please post me how many t's you have

[Lisa Baines]

0.0.1 Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
0.0.1 Poecilotheria rufliata
0.0.1 poecilotheria striata
0.0.1 poecilotheria regalis

more of a scorpion woman myself but there is something about pokies that captures my imagination, that and i like living life dangerously. the green bottle blue I had to have purely for it's amaizing metallic colours. they look like three tarantula's rolled into one with the green legs, blue carapase and bright orange rump. and i really like mad colours! If i was a tarantula, thats the sp. i would be

Started collecting them about 6 months ago. much to the dismay of my other half matthew who wanted the tarantula's all to himself. the rufliata was his but he has kindly given it to me... love you babes mwah xx

as for our matthews collection:
0.1.0 Cyriopagopus schoedti
1.0.0 Haplopelma Albostriatum
0.0.1 Haplopelma hainanum
0.2.0 Haplopelma lividum
0.0.1 Haplopelma minax
0.2.0 Haplopelma sp. Vietnam
0.1.0 Ornithoctonus aureotibialis
0.1.0 Ornithoctonus aureotibialis Sp. Nakorn
0.0.1 Heteroscroda maculata
0.0.2 Aphonopelma Abberans
0.0.4 Aphonopelma Iodius
0.0.1 Brachypelma smithi
0.0.2 Brachypelma Vagans
0.1.0 Grammostola rosea

started 2 years ago when I brought him a g.rosea home for his birthday, he had dropped enough hints but was rather shocked when i handed her to him lmao... and he kind of went bonkers from there He is mainly after SE asian species so we may need a bigger house by time he has finished

[mary walters]

Gotta be around 200 breeding and showing stock, plus 100+ darlingi slings waiting for weather to break before going out, 2 sacs at minute too, so more soon.

[Nicola Dolby]

I have 47 at the mo (catching you up Mary!).

P. rufilata x9 (7AF: 2MM)
P. pederseni x11 (juveniles)
P. miranda x1 (AF)
P. formosa x3 (AF)
A. fasciculata x1 (MM)
A. purpurea x1 (SA female)
P. murinus UMV x1 (AF)
O. sp. Koh Samui x1 (MM)
O. sp. Patchara x2 (AF)
O. sp. Nakorn x2 (aureotibialis variants - juveniles)
H. lividium x1 (AF)
H. minax x1 (AF)
E. murinus x1 (AF)
H. maculata x1 (AF)
T. pruriens x1 (MM)
C. meridionalis x1 (AF)
B. smithi x1 (SA male)
B. baumgarteni x1 (SA male)
B. bohemi x1 (juvenile male)
T. apophysis x1 (SA male (I think))
S. plumipes x5 (spiderlings)

[Lisa Grose]

Thanks Lisa. Only those with the best name have great interests lol. Love your story.
Mary where do you keep over 300 spiders??? Surely you must keep some together in comunity tanks? Has anyone else got comunity tanks. Let us know. I'm fascinated now.

[Lisa Baines]

I have only ever done scorpion communal tanks, however I would love to have a pokie community at some point in the future

[Peter Lacey]

well most of my 300 are slings thankfully but I do have pokie communities:
4 x P. ornata (x2)
3 x P. miranda
4 x P. pederseni
5 x P. subfusca
2 x P. regalis
23 x P. regalis
plus I'm hoping for a temporary community of avics soon, certainly no longer than 3rd moult.

[Lisa Grose]

That's good Peter. Do you know how many are together with your pokies? I'd really like to keep this species but where do I start in keeping them in a comunity tank? Any pics of your set up please.

[Damian Marciniak]

0.1 P. regalis AF mated
0.2 P. rufilata AF mated
0.1 P. striata AF mated
0.1 P. formosa AF
0.1 P. subfusca SAF
1.1 P. fasciata AF / MM mated
0.1 P. miranda AF
0.1 LBJ
0.1 Avicularia sp Brazil
0.0.1 T. apophysis

And waiting for few more.

Thanks
Damian

[Peter Lacey]

That's good Peter. Do you know how many are together with your pokies? I'd really like to keep this species but where do I start in keeping them in a comunity tank? Any pics of your set up please.

I listed the amounts in each community above Lisa

You might want to take a look at this thread of my 3 x P. rufilata

http://thebts.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3700

5 x P. subfusca are my fav community at mo although the 23 x P. regalis should prove interesting. It was a joy to watch the P. rufilata as they grew into 3 mature males, with about 5 months difference between the first and last.
The trick is to find a source of fairly cheap slings so that you can afford some losses, preferably from the same sac. Don't create too large an enclosure and try to allow 1 good hide that will accomodate them all. Get your substrate and furnishing sorted before putting them in and feed them more than you would single Ts.
Some have suggested moving the larger ones out as these are the most likely to cannibilise, although others have suggested this might interrupt any heirachy that develops. I'm not sure whether these are correct as many of mine have shown very different sizes within the communities.
The joy is in seeing them together, cuddling up close, walking over each, hunting or feeding together, noting how they defend one that's moulting etc. Peter Kirk informed me that he found generations living communally in Sri Lanka. Its also been hinted that some of this grouping together might be to increase humidity within the hides.
I'm sure you'll enjoy a community as I did, but once maturity arrives you will have to consider seperating them.

[Craig Mackay]

You can see my collection in the drop down menu below. It's accurate at the moment but like most of us it's ever increasing, lol!

[Lisa Grose]

Thanks Peter, but I dont think I would like to have to seperate them when they mature. Cant you keep them together all the time then. Your right it would interest me to see them together looking each other.

[Peter Lacey]

There are a number of issues with keeping them together full stop.
The males mature before the females and become active at searching out partners. The females may then try to moult repeatedly to reach maturity and breed with the males. This can seriously shorten their life so its not recommended.
Also, its quite often the case that communities house a number of Ts which is a suitable size when small but as they grow might create problems.
I'd hoped for a P. rufilata community to be together for years but unfortunately that's not the case, although it would be interesting to see how generations could live together in captivity.

[James Box]

i've lost count...i think it was close to 200 but my list needs editing.
i started keeping Pandinus imperator scorpions, and then at a BTS show was won over by a couple Ceratogyrus darlingi, a breeding pair...sadly both hooked out and i ended up with two males that died not long after. i wasn't about to give up though, and eventually got a couple large Grammastola porteri slings, which after three (maybe it's four??) years are close to adult now, and still two of my favourite spiders.
over the course of the years i've gotten loads more, and fallen in love with each species i've encountered. my current favourites are Aphonopelma's and Psalmopoeus, with loads of other individual favourites, like Grammastola, Euathlas, and Paraphysa sp...not to mention fantastic spiders like Chilobrachys sp "andersoni", Chaetopelma olivaceum (formerly gracile?), and Citharischius crawshayi.
and i've never lost my love of scorpions either, and currently still have a number of species, like P imperator, Opistophthalmus wahlbergi, Hadrurus arizonensis, H spadix, Caraboctonus keyserlingi and others.
i've also got some true spiders, a centipede, a snake and some newts and frogs.

[mary walters]

Too many at the minute.


James I may have a couple of darlingi slings you can have.

[James Box]

well you know me and darlingi, Mary!
and i still have that male for you...apparently only one male in that lot of six! what are the odds!
and the P murinus!
sorry, a tad off topic! back:
i did forget to mention why i keep them and what got me started.
i've always loved animals and been really into them, but aside from attempting to keep a few bugs and a salamander alive at a very young age (didn't do too badly, though the salamander escaped and dried out behind a freezer) i'd not really kept much cold blooded or invertebrate stuff til i moved over here from Canada, but i always had some kind of animal around.

maybe a year or less after arriving, a friend had to give up most of his collection of inverts due to moving to a small place and getting married, he gave me my first two P imperators. i liked them alot because they are living creatures and because they are under-appreciated by society i guess.
i got into T's soon after, really...and grew to like many aspects of the hobby, including the aura of scientific discovery that permeates the hobby, as well as the individual animals, so beautiful to look at and with such interesting and strange behaviour.