Hi everyone, back again with 2 new additions.

[Tsubaki]

Hi! I know i have been gone for a while, and i have tons and tons to catch up on. Been incredibly busy lately with my new (ridiculous) workhours, and some other stuff that has been going on. But here i am, finally getting used to the hours! I have missed the forums, and i'll try to update here n there. However besides these new residents and the passing of my rats, not much has changed! Still slowly working on the background in tubs whenever i find time! Thank god snakes don't have a same concept of time as we do, they might just vote me worst contractor ever.

Anyway! After the very early passing of my last spider because it was a male, i was so bummed out that i didn't get another. I recently decided i wanted to pick it back up! So i went for a female this time, of one of my favorite species. So i bought one, and obviously with my luck it now looks like it's a male (80% sure, wont know 100% until (s)he molts), so in stead of just accepting my fate i decided 2 spiders will work too. So now i got both a 'male' and a 100% sure female Grammostola Pulchripes. ('Chaco Golden Knee')

The male is a bit more shy during the day and only comes out at night, his pictures both taken at night. He measures around 2.3 inches body lenght. The female really doesn't care what i do as long as she doesn't have to move too much, she's close to 4inch body length.

Male with the first dinner he has had here.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Man%204_zpssgche4qq.jpg

Male.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Man%203_zpsliaceptf.jpg

Female.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Vrouw%201_zpsb57isjqj.jpg

Female again.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Vrouw%202_zpsythz72fp.jpg

Female without flash
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Vrouw%203_zpsgby8yz51.jpg

My view from the couch, i know 2 skulls are wearing hats. (Prank by my brother and i did not notice until i took this picture haha) And yes, the top enclosure is empty, i am still hoping to run into my one of my other favorites as a (semi) adult female, spiders aren't that popular around here lately, hard to come by anything older than a few weeks. I got very lucky with these chaco's
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/kast_zpss0jbfolf.jpg

And since my spiders only eat a few grashoppers a week, and they usually die within a week.. The grashoppers have their own little home with food etc.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/sprinkhanen_zps1ipwdlia.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

Welcome back Tsubaki!

[reptiledude987]

Good to have you back!

[eminart]

Beautiful spider. I've heard lots of good things about G. pulchripes. I have a G. pulchra sling myself. He/she was only about 1 inch when I got him. I've had him a few months and he's probably about 2 inches now. He eats like a horse, but is a slow grower.

[prairiepanda]

Are those CB? It takes several years for Grammastola spp to get to that size, so it's always lucky to find large CB individuals.

By the way, I've never seen enclosures like that before! Did you build them yourself?

[Albert Clark]

Welcome back T! Missed you and your expertise. :blink:

[Tsubaki]

Welcome back Tsubaki!
Thank you El-Ziggy, glad to be back

Good to have you back!
Thanks!:D

Beautiful spider. I've heard lots of good things about G. pulchripes. I have a G. pulchra sling myself. He/she was only about 1 inch when I got him. I've had him a few months and he's probably about 2 inches now. He eats like a horse, but is a slow grower.
Awesome! Do you have any pictures of him/her up? i love their black velvet look, can't say i will be able to withstand buying a nice female if i happen to see one! And they are slow growers, however the male according to the seller, grew pretty rapidly.

Are those CB? It takes several years for Grammastola spp to get to that size, so it's always lucky to find large CB individuals.

By the way, I've never seen enclosures like that before! Did you build them yourself?
The female is capture bred, comes from Germany. The male, was bought by a store as a spiderling and raised to this size. According to the seller (s)he grew so rapidly that he is extremely surprised it looks like a male, but i did not ask where it came from t.b.h.

About the enclosures, i do make backgrounds myself and for others. However, these are polyester cast and i don't use polyester myself. (I only carve backgrounds) Since i was too busy making backgrounds for my snakes, i've had these cast for me :D

Welcome back T! Missed you and your expertise. :blink:
Thank you Albert, that's kind of you to say :D

[Tsubaki]

Bad picture with my phone at night because i did not want to disturb her too much, but the female is at ease in her new home and ate :D

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Vrouw%204_zpsqzjypzzy.jpg

[SnoopySnake]

Nice to see you back here :D Not gonna lie, just the other day I was wondering where you went. Nice new T's.

[MDT]

Duuuuuuude! welcome back!!! (sorry...you know i had to, right?)

you were missed :)

[Tsubaki]

Nice to see you back here :D Not gonna lie, just the other day I was wondering where you went. Nice new T's.
Haha what a coincidence! I must have felt it! 'Yes I'm being missed, time to make my great come back' All jokes aside though, thanks! :D

Duuuuuuude! welcome back!!! (sorry...you know i had to, right?)

you were missed :)

Duuuuuuuuuude!! Yes i do know you had to, i can feel it too! :D Thx mate!

[marvelfreak]

https://rcstalon.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/welcome-back1.jpg

[Tsubaki]

Haha thx :D

[eminart]

Awesome! Do you have any pictures of him/her up? i love their black velvet look, can't say i will be able to withstand buying a nice female if i happen to see one! And they are slow growers, however the male according to the seller, grew pretty rapidly.





I actually don't have any recent photos of the G. pulchra. I'll try to get some soon. Here's one from a couple of months ago. He's molted once since then. He's much darker now, but not the deep black of an adult yet.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Tarantulas/G%20pulchra/3-6-15%20004_zps0pypmr5j.jpg

And here's my daughter's B. albopilosum. He's actually molted at least a couple of times since this photo and is probably close to 3 inches now.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Tarantulas/B%20albopilosum/DSC_0006_zpshq8pkgk7.jpg

And, our A. metallica. He was a freebie when we bought the other two. This is a recent photo. He was much smaller and lighter-colored a few months ago.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/eminart/Tarantulas/A%20Metallica/DSC_0002_zpscsn2tnjp.jpg

[Tsubaki]

Nice looking spiders!! If you ever have new pics dont be shy :D My male was acting strange earlier, ran through the enclosure at full speed.. He's now hidden in his burrow and wont come out. Bit crazy, we'll see if he wants to come out for some food tomorrow. Didn't see anything else odd about him.

[toddnbecka]

Really good to see you back on the forum. I've never been much inclined to keep spiders aside from a beautiful fishing spider I found in a silt pond back when I worked road construction. They're just so fascinating I had to take it home and set it up in a small aquarium. Haven't seen one since then.
I'm guessing that since you have a pair you'll breed them eventually? Might be worthwhile to raise crickets, or some species of roach for feeders if you do.

[Tsubaki]

Thanks! I have little to no interest in breeding feeders for only a few spiders, I'll manage with buying them :D You have any pictures of that fisher?

[toddnbecka]

No pics of the fisher, that was many years before the internet, much less digital cameras (or cell phones) to take pics of everything under the sun.

[dave himself]

Just seeing this now, welcome mate :)

[Tsubaki]

Shame toddnbecka, thanks Dave!


I have some bad new about my spiders, yesterday i was looking after my 5 year old cousin unexpectedly. He knows never to open any windows but i told him he was allowed to look inside but not to touch, the female was sitting in front of the tub prominently so he was fascinated. The male decided to molt so he was laying on his back in his burrow.. Apparently when i went upstairs to get a book for him, he tried to get the male to come out and tilted the tub... He tilted it forward too far and it tipped over. It didn't break and the spider was not directly harmed, everything rolled forward and he was buried under a bit of substrate. Tried to put him back as carefully as possible, chance is still pretty big he won't make it out of this molt now.. :(

What he did was very wrong, and i made sure he understood that. I think he learned a lesson for life, and his mom was even more upset than i was when she heard. Nothing i can do about it now..

[eminart]

Ugh, that sucks. Hope he has a successful molt anyway.

[Tsubaki]

i'm praying but i don't have much hope..

[prairiepanda]

Aw I'm sorry to hear that. I always worry when my spiders are molting. But I have had a couple pull through on really tough molts so don't lose hope! I once had to cut an A. versicolor sling out of her exuvium because she got stuck and the new exoskeleton was starting to harden, making it impossible to escape. She lost 2 legs and the others were all weirdly shaped, making it difficult for her to navigate her enclosure. But after a couple more molts she was back to normal :)

[Tsubaki]

Who knows :) maybe he pulls through.

[EL Ziggy]

I believe he's gonna be fine. :)

[dave himself]

Hope everything goes well, keep us updated please

[Tsubaki]

He died :(

[eminart]

Sorry to hear that. They're such delicate things during their molts.

[SnoopySnake]

Oh no..I'm so sorry to hear that :(

[Tsubaki]

It's a shame.. can't be helped though. I don't get as emotionally attached to insects as to my other pets, but still think it's a bit sad he died so young.