I went to my first expo yesterday! And I got two news Ts- one of whom is pictured above! Grammastola pulchra (Brazilian Black), likely a male. And he is a huge, handsome boy! I am absolutely in love.
He's already living up to the Grammastola reputation. Rehousing was a breeze, no hair kicking at all, very chill and docile. I have a larger and more suitable enclosure for him coming soon, but right now he is in a six inch cube and seems to be settling in alright.
My other new addition is a D. diamantinensis (Brazilian Blue Dwarf) and uhm. His name (her name?) is Menace. Because making housing readjustments to the little fucker was the most stressful thing I have ever done. I lost ten years of my life to the little bolty asshole.
I love him. I adore him. But holy SHIT dude. WHY???
Happy 4 years anniversary to me creating Kasifer & Theresia! Today's their "birthday"!
I doodled them as Hollow Knight characters to celebrate their roots. Originally, they were OC-ifications of extensive headcanons I had about Grimm and the Radiance being siblings. Their story has changed a lot since then!
pictures of my g pulchra while its in this little container as i'm cleaning its terrarium lol.
i dont pick this juvenile (1 1/2 year old) up often so when i picked it up to transfer it, it was a nice feeling- super soft! also a little bit warm since the terrarium is near a light.
it got away once but luckily i was in the bathroom away from the cats haha.
My G. pulchra was Very "Curious" about getting out of her tank during the last feeding, so I figured I'd let her do a very supervised walkabout. My hand is on my desk, so she wouldn't fall very far if that should happen (heaven forbid!). Once on my hand, she just sat there and chilled like a lovely black bracelet.
(I did add a filter? It's the "normal" filter; I'm not sure what it does, but I liked how it looked lol.)
I can totally see why they're called the "black lab" of the tarantula world, and I think she might be one of the only ones I handle - only when she "wants" to, of course!
My beautiful G. pulchra out for a stroll. This girl hasn't molted in two freaking years now. She hasn't even eaten in at least a year. Her abdomen is huge though, so that's fine. Wish she would just molt already, I knew the grammostola genus are slow growers but damn 😮💨
fresh V pics <3 my beloved G. pulchra is about 4 years old and will take up to another 4 years to reach maturity and full size - it's still pretty small right now (my partner's full grown Hapolopus sp. Colombia is a dwarf species and bigger than V) but will one day be huge and dark black <3
ok comparison for my own reference bc im still waffling on spider acquisition:
bonnetina minax:
pros- dwarf species so space isnt a problem even as an adult, even a 2" kiddo can just go into an adult enclosure as is. confirmed female available if i cough up the money for her :')
cons- not much info on temperament and anecdotal discussions of them being flighty and kicky
g. pulchra:
pros- oh my god i want one so bad Big Fucking Beautiful Creature That Lives Forever, usually chill but visible, even if i get male i'll have him for several years
cons- GET ENORMOUS (both pro and con tbh), will eventually need a huge enclosure
curly hair:
pros- cute, cheap, easy to care for, usually very docile. my fav tarantula i worked with was a weirdly temperamental curly hair and i have a soft spot for them
cons- none really as far as husbandry, zero brain cells tho and they can be a bit of a pet rock, and i'd like to try a taxa i havent worked with as much
b. emilia
pros: SO PRETTY and don't get huge like some other brachypelmas/tlitocatls, are apparently pretty calm and like to hang out in the open. i've come extremely close to buying one of these twice now in the past 3 years so this def isnt an impulse lmao
cons: EXPENSIVE my god. like technically doable but good lord thats almost a third of my paycheck for a juvenile