We picked up a Salmon Pink Bird Eater at the show a couple weeks ago. We vend a lot of the same shows as the breeder so he threw in a couple of slings for free. First time with slings hopefully I don’t blow it lol.
I initially put the bird eater in a 10 gallon but I upgraded it to a 20 today. It’s about 2 years old so she still has some growing to do. It’s impressive how aggressive of a feeder she is. She knocked the tongs out of my hands grabbing a dubia first time I fed her.
My LP is about 5" I guess. Love the crazy feeding response! Gotta use my extra long tongs. She tried coming up them once. You will love the P. cambridgei too. They get really fluffy looking.
Hope that works out!
That Avic girl looks gorgeous, @spottedbull! I’m seriously considering an Avic sling for my empty small arboreal enclosure, I love the way they look (I also like that they’re not typically super bolty or defensive).
Jealous of all the adorable jumping spiders too! I got a jumper enclosure when I ordered my curly hair’s juvenile enclosure from Tarantula Cribs, so… that’s happening, hopefully soon.
You definitely need an Avic!
My Porcellio scaber “Calico” and Porcellio dilatatus “Giant Canyon” isopods both just arrived. I think the giant canyon might be my favorite isopods that i have. I also really like the calico and they’re really cool because they are sexually dimorphic. The females show the calico coloring while the males have the wild type coloring.
Calico female
Giant Canyon
i couldn’t really get the best pictures but they’re really cool to look at in person and i’m very excited about them
I’ve become a big fan of black widows, or really any of the Latrodectus (widow) genus. They’re beautiful, extremely hardy and easy to care for, and are voracious eaters. On top of that, their web-spinning and prey-catching behaviors are super cool to observe. And despite their fearsome reputation and medically significant venom, they’re actually pretty docile and easy to work with. I wouldn’t recommend handling one (although some people do), but that’s more because they’re rather delicate and easy to accidentally hurt or kill rather than any serious concerns about taking a bite. For rehousings and maintenance, they’re very easy to deal with. They’re not prone to biting defensively unless they’re pinched or squeezed. They’ll pretty much always bolt before they’ll bite.
They don’t require much space. Basically they just need a ventilated enclosure big enough for them to build a web, maybe some sticks, moss, leaves, etc. to anchor their web to, and some sort of hiding place (I used a curled dried leaf). I also put a little Eco Earth substrate on the bottom just to absorb any poop that falls on the ground, but even substrate is optional. They’re fine at room temp and only need to be fed maybe once a week at most (lots of people feed them every other week or once a month; I usually just go by the size of her abdomen). They’ll eat pretty much anything of an appropriate size.
One thing I really love about Delilah, my western black widow, is that she’s usually out on display. She’ll skitter into her little leaf hide if she gets startled, but more often than not, she’s hanging in her web out in the open, so I get to observe her quite a lot. I usually get to watch her whole process of catching, wrapping, and eating prey, and I’ve even gotten to watch a couple of her molts.
I know that most of us are taught to fear black widows from an early age and kill them on sight, but they can actually make really wonderful pets.
Hmmmm. It just so happens that there is a small pet shop close to me that carries a variety of arachnids. I think I will check them out to see if they have any black widows.,…
Thank you for the suggestion! 
I can probably go poking around in the back 40 and find one here.
Lol! Haha! Do you think I could find one in a subdivision?
Well did ya get something!?! Don’t leave us hangin’!
I’d honestly be very surprised if you ever found one at a pet shop, but there are people who breed them, and you could probably find a vendor online or at an expo.
Or you could just go poke around your attic, basement, laundry room, carport, yard, etc. Latrodectus species are pretty common throughout all North America (and every other continent besides Antarctica) and are often drawn to the insect activity around human dwellings. Look for cobwebs in low-traffic areas with somewhere snug and dark to hide nearby. Woodpiles and garden sheds are great places to look. I actually found Delilah in a bathroom at work. I had no intention of having a pet widow, but when I found her, I knew I couldn’t leave her there but I couldn’t bring myself to kill her…so I took her home, and quickly fell in love with her and decided to keep her.
One caveat about catching your own widow…if you catch a mature female, you’ll probably have to contend with a fertile egg sac. And widows have lots and lots of very tiny babies. Tiny enough that they can scoot through most ventilation holes. You can always pull the egg sac and freeze it, or some people just choose to release mom and egg sac back into the “wild.” If you get lucky, you might be able to find a juvenile female, which would be ideal, as an unmated female obviously won’t lay a fertile egg sac (although she may still lay an infertile one). Juvenile females will have some sort of dorsal markings on their abdomen (those markings fade as they mature). Exactly what the markings look like can vary by species, so it might be helpful to look up what juvenile markings your local species tends to sport, if you decide to go hunting for your own pet widow.
Um its a month away hoping to get isopods or really convince my parents for either a vinegaroon or trinidad dwarf tiger tarantula
Thank you so very much for this information! This could be a total adventure for me! That is amazing where you found yours of all places! I need to do a little research to find out exactly what to look for keeping the egg sack in mind! I don’t want a house full of black widow babies running around! Lol!
If I find one I will definitely let you know! . Here’s to happy hunting! 
Me too! I think we have the same squishmallow!
Look out! I isopods are like potato chips- you never have just one, only very restrained folks can limit themselves to a few, and it’s easy to go nuts and try to collect all your favorites.
They’re aquatic, but I just got these (freshwater) Bloody Mary shrimp and they’re really fun to watch! I’ve never kept shrimp before.
Can you see me making a face? 
My phone camera isn’t great, but you can still pick out the adults.
I didn’t even notice the dates…Well hopefully you can get something!
Happy hunting!
I don’t know where you live or what local Latrodectus species you have, but here are the dorsal markings Delilah had when I first caught her, just to give you an idea. She’s a western black widow, Latrodectus hesperus.
And here’s how she looks now, about 7 months and 4-5 molts later. You can see how that little white patch is all that remains of those markings (also, her ventral hourglass went from orange to scarlet).
Omg they’re so cute! 
I had a tropical freshwater fish tank as a kid and would sometimes get little shrimp in there, I always really enjoyed them. A couple times I ended up with “free” shrimp who just managed to hitchhike along with whatever fish I bought. But I never had any that were so brightly colored, I love how red those little guys are!
Sometimes I miss having a fish tank. I don’t miss all the water changes and algae scrubbing and water treatments, but I do miss being able to observe various aquatic creatures doing their thing.
I know what you mean! Since I’m retired, I have more time to do the maintenance slowly. But it’s just a 10 gallon I mostly got for my marimo moss balls. I ended up wanting shrimp because they help out with moss ball care. Once I found out there was a type called ‘Bloody Mary’ I knew I had to investigate. I’m a sucker for anything macabre!
