Your biggest pain in the butt tarantula

[SkittleBunny]

My LP slings, only because they are so tiny I cant see them hardly, so feeding them is stressful. Just newbie problems .. Lol

 

[BC1579]

My LP slings, only because they are so tiny I cant see them hardly, so feeding them is stressful. Just newbie problems .. Lol

From the Repticon in BR?

Did you get them from the vendor adjacent to The Caffeinated Spider?

 

[Garth Vader]

I kinda like that all of my Ts have "pain in the butt" tendencies. Whether it be water dish antics, webbing themselves in, or refusing food for months, they keep me guessing. Plus I was a "pain on the butt" child and now most will probably consider me a "pain in the butt" adult. I also purposely adopted "pain in the butt" dogs so I could train them and raise them well and married a lovable "pain in the butt" man and we are raising a small child with a staggering amount of energy and attitude (yes, she is a cute "pain in the butt").

So I am okay with all of it.

Plus I like that term "pain in the butt".

 

[Mentat Ix]

The only T in my collection that consistently frustrates me is the Euathlus sp. red sling. It burrows for months and seals itself in, not allowing me to provide it with food or water. It doesn't seem to be growing, which is probably because it's not eating, which is probably because it's underground 24/7. I have tried leaving tiny pre-killed crickets in there overnight, just in case it came out while I was asleep, but it doesn't seem to ever touch them. As of right now, I regret buying it. Maybe if it survives and gets bigger, I will start enjoying it. Right now, I'm mostly worried that it's not getting enough water, so I spray the inside of the vial it's in, but that evaporates quickly.

I have two E. sp red slings. One of them is doing exactly this. It made a big burrow up against the side of the enclosure, sealed itself up and hasn't come out for months. I can see it in there, and most of the time its got its face buried up into where the burrow entrance was, but it never comes out. I'm almost worried it trapped itself down there. Still hasn't molted.

The other hasn't burrowed at all, just sits on the top. Molted once so far. Didn't seem to grow at all from the molt.

My O. phillippinus was a contender. I got it as a 1/2" sling, and it burrowed and completely disappeared for months. I was starting to worry that it had died. But then it re-emerged, and it was 1.5"+, so its cool in my book now.

The C. lividum has got to be the most skittish of the bunch. That this will disappear into the burrow at the slightest motion anywhere near its enclosure. I see feet sometimes, but I rarely see him eat. Food sometimes disappears if I leave it in there long enough.

My biggest PITA, though, has got to be the P. metallica sling. It refuses to use the cork bark hides. Hangs out on the enclosure sides all the time. It webbed up the hide, but never uses it. Doesn't eat much. Its growing at less than half the rate of my other two pokies. And every time a light turns on or anything moves near it, it spazzes out and starts sprinting around. Makes it really hard to clean up after it or get uneaten food out. Stupid thing refused food long enough to start worrying me, then finally molted.

 

[SkittleBunny]

From the Repticon in BR?

Did you get them from the vendor adjacent to The Caffeinated Spider?

Yes and yes lol I forgot the booth name

 

[The Grym Reaper]

The only T in my collection that consistently frustrates me is the Euathlus sp. red sling. It burrows for months and seals itself in, not allowing me to provide it with food or water. It doesn't seem to be growing, which is probably because it's not eating, which is probably because it's underground 24/7. I have tried leaving tiny pre-killed crickets in there overnight, just in case it came out while I was asleep, but it doesn't seem to ever touch them. As of right now, I regret buying it. Maybe if it survives and gets bigger, I will start enjoying it. Right now, I'm mostly worried that it's not getting enough water, so I spray the inside of the vial it's in, but that evaporates quickly.

I have two E. sp red slings. One of them is doing exactly this. It made a big burrow up against the side of the enclosure, sealed itself up and hasn't come out for months. I can see it in there, and most of the time its got its face buried up into where the burrow entrance was, but it never comes out. I'm almost worried it trapped itself down there. Still hasn't molted.

The other hasn't burrowed at all, just sits on the top. Molted once so far. Didn't seem to grow at all from the molt.

Mine must be broken, it did do a little excavating but sits out in the open almost all the time, it rarely retreats when disturbed and it eats like a beast (watching it wrestle mealworms is hilarious).

It has moulted twice in the 5 months or so I've had it and put on about 0.5cm in size, it's about an inch now and showing its adult colours.

Not sure if I would consider this one a PITA but my H. gigas named Larry never wants to eat for me. He also happens to be one of my favorite tarantulas, even though most of the time I only see one of his legs; hence why I call him a "pet leg" instead of a "pet hole."

Despite being reclusive and never really seeing Larry, he also possesses the most character out of all my spiders. I just love him so much that I decided to get more H. gigas slings-Leonard and Laureline. I refer to all my H. gigas spiders as the "Larries."

Complete PITA? Maybe so, but so much love. How could one not fall in love with a big, fat, red reclusive spider?

I got mine as a surprise freebie (like my C. huahini it wasn't a species I was particularly interested in) and I do actually enjoy keeping it, as "pet holes" go it's actually pretty visible (it can usually be found "doing a lurk" at the entrance of its burrow but does sometimes come out), mine has a great feeding response and usually only refuses food when in pre-moult

Its growing at less than half the rate of my other two pokies. And every time a light turns on or anything moves near it, it spazzes out and starts sprinting around.

I heard that they grow a bit slower than other species from the genus, mine spazzes out and runs laps of the enclosure when disturbed as well.

 

[Andrea82]

My new C.sanderi sling. It makes my Tapinauchenius look like a pet rock. Every time i open the lid it starts racing around and out of its tub. It's a cm DLS, in a tub of 10x20x10cm so it doesn't escape so easily and it still escapes easily. I've never had a sling escape on me 3 times during feeding/watering. It needs to make a burrow, FAST.
It seems like a burrower-issue. As long as there is no burrow, the burrowing species are nervous as hell.
It eats well though

 

[Fruchtpudding]

Probably my Chilobrachys electric blue slings. When I got them I gave them extra deep substrate and a little hole to start their burrow from in one corner so I could watch them but they both decided that wasn't a good idea so they made holes exactly adjacent to the pre-dug burrow but not directly at the side so I can't look inside. Now that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for their strange food preferences. Pinhead crickets? Red runners? Oh no, absolutely not. The only thing they eat reliably are firebrats (which I luckily have a colony of).

The problem with these is that they don't keep running around in there, after some panic the firebrats just sit completely still basically forever. I've seen them remain in the exact same spot for days. And the slings of course don't venture out of their holes so they don't find them. I can't go in there and poke the firebrats either because then the slings retreat back into their burrow and don't come out for at least an hour or so

I've tried offering pre-killed ones too but they don't seem to care.

At least they're nowhere near as bad as the Heteropodas (both slings and adults) but this is a T thread

 

[Andrea82]

Probably my Chilobrachys electric blue slings. When I got them I gave them extra deep substrate and a little hole to start their burrow from in one corner so I could watch them but they both decided that wasn't a good idea so they made holes exactly adjacent to the pre-dug burrow but not directly at the side so I can't look inside. Now that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for their strange food preferences. Pinhead crickets? Red runners? Oh no, absolutely not. The only thing they eat reliably are firebrats (which I luckily have a colony of).

The problem with these is that they don't keep running around in there, after some panic the firebrats just sit completely still basically forever. I've seen them remain in the exact same spot for days. And the slings of course don't venture out of their holes so they don't find them. I can't go in there and poke the firebrats either because then the slings retreat back into their burrow and don't come out for at least an hour or so

I've tried offering pre-killed ones too but they don't seem to care.

At least they're nowhere near as bad as the Heteropodas (both slings and adults) but this is a T thread

Had to look up what 'firebrats' were, lol. Funny name
Your nickname sounds familiar, do you post videos on YouTube as well?

 

[Fruchtpudding]

Your nickname sounds familiar, do you post videos on YouTube as well?

Yeah, my channel on youtube has the same name. I decided to finally join here after lurking for years, mostly to look at the classifieds section for a friend to be honest. He's in the US and wants to get into Ts and he wants a C. versicolor, so I've been looking around for him. But I have to say I do enjoy posting here too much better than just lurking.