What made you start collecting?

Chuckle · May 15, 2009

So, i've been trolling the boards here for a few months, finally decided to register... Also saw on a few other threads the "wrong" reasons to start collecting inverts, so my question to everyone, what made you start collecting?

I'll start off.
I only have a G. Rosea, soon to be a H. Lividum in the terrarium next to it, but i started just because of a fascination with them. Sure everyone has dogs, cats, the occasional lizard, which is great, but tarantulas are just well... dunno, they interest me so much more, cant really describe it :? Mebbe i'm just wierd haha.

BrynWilliams · May 15, 2009

Welcome to the forums!

I started collecting because of a couple reasons really, I've always been into spiders from a very young age, but moving around like crazy when I was a teenager prevented me from ever getting around to getting a couple Ts.

After that I went through a phase of just not thinking about them at all and so a few years went by without any pets at all.

Finally this my 4th year of uni, I incidentally came across a rosea in the local pet store I walk past almost everyday. I bought it that very day (I was ripped off blind at the same time :8o )

In the following 3 weeks I got another 3

I can safely say I'm well and truely hooked!

Hope you all like the little story

Bryn

Triggerman73 · May 15, 2009

Well, i saw a picture of a bite from a brown recluse and i started getting into spiders and solfugids...after a while, i saw a picture of an H. lividum and i wanted to get one. After realizing the aggressiveness, i decided to get something else. At first, i wanted a B. smithi. But, when i figured out that G. pulchripes gets bigger, i wanted one of them. After doing some more research, someone told me about B. albiceps so i decided i liked them better. When i bought my B. albiceps, i got a free B. vagans so now i have two...looking for more. :?

This whole process took about 5 months and now I, and my friends, are hooked.

Miz · May 15, 2009

I was in the pet shop one day planning on getting a snake, but hey didn't have one I was interested in. Determined on not leaving empty handed, I continued to look at other reptiles until I reached the front counter. There behind the glass were the Ts. number of different sizes, colors, types of enclosures, etc. I've NEVER liked spiders, but something about the sheer number of different species they had intrigued me. Before then, I'd never really heard of any Ts other than G. roseas being kept as pets (I know, I was a sheltered individual) This lady saw me looking and started telling me how cool they were as pets. The guy at the desk asked me if I had any, and upon hearing I'd never been interested, he broke into an excited demonstration of how awesome they truly are. I, of course, went home with a G. rosea after watching him handle it and seeing how cool it was "in action" Upon my return to the house, I hit the net and furiously researched Ts until my brain felt like it could explode. Who knew they were such fascinating creatures? I went from not even thinking twice about owning one, to looking at pics and thinking about every one; "I want one!" I've gotten 4 more since then, (A. sp. "New River", H. sp. "Vietnam", P. murinus, and P. irminia) and love them all. Needless to say, I'm hooked. My wish list keeps getting longer and longer

Unfortunately I'm not a wealthy man, so my collection will be slow growing for a while.

BrynWilliams · May 15, 2009

I feel your pain Miz, the only thing stopping me getting a bunch more is the cost, mainly because I seem to fall in love with the rarest kinds for some reason

Currently top my list is an M. Balfouri, but slings have only just got to UK and are going for like 80 pounds each, which I simply can't justify being a student

spiderfield · May 15, 2009

When I was about ten years old my cousin had found a Lynx spider, which I thought was so cool! So I went into his yard and collected my own, in addition to a pretty big orb weaver. From then on it snow-balled....house spiders, black widows, jumping spiders. Then I made the switch to raising different types of insects....then giant silkmoths....then chameleons....and then finally worked my way into the world of Tarantulas.

jeff1962 · May 15, 2009

I have always liked spiders and after I got out of the aquarium hobby after 20 years I was looking for something else.

I started by looking at online dealers and was amazed at all the varity available.

My first T. was a B. Smithi sling I paid way to much for from a local pet shop.

I figured I would just get a few and that would be it. But as we all know it does not work that way once you get started.

SCORPIONNOOB · May 15, 2009

When I first saw an Emperor scorpion I WANTED IT!.... I didnt buy it though and the pet store NEVER got anything in except snakes, and snakes, and ahahaha SNAKES! So finally on the day before christmas I talked to my friend chris and he said he went to the pet store to get his G/F a couple fish and I asked him if they had any emperors... YEP... So I had an old ten gallon aquarium and BAM bought him. So my friend (chris WHO WAS DEATHLY AFRAID OF SPIDERS!!!) decided it would be funny to do something totally ironic and buy the rose hair T about an hour after I bought my scorp. Well.... then I bought 2 more, and he bought another rose hair, and pink toe, and so I bought a rose hair cause his was kick ass! And here I am today.... 10 T's and about 30 scorpions later and he has 15 T's. Its just awesome to have um! They all have thier own personalities and its fascinating to watch them!

VESPidA · May 15, 2009

My story!

So I was having a halloween party last year, and looking around for decorations for my apartment. I'm kinda obsessed w/ pottery barn, and their kid's website was selling these large plush spiders. They were so cute so I bought two!

(Here is the link by the way: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/prod...n=editpip&shipto=You&showsku=6395891&lineid=3)

I loved them so much that I didn't put them away until after Thanksgiving... and that's when I realized that I really liked spiders! So I started looking around on the internet and came across this board... and soon was hooked. I "adopted" my first Rosie from someone who could no longer care for her, and I fell in love the minute she poked her tiny legs out of the tupperware she arrived in

I now have 3 more beauties and am tempted to buy more and more...

BreakTheWindows · May 15, 2009

My dad has always been into reptiles before I was born, so I eventually got into the hobby. It wasn't until recently that I became interested in an emperor scorpion while at a reptile show... then a G. rosea... then a A. avic... etc. Now I'm simply obsessed with this hobby.

Mack&Cass · May 15, 2009

I've always kept random things I find outside and in the house. When I moved here for university I started working at a LPS...they frequently got T's in and I had decided I wanted one...so after plenty of research I bought a G. rosea...4 more came after that and I was actually slowly falling out of the hobby. Then my girlfriend and I got together...then we moved in together and she had never had anything like this before but she was absolutely fascinated. I showed her this website and she would spend hours on it. Eventually she ordered a G. pulchra and C. darlingi. After she experienced the excitement of a shipment arriving and seeing how awesome they were when they were her own...our collection tripled. I went from having 5 before we got together to now 15 after 7 months of being together. She got me back in it

Miz · May 15, 2009

Mtisdale said:
I've always kept random things I find outside and in the house. When I moved here for university I started working at a LPS...they frequently got T's in and I had decided I wanted one...so after plenty of research I bought a G. rosea...4 more came after that and I was actually slowly falling out of the hobby. Then my girlfriend and I got together...then we moved in together and she had never had anything like this before but she was absolutely fascinated. I showed her this website and she would spend hours on it. Eventually she ordered a G. pulchra and C. darlingi. After she experienced the excitement of a shipment arriving and seeing how awesome they were when they were her own...our collection quadrupled. I went from having 5 before we got together to now 15 after 7 months of being together. She got me back in it

doesn't it rock when your SO gets into your hobby as in depth as you? my ex actually compared Ts to possums..... to VERMIN! can you believe it? bah. anyways, the girl i'm with now loves them and actually wants a Pink Toe of her own

gotta love it.

sean-820 · May 15, 2009

when i decided i had too much money in my wallet...J/K

Ive always been interested in reptiles and mainly fish, pretty much anything thats not common. So i saw t-canada at a reptile show and became interested in t's and got a versi. I wanted somethign thats a cool display and easy to keep so t's were great. Needless to say, in under a year, im thinking what my sixth would be. Its kinda weird how i used to always want a scorpion before a t , however i have newer has a scorpion, but i have t's.

KJE · May 15, 2009

I was arachnophobic.....it was part of my therapy. I'm not kidding.

There was an invert store that showed up in a local mall one day. I could go on the side with the roaches, millipedes(even bought some), and scorpions(held one), but I couldn't go on the side with the tarantulas. I decided I didn't want to be afraid of anything so I started going there almost every day. One day an employee talked me into letting an A. avic crawl over my hand while I had my eyes closed. It wasn't too bad. Within a short time I was picking them up on my own. Once I educated myself it was easy. Now I love them.

Big Red TJ · May 15, 2009

Well It started with snakes and Monitor lizard then when I broke up with my ex the flood gate opened

Envyizm · May 15, 2009

Arachnophobia. I felt due to humans natural fear of the unknown that having a fear of spiders was simply cause i knew nothing about them. Never would have thought such a fear would turn into an obsession but i love it.

Sky`Scorcher · May 15, 2009

Hmm I got into the hobby back at 2007 when I was still at highschool but waaaayyy before that I would always go on bug catching adventures when I was a kid. My current house is located near rice fields and forests so you can imagine how many bugs would be at our house when i turn on the outdoor lights at night but as time went by I started getting fascinated on true spiders and started catching them too.

Pretty soon I climbed trees just to get the orb weavers that I wanted and every visit at the forest would eventually lead me deeper into it and found much more bigger and beautiful spiders but as I grew up my interest dwindled and resorted to just watching documentaries about them on tv and youtube then I saw these big hairy tarantulas and I was like "Wow, they're much bigger than the ones I catch". To make a long story short I bought a T at a LPS and I was so stoked they had T's on sale and later found out I got ripped off

I started buying strictly online since then.

:clap: I am very glad I got into this and I am never going to quit this hobby!!:clap:

Arachadian · May 15, 2009

I have been fascinated with spiders since I could walk. I would catch bugs and feed them in the garden and barn, kept a trapdoor I caught for a while and then released it again(exactly where I found it), and always look for cool spiders when out fishing and stuff. Got my first T, a Rosea when in college, and after having her for 12 years and the help of the internet I learned about all of the awesome T's out there and after a few months found a GBB sling, amazing, and I now have 5 and will keep acquiring more slowly over time. I also have an OBT, M. Robustum, P.Regalis.

Twistedrayne · May 16, 2009

I always enjoyed popping into pet stores..They're like free zoos sometimes..Then again, so is my house. We were at petco, they only had one T and it was just labeled.. PINK TOE.. I figured, why not? Well, I baked the poor little guy with a heating lamp. I decided to stay away from Ts for a while after that. I started breeding rats for the local pet store, Get Tanked. I took my last litter of pinkies in and peaked over at one of the Tarantulas and thought.."Cool, big spider. And it's cheap!" and decided I wanted her. So now I have two rosies that I'm crazy about and am looking into getting more.

mhill · May 16, 2009

My fascination began when I was about 8-9 years old. (Im 40 now) My parents bought the full collection of Encyclopedia Britannica for me (I was a major bookworm) and lo and behold I discovered Tarantulas. If I remember right, the picture accompanying the description was a B. smithi. I didnt know at the time such big hairy spiders existed. I became so fascinated with them that one night my Dad came home with a large paper sack and a big grin on his face. Inside was a female B. smithi inside a small glass tank.
Not long after arriving she laid an egg sac (she was wild caught) and my parents freaked out thinking we were going to be overrun with THOUSANDS of spiders in a few days time so they pulle the sac out and destroyed it, the thought of it makes me cringe now worse than it did then...lol.
The B. smithi is still my favorite T to this day, maybe thats why I have 4 of them.

What made you start collecting?

Arachnopeon

Arachnoprince

Arachnoknight

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnobaron

Arachnoknight

Arachnoknight

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnosquire

Arachnobaron

Arachnoangel

Arachnobaron

Arachnoknight

Arachnoknight

Arachnopeon

Arachnosquire

Arachnosquire