Avicularia geroldi — Fact Sheet

Avicularia geroldi · Avicularia geroldi

Full care guide and sources

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

Keep one per enclosure. Around 30 x 30 x 45 cm is a reasonable starting adult enclosure for a medium-large animal, but size it to the specimen. Smaller juveniles need smaller ventilated containers where prey and hydration are easy to observe. Put rows of fine vents on opposing sides above and below the retreat; do not depend on a mesh lid.

🪨 Substrate and furnishings

A base of clean topsoil, coco fibre, or a soil-coco mixture absorbs dish overflow and permits spot cleaning. Five to eight centimetres suits an arboreal fallback; adjust if the animal consistently digs. Avoid fertilizer, pesticides, aromatic wood, sharp wire, hard unstable ornaments, and fibres that catch claws.

Wedge cork and branches firmly. Give multiple web anchors around a narrow shaded upper retreat and leave room for a catch cup. Mesh roofs are best avoided because tarsal claws may snag. An empty tall tank offers volume but little usable security.

💡 Lighting

No UVB or focused basking light is required. Provide an ordinary 10-12-hour room-light cycle and darkness at night. Direct sunlight can overheat a vertical container extremely fast.

🌡️ Temperature

• Daytime air: 21-26 °C
• Cool zone: 20-23 °C
• Night: 20-23 °C

💧 Humidity and water

Keep a shallow dish full and let one lower corner hold a little moisture while the upper web and exposed surfaces dry. Occasional evening droplets on foliage can supplement drinking in a dry room. Do not spray the spider, flood the retreat, or seal vents to raise a number. The broad 60-80% metadata range is comparative genus care, not a known requirement for this doubtful name.

Use condition as the primary guide. Day-long condensation, a sour smell, spreading mold, or wet webbing shows overwatering or poor air exchange. A wrinkled abdomen, repeated drinking, or weak posture suggests dehydration or excessive heat. Spiderling containers require especially frequent inspection because their small volume changes quickly.

🪳 Feeding

Feed captive-reared roaches, crickets, or locusts where legal, normally no longer than the abdomen. Small spiderlings can take pinhead prey or freshly killed pieces twice weekly; juveniles often feed every 5-7 days; a healthy adult usually needs one suitable meal every 7-14 days. Let the individual’s abdomen and response determine adjustments.

Offer prey at the web edge after dark and remove it within 24 hours if ignored. Repeated refusal, a dark abdomen, or a sealed tube usually indicates premolt. Never push a feeder into the retreat. After molting, wait for fully black fangs and firm movement—several days for juveniles and often 7-10 days for adults.

Avoid power-feeding to match unsupported size claims for the label. A swollen abdomen is vulnerable during a fall. Whole prey requires no calcium or vitamin dusting.

☠️ Safety

A bite from Avicularia geroldi can cause puncture wounds, pain and swelling. Human bite reports are too uneven to predict an individual reaction or assign a precise venom potency to every species. Do not interpret a quiet animal or a “mild venom” label as permission to handle it.

Urticating hairs are a separate hazard: they can irritate skin and injure eyes. Avoid rubbing exposed skin or eyes; suspected eye exposure needs prompt medical assessment. Keep your face away from the enclosure and wear eye protection and gloves when removing molts or used substrate.

Use long tools and a catch cup, with a second containment tub for transfers in a closed room. Keep hands out of retreats and webbing, do not hand-feed, and do not chase an escaping spider. Keep transfers low to limit fall injuries to the animal.

After a bite, wash the wound with soap and water and contact a poison centre or medical service with the scientific name and time of exposure. Seek urgent care for severe or spreading pain, muscle cramps or persistent symptoms; call emergency services for breathing difficulty, throat swelling or collapse. Do not cut the wound or try to extract venom. Treatment focuses on wound assessment and symptom control under medical supervision.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Misidentification becomes permanent when a trade label is copied without its nomen-dubium caveat.
• Stagnant wet housing is a major preventable danger for pinktoe-type tarantulas.
• Heat and an empty dish can produce dehydration, a wrinkled abdomen, and weak posture.
• A closed web and prolonged fasting usually precede molting; disturbance can be fatal.
• Mold, mites, and phorid flies are encouraged by wet waste and forgotten prey remains.
• Falls, leaking hemolymph, severe incoordination, eye exposure, or an obviously arrested molt warrant advice from an exotics veterinarian familiar with arachnids.

Do not use household pesticide, essential oils, or mammal mite products in or near the enclosure.