Slightly miffed G. rosea...

[Denny Teasdale]

A little tale of caution I think and a lesson learnt on my part...!

A friend of mine got in touch with me through Facebook about a T enclosure he had sat around doing nothing and asked if I would like it...naturally I said yes and duly went round and picked it up the other weekend.

He informed me it had been approx 18 months since the T was in it, a rather psychotic B. vagans by all accounts, well it came with a log retreat, piece of cork bark, substrate, heat mat, water bowl, false plant and polystyrene back drop to mimic a rock formation....and it's an exo terra (12x12x12)...result...!

So I get it home and duly place Roxy my G.rosea into it thinking nothing of it. After an hour or so I went to check on her (false plant wasn't in btw) and I noticed I hadn't give her any water (ooops!!!!) so I opened up the enclosure and went for her water bowl only for her to basically go for my hand...!! no threat posture, no kicking of hairs she literally went for my hand...!! the only thing I could think of was she must be able to sense the other T that had been in there(?) so I decided to empty the enclosure this meant placing her in a little plastic container (the type used by Chinese takeaways) which I use when I'm doing a bit of housekeeping on her tank, she tagged it twice...!!! that made me jump...she's a lot quicker than I thought.

I eventually got her into the temp box, emptied her new enclosure, thoroughly cleaned it and the "furniture", dried it and placed substrate from her old enclosure in it and the "furniture" back in and she seems a lot more settled and is back to doing her "thing" which is basically nothing much except sitting by the heat mat...!

So a valuable lesson was learnt...2nd hand enclosures are to be cleaned before rehousing and don't take it for granted that G. rosea are as docile as I first thought. I'm not saying all G. rosea are like this, I believe this was my fault as I had placed her way out of her "comfort zone" and she may have sensed another T in the vicinity and as I've placed my hand in she thought it was the other T...viable theory I think and if she did tag me then it was my own doing...!!

[michaelmckinney]

M8 I have had a few skitzo G.rosea. Maybe the new tank she went into felt more natural to her, so the instinctive behaviour went into overdrive, either that or she was warmer then usual LOL.

[bobby stewart]

A warm G.rosea is not to be underestimated lol, mine is particularly dangerous as you never know if shes in a good mood or not lol

Atleast you know where you are with an OBT

[Mandy Clinch]

My girl Lola (g.rosea) used to do nothing. Literally sit in the same place for days on end. But i have now moved her into a much smaller house (her last one was a 100 litre fish tank, it was really big) and she seems so much happier. I changed her substrate too and she has even done some burrowing in the corner.
She isn't the most friendly of spiders, but she never never kicked hairs or gone for me, just let me know she is cross by raising up at me, then going back into her log.
They really are hormonal!

[Sarah Willis]

That's a good bit of advice about the enclosure, I'll remember that if I get any secondhand ones.

What you said about Roxy going for you that time reminded me of my G.Rosea (Cherokee). It wasn't anything to do with a new enclosure. I had her out and she was sitting quite happily in my hand, then she began walking about and webbing on my fingers. I put her back in her enclosure and found my finger caught in the couple of strands of web - I'm sure she must have thought I was an extra-large grasshopper! She spun around and reared up with 4 legs and pedipalps in the air. I've never seen her move so quick. Luckily I was just as quick in getting out the way! )) She looked very impressive!

[Denny Teasdale]

They do look very impressive indeed. She's a bit grumpy at the moment which makes me think she may have a molt coming up soon...she'll rear up if you just blow on her gently, not that I do that all the time I may add...!

[Rich.Harrington]

There is also the other option. The spider just had itself dragged out of what was home and dumped into a strangle land, there was no home burrow, and nothing was where it was before. No silk strands to help communicate information about the surrounding environment. With this sudden upheaval and lack of normal sensory input I'd think almost any spider would be quick to go on the defensive.

[Denny Teasdale]

Never thought of that one Rich...very viable theory...Thanks