Breeding tarantulas by Miroslav Horký

Basic informations

• The tarantulas are the oldest spiders on world. They live on all continets except Antarctica. The tarantulas aren‘t only very big spiders. They‘re large from 13mm to 13cm in body. One of the smallest breeded tarantula is Cyriocosmus elegans with 15mm. On the otherside Theraphosa blondii with 13cm in body or 25-30cm in legs is the biggest spider on world.

Taxonomy order• Kingdom – Animalia

• Subkingdom – Metazoa

• Phylum – Arthropoda

• Subphylum – Chelicerata

• Class – Arachnida

• Order – Aranea

• Suborder – Mygalomorphae

• Family - Theraphosidae

Toxicity• All spiders on the world are poisonous

because they must hunt. The toxicity is very different by species. In suborder Mygalomorphae (all tarantulas) are many death poisonous species but in family Theraphosidae (breeded tarantulas) aren‘t anyone species which can kill adult healthy man.

Terrarium• We distinguish three types of tarantulas:

• 1) Underground tarantulas which live at holes in ground.

• 2) Ground tarantulas which live on the ground

• 3) Tree tarantulas which live on trees

• According to this resolution we have three types of terrarium for breeding.

• 1) Terrarium for tree tarantulas must be high about 40-50cm and there must be branch or crust in interior.

• 2) Terrarium for ground tarantulas is lower than for tree tarantulas (about 20-30cm) and we use halfpipe crust like hiding place.

• 3) Terrarium for underground spiders is same high as terrarium for tree spiders, but there is high layer of substrate.

Terrarium for tree and ground tarantulas

Feeding

• Tarantulas as like as the other spiders hunt live prey. So we must feed tarantulas with crickets, locusts, maggots or young mouses.

• This feed is normally offered in petshops so the feeding isn‘t big problem.

Gallery

• In the next slides there are photos of some my tarantulas

Brachypelma smithi

• Subfamily - Theraphosinae

• Discoverer - Cambridge (1897)

• Occurrence - Mexico

Grammostola actaeon

• Subfamily – Theraphosinae

• Discoverer – Pocock (1903)

• Occurrence – Brazil, Uruguay

Theraphosa blondii

• Subfamily – Theraphosinae

• Discoverer – Latreille (1804)

• Occurrence – Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana

Theraphosa apophysis

• Subfamily – Theraphosinae

• Discoverer – Tinter (1991)

• Occurrence - Venezuela

Cyclosternum fasciatum

• Subfamily – Theraphosinae

• Discoverer – Cambridge (1892)

• Occurrence – Costa Rica

Lasiodora parahybana

• Subfamily – Theraphosinae

• Discoverer – Mello-Leitao (1917)

• Occurrence - Brazil

Chaetopelma gracile

• Subfamily – Ischnocolinae

• Discoverer – Ausserer (1871)

• Occurrence - Cyprus

Avicularia avicularia avicularia

• Subfamily – Aviculariinae

• Discoverer – Linnaeus (1758)

• Occurrence – Guyana (only for subspecies A. a. avicularia)

Poecilotheria fasciata

• Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae

• Discoverer – Latreille (1804)

• Occurrence – Sri Lanka

Poecilotheria ornata

• Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae

• Discoverer – Pocock (1899)

• Occurrence – Sri Lanka

Poecilotheria rufilata

• Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae

• Discoverer – Pocock (1899)

• Occurrence - India

Poecilotheria subfusca

• Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae

• Discoverer – Pocock (1895)

• Occurrence – Sri Lanka

Literature• František Kovařík – Chov sklípkanů

(Madagaskar, 2001)

• Volker von Wirth – Sklípkani Jak na to (Vašut, 1998)

• Antonín Kůrka, František Kovařík – České názvy živočichů VI. – Pavouci a štíři (Národní muzeum, 2003)

• http://www.arachnomania.cz

• http://www.salix.cz

• Warning: All photos are used with permission of their authors. Another using and distributing photos is illegal!!

• Made by Miroslav Horký in April 2006