I'm a novice.

Well, the title says it all. I actually love tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, etc. I plan to own a few but I want to start with a specific species in a large aquarium tank. I'm not sure what to start with, so any suggestion? Also, excuse my English. Please bear with me, it isn't my first language.

Please help me.

Thanks.

Tifa

Guess not.

tarantulas

if you like holding tarantulas then you should get curly hairs , rose hairs , arizona blonds and maybe a pink toe ....

if you like display animals and have fun just watching them , then get any ornamental , adult goliath bird eater , adult king baboon , and cobalt blue .

also if you want a tarantula that you can watch all day then avoid p murinus ... they stay in thier burrows ALL THE TIME ! well mine does .


see ya!!!

Grammostola aureostriata, but with a large tank, you would need an adult.

Start with doing some reading. There's kind of an inverse learning curve for new T keepers. They all want to do too much, overcomplicate the keeping of a creature with actually very simple requirements.

These are stcky threads that can be found at the top of the Tarantula Questions And Discussions page.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=40987

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=5292

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=5095

If you really want to start with a large specimen you'll be pretty limited unless you have a lot of money to spend. G rosea are about the cheapest, most available, large and easy-to-keep t's around. Unfortunately that's because they're wild-caught in very large numbers. The enclosure size debate rages on and on but most keepers agree that tarantulas don't need very large enclosures. An adult T with a 6" legspan can be housed in a 5 gallon aquarium very comfortably. Larger tanks introduce problems with food being harder to catch, injuries due to falling and other issues.

This board is a great resource. You can learn A LOT by just browsing through old posts and using the search tool.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby!

What country are you from, by the way?

tifa said:

Guess not.

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9 minutes...

dragon_95 said:

if you like holding tarantulas then you should get curly hairs , rose hairs , arizona blonds and maybe a pink toe ....

if you like display animals and have fun just watching them , then get any ornamental , adult goliath bird eater , adult king baboon , and cobalt blue .

also if you want a tarantula that you can watch all day then avoid p murinus ... they stay in thier burrows ALL THE TIME ! well mine does .


see ya!!!

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Disregard the second section of this post. A novice should not start with any of those spiders.

Also, are you learning the scientific names, or are you using common names? I would suggest learning scientific names as they are much better to use. Trust me.

Also, waiting 10ish minutes and then posting again isn't exactly...well...necessary. Someone will get to your post eventually. We all have lives outside of arachnoboards.

Well, sorry for being impatient. I've been itching to get an answer but thank you all.

And I'm from the US. My English is bad because of my first language; sign language. My language's sentence structure is way different from English so, I'm still learning slowly.

I can do the alphabet in sign but that's it. I've always wanted to learn it.

So scientific names or common names?

And I realized I never really offered an answer to your question...

A large aquarium tank might be a bit too much for a beginner spider. You could probably get away with a large kritter keeper and be just fine.

The most common starter tarantula is a Chilean Rose Hair - Grammastola rosea. Here is a GREAT reference for taking care of them:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=5292

Other grammastola species are good. G. aureostriata, as Ethan suggested, is another great one.

Good luck!

Probably the best thing to do is read a lot of books, look at a lot of pictures, and read threads on the forum. Use the collective experience of people who have been through it before to decide what T you should start with. Find out which you like the best, and which you think you could most successfully care for.

There are PLENTY of threads like this one already in existence, (a few of which are VERY easy to find because they are stickied) which is probably why people aren't exactly hoping up and down with excitement to answer yours. :}

That's cool.

Well, I'd like to learn both names.

I know that Roseas are the best to start with but I want something a bit different. I have enough money to throw on my future pets.

Thanks.

tifa said:

That's cool.

Well, I'd like to learn both names.

I know that Roseas are the best to start with but I want something a bit different. I have enough money to throw on my future pets.

Thanks.

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This is where I started 3 weeks ago reading this: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=40987

never had to ask a quesion yet as there is SO much Info out there..

I have 1 Pinktoe and I rosa.. So far love them both.. I dont touch them..

Be patient dont rush in and do your research first...

3 best starter species in my humble opinion are:

G. aureostriata (Chaco)
B. albopilosum (Curly)
E. campestratus (Pink Beauty or sumthing)

G. rosea is also good due to their availability, ruggedness and docile attitude. They can be unpredictable though and temperament varies from one specimen to another.

I recommend reading the links and searching the boards. Almost every single question you have about tarantulas can be answered either in the archives of these forums or a trustworthy book about tarantulas, such as this one (link takes you to a Google preview of what most hobbyists agree on as the tarantula "Bible").

etown_411 said:

3 best starter species in my humble opinion are:

G. aureostriata (Chaco)
B. albopilosum (Curly)
E. campestratus (Pink Beauty or sumthing)

G. rosea is also good due to their availability, ruggedness and docile attitude. They can be unpredictable though and temperament varies from one specimen to another.

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Agree and another good point is I decided instead of mail ordering something and paying a lot for shipping, I would first start with what my Local Pet shop had... They were cheap and no shipping and what a lot of people recommand to start with... The Rosea and the Pink Toe.. When I am ready for something more, then I will mail order...

well i say just keep looking when you see the spider you want you'll know it
just keep looking for tid bits of info and you'll learn more than enough
and welcome to the addiction!

Tifa, first let me say welcome to the forums. Prepare to get bit lol, T's are like potato chips can't have just one. Be very careful, your being a novice will garner suggestions from the majority for what are commonly called "beginner species", generally inexpensive and mostly considered docile. Keeping in mind that a female T can live 10-30 years you can wind up with one that you may lose interest in quickly but will remain in your collection for years. The difference between an easy to keep species and a more difficult to keep type is pretty minimal, temperature, humidity, ventilation, and temperament are pretty easy to learn (an hour or two reading can cover the differences pretty fully). Some folks here will tell you that you need 'experience' before attempting to keep some species. In the long run that's pretty much bunk, with some exceptions. I would suggest holding off buying some of the high end varieties (several can be very expensive) but there are usually low end varieties within the same species for that little extra confidence. Slings (baby tarantulas) especially those under about 2 inches are generally a bit more sensitive and delicate as well and experience with the 'cheaper' ones can give you some specialized learning. Your best bet is to look through galleries and see what catches your eye. Your choices are terrestrial (ground walkers) best for viewing but a fairly small group and many are 'another brown tarantula', arboreal some of the most beautiful in the T groups and having a large selection, and burrowers another large group but some may be rarely seen (lol our pet holes as we call them). We also sub-divide into Old World and New World, a very loose generalization NW flick itchy hair and OW may have a bit worse temperament and slightly stronger venom, not really much of a consideration people handle both types all of the time. You should read and look at the pictures to get an idea of what appeals to """"YOU"""":wall: :wall: :wall: and mostly ignore suggestions from others (including myself lol). You'll be much happier with your collection that way. Here we have folks that collect one species like Avicularia spp., Aphonopelma spp., Poecilotheria spp. (my personal favorite), Haplopelma spp. (another I'm very partial to lol), or they may be more general and keep only baboon tarantulas or arboreal species, some prefer New World, other's Old World (my tendency), and some folks keep a little bit of everything (especially novices but others as well). A quick look at the Buy/Sell forum will show you that there are plenty of opportunities and choices available, time isn't a factor. Do your research, find what appeals to you, ask specific questions, use the search function (and ignore those few that complain and tell you how many times the question your asking has already been answered). Most folks here are pretty nice and many of us have years of experience with nearly any type of T, scorp, or pede you care to ask about. www.eightlegs.org , www.birdspiders.com , www.atshq.org , www.thebts.co.uk , http://www.ub.ntnu.no/scorpion-files/ are a few web sites you should look at and the ATS and BTS (American and British Tarantula societies) both have articles you can view for free that will answer may of your questions. The Tarantula Keepers Guide is a book in most of our libraries and there are a few other more advanced books available as well. Ask questions, look around, be selective with conflicting advise (common here lol), ignore anyone acting a jerk, and you'll be just fine. No need to rush to fill an enclosure, and ALWAYS pick your pets because they appeal to you, not because someone else suggested it. You'll do fine. Hope to hear you've made a good choice, possibly we'll catch you on chat (I'm occasionally there myself), and maybe soon we'll see the first pictures of the new members of your collection.
Rev

like he said
wait he said a long explaination of what i said!

let's make that an auto-reply!

Hey, can we just set this up so the Reverend's reply goes to every new member of the board? That would be sweeeet. Welcome to the boards. There's an unbelievable amount of information here, enjoy. And your English is just fine. There's a strong international presence on the boards, so people are pretty understanding. Usually. Occasionally cranky, but incredibly generous with their knowledge and experience.

IdahoBiteyThing said:

Occasionally cranky

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<----That would be me.