California Ebony Spider Aphonopelma Eutylenum

[God of Fun]

My friend brought me one of these little guys, its about 2" leg span and it has the inky black dot on its abdomen that makes me relatively certain of what I've got. It lacks the spurs of a male atm, but I was wondering if it was too early to tell? I fed her a young gut loaded hissing roach and she's currently draining its life force as we speak. I'm keeping it in a long critter keeper 13x7x6 with a cocofiber soil/argonite sand mix and watercap with glass pebbles in it. I figure since I live where it does it wont need much extra care or heating aside from what I'm doing to keep myself comfortable. I've been lightly misting in the morning, is there anything else?

 

[xray_chic]

Nope. Mine are easy and fat.
Since the males are bigger you might have to wait to see what sex it is. These are my 2 girls:

 

[xray_chic]

I meant the wild males I've seen are bigger than 2", so you would need to wait a little longer to let it reach maturity.
Do you have any pics? I've never seen a juvenile.

 

[Tgirl1010]

Wow xraychic! They are beautiful. Have they molted in your care?

 

[God of Fun]

Here's a pic, she's got a big ol' butt, not quite as massive as your girls, but def bigger that the ratio I've seen on males

 

[Tgirl1010]

Are they pretty laid back? I am loving these!

 

[God of Fun]

Are they pretty laid back? I am loving these!

My friend spent a fair bit of time handling it fresh out of the wild so I'd have to say initial impression is that they are laid back. I haven't held it yet though, I wanna give it some time to adjust.

 

[xray_chic]

I can't remember if they've molted or not. Not for a while for sure.
Nice T God of Sun. Very pretty black.
I really like these girls. Not too aggressive or timid. Nice personalities.
I don't hold mine, but they don't give me a problem during cleaning. They also will crawl up when I open the top to feed.

 

[God of Fun]

So since I can't find many resources on these spiders my friend has encouraged me to make semi regular updates for anyone else who might find themselves with one. I have since named her Samus because I'm pretty sure its a girl at this point, but after her first molt I will probably send it to this guy @ http://exoticfauna.com/sexing.html to be sure, on accounta that molt should be about 2"!

I've been misting considerably less than I was the first week. Now I only mist when the top layer starts to look really dry, around 4 to 6 days because she was tending to avoid touching the dampness for a several hours after misting.

I think I'll mention again I live in San Diego, where this tarantula was wild caught and as such I've been using no external heating source other than a space heater for my own comfort at night.

She seems to be a pretty voracious eater, nothing I've put in the cage has lasted long and her abdomen has gotten quite fat. I'm going to operate under the assumption that for a growing tarantula a steady died (one to two medium crickets every other day) is the way to go (while obviously avoiding her getting to fat to die from a fall). Once she's bigger I will probably feed bigger meals, such as a gut loaded roach, once a week, but we'll see when the time comes.


Research indicates a max size of 4 to 6 inches, but I'd be very interested in hear what first hand experience is.

She has been burrowing into the corner of the cage so I buried a long narrow glass cup in there to form a cave. We'll see if it suffices or if she will dig more.

Here's a picture of my cage! If there's not enough dirt lemme know!
Please ask any other questions I'm neglecting to answer!

 

[Chilldom]

Wow all your tarantulas look awesome I just found mine not to long ago and I'm in love with it. I believe it's a juvenile but not sure it's male or female. any pointers on how to tell the difference and just some basic care info