Ceratogyrus marshalli
Unicorn Horned Baboon Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: An Old World fossorial with a real horn on its carapace and the temperament that comes with the lane. Keep it at 72-80F on deep, firmly packed dry substrate with a started burrow and an anchored cork slab. It will web the enclosure shut and stay underground. No urticating hair means its answer to disturbance is speed and a threat pose it will back up, so this is tongs-and-catch-cup only, every time, and it is not a first tarantula. Stage the catch cup before the lid comes off. Keep it spicy. - Big Z
Group: TarantulasDifficulty: Spice 4: AdvancedSetup: Dry Old World fossorial with deep packed substrate and a started burrowHandling: Never. Tongs and catch cup only, with the enclosure staged before it is opened.
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 | 72-80F working room range, with an ordinary indoor night drop acceptable. Southern African species tolerate a normal household range; avoid a concentrated hot spot, which pushes the animal to abandon a burrow it has already committed to. |
|---|---|
| Humidity | No numeric % target. Manage by method: keep the surface dry and maintain light moisture only in the deepest third of the substrate column. Keep a pebble-filled dish full. Ventilate low. A wet surface on a dry-habitat fossorial causes burrow collapse and refusal to settle. |
| Setup Type | Dry Old World fossorial with deep packed substrate and a started burrow |
| Substrate | Deep and firmly packed. Fill roughly two thirds of the enclosure height with an additive-free coco and topsoil blend that holds a tunnel without collapsing. Start a burrow against the glass with a pencil or dowel and anchor a cork slab over the entrance. For the supplied 2.5-3 in animals, 5-6 in of packed depth is the working minimum. |
| Feeding | Spiderlings: small prey twice weekly. Supplied 2.5-3 in juveniles: one appropriately sized cricket or roach every 7 days. Adults: one suitable meal every 10-14 days. Prey no longer than the spider's body. Drop prey at the burrow entrance rather than digging the animal out. Remove uneaten prey within 24 hours and withhold through premolt. |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 4: Advanced |
| Handling | Never. Tongs and catch cup only, with the enclosure staged before it is opened. |
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
- Spiderling: compact deep enclosure, packed substrate, started burrow, openings narrower than the animal
- Juvenile (the supplied 2.5-3 in animals): tall-ish fossorial grow-out with 5-6 in of packed substrate and an anchored slab
- Adult: fossorial build sized from the measured animal, prioritising substrate depth over floor area, with a secure locking lid
Warnings First
- Old World species: NO urticating hair, so its only defences are speed and biting. Assume it will use both.
- The bite is not considered medically significant but is widely reported as severely painful with cramping that can last days. Treat every opening of the enclosure as a containment problem.
- It is fast. Stage the catch cup and close off the work area before the lid comes off.
- Absolutely no handling, at any size, for any reason.
- Heavy webbing over the burrow entrance is normal and healthy. Do not clear it.
- Digging the animal out to look at it is the most common way keepers get bitten and the most common cause of a stressed animal abandoning its burrow.
Simple Care
- Maintain 72-80F with no concentrated hot spot.
- Fill about two thirds of the enclosure with firmly packed dry substrate and start a burrow for it.
- Anchor a cork slab over the burrow entrance.
- Keep the surface dry; light moisture only in the deepest third.
- Cross-ventilate low on two opposite walls.
- Feed at the burrow entrance. Never excavate the animal to check on it.
- Stage a catch cup BEFORE opening the enclosure, every single time.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Substrate depth is the single most important variable for this genus. A shallow enclosure produces a stressed, surface-dwelling, more defensive animal.
- Starting the burrow yourself against the glass dramatically shortens the settling-in period and gives a viewing window. Anchor the cork so excavation cannot shift it onto the animal.
- Ventilation is placed low so the surface dries back while the deep substrate stays workable.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Cadence is conservative genus-level practice keyed to abdomen condition rather than a species-specific published schedule.
- Feeding at the burrow entrance keeps the keeper's hands out of the strike zone and avoids the excavation that causes most bites.
- Post-molt timing uses physical checks - dark fangs, firm exoskeleton, normal movement - rather than a day count. A fossorial species will usually molt out of sight, so judge by its return to the entrance and its response to prey.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Southern Africa, principally Zimbabwe and Mozambique, in dry savanna and scrub. The supplier provided no locality for the purchased animal, so no finer origin claim is made.
- Habitat translation: Dry African savanna becomes a deep column of firmly packed substrate the animal can tunnel and silk-line, kept dry on top with light moisture at depth, strongly ventilated, with a permanent water dish and a secure lid. Labeled synthesis of general Ceratogyrus captive practice and Big Z's house standards.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Ceratogyrus marshalli Pocock, 1897 is the accepted name. The forward-curving foveal horn is diagnostic and develops with size; on the supplied 2.5-3 in animals it is already well formed.
- Big Z's genus-level guide for Ceratogyrus spp. carries Spice 3. This species-specific guide sets Spice 4, matching the linked product, on the basis of the no-urticating-hair Old World defensive profile and the reported bite severity. The discrepancy is deliberate and should be settled during keeper review.
- No sex, locality, or formal life stage was supplied. Size lane is assigned from the measured 2.5-3 in figure on the invoice.