J'aime La Tarantula

Friday, June 16, 2006

A pissed T. The first pic shows how a pissed T looks.
Cyriopagopus sp "blue", this is the one that turned blue after moulting in the pics in my previous post.

Tarantulas shed their skin once in awhile to grow and this process is called moulting.
Before they moult, they will lay a bed of silk web and lie on their backs to prepare to moult. Below: a grammostola rosea preparing for its final moult They generally take abit less than a month to moult when they are 1-4cm slings and the duration between moults increase as the grow bigger. Below is a 3cm spiderling during and after it moulted. It is white even at its fangs because it has not expanded and hardened yet. After a day or two, its exoskeleton hardens and turns dark. Large Ts may take a year or 2 to moult. The more they eat the more frequent they moult and the faster they grow. Tarantulas can be most accurately sexed by their but i won't go into those details here. Large Ts only appear white on the fangs when moulting. Their colors usually become more prominent by then. Below: a Malaysian Blue Cyriopagopus sp "blue" during and after moulting. Notice the difference in color between the old skin and the new.


After moulting, their bodies are very soft and they will be very weak for several days until their exoskeletons re-harden.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Ts for Ds (tarantulas for dummies)


First of all here are some T nerd jargons,
Ts = Tarantulas
Slings = Spiderlings
WC = wild caught, think hostages
CB = captive bred, like most of us
LS = legspan, commonly used to measuer size of T
Humidity = an over-rated factor, will b*tch about it later on
SH = sor hai, commonly used to describe or lable wanabes and ignorant beings.
NooB = something like SH but less severe

All you need to know about Ts

Tarantulas..
1) are not deadly and attack only if provoked, you don't need to squash them
2) are probably worth more $$ than your @ss and mine
3) only need to be fed crickets and given a small bowl of water to survive, RM1 worth of crickets could probably last 2 months for a 5" T.
4) can survive on dry tissue for their entire lives.
5) need VERY LITTLE ventilation, I used to keep one in a plastic container for several months with no ventilation, the only time it got air was when i opened the container to feed it.
6) can be fed as much as they would eat and will grow faster if powerfed.
7) females can live for over 10-20 years depending on species, males mostly live for only a quarter of that period cz all they live for is to fhuck and die.
8) come in many colors, they are not all black (some ppl think so, must be cz of MTV lah..)

This is all you need about Ts, you don't have to read on if you're not into Ts

My list of Busted T Myths:
1) Ts need good ventilation, they don't.
2) Ts need constant misting and good humidity, NOT. I've even Ts that are said to need high humidity in dry@ss conditions and they thrive. Some say that they need damp conditions to lower the risk of moulting problems, but my Ts have had far less moulting problems under dry conditions than Ts that were kept in "good" humidity levels by other ppl. Heck, most of my Ts never had waterdishes, I RARELY provide them with waterbowls. I still dampen their substrate once in a blue moon tho, just in case lah, substrate looks ugly when bone dry.
3) Ts should not be disturbed b4,during, or after moulting. I take alot of T pics and sometimes i even adjust a Ts position while it is moulting, I disturb them quite alot when they moult but so far i have had 0 moulting problems with this.
4) Ts are easily stressed and can die off easily due to stress. WC 1s maybe, but CB 1s can take loads of stress, no matter how much i kacau them they are still alive. Yet many ppl blame it on stress even though they treat their Ts so gently. how now?
5) It's bad to powerfeed Ts cz they might have moulting problems. Ppl actually worry that Ts will get stuck in their moults if they get too fat. What a load of crap, Ts only get fat in the abdomen which tears off easily, unlike us they dont get fat in the legs and it is at the legs that Ts get stuck in their moults when moulting. Some also feel that Ts risk not being able to flip on their backs while moulting due to oversized abdomens. I've powerfed all my small Ts and none of the extremely fat ones ever got stuck, the few that got stuck were tiny slings.

SO BASICALLY, Ts IMO are the easiest pets to keep and many of them are absolutely beautiful. J'aime la tarantula!