- Messages
- 322
- Location
- South Florida
I'm new here but got my first tarantula over 40 years ago and through perseverance built a decent-sized collection in the 1970's (15 w/c species!). Actually bred Avic avic back then, when virtually no one was breeding. I gave slide show talks to elementary schools in the Detroit suburbs for a few years. Started off with the usual NW terrestrials but was soon hooked on tropicals and arboreals. I was later lured to the 'dark side' of OW's and they're 60% of my collection today.
I sold off my spider collection in the mid 2000's, and got back in 3 years ago, when I saw all the new species that had been introduced, especially from Indonesia, Madagascar, Philippines, China, and Australia. I'm a big Poecilotheria enthusiast. I've ramped up pretty quickly this time around and have 100 species, and have hatched out 30 sacs in the last 2 years; I sell/trade most of my slings to dealers so I don't get totally bogged down maintaining thousands of vials (I have a day job you know). I'm a firm believer in a collection paying for itself.
For 9 years I used to have a large collection of cobras, 150 at my peak, 2 dozen kinds. As a child I got to know some of the curators and keepers at the Detroit Zoo (who were family friends) and got to go behind the scenes, especially at the Reptile House, which is where my interest in cobras came from. I was featured on a full episode of 'Sonny Eliot at the Zoo' with my spiders (filmed in the employee section of the Reptile House).
I have a palm collection in my yard and also play electric guitar: blues and classic rock.
I sold off my spider collection in the mid 2000's, and got back in 3 years ago, when I saw all the new species that had been introduced, especially from Indonesia, Madagascar, Philippines, China, and Australia. I'm a big Poecilotheria enthusiast. I've ramped up pretty quickly this time around and have 100 species, and have hatched out 30 sacs in the last 2 years; I sell/trade most of my slings to dealers so I don't get totally bogged down maintaining thousands of vials (I have a day job you know). I'm a firm believer in a collection paying for itself.
For 9 years I used to have a large collection of cobras, 150 at my peak, 2 dozen kinds. As a child I got to know some of the curators and keepers at the Detroit Zoo (who were family friends) and got to go behind the scenes, especially at the Reptile House, which is where my interest in cobras came from. I was featured on a full episode of 'Sonny Eliot at the Zoo' with my spiders (filmed in the employee section of the Reptile House).
I have a palm collection in my yard and also play electric guitar: blues and classic rock.
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