PlanetCatfish.com

My newest arrivals: a pair of Hadrurus arizonensis aka Giant Hairy Desert scorpions.

their home:

Captain Caveman:


I'm not amused!

without the 'lid' to show the entire animal:




happy that the roof is back:


Mrs Hadrurus is hiding in the right corner and refused to budge or pose
she kicked sand when I tried to pry her out of her hidey hole

ps for taking the pix I removed both frontpanels. otherwise it's next to impossible with my very limited skills ;)

more scorp and/or tarantula keepers on the forum?

Just in case we should ever disagree about something...I shall remember never to open a package from you

They are not my thing but interesting nonetheless, I am guessing from the name their natural habitat is Arizona and surrounding areas...a fellow I work with just this morning left for Arizona, should of showed him these pictures

I could send you some Lactrodectus mactans to help round out the display. They are a more colorful small arthropod with a couple less legs but share the same environment.

Hey,

I remember how about a year ago just before you left forum (good you are back!) you were talking about snakes and spiders and their keepers .
Looks like you've tried it . Personally I do not keep any other animals than fish but a lot of my friends keep them and they are great!
My all time favourite spider is Avicularia metallica - beautiful bug!

I've never left. I post some nonsense almost everyday but my brother was an avid herpetology hobbyists who specialized in keeping a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake colony of about 12 specimens in an 8 ft long enclosure, Black Windows, Night snakes and scorpions spp native to our area. Many animals of the Great Basin extend in a narrow band up through Central Washington, almost up to Lake Okanagon, British Columbia, even a small Horned Lizard lives there.

When we lived in Seattle, he worked for various fish and pet shops and wholesalers and then he kept more exotic tropicals like Mangrove Snakes.
So I have been exposed to them enough to have learned a lot about keeping them in captivity. One of my favorites I got from him was a young specimen of an Asian Soft Shelled Turtle. It made an interesting "pet"; I used it as my unwanted fish disposer.
Even I have kept the Rattlesnakes and fed them many rats.

I've been thinking about beginning to keep and breed a couple of Poison Dart Frog spp. They aren't that different from keeping and breeding some fish. They would be almost like a combination of breeding Killiefish and Discus.

Amazingly cool, sid!
Amanda

sidguppy wrote:more scorp and/or tarantula keepers on the forum?

Yes. It is nice to have something else to do. I may get tired of always being in my fish room.

Tarantulas I currently have.
1.1.0 Grammostola rosea
0.1.0 Hetrosocdra maculata
0.1.0 Citharischius crawshayi
0.1.0 Aphonopelma seemani
0.1.0 Brachypelma emilia
0.1.0 Nhandu coloratovillosus
0.1.0 Thrixopelma pruriens
0.0.1 Thrixopelma ocerti
0.1.0 Lasiodora difficilis ??
0.0.1 Chilobrachys huahini

I am also waiting for 4 new species to arrive.
Haplopelma longipes, Psalmopoeus irminia, Cyriocosmus elegans and hopefully Stromatopelma calceatum

Scorpions:
0.0.2 Hadogenes paucidens
If every thing goes as I want, I will shortly recive Centruroides sculpturatus, Leiurus quinquestriatus and Androctonus australis


Stick Insect
0.0.5 Carausius morosus
0.0.X Peruphasma schultei

Giant snails
1X Achatina fulica
6X Achatina achatina

E

Erlend D Bertelsen wrote: Tarantulas I currently have.
1.1.0 Grammostola rosea
0.1.0 Hetrosocdra maculata
0.1.0 Citharischius crawshayi
0.1.0 Aphonopelma seemani
0.1.0 Brachypelma emilia
0.1.0 Nhandu coloratovillosus
0.1.0 Thrixopelma pruriens
0.0.1 Thrixopelma ocerti
0.1.0 Lasiodora difficilis ??
0.0.1 Chilobrachys huahini

Can someone quickly explain what the 3 digit numbers mean? I've been wondering this for a while.

1.0.0 One male
0.1.0 One female
0.0.1 One unsexed
2.0.0 Two malles

And so on...

E

looks like there's some nocturnal Scorpion fondling going around.
loads of sand replaced, lots of digging, the female's about to explode anbd the male's feisty and still in 1 piece with all the parts on.

they're going to be wintered in novenber-december. and I just bought an adult male for my huge Brachypelma smithi female.
next week I'm gonna try to match them, but I'll be around with a long feeding tweezer to separate them if she mistakes him for a big roach.

if the match is a success she's going into hibernation as well.
my pulchra (largest spider i've ever had, handsize) is already fertilized -she's amazingly cool and didn't harass the male at all- will be cooled down too.


by next spring I'm hipdeep in nasty critters if i'm lucky

Love is in the hair!



I was pairing off my smithi's when Marc called, during the call I kept my eye on the spiders and then I had to run
it was a success, but a good thing I had to break off the call (I got one of those old fashioned phones with a wire), because after 10 minutes the lady had aquired a taste for male smithi chow, but I managed to hold her back with a big tweezer.
male's all in 1 piece and soon ready for another mating.

whoa...good thing you saved him.

However, Marc did have a very good call, didn't he?

yes he did

today I matched my smithi male a second time and he did it again and survived in 1 piece.
and afterwards a guy from Belgium came and traded my smithi male for these 2 happy campers......

From the Outback in Oz I bring you
Holconia immanis aka Huntsman Spider





it's a young pair, I introduced them to each other and after a few hours I found them like this

in a few months I'm gonna be hipdeep in critters I hope

Severly impressive, sid!!!!
Amanda

Severly impressive, sid!!!!

.... and no water changes. Hmmm tempting.
-Shane

well, I have to admit; as long as you stick to easy to keep hardy species this is the easiest pet hobby in the world

it takes up very little space, you can put the cages on bookshelves since they weigh little and most of the interior is free; sand, turf, leaves and dead wood are all from outside.
hitchhiking bedbugs, woodlice, earwigs and other wildlife are quickly eaten.....

the only thing that's even easier is my roach collection; and of course these supply all the food for my spiders and scorps.


I do have 2 groups of communal spiders, but these are still very small.
once they're getting bigger this is a bit more tricky. a Hadrurus sting is painful but not very dangerous (I don't handle them, mind!), but the bite from Poecilotheria or my other communal creepy Hysterocrates gigas is not to be trifled with.

I do handle some tarantula's on occasion because of my job teaching biology to the kids. my huge Grammostola pulchra and my Chilean Rosea are "tame", sort of and sometimes kids want to experience a big hairy spider on their hand. (or a snake for wich I breed Prairie Gartersnakes, the 5 adults I have are very docile)
friend of mine got bitten by an adult Hysterocrates and that put him on medication for more than a month. they are far more agressive and toxic than the hairkickers from the new world.

Arachnophobia hits the house....




after exactly 3 weeks and 1 day mom Holconia chewed a hole in her cocoon!
first spider bred by me, so I'm happy as a clam

although pretty soon these critters will overrun the house if i'm not fast enough with catching them

first spider bred by me, so I'm happy as a clam

And you should be...that's great

although pretty soon these critters will overrun the house if i'm not fast enough with catching them

That was my first thought at seeing the bunch of young...how do you keep them sealed in, yet still breathing? I have visions of duct tape everywhere

Birger

lol!
no duct anywhere. i opened the terrarium to take the pic

if they escape I guess I have to hunt down tiny huntsmans everywhere

quite a chore cause yours truly is not exactly mr sportman -saying it kindly- and these critters don't just run; they teleport.

on the other hand; they're quite peaceful, very shy and completely harmless. non-venomenous.

and it's wintertime here; they won't escape and pester the neighbours because it would inmvolve crossing spaces that are way too cold for them to survive. it's a species from the Australian Outback, so likely to be found near the central heating system and the fishtanks.

Jesus christ that is simultaneously beautiful and disgusting.

it gets worse

or if you have my twisted humor, very funny
the wee spiderlings molted twice, and the whole bunch now are replica's of their parents, except smaller than a house fly.

so I took a plastic box with some dry leaves, bits of cork, dumped in a whole box of baby crickets;
and then proceeded to chase mom from her nest.

luckily the piece of cork with the nest fitted in.

but oh sweet JC in a hotrod these critters are faaaaaaaast

if visitors in the future ask why I don't have the regular type of house spider, but the XXL, well
this is why

the nest sort of "exploded" and I really tried, yes I did, but at least 15 or more (of the one hundred plus) managed to pull a stunt and are now going feral behind the fish tanks

Home Holconia spiderlings.

anyway, good thing I didn't attempt this with Phoneutria nigriventer