Guess who got a....

tarantula!
i got a baby pink zebra beauty today. its pretty tiny. tiny bit smaller then a nickle maybe. id been looking at tarantulas on the internet and decided this is the kind i want. i didnt go to the pet store planning on buying it...we were in the area and i stopped in and they had what i wanted. for a good price.
its in a little critter keeper with a few inches of pete moss. does a spider this small need a water dish or is misting good enough? im reading through care sheets right now (ive already read them but im reading to see al the specifics)
well ill prolly have some more questions later. too bad theres only a few people on this forum with these things.

http://img15.photobucket.com/albums/...uty/beauty.jpg
^it needs a name^

on second thought...maybe ill wait till i know what sex it is to name it. which will give me a while to think of names! lol

Cute little Arachnid there Mike.

they look even scarier when they're babies...

EEK...Well, for a spider, it's cute..I think.. LOL.. Great little addition anyway! :)

Jennifer

i think if you saw it in person youd like it. it so tiny....it looks almost fluffy. id name it fluffy if i didnt already have a snake name fluffy....lol. i know i said its like the size of a nickle but...its more like the end of your pinky finger...well, my pinky finger anyway. ah never mind. lol

Awesome Mike! I am beginning to become more fond of tarantulas since I got my Pink-Toe.

they had pink toes there. and they had alot of pink-toes at another place i went to. i like the way they look when they are small. but i dont like the amount of hair they have as adults. but i do think they are very interesting. ill probably have one some day. if i get real into tarantulas. do you handle your pink-toe?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike

^it needs a name^

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Fuzzy!!!! :D

I think at that size, they just drink off water droplets in the cage, but Marcus (FourFeathers) is the T. expert in here.

Congrats!!!!! Looking forward to seeing pics as it gets bigger/prettier!

I'll wait for Marcus because he is def. the expert, but with all the T's I've had I would say that at that size you can mist the SIDE of the enclosure for the spider to drink the droplets. Please do not mist directly on the spider, (large or small) as this can be very stressful / painfull.
This is just what I've learned, Marcus may know better
Thanks
Rusty

He looks like a Fred to me..lol

in my 6th grade calss we got a fish named freddy. it died. we ended up goin through two or three more freddies before wenamed it something else (and it lived). im scared to name it freddy. im would also be scared to put any animals in that teachers care. lol
i just noticed it made a cool burrow under its hide. i notice there was a bunch of dirt at the front of the hide...but i thought maybe it had pushed it up there from the outside. but that was all the dirt from the burrow.
does anyone know how fast this species grows? i cant find it on the net. compared to snakes...there are barely any caresheets on tarantulas. oh and how often do they molt?

check out:
http://www.atshq.org/
http://www.arachnology.org/
http://www.arachnopets.com/
All great sites with a wealth of info.
Some T's are better builders then most humans I know..lol
Maybe he could be a Bob.
Rusty

Excellent choice Mike.

I've got one of these too. Very docile. Very forgiving. And pretty hardy too.

As far as watering goes, remember whatever recepticle you put in with your tarantula, make sure it's no wider than the length of the legs (if strectched out) so that if it should fall in while drinking, it would be able to grab the side & pull itself out so that it doesn't drown.

At this size, I'd reccommend maybe a bottle cap. If that. I've got some right now that are about this size that don't have water dishes yet. If given enough to eat, at this size, they'll get a good portion of their fluids from their prey. But I will soon be adding water dishes. And Rusty's right, don't spray or mist your tarantula. They hate this. Very stressfull on them. If you feel like the enclosure needs some moisture (to bump up the humidity) just allow for some water to spill over from the water dish when you're filling it. It will soak into the substrate and do nicely like that for a while. Some tarantulas will intentionaly spill or overturn their water dishes and then lay silk over the wet soil. This creates a net that holds in humidity. And some when their water dishes are empty have been known to pick them up and bang on the side of the enclosure with it. I'm not kidding.

The following was borrowed from John Hoke's website (http://www.e-spiderwold.com) and I would HIGHLY reccomend him if you intend on buying more. Excellent quality, fair prices, and John and Matt know their stuff inside and out. The've got about 2500 tarantulas.

Anyway...here ya go:

Eupalaestrus campestratus, Pink Zebra Beauty. Found in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. This is a great tarantula for the beginner that wants something a lot more interesting than a Rosy. Large (to 6"), docile and hardy, they make an excellent choice for a first tarantula. Overall medium to dark brown with longer pink hairs and gold stripes on the legs. This is a burrowing species but will adapt to a tank with shallow substrate and a retreat. Life span is probably 20 years or more.

I wil be posting a picture of mine later (maybe this evening).

Good luck, and enjoy!

Typo:

Correcting to: http://www.e-spiderworld.com