My Goliaths (Theraphosa stirmi)

[CombiChrist]

My apologies for the horrible pictures. I spend more money on animals then on cameras...

But some pictures of my male Theraphosa stirmi. For those who get curious about the name, they were known as Theraphosa sp. "Burgundy" untill last week they finally we're recognised and described as a third species in the genus. Most specimen sold as T.blondi, are actually this species, T. stirmi.

The spiders in this genus are the biggest bird eating spiders, with body sizes of over 10cm. The legspan can get up to 30cm.
The one on the pics is my male in a terrarium of 40x40x40cm and stretching out you can see he's around 25cm legspan.
This afternoon I captured him to move him into a 50cm terrarium and at those moments I'm still an arachnofobiac

I have an adult female also in a 80cm terrarium but no pics of her though for two reasons. First she hardly gets out of her hiding, and secondly I disturb her as little as possible. The easier she is, the more chance of succes a breeding attempt will become.

The collection will be expanded with breeding couples of the two other Theraphosa species : blondi and apophysis

 

[Trace]

HE ROCKS!

I got into keeping Tarantulas earlier this year and I'm really liking them. I'm only keeping a few docile species for now but I'm sure I'll venture into the larger and fancier ones as my experience grows. How are the Theraphosa to deal with. Are they really aggressive? What are you feeding them? What else are you or have you kept spider wise?

Thanks for posting those pics!

Trace

 

[PrettyInInk87]

Wow, that's a big one! Lol! Very pretty...

 

[CombiChrist]

Theraphosas are often called agressive and bad-tempered. IMO that's not the best description for they are just very nervous and would love to run away when threatened. They would need a soil of 1m in height though to have a "natural" hiding burrow so that's nearly impossible.

Because the lack of this, they react pretty defensive what gets interpretated as agressiveness.

But IMO there are no agressive spiders, except maybe some of the Old World spiders...

I feed them cockroaches (Blaptica dubia) and every now and then a mouse.

Before I switched to these Goliaths, I kept several smaller species... A.avicularia, L.parahybana, H.gigas, H.maculata, G.rosea, B.smithi, B.vagans, P.regalis, C.fasciatum, N.chromatus, A.bicoloratum, L.polycuspulatus, G.pulchripes and a B.albopilosum.
Liked them all, but kept them just to outgrow my biggest fear of spiders before I could start with the Goliaths

What species do you keep ?

 

[Trace]

He is so awesome. He reminds me of those huge coconut crabs except without the weight. I can't imagine running into a full grown Goliath in the wild. It would initially scare the poop out of me but they probably hide most of the day and you would never see them.

Right now I have a Mexican Red Rump (Brachypelma vagans) and a Chaco Golden Knee (Grammostola pulchripes). Nothing fancy but as I said I'm really enjoying learning about spiders and observing their behaviours. I can see expanding my collection of T's at some point but for now I'm quite happy with the two. I don't want to hijack your thread but I've got some freshly molted fang pics on this thread that you might enjoy: https://www.chameleonforums.com/requisite-weekend-photos-three-warning-spiders-50875/

 

[CombiChrist]

Nice pics man !
Indeed Theraphosas hide before you see them most of the times. But if I met one in the wild, I would probably have to change underwear

 

[Cainschams]

HE ROCKS!

I got into keeping Tarantulas earlier this year and I'm really liking them. I'm only keeping a few docile species for now but I'm sure I'll venture into the larger and fancier ones as my experience grows. How are the Theraphosa to deal with. Are they really aggressive? What are you feeding them? What else are you or have you kept spider wise?

Thanks for posting those pics!

Trace

MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will definitely have to come up to Canada BEFORE you venture into those I think I pooped myself just looking at the pics

CombiChrist, I had a fear of even small spiders until I figured out my chameleons love them. Now I can tolerate small ones like wolf, crab, jumpers etc. but still no tarantulas!!!

Should I not be talking about feeding spiders to a spider lover

Welcome to the forums!

 

[CombiChrist]

MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will definitely have to come up to Canada BEFORE you venture into those I think I pooped myself just looking at the pics

CombiChrist, I had a fear of even small spiders until I figured out my chameleons love them. Now I can tolerate small ones like wolf, crab, jumpers etc. but still no tarantulas!!!

Should I not be talking about feeding spiders to a spider lover

Welcome to the forums!

I never mind feeding spiders, as long as you don't feed mine

 

[PantherVeileD]

MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will definitely have to come up to Canada BEFORE you venture into those I think I pooped myself just looking at the pics

CombiChrist, I had a fear of even small spiders until I figured out my chameleons love them. Now I can tolerate small ones like wolf, crab, jumpers etc. but still no tarantulas!!!

Should I not be talking about feeding spiders to a spider lover

Welcome to the forums!

Ha same here!! I hate spiders!! Im used to the daddy's long leg one but I would not even touch it. I hate webs too! As of few days ago I picked up two slings (a rose and fireleg)and see if I can overcome my fear! They look interesting and all and will take me awhile to even handle them.

I want to get a third one already since I have a small glass tank and I divided it in threes. What do you guys recommend?