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[Charlie.the.gbb.]

Hi there! I am picking up my green bottle blue tomorrow. I am excited but nervous because I want to make sure that I do everything right for him/her. I have lots of questions. Isopods: are they a good idea to keep in the tank? Should I keep multiple crickets at once or only go buy them when I need to feed? Should I use gloves and glasses when I feed it? Is a green bottle blue good for a beginner?

Looking forward to being a part of the tarantula keeping community.

Jessica

 

[m0lsx]

Hello & welcome to the forum & the hobby.

Yes, a GBB is a good beginners T. Keep it dry & well ventilated & with a water bowl. And no, there is no need to use gloves or glasses. Tweezers are handy for removing uneaten food, but just drop food in, your T will find it, if it wants it & that is why we don't use enclosures that are larger than needed. Tarantulas are ambush predators, so a large enclosure, makes eating harder.

Isopods can be a good idea, but GBB's need a dry environment & most Isopods do not like that. Plus you only need a few Isopods per tank, so they are probably not worth buying for a single enclosure. And most keepers do not bother with isopods. Plus there are downsides to think about too. For example, the wrong kind of Isopods could prey on your GBB as it molts. Not all isopods are equal.

How big is your GBB going to be? I feed all of my slings beheaded mealworms. I behead the mealworms so they do not bury themselves & like that my slings have easy access to it's nice gooey meal.

When feeding crickets, do not use one that is too large, keep them shorter than your T's abdomen & only feed once a week, unless it's slings, then I put dead food in twice a week. And always remove any uneaten food after 24 hours.

 

[Charlie.the.gbb.]

Okay great thank you very much for all the info! And yes I was curious about how isopods would fair in a drier environment so ill stay away from those. And good to know about the beheading of the meal worms. Its a sling. They like dead food over live when they're young?

 

[Lawrence b]

Hi and welcome to the forum .

 

[m0lsx]

They like dead food over live when they're young?

In the wild, tarantulas will take any food they can get & in the wild, when a sling (spiderling) is tiny, dead food is probably what they largely eat. As size does not matter so much, as dead prey cannot fight back & injure them.

At an invert show this weekend, someone was selling slings at 0.25cm, that is around one tenth of an inch. Thus, so small that your eyesight loses it among the substrate. What would they be able to take down? As even the smallest fruit fly is too big for them.

If feeding adult T's with things like Dubai roaches, it pays to crush the heads of the roaches, as with a crushed head a roach still moves for up to 48 hours & thus creates a stronger feeding response. Live Dubia will burrow & then return as a beetle that can prey on your T. So even adult T's will take dead food, if they are hungry & as long as it's fresh food. But dead (non moving,) food does not produce a feeding response.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[Charlie.the.gbb.]

In the wild, tarantulas will take any food they can get & in the wild, when a sling (spiderling) is tiny, dead food is probably what they largely eat. As size does not matter so much, as dead prey cannot fight back & injure them.

At an invert show this weekend, someone was selling slings at 0.25cm, that is around one tenth of an inch. Thus, so small that your eyesight loses it among the substrate. What would they be able to take down? As even the smallest fruit fly is too big for them.

If feeding adult T's with things like Dubai roaches, it pays to crush the heads of the roaches, as with a crushed head a roach still moves for up to 48 hours & thus creates a stronger feeding response. Live Dubia will burrow & then return as a beetle that can prey on your T. So even adult T's will take dead food, if they are hungry & as long as it's fresh food. But dead (non moving,) food does not produce a feeding response.

Okay great info thank you. Sorry couple more questions. Would you choose roaches over crickets or do both? And should I stay away from those for a while its young and just do meal worms for now or should I also be giving roaches/crickets. Thanks!

 

[m0lsx]

Different T's will take & refuse different food. I had a colony of roaches, but so few of my T's would take them, I have gone back to all crickets again. And what you feed is going to depend upon what size your T is. I tend to feed mealworms to my smaller slings, with larger slings, those about 2cm & over, getting very small (pin head) crickets. But I have about 15 grown on slings I feed & if my pinheads grow, I have larger T's to feed them too.

You also need to consider that a tub of crickets may survive a couple of weeks. But you need to look after them & mealworms will last, maybe, a month or more before they start turning into darkling beetles, which are no good as food. And all mealworms need is some porridge & a few currants or raisins, to keep them healthy. So mealworms make a better buy if you have one small-ish sling.

 

[Charlie.the.gbb.]

Different T's will take & refuse different food. I had a colony of roaches, but so few of my T's would take them, I have gone back to all crickets again. And what you feed is going to depend upon what size your T is. I tend to feed mealworms to my smaller slings, with larger slings, those about 2cm & over, getting very small (pin head) crickets. But I have about 15 grown on slings I feed & if my pinheads grow, I have larger T's to feed them too.

You also need to consider that a tub of crickets may survive a couple of weeks. But you need to look after them & mealworms will last, maybe, a month or more before they start turning into darkling beetles, which are no good as food. And all mealworms need is some porridge & a few currants or raisins, to keep them healthy. So mealworms make a better buy if you have one small-ish sling.

Thank you for this info. I have another question for you. I was reading meal worms are not as nutritious and that I should be feeding it crickets as well to get the best nutrients. Feeding the meal worms has been working well for my T. But I was thinking, is just feeding meal worms every time okay for a while? It would be nice since I don't need to waste the meal worms, and if I get crickets lots would be wasted. But would like to hear more advice on this. I believe my T is a little under a year old. I don't have an exact age. Also thinking of getting a second tarantula so my meal worms don't go to waste. Any advice on another great beginner tarantula?? Thanks! Appreciate your info.

 

[m0lsx]

All of my slings are fed mealworms & they all seem to do just fine on them. I do move over to crickets as they get larger, but mealworms are just fine for small slings. At a guess, I would say I start my T's on crickets at around an inch plus. So 2.5cm+. But we have sufficient slings of that size to make a tub of very small crickets worth purchasing.

A tub of looked after mealworms will live much longer than a tub of crickets.

Great T's for anyone to have are Lasiodora parahybana, (commonly simply reffered to as the LP.) Not only are LP's easy to keep & easy going, but they grow reasonable quickly & to a decent size. My largest LP is over 8.5 inches. Another easy going, easy to keep T, that like the LP is underrated is the Aphonopelma seemanni. Any Brachypelma or Tliltocatl are reasonably easy going too. But really, if you want a specific T, then get it. As long as you are calm & move gently around them, very few T's are aggressive & a threat posture from an old world, is not as irritating as hair flicked from a new world.

If you are getting T's as slings, you get to know your T very well, before it reaches even juvi age. So you grow with it & learn as it grows. So if you really want something, then get it. I routinely move adult old worlds into new enclosures by picking up the bark they are sitting on. I do have T's that I am careful with, as they are aggressive. But most are simply defensive & harmless.

 

[Charlie.the.gbb.]

All of my slings are fed mealworms & they all seem to do just fine on them. I do move over to crickets as they get larger, but mealworms are just fine for small slings. At a guess, I would say I start my T's on crickets at around an inch plus. So 2.5cm+. But we have sufficient slings of that size to make a tub of very small crickets worth purchasing.

A tub of looked after mealworms will live much longer than a tub of crickets.

Great T's for anyone to have are Lasiodora parahybana, (commonly simply reffered to as the LP.) Not only are LP's easy to keep & easy going, but they grow reasonable quickly & to a decent size. My largest LP is over 8.5 inches. Another easy going, easy to keep T, that like the LP is underrated is the Aphonopelma seemanni. Any Brachypelma or Tliltocatl are reasonably easy going too. But really, if you want a specific T, then get it. As long as you are calm & move gently around them, very few T's are aggressive & a threat posture from an old world, is not as irritating as hair flicked from a new world.

If you are getting T's as slings, you get to know your T very well, before it reaches even juvi age. So you grow with it & learn as it grows. So if you really want something, then get it. I routinely move adult old worlds into new enclosures by picking up the bark they are sitting on. I do have T's that I am careful with, as they are aggressive. But most are simply defensive & harmless.

Okay good to know thank you. Both those T's sound like what I'm looking for. I'll take more of a look into them thanks! What would you say is the best age of sling to get. I was at a reptile expo and saw some that were super tiny!

 

[BigBill'sUniverse]

Welcome to the forum!