Colombian Bluebottle Tarantula (Pseudhapalpus sp. blue)
New World, Psuedhapalpus October 22nd, 2014
The Colombian Bluebottle tarantula is a rare species from Colombia. They are widely sought after due to their extremely blue abdomen which starts to change color as they go from spiderling to juveniles. These fossorial tarantula are very hardy and live a very long and healthy life with females outliving the males and full grown adults reaching a size of about 5 inches in length. They are relatively slow growers and will take a while to get to that size.
Habitat:
The Colombian Bluebottle Tarantula are fossorials and just love to burrow. As slings (spiderlings) you are going to want to keep them in a vial that is at least 1/2 to 3/4 filled with very damp moist substrate. They do prefer high humidity. As full grown adults you will need at most a 5 gallon tank that has more crawl space then height. We recommend at least 4 to 5 inches of coconut fiber substrate that is fairly damp. A hide should also be added as initial hiding place for your tarantula before it starts to burrow all through the enclosure. Temperatures should stay anywhere between 77 to 83 degrees with a humidity level of about 75 to 80 percent. The Colombian Bluebottle will spend most of its time underground but unlike many burrowers it does surface more often.
Feeding:
The Colombian Bluebottle Tarantula is a great eater and should be fed at most once a week. As spiderlings they should be fed a steady diet of flightless fruit flies and eventually small pinhead crickets. As juveniles to adults you can feed them a steady diet of cockroaches, locusts, crickets and even meal worms. Should you see that the insects are not consumed within 24/48 hours we recommend you remove them from the enclosure. It could be that your fossorial tarantula is in premolt or molting stages underground and needs to be left alone. Having prey in its enclosure at this time might be stressful for your tarantula.
Attitude:
This is a very skittish tarantula and should not be handled. They can be very fast and though they do not have a nasty attitude they can still bite and flick urticating hairs. Their bite is not lethal to humans and is as powerful as a bee sting.
We recommend this tarantula for the beginner keeper who already has some experience with tarantulas and is looking for a nice hardy fossorial.
Do you have a Colombian Bluebottle? Tell us about it or ask any questions. We ‘d love to hear from you. Comment down below!
March 7th, 2016 at 3:10 am
Curious as to the difference between this tarantula and the species I have stating its a “short hair.” Any suggestions?
March 8th, 2016 at 12:59 am
Do you ave a pic of that tarantula? if you could link it to imgur I would be able to take a look at it for you
August 21st, 2018 at 9:58 am
So today I received mine but it is really small, i think 3 to 4 millimetres. What can I feed him/her? I only had contact trough the internet with the previous owner and we didnt talk about the size :/ I had a mexican Redknee before but she was 3 centimetres when I got her, so for me it easier to take care of.
Im also really scared that it wont make it, because of the size, it appears to me that its so fragile that i can not give the care he/she needs 🙁
Please give me some good advice, im willing to try whatever it takes to provide good care.
Thanks!
August 30th, 2019 at 5:53 pm
When slings are that small, they can feed on fruit flies. Very small slings will also scavenge, so I just put in a cricket leg or prekill a pinhead or small cricket and just place it in the vial. I use a water dropper to place water around the edges of enclosure to keep humidity up and keep the substrate moist, as most slings need the extra moisture.
January 12th, 2020 at 12:20 am
I just obtained a juvenile female and your description was very helpful. She has been very active but not burrowing and not eating. She finally took a small red runner roach tonight, and I put a leaf in her enclosure to guice her cover since she’s not really digging.
February 24th, 2020 at 3:01 pm
I have a sub-adult female that has shown zero interest in burrowing. I gave her an enclosure with some flat rocks and cork and sticks and she frequently sits in a little “cave” or just hangs out on the rocks.