Aaron's Reptile's and Arachnid's 
Arachnid's 
Arachnid page
Welcome to my Arachnid page
This is were all those of you who are unfourtunate enough to accommodate the fear of spiders"Arachnophobia" make a sharp
now for all those of you who are still here, I will begin this educational excursion, with the
I would like to say before we go any further that I will mainly be talking about spiderling Tarantula in this site
as I believe any serious collector of Tarantula should purchase them small
and then grow his/her own there is two reasons for this in my opinion
firstly they are far cheaper than adult or even sub adult ones
secondly there is nothing better than watching your adorable 2 cm spiderling grow into a 5"- 8"or 12" monster
Introduction
Let's start of by clarifying the correct terminology to use when talking about those little beauty's we commonly refer to as Tarantula.
The correct term (or name) for Tarantula is Theraphosid. The name Tarantula actually originated from a dance performed by the inhabitants of a small town in southern Italy called taranto. These occupants (naively) believed, that once bitten by a Theraphosid the only way to rid the body of (what they beleived to be) deadly venom, and ultimately death, was to perform a dance called Tarantella.
So Theraphosid. eventually became Tarantula.
Housing
Housing is basicly something in which to keep your spider in, (and your other pets out). But there is a little bit more to it than that I'm affraid.
# 1 and most importantly is the size of container (the thing you're going to keep your spider in) you'er going to use, this should be carefully considered. (before you buy your Tarantula).
For example if you've bought, or thinking of buying your Tarantula as a spiderling you don't really want to be putting it inanything nearly as big as big as a 5 gallon.tank. I personally like to keep mine in plastic containers mesuring around 6"/5"/2" with adequate ventalation in the top or sides.depending on whether you're going to stack them.
These containers were obtained from my local Chinese (new) at the bargain price of 10p each.
sub straight
now there are a number of different kinds of sub straight available. But some I would strongly recommend you stay away from.
Sand (when used on it's own),
gravel,
Pine Bark,
Heavy clay soils.
(A more suitable sub straight would be)
Vermiculite,
Sterilized soil,
50/50 sand/soil mix.
Peat,
It's important to remember that in the wild your Tarantula has 'choices'. So by choosing to take one of these magnificent creatures into your home and keeping it as a pet, you have ultimately taken away its freedom. And there for it is 100% reliant on you to meet its needs correctly.
Other wise you will more than likely find that you have a dead Tarantula for a pet rather than a healthy one.
Heating
just like us your spider likes to be warm, and just like us it needs some kind of heating aperatus to acheive this. So how are you going to meet the tempreture your Tarantulas require. Tarantulas thrive at a tempreture betwen 70-75 degres F / 20-25 c .
I like to use a1" layer of Vermiculite as a sub straight, into this I half bury a film container, which I like to hide by spreading a thin coat of glass sealant other the top and then sprinkling a hand full of Vermiculite over it (this is purely for aesthetic reasons only and makes no difference to the spider one way or the other) or you could just cover it with pieces of broken clay pot. Entirely up to you. Second thing to think about is a water dish. Now if you only have spiderlings like me, then you only need a small dish, I find that the top of the film canister I used for the shelter works quit well, and is conveniently available. Last but not least is Humidity. Well a water dish goes some way towards providing a certain level of humidity in your spiders container, but it would be foolish to think that this is enough on its own. Vermiculite also is a good sub straight to use to help maintain humidity, as it can contain many times its own weight in water. But to obtain the correct level of humidity that your Tarantula needs.(85%) You will need to lightly spray your spiders enclosure when it begins to look to dry (you should try not to let the humidity get much lower than (65%),as you will probably find that it will stop feeding if you do, I would recommend you buy a humidity gage from your local pet store, this way you can keep an accurate eye on the level at all times, by doing this and making sure the water dish never dry out,you shouldn't have any problems but as an extra precaution I like to place the water dish on to a damp cotton wool pad (the kind your girlfriend might use to take her make up of with) this way if your spider needs a little more humidity it will simply stand on the pad or in the water dish.
Feeding
Feeding is half the fun in keeping Exotic pets