The Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula is a species native to the Socotra Island in the Indian ocean. It is very much loved in the hobby due to its beautiful colors which include a light metallic blue carapace with darker blue legs it also has a beige to dark brown abdomen and femur with its spinnerets being light to dark brown. Females tend to grow bigger then males reaching a size of 5 to 6 inches in length and can reach maturity after just 2 years. Their lifespan are rather short compared to other species of tarantulas.

 

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Habitat:

This tarantula is terrestrial and a great burrower. It is a bountiful webber and will thoroughly web its enclosure. With all of this in mind your enclosure should contain at least 6 inches of substrate and should have more length and width as it would have height. Provide just enough height for your tarantula to flip so that it can molt. This tarantula likes a dry environment and you should let its substrate (we recommend some sort of coconut fiber and vermiculite mix) be dry but moist enough to allow him to create a burrow. Overfilling its water dish with clean water should keep the humidity where it needs to be as this species does not require high levels of it. A steady temperature of 73 to 81 degrees should be kept and should be enough to keep your tarantula happy. We recommend a starter hide or retreat be added to the enclosure until your tarantula created its own burrow. This tarantula has been known to be communal though females tend to cannibalize males. We recommend you keep your tarantula by itself in an enclosure unless you are breeding him/her.

 

Feeding:

The Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula tarantula is a great eater and a steady diet of crickets, cockroaches, locusts and even meal worms. Though they can eat small rodents such as mice and or lizards we recommend you just keep feeding them insects as there is speculation that an over amount of small rodents can potentially increase a calcium buildup in your tarantula causing them to get a bad molt.

 

Attitude:

Surprisingly this tarantula is not as aggressive as its other old world counterparts or even its fellow baboon tarantulas. The Blue Baboon is rather shy and sometimes skittish and would rather retreat then try to attack this does not mean that we would recommend you handling them. They are still defensive as they do not come equipped with urticating hairs and chances are will bite should they feel threatened. We recommend extreme caution while handling.

 

The Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula is most definitely a beautiful species that would be great for the more experienced of hobbyist. It is a great tarantula for any old world collection and would be great as your first Baboon tarantula.

Do you have a Socotra Island Blue Baboon? Tell us about it and comment down below!