RSS Feed
The tarantula you refer to is Grammostola rosea. While everybody has their own favorite variations for the common name, the official American Arachnological Society Committee on Common Names name for them is "Chilean rose." Capital "Chilean," lower case "rose." The plural is "roses," not "rosies" although I have to admit that I sometimes use the latter. There is no such thing as a "rose hair" or "rosehair." Tarantulas have bristles, not hair. (All right, "picky picky picky."
CAVEATS:
We don't know a lot about these tarantulas because few if any people have ever actually gone to Chile to see how they live and brought back believable reports. (Great vacation idea, no? Take *LOTS* of pictures! You wouldn't need someone to carry your bags, would you?) What's presented here seems to fit with what is known about them, but a lot of it is conjecture, not fact. It should be taken as interim wisdom until confirmed or corrected by new data.
COLOR/MARKINGS:
For the most part, immatures, males and females are colored much alike but with the males being somewhat more vibrant. They have no distinct or distinguishing markings.
This species is a bit unusual among tarantulas in that is occurs naturally in at least three different color forms. These all possess a more or less uniform dark gray to black undercoat. One color form is a more or less uniform, drab, dark gray (sometimes called "muddy" or "grubby") with at most only a sprinkling of lighter beige or pinkish hairs. Another possesses a uniformly dense, pretty, light pink outer coat. The last is a beautifully intense coppery form. The adult males of this last form are spectacular!
For a while, enthusiasts thought each color form was a different species, even calling the copper colored form G. cala, the Chilean flame tarantula. However, over the last several years all of the several color forms have been reported to arise from the same eggsac, proving that these are all merely variants of the same species.
SIZE:
A medium sized tarantula. Mature females will have a body length of up to about 7.5 centimetres (three inches) and a leg span of about fifteen centimetres (six inches). While the males' body is smaller the leg
spans remain the same. Because of the numbers being exported from Chile the average size of the individuals currently found in the market is usually smaller. It is presumed that, given time and proper care, these will reach respectable sizes.
NATIVE HABITAT:
Roses come from the borders of the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile at least as far south as Santiago. The Atacama can be one of the harshest environments on the planet! There are parts of it that have never had rain in recorded history. The temperatures there may reach 135 F (57 C) or higher in Summer. They may experience light frosts in Winter. We think that the areas where roses are found aren't quite so severe. They've been reported from semi-desert to scrub forest areas. Apparently their principle source of water in nature is from the food they eat and fogs that drift in from the Pacific Ocean once in a while.
LIFE SPAN:
Roses have not been bred in captivity often enough or kept in captivity long enough for us to make anything more than a wild guess at maximum life spans. They've only been imported in any numbers for possibly 10 years, certainly less than 20. During that time they have only been bred in captivity a handful of times.
Because the wild caught ones don't come with birth certificates we don't know how old they are when we get them. They may live anywhere from 10 minutes or less to 10 years or more in our care, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear of someone who's had one since 1980 or so that's still going strong. The few captive raised ones have had nowhere near enough time to mature, live a full life span and die of old age, so we have no handle on a maximum lifespan in captivity.
As an educated guess we can bracket the probable limits of their lifespans at more than 10 years and less than 100 years. Reasonable guesses might be 20 to 40 years. Beyond that, all bets are off.
TEMPERATURE AND LIGHT:
Being desert animals, one might assume that these tarantulas require excessively high temperatures. Not so. They're extremely sturdy and resilient creatures and will do quite well at normal room
temperatures. For the most part, unless you have antifreeze in place of blood, any temperature at which you're comfortable will suit the tarantula just fine. If you have a choice, 74 to 85 F (23 to 29 C) is ideal.
Be careful about trying to artificially raise the cage's temperature in the belief that the rose needs higher temperatures. There are 2 problems with supplying extra heat to a tarantula's cage. First, without a major engineering effort the heat is largely uncontrollable. If you happen to experience a particularly hot day and accidentally leave the cage heater on, you could easily come home to a strong smell of well cooked tarantula.
Second, artificial heat sources are strong desicators. They dry the cage out extremely rapidly and to a very harsh degree. Roses are accustomed to living in a desert, but even they have limits to what they can tolerate.
The bottom line here is that maybe a lower temperature is better than an artificial heat source unless you can engineer a fool proof, fail safe heater. Be extremely careful. You've been warned!
NO SUNLIGHT! In fact, avoid all bright lights, but make sure that the tarantula can easily tell the difference between day and night. (See below.)
I don't know if any of you knew but I am Arachnaphobic, but through the brave coaxing of a friend of mine (ALSO FEERS SPIDERS) I decided I will try hold a chilean Rose at the SOS expo (GREAT EXPO BY THE WAY) I loved it sooooo much that we have now ordered two! A very near and very dear darling friend has a contact that should be getting the cute critters for us. How much do they usually go for?
