Kept reading about how awesome Ts were and then got sucked into it bigtime. Left for a while to do turtles, downsized to one turtle and am getting back into Ts.

 

[Toff202]

I'm not allowed to have any more pets and tarantulas are very easy to hide, so that's a huge reason why i got into them.

I know, right? My mom still thinks I have 24 (I currently have 47, of which 33 tarantulas)

 

[saturnthegrey]

@Ryuti love wolf spiders. I found one with about fifteen babies on her back and it was amazing watching them grow for a few months until the mom died, then I felt bad so I let them go.

 

[Ryuti]

I know, right? My mom still thinks I have 24 (I currently have 47, of which 33 tarantulas)

god its so hard! I want more but I need to remember to have room for the adult enclosures too (unless I get something slow growing)

right now I only have 4, but i gotta remember that the little ones grow fast (I have a 2" irminia and 2.5 cambridgei, hear they grow like weeds) so i gotta keep that in the back of my head

 

[Toff202]

right now I only have 4, but i gotta remember that the little ones grow fast (I have a 2" irminia and 2.5 cambridgei, hear they grow like weeds) so i gotta keep that in the back of my head

I can guarantee you that they do!