Recent pictures of October!

[Allthingsterrarium]

I took all of these pictures of my Brachypelma Boehmei, October, within the last two weeks and he's becoming more beautiful by the day. I got him in July with a 3 inch legs pan and he's molted once since I got him. He's a tiny bit larger than he was now but he's going to molt again soon and be even bigger so I got one of him next to my hand. I have a picture of him from when he was smaller if any of you want to see. That red thing in his keeper is his makeshift water dish for now. It's the lid off an old yeast container. The first picture shown I took just today.

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Sorry, I made a slight mistake. I actually got him June 30th so pretty much July anyway

 

[Meludox]

Beautiful! October is such a cute name... What are Boehmei's like? I've never really looked into them but I'm considering it.

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Beautiful! October is such a cute name... What are Boehmei's like? I've never really looked into them but I'm considering it.

Thanks Meludox I named him october because he's black and orange and he's a spider. It just fits perfectly into Halloween!

They are a very nice species. Low upkeep, very hardy and very easy to care for. They are a little bit skittish when they are small and at his size but they really, really mellow out when they mature although this species is apparently the one that is happiest to flick hairs readily among the genus brachypelma. October has flicked hairs from time to time, not at me directly but he'll do it sometimes when I socialize him with a bristly paintbrush. He's living in one of those critter keepers right now since he's still small but I already have a nice tank set up and waiting for him when he gets bigger. Again, really easy to care for, All they really need is a thin layer of substrate (ground up coconut fiber/coir is best), a place to hide and a water dish plus any decorations you think would look nice (I like desert decorations since they live in desert scrub in coastal Mexico,) Just feed them once or twice a week and and check on their water every two or three days to see if it needs to be refilled. Apparently they burrow in the wild but are unlikely to do so in captivity. Like many tarantulas, females can live well into their 20s and up while males only live 5-15 years which is still a very long time when you consider the common house spider barely lives one year. Personally I got a male because he's my first tarantula and just in case he turned out to be a care nightmare which he has not ,I didn't a 20+ year nightmare . If you're interested in the mexican fireleg I can provide a few resources for you to look at below. I'll even give you the link to the website where I got mine.

(this guy has females and he gives a great review of them.)

http://www.tarantulas.com/caresheets/B_boehmei.html (Here's a care sheet.)

http://www.reptilesncritters.com/mexican-fire-leg-tarantula.html (This is where I got October, they're usually in stock but sometimes take a few months.)

http://www.backwaterreptiles.com/tarantulas/mexican-fireleg-tarantula-for-sale.html (Here's another place you could get one. Ignore the bad reviews on Youtube, there are so many more great reviews for this site and this is where I got my chameleon too.)

 

[Meludox]

Sweet! I'll be looking into it.

 

[kormath]

That's a great looking specimen. We have a 1/2" Boehmei named Koby we lovingly refer to as Butthead because he's so tempermental. WIthin a few days after he arrived he had flicked all the hairs off the back half of his abdomen. I only saw him flick them at my son and I once. I thought we was scratching an itch until my son moved back and told me what he was doing. So i'm guessing he flicked the rest off at the cricket we tried to feed him a few days after he arrived.

I've seen him digging in the substrate, but I'm pretty sure he was looking for the Dubai we fed him rather than digging a burrow. I made a burrow for this one using an unused prescription bottle the 1 inch diameter kind. We cut the top off, buried it at an angle and filled the "bottom" with substrate. He spends almost as much time in the burrow as he does in the open. We made his substrate slightly damp and packed it to hold shape (roughly the same consistency of potting soil) in case he wanted to burrow then covered that with a thin layer of dry substrate to simulate earth.

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

That's a great looking specimen. We have a 1/2" Boehmei named Koby we lovingly refer to as Butthead because he's so tempermental. WIthin a few days after he arrived he had flicked all the hairs off the back half of his abdomen. I only saw him flick them at my son and I once. I thought we was scratching an itch until my son moved back and told me what he was doing. So i'm guessing he flicked the rest off at the cricket we tried to feed him a few days after he arrived.

I've seen him digging in the substrate, but I'm pretty sure he was looking for the Dubai we fed him rather than digging a burrow. I made a burrow for this one using an unused prescription bottle the 1 inch diameter kind. We cut the top off, buried it at an angle and filled the "bottom" with substrate. He spends almost as much time in the burrow as he does in the open. We made his substrate slightly damp and packed it to hold shape (roughly the same consistency of potting soil) in case he wanted to burrow then covered that with a thin layer of dry substrate to simulate earth.

Amazing! I never thought about actually making him a burrow! I might just do that when I move him to his main habitat. That is so fascinating.

 

[kormath]

I'm on a limited budget for this hobby with the holidays coming around so simple is best My son didn't like the orange color of the pill bottle sticking out of the substrate, so to make him happy i buried it so it looks like a half circle cave opening in the mound of substrate. If i can remember i'll take a pic of it tonight.

 

[kormath]

Here's the burrow we made. My son removed it to see if Koby would dig his own again. We found him tonight in his own burrow, a few inches from the door of the one I made. He must have grown tired of it.

 

[Allthingsterrarium]

Here's the burrow we made. My son removed it to see if Koby would dig his own again. We found him tonight in his own burrow, a few inches from the door of the one I made. He must have grown tired of it.

Wow I like that! I'd live in that happily and never dig another burrow again if I was him!