A couple of years ago I grew impatient waiting to grow a King Baboon so I broke down and purchased an adult. The two spiderlings that I had at the time are still in my collection. These two spiderlings after two years have reached a whopping 2 inches or so and that's stretching it a bit. King Baboons are one of the longest lived and in my opinion they are hands down the slowest growing species by far.
The King Baboon is a magnificent spider with a luxurious orange crushed velvet look to them. They are not fuzzy like most tarantulas but instead are rather short haired. They are even shorter in temper being more than willing to rear up, stridulate and yes... bite. The enlarged rear legs of the female are also an interesting feature giving them a different look than most species. This is a true hobby classic and a truly incredible display animal. This speices while not as moisture sensitive as many of the Asian species, does seem to do better with deeper soil than most and a slightly higher humidity. Given enough substrate they will build intricate tunnels, often next to the container walls where you can see them lying in wait for their prey.
People who have been in the hobby for a while probably remember the pictures of this species when they first became available. The picture was of a beautiful looking dark colored Avic with thick silver bands on the legs. I held on to 4 of these beauties and while at the just under 2 inch mark they do not yet look like the picture of the adult, they do look different from other Avics. I recently was talking with a dealer and when the subject of them came up I was told that word on the street was that they looked sort of like a plain Avic avic and were nothing too special. Ah hah hah hah! Nothing could be farther from the truth. I have raised many Avics and can say from experience that these are definately different. I am so glad that I held on to mine and will post adult pics as soon as they mature. To my knowledge this Avic is not available currently nor has it been since way back when. I got mine, hope you got yours.
Curlyhairs are a good sized species reaching around 6 inches and can get very bulky. They have a nice dark overall color with extremely long curly golden hairs all over giving them a teddy bear like appearance. This species is very hardy and among the easiest to keep. Curlyhairs also are voracious eaters taking prey as well as most any species. The other characteristic of a Curlyhair that makes them so well liked is their docile nature. This is a very long lived, nice looking, easy to keep and breed species with a winning personality. B albipilosum is a great overall species for beginners and advanced hobbiest as well with as close to bullet proof constitution as you can get.
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