Some new arrivals

aww that must have been a great sight! i truely envy you..

oh! when will the pics be up? hehe

Here is a pic for you, not the best though as they are really tiny:





And just for fun, my one and only T that I will ever keep, Lasiodora difficilis:

Nice pics, great looking T.

Thank you m8
Its just adorable! But the T pic scared the living.. something out of me. Did not se that one coming as i scrolled down.

Cheers guys.
Hahaha, he has that effect on people.

Im so scared of spiders. Will scream like a little girl if they come to close to me. And i dont look like a little girl hehe

My GF and i was at this big exotic zoo in the weekend.. There was this dark cave with all sorts of critters. There where a place you could go in a little room with only place for one person. then you stick your head up in a glass bowl thingy to look at some critters. I turn all the way around myself to se if there was something.. coudnt see it.. Then there came this huuge Blondi right up in my face! I screamed and ran the hell out of there. In front of alot of people.. alot of people.. Not my proudest moment!

You know, the best way to deal with arachnophobia would be to expose yourself to spiders . . .
the best way to do this would be to buy a T.

It's strange how many people are afraid of spiders but yet they keep scorpions.

The funny thing is, as a child i loved spiders! i used to catch (danish)huntsman spiders in our house and keep them as pets.. something went wrong down the road
Last summer at a animal show(thing) i held a huge T. it didnt help much on my arachnophobia! But it had nice soft feet

Im not getting a T, ever... My boss(gf) will never let me keep one in our home. But neither do i xD

The T actually lost a leg in a bad moult so I thought I would treat him a bit.
This is what I did for him:



And before someone thinks this is turning into a Tarantula thread.
Parabuthus planicauda(light morph):

KLN1988 wrote:

Im not getting a T, ever... My boss(gf) will never let me keep one in our home. But neither do i xD

Haha, they arent that bad. Not as cool as scorps though!

Nice enclosure and the P. planicauda looks awesome.

shadowfoot wrote:

KLN1988 wrote:

Im not getting a T, ever... My boss(gf) will never let me keep one in our home. But neither do i xD

Haha, they arent that bad. Not as cool as scorps though!

+1.

Scorpion19981000 wrote:

Nice enclosure and the P. planicauda looks awesome.

Thanks man.
Glad I used those creeper plants as they grow quite well in the peat and they dont need a lot of sunlight.

Nice enclosure! I wanna see the T!

KLN1988 wrote:

Im not getting a T, ever...

I used to say the same, now I have around 10 of them. But I agree, they miss the "coolness factor" atleast for me. Some make great display animals though.

It all comes down to personal preference, most T people I know don't like scorps.

tfleming wrote:

Nice enclosure! I wanna see the T!

Cheers man. Check the previous page for the pic.

I love the T´s enclosures. You can make some prette sweet ones! I thinks the one you posted a pic of here is great.

DolbyR -
I guess you are right, maybe my fear of them will wear of again. Who knows?
And as display animals, your totally right!

It's strange, in regards to spiders and most other insects, they creep me out. I get the feeling they're crawling over me when I look at pictures or see one. Yet with scorpions, I have never gotten that feeling. Some people say "Oh it's because you're a scorpio!" Meh, I doubt it lol

I agree though that it is strange for some people to keep scorpions yet hate spiders.

@ Shadowfoot: Nice setups. Nice looking L. difficilis, I've got one of it's relatives, L. parahybana. I've had it for 2 years but it's only 6cm Meant to ask, do you use dirt and wood from outside for your Desert Species? I want to harvest soil and sand from the veld here but want to know what you do as you seem to have become a local expert of sorts

@ The Rest: Tarantulas are damn cool, but I will admit, I have lost some interest in them. They are still cool but I am the stage where I need to trim my collection down till I'm more comfortable with what I have. I'm trying to focus on Scorpions, Phasmids, Beetles and various other invertebrate species. Sorry if the above posts don't make sense as my eyes are a bit fuzzy today (I woke up too early )

F1refly wrote:

@ Shadowfoot: Nice setups. Nice looking L. difficilis, I've got one of it's relatives, L. parahybana. I've had it for 2 years but it's only 6cm Meant to ask, do you use dirt and wood from outside for your Desert Species? I want to harvest soil and sand from the veld here but want to know what you do as you seem to have become a local expert of sorts

Hahahaha, thanks for the compliment.
Yes, I do use sand, bark and rocks from outside but I cook everything in the oven first to kill all the nasties.
I remember you telling me about your slow growing L. parahybana, mine is a little dustbin when it comes to feeding. It just doubles in size everytime it moults unlike my Chilean Rose(which I sold) that grew like 1cm in almost 2 years.

G. rosea are notorious for growing extremely slowly. I also try and bake everything but the stupid wood always get's mouldy I think I need to varnish them. I don't think it would be necessary for desert species though, as I doubt wood gets mouldy in the desert.

F1refly wrote:

I don't think it would be necessary for desert species though, as I doubt wood gets mouldy in the desert.

If you keep the temps in the 30's and the humidity low there should be no mould. I still bake it though in order to kill all the little bugs that might have burrowed into the wood.

shadowfoot wrote:

Congrats, friend!
This endeavor will be extremely rewarding if you could help to create a sure fire formula for the rearing of this species. I know a lot of people state side who have tried and tried again to replicate their life cycle to no avail. I would keep the little mists of water coming until their cuticle thickens around 4i. I know dew forms in the desert, which could allow for adequate moisture retention to offset their chances of desiccation in the wild. I've really been pushing this idea for those desert species which people typically have trouble rearing. Keep up the good work, friend and keep us posted on your progress. I know I'll be tuning in to see your progress!

Thanks Envyizm, here is a little update:




Not the best pic, I know but these guys are damn tiny! The roach he is chowing a Pallid roach nymph so now you can see how small these guys actually are as Pallid roach nymphs are quite small.
Regarding keeping these, they are given a few drops of water 2-3 times a week and temps fluctuate between 28-32 daytime and 23-25 at night which seems to be working quite well as all of them are feeding very well on 2 roach nymphs a week. I dont want to overfeed them as I personally think its better to feed sparingly.
Regarding humidity, when I give water the humidity spikes drastically for about 1-2 hours. Hope this is enough info for now.