My Invertebrates

Adrya · #1 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 02:47 AM

Here are some of the few invertebrates that I keep. The madagascan hissing roaches are more display animals/pets for me as well as the adult giant cave/false death's head roaches. The nymphs of the cave roaches are food for my lizards for the most part. The entomology department where I work at my college has a rearing room and their roaches were getting too numerous, so they let me bring some home.

I love the hissers because they are so slow and mellow... lol

A couple pics of my American Giant Millipede I will have to post later as I don't have any pics of it at the moment. It's not really "giant" per say, as they only get about 4-5 inches or so, and mine's only 3 or so. But still really neat. Red and black.

Georgette is a 15-year-old female Rosehair tarantula. She was given to me by an entomology research assistant (who keeps several other tarantulas in her office).

I took her home with me on Tuesday, June 9th.

She has a bit of a "balding" spot on her abdomen because she will be molting sometime soon.

She's my very first tarantula, and she is soooooooo awesooooome!

She's a LOT bigger than this pic makes her look compared to my hand.

TammyJamaica · #2 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 03:10 AM

Wow! Quite adorable....not too sure I would go too much for the roaches, though. I guess I am too accustomed to thinking of them as pests...but then, rats are "pests" too, and I keep them and feed their babies to my snakes!

I love Georgette.

leoares27 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 03:53 AM

I love the 7th pic lol, the roach looks like it is SO ready for you to put it down..."Please, please, no more pictures...really..."
haha...
but those last ones....can we say heebie jeebies!!!

BlackLava · #4 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 04:00 AM

*shudders at the roaches* the T is awesome though

M2788 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 08:31 AM

Awww! I LOVE Georgette; she is absolutely gorgeous.

My first Tarantula was a Rosehair; they are such wonderful little arachnids. Are you enjoying having her?

Thanks for sharing your pictures; good luck with them all!

Stargazer · #6 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 08:36 AM

Aww, cutest animals that I would not be caught dead cuddling with.

I didn't realize you kept these.

Icicle · #7 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 09:27 AM

Wow, on the T.

Reptscue · #8 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 03:41 PM

Adrya... Just watch for the balding spot to turn black... then you know you are close to a molt. When there is a bald spot it just means that something aggravated her and she flicked some hairs.
Now for the roaches... some of you know that is my phobia, but I have worked on it. I don't go running like a little girl screaming everytime I see one. I actually used a catch cup and released one not too long ago. **shudder** I do think that your B. discoidalis are kinda cute, but don't think I'll be getting any anytime soon.

Adrya · #9 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M2788

My first Tarantula was a Rosehair; they are such wonderful little arachnids. Are you enjoying having her?

Very much so, it's refeshing to keep something different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stargazer

I didn't realize you kept these.

lol well, I've been into all sorts of critters all my life, including bugs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reptscue

Adrya... Just watch for the balding spot to turn black... then you know you are close to a molt. When there is a bald spot it just means that something aggravated her and she flicked some hairs.
Now for the roaches... some of you know that is my phobia, but I have worked on it. I don't go running like a little girl screaming everytime I see one. I actually used a catch cup and released one not too long ago. **shudder** I do think that your B. discoidalis are kinda cute, but don't think I'll be getting any anytime soon.

Thanks for the info.

I was told by the lady I adopted her from that the balding was a sign of near molting, oh well. lol

John · #10 (**permalink**) 06-21-2009, 11:48 PM

Very nice pets. I never knew that tarantulas could live for that long.

Adrya · #11 (**permalink**) 06-22-2009, 02:59 AM

Yep, particularly the females. They can live for well over 20 years.

The males however, once they hit maturity, live at most a year or so... sometimes a little more than that.

Reptscue · #12 (**permalink**) 06-22-2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrya

Yep, particularly the females. They can live for well over 20 years.
The males however, once they hit maturity, live at most a year or so... sometimes a little more than that.

I have a 25yr+ old female A. hentzi.
Depending on species, males will live about 6-12 months up to 3 yrs past their mature molt. I have a MM G. rosea that matured just before I got into Ts in March 2006.

Some males will also attempt to do a post ultimate molt that often results in death. Sometimes when caught in the act of molting and the keeper is there to help, sometimes they can pull through. I only know of about 3 different Ts that have done this and lived until they tried to molt again.

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