Are you a Tarantula hobbyist? If so, we invite you to join our community! Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your pets and enclosures and chat with other Tarantula enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dave Jay" data-source="post: 140880" data-attributes="member: 27677">OBT = Orange Baboon Tarantula = Orange Bitey Thing in case no one has enlightened you Major.  African tarantulas are known as baboon tarantulas. Apparently it was just a couple of genus's originally but now it can mean any African tarantula. Being Old World the venom is more toxic than the New World species more commonly kept and they have a reputation for being defensive and biting readily. Just like my Australian species! If you have your heart set on a certain species don't let a potent venom put you off, it's not like you HAVE to get bitten, just take precautions, which will be just the same regardless of species anyway. More to the point would be selecting a species that are tolerant of a wide range of conditions and are known to be easy to keep successfully.</blockquote>