Terraria Expo Houten
In the morning my brother Marco picked us up to go to the Terraria Expo in the city of Houten, near the city of Utrecht. I had been looking forward to this expo for quite some time and was considering to buy two tarantulas that were on my wish list for some time:
- Monocentropus balfouri (Socotra Island Blue Baboon tarantula)
- Tliltocatl albopilosus (Curlyhair tarantula)
Soon after we had entered the expo building a man walked towards us holding a ferret. Alice loved the ferret and soon was holding the excited animal. While I took some photos she got softly bitten in her chin by the ferret.
After we had looked a bit around in the small area with mostly rodents we entered the large one with many tables. Soon we came upon the table of Dawid Staroń's Exotic Spiders. In the past I had ordered three tarantula slings with Dawid. Sadly, after some time, two died. I still keep the Ephebopus cyanognathus, which remains mostly well hidden.
The majority of the tables was assigned to selling reptiles and amphibians. We looked at the beautiful but pricey snakes on display. At the table of EC Reptiles I took several photos of Python regius on display.
After some more walking we came upon the table of the Belgian Tarantula Breeding Team. They had both spiders I wanted; a large female Monocentropus balfouri and an even larger female Tliltocatl albopilosum [sic]. But since we where half way the large expo area I decided to keep looking around a bit more.
A while later I decided to return and make the purchase of the two tarantulas I had seen. I paid €70 for the Monocentropus balfouri and €50 for the Tliltocatl albopilosus. Female tarantulas are more expensive because they live much longer compared to males.
After the expo we decided to have lunch. My brother knew a place nearby but sadly it was loaded and no space for us. So we went to another restaurant he knew in the city of Zoetermeer. After a nice late lunch he dropped us of at our home.
Back home I repurposed two terrariums, large plastic containers, that belonged to animals that sadly had passed away. The first one for the Tliltocatl albopilosus female. Moving her from the small plastic container into the terrarium went easy. The terrarium had already a starter burrow which she soon after found and used to hide from view.
Next, I moved the Monocentropus balfouri into her terrarium. This was a bit more challenging: the spider moved way faster than the previous one even before I had opened the container she came in. After I carefully had removed the lid I carefully pushed her with a large tweezer I had also bought at the expo. She threat posed a few times but nothing serious.
After I had housed the two new tarantulas I fed the following four tarantulas each a superworm Zophobas morio — I had bought two small containers at the expo as well:
- Acanthoscurria geniculata female (actually Adam's tarantula)
- Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
- Pterinochilus murinus RFC
- Ephebopus cyanognathus
I didn't feed the Psalmopoeus irminia because the spider had closed its cork tube with silk.