Creating this because searching for anything in the discussions here pertaining to Chilean Coppers brings up absolutely nothing! Personally I’m in love with dwarf tarantula species and I aim to get more in the future. Chilean Copper tarantulas are very similar in care and temperament to their bigger cousins the Chilean Rose Hair. My belief is that this is the perfect spider spare for one issue. Like Rose hairs these have a habit of going off feed, and sometimes for many months at a time.
I got my girl back when backwater reptiles still had imports of these. Not long after they closed animal imports from Chile. Mine started as a juvenile and thankfully molted female in about a year. She often goes on food strikes. Once she made an egg case full of infertile eggs and ripped it open after a day. I’ve wanted to find her a male for quite some time but I can’t find anyone who has these anymore.
Does anyone own one of these? I want to see your pictures and hear your stories! Do you own other dwarf tarantula species? I’d love to hear about them too. Give us all the pictures!
Beautiful spider! I must admit, I’m not familiar with this species. Might be because I’m fairly new to the hobby of spider keeping, so I’m not familiar with species that are not frequently being sold these days. How lucky that you ended up with a female! That would be awesome if you could find a male for her. How big is she?
I don’t currently have any true dwarf species. Closest I have is a Davis sp. panama (lava spider). I know some sources claim they’re a dwarf species…but other sources claim they can grow up to a 5" leg span, which would definitely not be a dwarf. So I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how big mine gets. Her (still an unsexed sling, but I live in hope) name is Pompeii.
Lovely creatures, indeed! I don’t know a thing about them but I’m intrigued but the concept of a dwarf tarantula. We’re supposed to move this year and I have coasters adding a spider after we’re settled. Going off feed for months world be stressful for a novice keeper, which I would assuredly be.
Could be? Though I don’t recall yours being orange and black in the picture (though maybe that was just the picture). Does yours have little orange tiger stripes on the sides of its abdomen and a little orange heart on top?
Here’s a better picture of a lava spider, shamelessly stolen from Google. This one actually looks like it’s a similar age to Pompeii, just a much higher-quality photo. Their colours and the pattern on their abdomen become much more intense with age. Might give you a better idea if this is the species of your mystery T.
Spiders often go off food when they’re nearing a molt, not unlike how snakes often refuse to eat when they’re about to shed. The main difference is that for certain species of tarantula, that premolt phase where they refuse food can last for months, especially for the slow growing/long living species. I have a tarantula who typically goes off food for at least 2+ months before a molt, and I expect that time frame to steadily increase as she gets older and bigger. I’ve heard of some tarantulas spending close to a year in premolt.
I feel like it tends to be less nerve-wracking when you know why it’s happening, and know that it’s a normal part of their growth cycle. Tarantulas also tend to get super fat when they’re in premolt, which personally makes me feel a lot less concerned about their lack of appetite. They don’t look like they need to eat.
I haven’t seen many ads for these other than backwater reptiles who is somehow selling unsexed juvies. I am actively looking for a male. However their price massively jumped from when I got her. So I assume it’s because Chile’s imports closed years ago and no one else took interest in them. I guess they’re rare despite literally just being a smaller version of Chilean Rose hairs. Most people just want the bigger calmer tarantula so they pass over these.
I don’t hold her ever so I would have to get my ruler and check her size. She’s been fully grown for years so she is one of those gals who goes off feed for a looong while. She’s at 3 months at the moment for not eating. It’s not the longest she’s ever gone before though.
Don’t mind the whiteout stuff on the end of the ruler lol.
I used to keep my local spiders as pets when I was younger. So the biggest I caught back then was probably a mature dock spider. They are like plate sized but it’s all legs. I also had wolf spiders, recluses, and even the leggy cellar spiders. Granted this was all before schooling on the legality of keeping natives mind you I don’t keep these anymore. Well… We have a colony of breeding cellar spiders in the house wild that I’ll toss food to but that’s it lol.
Yeah, I know a lot of Chilean species got waaaay more expensive after Chile stopped exporting their native wildlife, presumably because it’s more time-consuming and labour-intensive to have to captive breed every specimen that’s sold. That’s especially true for species that take years to reach sexual maturity. Something similar has happened with the Chilean Flame tarantula (another dwarf species, and one I would already own if the tiny, glacially growing slings weren’t so pricey).
I caught a lot of spiders as a kid too, including a few of our local tarantulas, but my parents always made me release them after a few days. I currently have one western black widow that I collected as a juvenile from a bathroom at work. I also had a wolf spider I also found at work, splayed out, half dead, and missing 4 of her legs (I suspect someone stepped on her). I scooped her up and put her in a container with some water, and she surprisingly perked up, so I took her home. She ended up making an egg sac and hatching out 68 babies that I released in various locations, and she lived with me for another six months before passing away.
I want to get pumpkin patch spiders next they seem to be the closest to keeping wolf spiders for me. I used to like keeping the big orb weevers too. I’m kinda interested in any of the dwarf stuff to be honest. I saw the flames get popular a few years ago then dropped off the face of the earth and I don’t see them anymore.
I see Chilean flames up for sale fairly often. But they’re always itty bitty slings (like 1/8" ), and I think the cheapest price I’ve seen is $120. Which is a lot for such a small sling. Especially one that grows so slowly. It’s going to be years before that sling gets bigger than a hangnail. So that’s the main reason I don’t already have a flame, even though I really like the look of them.
As far as dwarf species go, I really like everything I’ve seen from the Cyriocosmus genus. Also really like what I’ve seen of Pseudhapalopus, though they tend to be a bit larger than what some would consider a “true dwarf.” (There’s currently only one species officially in that genus, but I expect what are currently considered “regional variants” will get to be their own species eventually.)
Pumpkin patches are super cute! And I see what you mean about them resembling wolf spiders, they do have a similar overall shape to them.
If I wanted to go up in level and was feeling confident with myself I would go for Cyriocosmus leetzi or Dolichothele diamantinensis. Those are gorgeous both in their own colors and patterns. I’m just afraid of getting itty bitty slings I’ve never grown a tarantula from a baby before. It would definitely be a step up for me and that’s why I wanted to start breeding with the copper to test myself.
Oh, D. diamantinensis is definitely on my shopping list, they’re so gorgeous. Like a small GBB, but even prettier in my opinion.
I’ve been growing up a curly hair I got as a 1/2" sling, an Avicularia I got as a 1/2" sling, and a lava spider I got as a 1/4" sling. The curly hair is almost a subadult, I’ve had her for a couple years. The Avic and lava spider are newer, I got them a few months ago. It is a bit nerve-wracking to work with such itty bitty babies, but the nice thing is that they tend to grow fairly quickly when they’re so young, so they don’t stay super tiny for long. Hardest part is just dealing with tiny feeders. And my lava spider would probably starve to death in the wild; she’s afraid of tiny crickets, so I have to kill them for her.
I don’t. I just default to referring to all spiders as female unless I know them to be male. I did that even before I kept spiders as pets. Not sure why. I do the same thing with snakes and sharks. With most other animals, I default to referring to them as male if I don’t know their sex. But spiders, snakes, and sharks are all girls unless proven otherwise. No real logic behind it, I’m just weird like that.
I’m considering a Chilean Copper as my first T but I don’t see them for sale anywhere but backwaterreptiles, are they legit? They have some slings listed but considering I don’t see them anywhere else it makes me wary.
Does anyone know how slow these grow?
The other I’m considering is the Chilean red or yellow flame dwarf.
@stephenswva Yea I got mine from them years ago. They are legit. Sketchy looking, and I’ve had trouble with shipping every single time I order from there, but so far with three orders they are legit for me.
My copper was a slow grower I think. It took her about two years to fully mature. I got her as a juvie though with over an inch leg span if I remember right.
I wonder if they have a breeder over there who just has a couple breeding groups there that they do every year cause I’ve looked for a few years now and backwater are the only ones who ever have them. It is weird.
I appreciate the response.
I bought 2 homoeomma orellanai, the yellow flames, almost a month ago, they’re 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Tiny. These are my first T’s so learning as I go, to this point they seem to be doing well. I’ll post more about them this week.
As it is, I went to a repticon show today and aside from having some 1” Chilean red flames, a dealer had a Chilean copper, p scrofa, sling, likely 1/2 inch. I couldn’t pass up buying it after the guy made a good deal. I’ll have to get a new enclosure though, it’s in a cup
I can’t get better pics of my t’s close up though with this phone but eventually maybe sometime this week for that as well.
Our Chilean yellow flames.
We’ve had them almost a month, each of them had a segment of mealworm a week after they arrived, haven’t eaten in 3 weeks. They seem to be doing well. 1 has made a good borrow in the substrate, the other has made a burrow hide in the moss. They’ve each rearranged the habitat.
Her (still an unsexed sling, but I live in hope) name is Pompeii.
), and I think the cheapest price I’ve seen is $120. Which is a lot for such a small sling. Especially one that grows so slowly. It’s going to be years before that sling gets bigger than a hangnail. So that’s the main reason I don’t already have a flame, even though I really like the look of them.
