Lasiodora parahybana - Good for a nervous owner?

[Stephen Dickinson]

Hi all,

I've been signed up to this forum for years, but not really got around to posting until now!

I've had a few Ts over the last 8 years - a Rose Hair, a Mexican Red Leg, and a Columbian Giant.

The Columbian Giant was a sling, and didn't make it past 2.5" leg span (still not sure what I did wrong, but it was a few years ago now), The Rose Hair is still going strong (despite fasting for months and months at times!), and my Red Leg only made it half way through a molt last week and died.

I'm looking to replace the Red Leg with a bigger T. A Salmon Pink is top of the list, starting as a 4" sling.

As per the title, I'm a bit nervous around certain spiders. I do have a phobia of normal spiders, but its not a problem with the chunky, slow moving Ts at all. I'm not sure I'd manage well with a Poki though, or anything that 'teleports'!....

Will a Salmon Pink sling be like lightning compared to my Rose Hair? or just a bit defensive?

Cheers,
Steve.

[Nicolas Charrière]

Hi Steve.

In my opinion, you make an excellent choice: L parahybana are hardy, easy to raise, and quite beautiful if you love black (with touches of red and beige!). I cannot answer about you being too nervous or not: that's up to you! What I can say is these slings are fast (like all slings?), maybe not to say they teleport but fast anyway. At 4 inches, however, they'll have slowed down a little bit. Mine (which is almost adult) is unpredictable and fast, but stays calm most of the time. I'd say that my parahybana is more nervous than my smithi, but less than other T from OW. In my case, my G rosea (subadult) is a creature from hell, always defensive when I approach...

In summary, I wouldn't say L parahybana is a slow spider at all, but however it's still manageable... since your goal is not to handle it (if it is... well then it depends on the personality of your particular T and on your own behavior, but that's another subject...).

Hope this helps?

Enjoy your new T!