Description

These Peruvian tarantulas a not particularly spectacular in the colours department, but are still attractive, and wonderful spiders. They look like giant versions of A.seemanni, larger and more solidly built, and with orange / brown stripes on their legs instead of the seemanni's white. As slings, they sometimes have a blue tinge to the legs, but the carapace remains a bright orange.

Housing

Adults are happy in a standard terrestrial setup with good floor space, a variety of textures on which to rest, and most importantly, a good hide.  Slings tend to burrow initially, so a good layer of substrate in which to dig will make them less stressed. Be prepared to not see the slings for weeks at a time, as they prefer to stay hidden underground.

Temperatures should kept be around 75F using a side-mounted (NOT under-tank) heatmat, with humidity Ok at around 70%+. A large water bowl is fine, but will be used rarely.

Feeding

Slings don't eat voraciously, and seem almost hesitant to tackle anything, but small pinhead crickets are taken eventually. Slow - medium growth rate means that they don't eat a vast amount, even when hungry, and with sub adults and adults, it seems that 2 average sized crickets a week keep them happy.

Temperament

These spiders are very easily disturbed, and are very skittish and edgy in behaviour. Mine would rather run and hide than threaten, or flick, but I think this will change as she gets bigger. Not good handlers, I would imagine, for their unpredictability, and sudden busts of speed, which can be surprising for the brief moments they happen. Ordinarily, they move very slowly and cautiously.

Notes

The webbing produced by these spiders is messy and chaotic, and covers some, but not all of the floorspace. Wonderful in its own way, it makes for spectacular burrow entrances !