Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tears - Hide & Seek

Tears, our Haplopelma lividum (Cobalt Blue) is quite the hermit. We rarely see her at all.

cobalt blue tarantula habitatCobalt Blue Tarantula Habitat

You see that we provided a hide for her, but she chose to burrow her own. We love for our pets to create their own burrows! However, if we'd known she would do it we might have left the clay pot out of her cage. Since she has built her burrow against it, we can't remove it. Oh well.

This is about the only glimpse we might catch of her:

cobalt blue tarantula burrowCobalt Blue Tarantula Burrow
Do you see her down there?

She usually has the top / opening well covered with web as well. We can't even throw crickets into her burrow. We know she gets her food, though, because it disappears.

This is the trouble with tarantulas, though. The more beautiful they are, the more they tend to hide. It makes sense, physiologically speaking. If an animal has bright colors, that is either part of their defense mechanism (telling predators not to eat them because they are likely poisonous) or they hide because of those colors.

Haplopelma lividum TarantulaA rare peek at Tears,
our Haplopelma lividum
(Cobalt Blue) Tarantula

The other night Tears decided to come up for a peek. It was the middle of the night, so I snapped a photo for my husband. This is his pet and he never gets to see her anymore.

Haplopelma lividum are often called vicious and may attack with the slightest of provocation! They are absolutely lightning fast, too! We do not handle Tears. We keep a close eye on her burrow any time we are feeding or watering her. Haplopelma lividum come from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia so prefer high humidity.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, I am a writer and granted I will admit up front that arachnids give me the heebie jeebies but for the sake of wanting everything in my stories to sound authentic( without my readers knowing that sometimes I get the crawlies) I was hoping that you might answer a couple of questions for me. I have noticed that Tears (and a few other arachnids that I have come across and done some research on) have their burrows in a vertical position instead of in a more horizontal angle like position like some of the books I have read seem to indicate. Is this normal or just a quirk of your girl? Also, about how big would you say some of your kids get? What was the largest one you have ever had? I hope you don't mind my snooping, I'm just genuinely curious. I'm not looking to own an exotic of the arachnid persuasion, but a couple of the stories that I am working on the characters do and I do want them to sound authentic. I do thank you for your time and patience with me.
    H. Mercedes Brown

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