Mexican Red Knee Tarantula

You may have been wondering where the bugs be at. I have to space out the bugs, compared to aquarium members the bugs are outnumbered. Of course in terms of real life bugs way outnumber everything else:

For every human there are 150-170 million bugs.
Guesstimating how many fish there are is something people don't like to do, those that do say a trillion. Let's compare a trillion to 6-7 billion Humans. We are outnumbered! But we're on about loads of bugs, so

a trillion fish vs 6-7 billion multiplied by 170 million... my brain hurts. But yes. Bugs outnumber fish and humans. COMBINED!

Phew.

The Mexican Red Knee Tarantula or Brachypelma smithi (for those who only work with binomial naming), are probably the best known spider in the world, if not spider than defiantly tarantula. The red knee is what comes to mind when someone says tarantula, they've entered popular culture.The moody photo doesn't do the spider justice but just google mexican red knee and that will be the tarantula you know well.

This species is near threatened. They are rare in the wild because they have been over collected for the pet trade. There are now specialist breeding programmes set up to breed this species in captivity for the pet trade, it will be some time before those in the wild recover their numbers though.

Now, I wouldn't say I'm screamish with spiders, but I'm happy keeping my distance from them. I don't handle them, don't wish to.. I pop my hand in the tank to give them some water and I'm cool with that. I wouldn't get too close though, I know about their urticating hairs which they kick up from their abdomen and legs which can cause bad irritation for a week or so.  

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