L Parahybana & B albopilosum

[Claire Beckett]

Hi

Just ordered a 1cm L parahybana sling and a 4-5cm B albopilosum - cant wait - Im so excited. Any tips for the new slings?

[Abi Skeet]

Congrats, I'm sure you wont be dissapointed they are great spiders . Just make sure their housing is ready for when they arive and give them time to settle in before you go poking about lol.

[Michael Lawliss]

B. albopilosum - in my exp are very easy to care for.

I raised 4 slings from 0.75cm to 5cm without any special care.

Water dish and crickets regularly.
they are all voracious eaters and still come out to show off their fuzzy selves moreoften than other T's.
they are also into impersonating bulldozers, moving dirt around seems to be a hobby of theirs

Enjoy them

[James Box]

i've had my L. parahybana for a couple months now. they are not too shy and grow quickly, from what i'm told.
mine have faired pretty well with a bit of water via misting as needed. i also give them a couple of proportionately sized crickets every 4 or 5 days.
i've gotten through one successful moult each, and they're already showing some nice colouring. they're about 4cm now, i think.
both are sociable and eager to crawl out and explore my hand when i'm trying to feed them

no experience with B. albopilosum as slings, however i have an adult who is very easy to care for. she likes to sit in her water dish, or fill it with debris, and she's gone through phases of hiding and sitting out in the open. also had her climbing her enclosure, pretending to be arboreal

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... Just ordered a 1cm L parahybana sling and a 4-5cm B albopilosum - cant wait - Im so excited. Any tips for the new slings?

The parahybana should be cared for like any other baby: damp substrate, crickets for food no larger than the size of its abdomen, move it to a larger container as soon as it grows so that it can reach more than about 1/3 of the way across the container. (I and several other enthusiasts think that their growth may be stunted by too small a cage.)

When it reaches a leg span of about 2" start drying out its quarters. Within a molt or two it should be acclimatized to living in what's effectively a desert cage. This is to reduce the chances of a mite infestation. At this point you should be supplying it with a water dish. Keep a pebble or slate chip in the water dish that protrudes a little above the water level to keep the crickets that jump in for a bath from drowning. If you live in a place with low humidity, especially in winter, cover the cage top with plastic food wrap to hold in the natural humidity from the water dish.

These things grow fast. It should be pretty near full grown within 3 years. Hence, the bigger you want it to grow, the more you have to feed it while it's growing. Keep one or two live crickets in its cage at all times except when you see that it's about to molt. After it molts, give it two days (while it's still small) to a week (after its leg span reaches 4" (10 cm) and then throw in one cricket to see if it's ready to eat. (You needn't worry about the cricket attacking the tarantula as long as the tarantula has turned right-side up.) As soon as the cricket disappears, start it's normal feeding pattern again.

As adults, these sometimes like an occasional pinky mouse every once in a while.

Albopilosums can be kept just like any other tarantula. Nothing special here. At 4-5 cm its ready to start the acclimatization process to a dryer cage (as above).

Albopilosums and parahybanas look very much alike to the untrained eye when they're young. The main difference is that albopilosums' larger, cream colored bristles are a lot curlier (hence the common name "curlyhair") than parahybanas. As adults you take care of them much the same. Their big difference, or course, is their size difference. Albopilosums are "normal" sized tarantulas. Parahybanas are one of the three giants.

Have you ever seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Twins?" If so, I might suggest you name the parahybana "Arnie" and the albopilosum "Danny."

Excellent choice in tarantulas. You have good taste.

[Mark Pennell]

Have you ever seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Twins?" If so, I might suggest you name the parahybana "Arnie" and the albopilosum "Danny."

Cracking analogy Stan!

Regards
Mark

[Kirk McNulty]

Hi Claire,
I'm no expert but I have a 2cm L Klugi and from what gather there quite similar to L Parahyabana. I keep mine in a container about 4 by 3 inches with a mix of moist peat / vermiculite I keep him at room temp and feed him an equal sized hopper twice a week which he devours ! and a camera film lid for a water dish. Hope this helps.

[Claire Beckett]

Thank you all

Thank you all for your good advice. I will follow it and hopefully watch these guys grow into little belters!

Attached a pic of the b albopilosum, l parahybana still a little small to get a good pic.

Again, thanks everyone!

Claire

[James Box]

Stanley, you're a legend. i'll be following your directions for my L. parahybana as well. thanks!

[Mark Pajak]

Just to put things in perspective for you, my 1.5 year old L.para. just yanked a 12" pair of heavy duty tweezers out of my hand while I was tank cleaning and attempted to sink its fangs in to metal.......

[stevebagnall]

I could believe that. My 3" parahybana is a nightmare when I need to change her water. Can't wait for her to grow though. Hopefully she'll moult a good few times in the next year or so. She takes large locusts now as it is! Strange because prior to her last moult, she would run and hide. Not anymore! lol.

[gary spencer]

my L.Parahybana female has just shed a couple of days ago she is about 7" now so she starting to come of a decent size and she eats like you wouldnt believe. my sling has shed twice in 2 months now and has grown to 2cm now abit of catching up to do but its due to shed in a week or two and that baby eats all it can every day it gets a micro like all my other slings,