The Fringed Ornamental Tarantula is an Old World species native of the Sri Lanka forests. It is a very large arboreal tarantula with full grown adults reaching a length of 10+ inches. It is considered one of the largest of pokies. Poecilotheria comes from the Greek word poikilos which means spotted, therion which means wild beast and ornata which means adorned.

P.ornata

 

Habitat:

The Fringed Ornamental is an arboreal species that spends most of its time up in trees and plants in the wild. Your enclosure should be about 10 gallons in size and needs to have more height then width. Substrate should be very damp to produce enough humidity for this species. Humidity levels should be anywhere from 75 to 85 percent and temperatures should be about 78 to 83 degrees. A long piece of bark should be added to provide your pokie a hide and something for it to climb on. A clean water dish should also always be available at all times. Due to high humidity levels in the enclosure be sure to keep a close look out for mold or fungus as this can be common in the enclosure. Should you see any, waste no time in providing enough maintenance to clean up the enclosure.

 

Feeding:

A steady diet of crickets and large b.dubia cockroaches should be fine for this tarantula. They are insectivores and have been known to eat locusts, moths and other types of insects. Feeding should be kept at once a week and should not be an issue as these guys are great eaters.

 

Attitude:

Pokies are very defensive and from experience this one might just be the most aggressive out of all of them. Your Fringed Ornamental is very defensive and are known to strike fast. They do produce one of the worst venom of all tarantulas with victims experiencing immense pain, muscle cramps, fever like symptoms, vomiting, blurry eyes and even shortness of breath. Even though the toxins in its venom are not lethal it can still easily induce a quick trip to the E.R. We do not recommend the handling of this species at all, not even by the most experienced of hobbyists.

 

Do not let the Fringed Ornamental Tarantula’s aggressiveness of this species scare you, it is a great tarantula and a must have for any experienced keeper’s collection. Do you have a P. ornata? Tell us your story and comment down below!