advice on very fast T's.... and ino on phlogius

[sagar jason nigam]

IT turns out that the place im ordering from is out of stock off the B.bohemi (which i actually mistook for a B.auratum ((the high altitude version of B.smithi)) which is what i wanted to get in first place, so it was a bit lucky).

~And so ive decided to get either P.regalis or something called an Earth Tiger phlogius sp.

I did a little research on the phlogius and it turns out they come from Australia and New Guinie, and are meant to be very agressive and extremely fast terrestrial species that can hiss, with little provacation to be defensive. This is the kind of display T i would want anyway.


Both species are meant to be very fast spiders, so i basically just wanted to find out what its like handleing keeping them. Some people describe P.regalis as 'teleporting', so is it at times very difficult to keep in the viv without it coming out the top of the lid? And it says on the site that the phloguis is an 'ultrafast and very aggresive' species.


I also wanted more info on the phlogius sp. if anyone has experience of them. I would be interested in finding out about the Golieth type of that species, and also what the Earth Tiger is like.

Thanks

[James Quinton]

I personaly wouldnt handle any T. P.regalis is know for a painfull bite and some serious side affects. I have no personal experiance with phlogius as yet, but some 1 should be able to help on that 1.

[Peter Lacey]

Both of these species carry a potent venom and for that reason, and the safety of the spider itself, handling should be avoided.
I don't have personal experience of phlogius but I'd suggest getting in touch with the Australian Tarantula Association (www.theata.org/) for accurate information as its not a species we commonly see.

P. regalis and other members of the Poecilotheria genus have a reputation that steers many off keeping these however, much of it is undeserved, but sensible in its precautionary advice. I recently lost 2 P. regalis whilst feeding a community of 20, hadn't realised they'd escaped until I found them again. As slings/juves they really can be fast but as adults they tend to slope away from disturbance or quite simply stand their ground. I think the teleporting phrase is more associated with Psalmopeous.

[sagar jason nigam]

thanks for the help, i just ment the difficulty in keeping them and not in handleing. I imagine aboreal are not suited to it unlike the others. I think i will end up getting the phlogius anyway, although i havent yet found out what the "Earth Tiger" part refers to. Although the indian ornamental's often turn out very beautiful, i thnk the possibility of display behaviour from the phlogius PNG are more to my interst at the moment. Just means that i will have to get another big tank for a large display terrestrial.

edit i did a search on this site and found aload of good stuff on phlogius sp. but any additional info would be good. I will take a look at the ATA aswel, thanks

[Kurt Baird]

I would imagine the Phlogius "Earth Tigers" you're referring to would be similar to the Haplopelma "Earth Tigers" in that they are deep burrowers and very defensive, probably requiring a deep substrate for burrowing, and thus not actually being a "display species".

I've also heard that the Phlogius genus is, shall we say, messed up. People aren't sure whether Phlogius sp. are infact Phlogius sp.

[sagar jason nigam]

thanks kurt. On the reaserch i did on google i found out that as juvies and slings they hide alot, but as adults get more confidence and make good displays. I guess the haplopelma earth tigers are of the asian birdeater genus and are meant to make good diplays types aswel, i thought they said the defensive were good displays.

So what do you mean by the phlogius being 'messed up' in not knowing if the particular spider belongs in the name? im planning on getting it from the spidershop and he said he got aload of some particular type of spiders in from what must have been PNG and that he could distinguish the phlogius as being much larger than the other stock. But i guess he knows what hes talking about in labeling them phlogius

[Kurt Baird]

So what do you mean by the phlogius being 'messed up' in not knowing if the particular spider belongs in the name? im planning on getting it from the spidershop and he said he got aload of some particular type of spiders in from what must have been PNG and that he could distinguish the phlogius as being much larger than the other stock. But i guess he knows what hes talking about in labeling them phlogius

Yeah, Lee (Spidershop) says he isn't actually sure what they are, so perhaps saying that the genus was messed up is bad wording on my part.

As you say, he probably wouldn't sell them as listed unless he was fairly sure.

[Larry Shone]

You want a fast T get a Trinidad Chevron (Psalmopaeus cambridgeii)!! I had one called Hawk and it was like Roadrunner in the cartoons! Except it didnt go Meep meep!
Once when repotting it in the bathroom it jumped into the air and landed in the bath with a splat. Another time when feeding it got out and shot straight up my arm and onto the unit behind the tank! 3 times it took me to get him back in!