Even though spiders scare the living daylights outta me, I must say she is quite the beauty.

I'm, like, deathly afraid of spiders, but this spider looks so adorable. I just want to hold her:)

Tarantulas are, for the most part, very docile and "tame" to begin with. This species is especially known for it's good nature; I sorta think of Aphonopelma chalcodes as Golden Retrievers with eight legs! It really isn't that odd for someone to like tarantulas and still be afraid of plain ole' spiders, though, since there ARE a lot of differences, beyond size(some tarantulas stay quite small; I've got adults that are no bigger than an average-sized Wolf Spider). I guess it's that furriness that appeals to many people, along with their usually-slow and deliberate movements. They just remind people more of familiar and "comfortable" animals like dogs and cats and bunnies. I used to actually dislike regular spiders, while keeping tarantulas, but once I got into Macro photography, I started to find our native true spiders to be interesting and usually very non-aggressive as well, and I now keep some of those as pets, too.

pitbulllady

I just had a bad exprience with spiders. When I was five a nightbor kid lost their spider and I found it in my bed. *shudder*

Got my second one!
 

I picked up a Costa Rican Zebra, or Stripe-Leg, today, to go in the other terrarium. Now, females are generally better to have as they live longer, and I examined this one both on its underside and its recently-shed skin, and I'm new at this but I *think* that this spider is a boy. But I liked him, and he was on sale (lol) so I decided to take him. Here he is in his deli cup:

http://www.fosters-home.com/forum/myimages/zebra1.jpg

He's bigger than the other one, and very nice in temperment. Having shed recently he'll be hungry, so I'll try feeding him tonight. The other one probably won't shed for at least another week.

Speaking of shedding, I took his skin home too, lol:

http://www.fosters-home.com/forum/myimages/zebra2.jpg

If it weren't for the shriveled abdomen it'd look like a live spider, it has fangs and everything. Its so soft and furry, like a puppy! 8D

oh my! I had no idea they did that.

What will you do with that then?

Put it on ebay! or If you fancy swapping it for something........

that's so cool but so blech!
Spiders scare me


but that's kinda cool

wow... that's... surprisingly AMAZING-looking to me...

Now I'm angry, and I feel really stupid, because I think the store sold me a Chilean Rose and not a Zebra. They have similar leg markings but the Zebras are generally a bit more black than brown, though they *can* be brown which is why I figured this was a Zebra. Also I always throught Roses were less furry, but I've been looking at pics of Roses online and they all look like my new spider. And I was getting excited because I re-examined the molted skin and I thought it may be a female after all. I guess I'm going to take it back, because I really want a Zebra. :P I feel like a major idiot now.

Well I took the poor thing back, but the tarantula they *did* have that they were calling a "zebra" definately wasn't a Costa Rican Zebra, anyways, so I didn't get it, so I'm back to having only one speeder now. :P