Caribena spp.
Identity confidence: provisional. This is a genus, group, or trade name rather than a confirmed species. Treat it as the closest match we can stand behind, and use the more conservative end of any range.
Antilles & Puerto Rican Pinktoe Tarantulas: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: The Antilles pinktoe C. versicolor (the iconic electric-blue sling that matures to a green-and-red adult), and the Puerto Rican pinktoe C. laeta (split from Avicularia in 2017). Docile but extremely skittish jumpers; the slings are the unforgiving part, killed by stagnant damp air far more than anything else. Adults reach about 4.5-6 inches across.
Group: Industry StaplesDifficulty: Spice 3: IntermediateSetup: Arboreal with heavy ventilationHandling: Not recommended
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 72-80°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Moderate ambient with heavy cross ventilation; dry substrate + water dish, web droplets 2-3×/week (60-80%) |
| Setup Type | Arboreal with heavy ventilation |
| Substrate | Dry substrate, 1-2 in; a mold-resistant mix (e.g. reptisoil) beats plain coco for slings |
| Feeding | Strong eaters as slings: crickets over mealworms; weekly |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 3: Intermediate |
| Handling | Not recommended |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Compact secure enclosure while it's a tiny sling
- Vertical bark setup with heavy cross-ventilation for juveniles (and smaller adults)
- Taller heavily-ventilated vertical arboreal build for adult versicolor
Warnings First
- Slings die from stagnant damp air: ventilation, not humidity, is the whole game
- 'Going to the ground and staying there' is almost always terminal
- Docile but a fast, leap-prone jumper. Never handle
- Cross flow means low vents on one wall and high vents on the opposite wall. Sixty holes all in the lid is not cross ventilation.
Simple Care
- Vertical enclosure, dry substrate, a water dish, and abundant cross-ventilation (60+ vent holes for sling cups).
- Place vents low on one wall and high on the opposite wall so air actually crosses the enclosure diagonally.
- Light water droplets on the webbing 2-3×/week, then let it dry. Never a sealed humid box.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown.
- Cork bark slab and foliage near the top.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- C. versicolor (Martinique, the famous blue sling) and C. laeta (Puerto Rico) were split out of Avicularia in 2017. Treat them like Avicularia: vertical, dry substrate, water dish, abundant airflow.
- Mass die-offs of versicolor slings trace to coco-fiber mold under humid setups; a mold-resistant substrate plus lots of cross-ventilation is the fix. Condensation on the walls is a warning sign.
- Hole count matters less than hole placement. Sixty holes clustered in a lid still leaves damp air pooling at substrate level, which is where the mold grows. Put roughly half the ventilation low on one wall, at or just above the substrate, and the rest high on the opposite wall, so air enters low, crosses the enclosure diagonally, and exits above the retreat. That is the arrangement that actually clears the layer where versicolor slings die.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity are one setting, and on this species you push it hard toward air deliberately. There is no ambient number to hit. Keep the substrate dry, run a dish, put droplets on the webbing two or three times a week, and let it dry back completely between times.
- Judge by whether the enclosure dries rather than by a gauge. Substrate dry, webbing dry to the touch within a few hours of misting, and no condensation anywhere. Condensation on the walls is the warning sign. The fix is always more airflow, not less water.
- Keep the water dish shallow and pack it with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Versicolor slings drown in open dishes, and since the whole strategy here is dry substrate with permanently available drinking water, the dish needs to be safe to leave in from the smallest size up. A bottle cap with grit works for sling cups.
- The microclimate on an arboreal runs vertically, not under a hide. A slightly damp lower corner or the dish itself feeds a little moisture that rises through moving air, while the webbed retreat near the top stays dry and ventilated. Never mist into the retreat. A damp silk tube with still air inside it is precisely the setup these slings die in.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Strong eaters as slings. Offer crickets over mealworms, weekly, and remove leftovers fast.
- Pre-killed prey works for the smallest slings. A dehydrated sling without a water source is the other common loss.
- Molting: a premolt pinktoe turns sluggish, sits tight in its silk retreat, and refuses food for days or even weeks. Pull any uneaten feeders, leave it strictly alone, and wait 5-10 days after the molt (until the new fangs and exoskeleton harden) before feeding again.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Martinique (C. versicolor) and Puerto Rico (C. laeta): humid tropical island forest.
- Habitat translation: Vertical, heavily cross-ventilated arboreal enclosure with dry substrate, a water dish, a cork slab and foliage up top, and occasional water droplets on the webbing rather than misting.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size ~4.5-6 in DLS; medium growth; females ~10-12 years, males ~2-4. The blue sling color fades to the adult green-and-red.
- Slings are unforgiving of ventilation mistakes; adults are far more robust. If a versicolor goes to the ground and stays there, it's usually already too late.
- Docile but extremely skittish: leap-prone jumpers that also shed setae directly when threatened and flick feces. No handling.