# Just Bought A Gramastola Rosea



## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Picked up a female Gramastola rosea . Im not to sure how to properly size a tarantula but she appears to be about 4" from her hind legs to the tip of the front ones. I have her in a 5 gallon Critter tank with some brown soil i bought from the store aswell. with a Fake plant .

Room temperature is sitting at about 23c today , Should I invest in a heat pad? the store tried to sell it to me , but i wanted to make sure with someone who knew about this stuff first.

Im looking into some used Terrariums on kijiji , i found a 14 gallon with a built in UV light and completely sealed on top. i'll have some pictures up in a bit,

I'm still kind of nervous about picking up my new tarantula. Just as she is probably nervous about her new environment i'm in no rush . But what should I be looking for to know she doesn't want to be handled ? and if I do get bit , should I be worried.?

thanks Guys

Jon


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## bobme (Feb 17, 2003)

I am guessing me mean that you just got a Grammostola rosea ? If you go in to pick her up and she locks up and then lifts up her front legs that is a defensive stance and getting ready to bite. If you do get bite - stay calm it will be all right nothing really bad will happen.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Jon87 said:


> Picked up a female Gramastola rosea . Im not to sure how to properly size a tarantula but she appears to be about 4" from her hind legs to the tip of the front ones. *One of the proper ways is diagonal leg span which is front left leg to back right or vise versa. its fron leg, not pedipalp. You cant really do this on a t, but it works well on a molt then you can add about half an inch or whatever baded on how large it was to find its new lenght*I have her in a 5 gallon Critter tank with some brown soil i bought from the store aswell. with a Fake plant .
> 
> Room temperature is sitting at about 23c today , Should I invest in a heat pad? * in a house that stays comfortable for you, they will be fine. If it gets abnormally cold such as a drafty basement or something you may want one, but generally you don't. *the store tried to sell it to me , but i wanted to make sure with someone who knew about this stuff first.
> 
> ...


You know it doesn't want to be handled when it does a threat display which is rearing up its legs and exposing its fangs. Generally a rosea doesn't do more then a half assed threat, but some can be psyco. I don't think roseas kick much hair, but new world t's (most" have urticating hair that are little hooked hairs that you don't want in your eyes. If you disturb some NW t's they will kick their abdomen and release these hairs into the air which can make you itch and not something you want in your eyes so wash you hand before and after handling so you don't cross contaminate then get them in your eye. Post up some pics.

I may post some of mine too eventually


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Here are some pics of her.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

looks good , but i would add a lot more dirt as you don't want her to climb and fall. I would also add a hide so she can use one if she wants to.


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Rosies acclimize to captivity better than most, if not all tarantulas. Most are gentile, handleable and docile. But, I've heard of some that can be real aggressive! Personally, I've never kept one. I've always regarded tarantulas as a "spectator's pet", and rosies are kind of mainstream and bland to look at, IMO. 
On the flipside, it's their hardiness and handibility (and low price) that makes them so popular. I can appreciate that. I remember when the Mexican Red Knee had that role...not anymore!

I had a Goliath Bird Eater that sent me to urgent care, a MRK that flicked urticating hairs and left me with itchy blemishes on my arms...I think I'm done with T's.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

SERRAPYGO said:


> Rosies acclimize to captivity better than most, if not all tarantulas. Most are gentile, handleable and docile. But, I've heard of some that can be real aggressive! Personally, I've never kept one. I've always regarded tarantulas as a "spectator's pet", and rosies are kind of mainstream and bland to look at, IMO.
> On the flipside, it's their hardiness and handibility (and low price) that makes them so popular. I can appreciate that. I remember when the Mexican Red Knee had that role...not anymore! *here, smithi slings are more then rosea adults*
> 
> I had a Goliath Bird Eater that sent me to urgent care, a MRK that flicked urticating hairs and left me with itchy blemishes on my arms...I think I'm done with T's.*Do you still have your smithi? Ive heard t blondi hairs are the worst*


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## PELIGROSO PYGO (Aug 27, 2008)

she is a beauty!! Congrats, I would add more decor so she can hide in, and the fake plant on the side I dunno if that can be stretched out but I would bring it a bit lower. My T terrium has soil mixed with peat moss, alot of bark and this nice fake mini palm tree I picked up at a store. She likes to climb up, sit at the top and get a nice tan lol. But I never got a heat pad never really needed it, the heat lamp does enough IMO.


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## louisvillain2.0 (May 16, 2007)

Nice looking T, can't LEGALLY keep exotic species here. Shame cos many of the aussie T's are agro buggers and kinda bland looking. I have a Phlogius sp "Sarina", only 3" legspan atm but mean as hell. Like what sean-820 said, would add more substrate, will also help maintain humidity.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

louisvillain2.0 said:


> Nice looking T, can't LEGALLY keep exotic species here. Shame cos many of the aussie T's are agro buggers and kinda bland looking. I have a Phlogius sp "Sarina", only 3" legspan atm but mean as hell. Like what sean-820 said, would add more substrate, will also help maintain humidity.


 Over here though, everybody wants aussie t's


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## mdrs (May 1, 2006)

she looks looks nice, man. like my cobalt but with longer hair. really cool looking spider.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

Shes a beauty Jon, i'm about to get my first T and am really leaning towards this species. From my understanding and from the small amount i've read the best beginner T's are Roseas and Pink Toes. ALthough i've been told that Brachypelma species are good beginners too, there is a large juvenile Curly hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) for sale near me for just £15, which seems to be a steal as i have looked on online sites and baby slings are £15!! Is there anyone who could recommend anything? or is this a good deal? Sorry for posting on here Jon but i didnt feel it was necessary to make a new thread.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Murphy18 said:


> Shes a beauty Jon, i'm about to get my first T and am really leaning towards this species. From my understanding and from the small amount i've read the best beginner T's are Roseas and Pink Toes. ALthough i've been told that Brachypelma species are good beginners too, there is a large juvenile Curly hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) for sale near me for just £15, which seems to be a steal as i have looked on online sites and baby slings are £15!! Is there anyone who could recommend anything? or is this a good deal? Sorry for posting on here Jon but i didnt feel it was necessary to make a new thread.


 30$ is a good deal for an adult curly hair. You have to be sure its female or truly unsexed as ive heard of some shady sellers selling females and "unsexed" which are mostly males as they already sexed out a bunch of females to sell them for more. Id get a albopilsum over a rosea. Good beginner species either way, but imo neither are the most entertaining t's.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

sean-820 said:


> Shes a beauty Jon, i'm about to get my first T and am really leaning towards this species. From my understanding and from the small amount i've read the best beginner T's are Roseas and Pink Toes. ALthough i've been told that Brachypelma species are good beginners too, there is a large juvenile Curly hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) for sale near me for just £15, which seems to be a steal as i have looked on online sites and baby slings are £15!! Is there anyone who could recommend anything? or is this a good deal? Sorry for posting on here Jon but i didnt feel it was necessary to make a new thread.


 30$ is a good deal for an adult curly hair. You have to be sure its female or truly unsexed as ive heard of some shady sellers selling females and "unsexed" which are mostly males as they already sexed out a bunch of females to sell them for more. Id get a albopilsum over a rosea. Good beginner species either way, but imo neither are the most entertaining t's.
[/quote]

Thanks alot


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Well I've had her for about two weeks now. and im actually starting to wonder if " She " is actually a " He " .
From what I have read thus far , Female Rosea are Darker and less Vibrantly colored than the males. I can count quite a few colors on my Female.

Like stated in that previous post above , he said it reminds him of his Cobalt. Which , she actually does. The T has blue colored hairs , not to mention it's head is Pink and the colors are very distinguishable. Not as brown and black as a female should be.

It's been two weeks and I still can not pick her up . which also makes me think it's just being an aggressive male. Either way , whatever it turns out to be , I am fine with it. I just want to know what i'm dealing with.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Us And Them said:


> Well I've had her for about two weeks now. and im actually starting to wonder if " She " is actually a " He " .
> From what I have read thus far , Female Rosea are Darker and less Vibrantly colored than the males. *This is true with alot of t's, but there are also red color phase roseas so some females can be nicer then males*I can count quite a few colors on my Female.*mature males are usually easy to see as they "hook out". Once mature males have little hooks around the joints of their front legs (not pedipalps). They use these in breeding. There not always easy to see, but if you know what to look for its not hard. Do search for some pics. Only mature males will have these though so if its male and not mature it won't. Constantly pacing an enclosure is another sign of a mature male.*
> 
> Like stated in that previous post above , he said it reminds him of his Cobalt. Which , she actually does. The T has blue colored hairs , not to mention it's head is Pink and the colors are very distinguishable. Not as brown and black as a female should be.* females arnt nessisarily dull.*
> ...


If you cant pick her up she may not ever let you pick her up. Aggression doesn't mean male. I just sent one handleable MM and another sweet as can be MM out on a breeding loan. You can sex it ventrally, but i'm not good, but you can find people who can easily. Its not as accurate as sexing via molt, but its easy to try until they molt. I just picked up 2 more t's too, a N chromatus and another (my second) L parahybana.

I also followed your idea and changed my display name to match my pic of pink floyd's the division bell with cluster one being the fist song on the album


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Well I've had her for about two weeks now. and im actually starting to wonder if " She " is actually a " He " .
> From what I have read thus far , Female Rosea are Darker and less Vibrantly colored than the males. *This is true with alot of t's, but there are also red color phase roseas so some females can be nicer then males*I can count quite a few colors on my Female.*mature males are usually easy to see as they "hook out". Once mature males have little hooks around the joints of their front legs (not pedipalps). They use these in breeding. There not always easy to see, but if you know what to look for its not hard. Do search for some pics. Only mature males will have these though so if its male and not mature it won't. Constantly pacing an enclosure is another sign of a mature male.*
> 
> Like stated in that previous post above , he said it reminds him of his Cobalt. Which , she actually does. The T has blue colored hairs , not to mention it's head is Pink and the colors are very distinguishable. Not as brown and black as a female should be.* females arnt nessisarily dull.*
> ...


If you cant pick her up she may not ever let you pick her up. Aggression doesn't mean male. I just sent one handleable MM and another sweet as can be MM out on a breeding loan. You can sex it ventrally, but i'm not good, but you can find people who can easily. Its not as accurate as sexing via molt, but its easy to try until they molt. I just picked up 2 more t's too, a N chromatus and another (my second) L parahybana.

*I also followed your idea and changed my display name to match my pic of pink floyd's the division bell with cluster one being the fist song on the album*
[/quote]

Nice ! , I havn't been able to stop listening to them for the last week , learning songs on guitar , a little more than usual lol.

also , yes the T does alot of Pacing , almost like it is looking for a way out ? infact the T paces so much , there is a web that goes all around her enclosore in a rectangular shape. you see exactly where it walks.

It just wouldnt surprise me if it's a male. the pet store employees didn't seem to sure about touching it. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't sex it properly.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Us And Them said:


> also , yes the T does alot of Pacing , almost like it is looking for a way out ? infact the T paces so much , there is a web that goes all around her enclosore in a rectangular shape. you see exactly where it walks.
> 
> It just wouldnt surprise me if it's a male. the pet store employees didn't seem to sure about touching it. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't sex it properly.


 Does it make webs and destroy them? Generally roses don't make webs except for male sperm webs, but roses are often strange to this doesn't necessarily mean male. Try you get some close up pic of its underside and its front legs if you have a camera that is good enough. Roses of that size are often wild caught so unless she molted in there care they probably cant be certain on the sex as there arn't many adult captive bred roses as they take a while to mature. Try to get some pics of its pedipalps too. Hopefully it is actually a female, but if not you can always try to find somebody with a female for him


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> also , yes the T does alot of Pacing , almost like it is looking for a way out ? infact the T paces so much , there is a web that goes all around her enclosore in a rectangular shape. you see exactly where it walks.
> 
> It just wouldnt surprise me if it's a male. the pet store employees didn't seem to sure about touching it. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't sex it properly.


 Does it make webs and destroy them? Generally roses don't make webs except for male sperm webs, but roses are often strange to this doesn't necessarily mean male. Try you get some close up pic of its underside and its front legs if you have a camera that is good enough. Roses of that size are often wild caught so unless she molted in there care they probably cant be certain on the sex as there arn't many adult captive bred roses as they take a while to mature. Try to get some pics of its pedipalps too. Hopefully it is actually a female, but if not you can always try to find somebody with a female for him
[/quote]


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Damn us and them you actually WANT to hold that thing? I think these things are cool pets, but I will never ever take the risk of it escaping into the house. Jesus.


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Danny Tanner said:


> Damn us and them you actually WANT to hold that thing? I think these things are cool pets, but I will never ever take the risk of it escaping into the house. Jesus.


Ive been trying to , very unsuccessfully. today was crazy. it darted at my hand with intent to harm thats for sure. I've been looking at videos for days and my so called female is more than likely a 4" Male. Doesnt resemble any female i've seen online , only looks like the males.

It also paces the tank , like males do , creating webs , destroying webs , destroying anything for that matter. This T just doesnt want to be picked up. I got a 1 in a 1000 bastard of a G. Rosea. only way I can sex it is when it molts , someone will figure it out than , and hopefully I can pair it off with a Mature female and split the Offspring.

thats if it is a male - Was thinking Perhaps dividing the enclosure(14 gallon tank -pretty spacious) and getting another one. I dont mind keeping 2. I just want one I can actually take out and handle once in a while.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Us And Them said:


> Damn us and them you actually WANT to hold that thing? I think these things are cool pets, but I will never ever take the risk of it escaping into the house. Jesus.


Ive been trying to , very unsuccessfully. today was crazy. it darted at my hand with intent to harm thats for sure. I've been looking at videos for days and my so called female is more than likely a 4" Male. Doesnt resemble any female i've seen online , only looks like the males.

It also paces the tank , like males do , creating webs ,*If these are sperm webs, its mature and will not molt again. If its not mature, its not nessiariliy male as these wont be sperm webs* destroying webs , destroying anything for that matter. This T just doesnt want to be picked up. I got a 1 in a 1000 bastard of a G. Rosea. only way I can sex it is when it molts , someone will figure it out than , and hopefully I can pair it off with a Mature female and split the Offspring.

thats if it is a male - Was thinking Perhaps dividing the enclosure(14 gallon tank -pretty spacious) and getting another one. I dont mind keeping 2. I just want one I can actually take out and handle once in a while.
[/quote]
Get some good ventral shots of it to sex it. If its a MM it will not molt again as it will soon die so you want to breed it asap and not just wait for another molt that 99% of the time never comes.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

I'm picking up a sub adult B. albopilosum tommorow







I cant wait!!

Sean do you handle all of your T's? Those Versicolour are beautiful i would really like one, but not just yet









Also would it be expensive to get mine sexed by whoever can do it? like a vet or something?


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Most likely its poo. Males make a sperm web then destroy it leaving practically no evidence so half the time you wont see them making one.

Not saying its not male, but i think your jumping to conclusions based on vague methods that probably aren't even 60% accurate. Especially when this is your first t, its harder to decipher what's considered normal and what's not. Liek i said before roses can be weird so i would be surprised if its just a rosea being a rosea.

If its male you need to look for boxing gloves (swollen pedipalps) and hooks. Best to take a ton of pics and have somebody else in addition to you look at them to try to look for hooks as if you don't know what your looking for you could miss them easily.


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Most likely its poo. Males make a sperm web then destroy it leaving practically no evidence so half the time you wont see them making one.
> 
> Not saying its not male, but i think your jumping to conclusions based on vague methods that probably aren't even 60% accurate. Especially when this is your first t, its harder to decipher what's considered normal and what's not. Liek i said before roses can be weird so i would be surprised if its just a rosea being a rosea.
> 
> If its male you need to look for boxing gloves (swollen pedipalps) and hooks. Best to take a ton of pics and have somebody else in addition to you look at them to try to look for hooks as if you don't know what your looking for you could miss them easily.


True enough , Im gonna post some pics on Arachnoboards when I get a chance in the morning.


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