Brazilian White Knee Spiderlings

[ballpythonandragon]

hello im interested in purchasing either a BWK or a scor. I like the flat rocks but not sure about the Ven. on either of these. Can anyone give me some pointers on the right way to choose and or the best to choose from thanks Aaron

[Shelby]

Well what I can tell you is that flat rocks have extremely weak venom, however they can pinch you to death. If you want a scorp you can handle, emperors are your best bet.

[Schlyne]

First, have you kept inverts before?

Brazillian White Knee is generally A. geniculata. It's a fairly good beginner species, I wouldn't consider it handleable though. It's a very good eater and pretty hardy. It gets pretty big, to about 8 inches from leg to leg.

As for scorpions, the classic P. imperator, a desert hairy scorpion or a flat rock is a good beginner. Desert hairy scorpions are either H. spadix or H. arizonensis.

Be sure to buy from a invert dealer and NOT A PET STORE. Pet stores often mislabel the inverts and they are overpriced. Pet stores are particularly bad when it comes to labeling the scorpions correctly, and sometimes very hot scorpions are mislabled as species which are not very hot, so be warned.

A couple of the invert dealers are www.botarby8s.com, www.swiftinverts.com are two of the good ones. There are several others, but those are a couple. I've delt with Botar personally. Most of the major invert dealers go to shows, but I don't know what area of the country you're in, or I could give you more specific dealers to look for.

I can post my entire list of beginner species if you like.

[ballpythonandragon]

that would be great if you could, but i don't want to take up all your time posting a list. But if you would like to i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Aaron

[ballpythonandragon]

no i have never kept any kind of Invert at all this will be my first i really don't care for spiders but scorps are just so cool and im not looking to handle it at all im looking for something that looks awsome but wont kill me. Thanks Aaron

[Schlyne]

Acutally, this is a word file I wrote up and saved on my computer a while ago.
As far as tarantula's go:
_________________________________________________________________
All pictures are clickable thumbnails.

Sounds like the best genus I can think of for visibilty would be Grammostola. Grammy's are very docile, considered handleable, and are probably the most visible genus I can think of other than maybe Brachypelma

A Chaco Golden Knee tops out at 8", but it's a great beginner. Grammastola aureostriata.
That's a picture of mine (and my first spider, I might add) at about 3 to 4".

A Brazillian black tops out around 5" to 6", also makes a great beginner.
Grammastola pulchra This is a full grown adult female, that I traded.


And then there's the easy to find, ever so standard Chilean Rose hair. I don't own one Grammostola rosea You can find them at just about any pet store that has T's for sale. Most people start out with this or a mexican Red knee.

The Brachypelma genus covers the other major beginner T, the Mexican Red Knee. Smulkin has some great pictures of his in the invert forum.

Brachy urticating hairs are second only to the Theraphosa in terms of being irritating.

Brachy's are great, there's a greater variety in species to choose from and they are very colorful. Btw, don't pay $99 for a B. smithi, you can get a decent sized spiderling from an invert dealer for much cheaper. Brachypelma is listed on CITES so the prices can be a little higher.

All of these are terristrals. A 5.5 gal or a 10 gal would make a perfect home for a full grown adult with some substrate and an artifical hide. Use a small shallow dish for a water dish. It's a lot of fun to raise them up from 1" spiderlings, but you start out with tiny containers and work your way up.

Grammy's are NW so they do kick hairs. Wash your hands after you're done doing cage maintance or handling, don't get your face too close if it starts kicking, and flush your eyes immediately if you get hairs in them. It's not a big deal if you react, it will just itch like crazy. Hairs in the eyes can cause permanent eye damage, so react accordingly. It's best to buy a nice long pair of forceps, and a small paintbrush for maintance tools. The paintbrush is often used to gently push or prod the T, if needed.

Tarantula's can and will fast for months (as part of premolt), and may spend a lot of time in a burrow if they have enough substrate to make one. They may also rearrange the substrate at will. They are nocturnal creatures.

As for smaller enclosures, you can get a sample set of vials from www.thortonplastics.com for $7, or you can buy clear plastic box containers from a hobby store, or the container store and melt/drill ventilation holes. You can use peat moss, organic dirt, vermiculate, or cocanut coir for substrate. Peat moss and cocanut coir make the best substrates in my opinion. Wood chips aren't really a good idea, as the T can't really burrow in it.

An Avicularia avicularia or pink toe is a great beginner, but it's an arboreal. It's a little more skittish and faster. It can also break out the poop cannon if startled and may acutally shoot poop at you. It also has urticating hairs, but it doesn't kick them, it presses them on to you. The urticating hair patches are on the underside of the abdomen. For it's enclosure height is more important than floor space, so turn the ten gallon tank on it's side as an adult. It reaches the 5" to 6" range.

I keep these guys in tall deli cups after then grow out of the largers clear plastic beanie baby box (the clear boxes I was referring to earlier). After than they can be moved on large plastic jars, or other sutiable containers you've made into a suitable T home.

The brachy's and the Grammy's tend to grow slowly. Brachy's are the T's you hear about females making it to 20-30 years in age though.

The other two beginner species I was thinking of, are the Green Bottle Blue (GBB) Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens and the Pink Zebra Beauty (PZB) Eupalaestrus campestratus.

I don't acutally own a PZB, but they make very good starters, fairly simliar in temperment to a Chaco, but they stay around the 5 to 6 inch range. They are a pastel pink, where a chaco is a golden yellow and pastel pink and the PZB's do not posses a "mirror" patch on the abdomen, where the chaco does.

A GBB makes a great starter if you're not into handling. They change overall in color as they grow from spiderlings to adults, so it's a lot of fun to raise one from a sling and see it go through the color changes. It makes great webs and is very tough. Mine is also a great eater. Keep it dry.

[Schlyne]

As for scorpions:

The flat rock scorpions usually don't sting prey, they just clamp down on it with a claw and start eating it. They also spend their entire lives living amoungs flat rocks (usually shale is used in the invert keeping world) and most of the time, all you see is a claw or two sticking out from the rock.

However, a Emperor or a desert hairy will sting prey. You'll probably seem them out and about more often.

Here's a shot of my desert hairy. (H. spadix). Desert hairy scorpions are native to the US. and mine is from Nevada somewhere. They are the biggest scorpion native to the US at around 5 inches. Desert hairy scorpions aren't very communal, so I wouldn't keep more than one to a tank unless you're trying to breed them....and they're famed for not molting in captivity. (Scorpions stop molting as adults, they do not continually molt through their lives liked T's do).



Desert hairy scorpions need a sand/peat moss mix so that they can burrow in the sand. Play sand or the reptile sand (not the calcium sand!) will work out fine. Coral sand has been known to cause invert deaths due to the salt in it. They also need one or two flat rocks, where they usually dig burrows under.