Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
Green Bottle Blue Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A colorful, heavy-webbing New World display tarantula with dry-leaning care, strong feeding response, and more speed than the true beginner classics.
Group: TarantulasDifficulty: Spice 3: IntermediateSetup: Dry terrestrial / heavy-web display setupHandling: Do not handle
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 | 72-82°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Low-Moderate ambient (45-60%) with strong cross ventilation; dry substrate, full dish |
| Setup Type | Dry terrestrial / heavy-web display setup |
| Substrate | Mostly dry terrestrial substrate with cork, twigs, and anchor points for webbing |
| Feeding | Roaches or crickets every 7-10 days for juveniles; less often as adults or when premolt starts |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 3: Intermediate |
| Handling | Do not handle |
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
- Burrow Buddy: juvenile dry terrestrial grow-out with cork/anchor points
- Larger terrestrial display enclosure for adult size and webbing room
Warnings First
- Heavy webber; expect the enclosure to become part of the display
- Fast and skittish compared with beginner terrestrial tarantulas
- Keep ventilated and mostly dry; do not turn this into a damp tropical setup
- Urticating hairs present. Watch, do not handle
- Dense webbing acts as a baffle. Vent low on two opposite walls so air gets through the web rather than stopping above it.
Simple Care
- Ventilation matters more than chasing humidity.
- Vents low on two opposite walls so air crosses beneath and through the webbing, not just over the top of it.
- Give lots of anchor points so the spider can build its webbed home.
- Keep a water dish available with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown, and avoid soaking the enclosure.
- Remove uneaten prey, especially around premolt and molt.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Use a dry terrestrial enclosure with cross-ventilation, a hide, a water dish, and cork or branchy anchor points. This species often webs open space heavily, so leave room for construction.
- Substrate can stay mostly dry. A small overflow near the water dish or a lightly damp corner is enough hydration support for a healthy juvenile; stale wet substrate is the bigger risk.
- The heavy webbing is what makes vent placement matter more than vent count. A dense GBB web sheet is effectively a baffle across the enclosure, so air entering through a lid vent stops at the top of the web and never reaches the spider underneath. Put vents low on two opposite walls, at or just above the substrate, so air moves horizontally beneath and through the structure.
- Airflow dries the enclosure, and on this species that is what you want. Ambient sits at 45 to 60% on its own and can drift lower without concern, because the spider drinks from the dish.
- Judge by hand rather than by gauge. Substrate reads dry except right around the dish, webbing feels dry to the touch, and there is no condensation on the glass behind the web. Damp webbing is the specific warning sign on a heavy webber.
- Keep the dish full and put pebbles or coarse grit in it so the waterline sits below the rim. Slings drown in adult-scaled dishes, and on this species the dish often ends up webbed over and partly hidden, which makes an unsafe dish harder to notice.
- If you offer a damp corner, put it under the hide or at the dish rather than misting the web. Soaking the webbing leaves a damp mat with no airflow behind it. That is how a GBB enclosure goes wrong.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Juveniles usually feed eagerly on appropriately sized roaches or crickets every 7-10 days; adults can be fed less often, every 2-3 weeks. Keep prey smaller than the abdomen.
- Pull uneaten prey promptly; a loose cricket can injure a soft, freshly molted tarantula. This species webs heavily and rearranges decor, so expect to find prey remains tangled in silk.
- Molting: a premolt Green Bottle Blue turns sluggish, seals up in a silk retreat, and refuses food for days or even weeks. That's normal. Pull 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: Dry scrub and semi-arid coastal habitat of northern Venezuela, especially the Paraguana region.
- Habitat translation: Build dry, airy, and anchor-rich: a terrestrial base with cork, twigs, web points, a hide, and a water dish.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size is commonly around 5-6 inches DLS. Plan more display space than a plain hide-and-dish terrestrial because the web structure becomes the animal's usable space.
- This is New World and not medically significant, but it is quick, hair-capable, and not a handling animal.
- Keep the enclosure readable. Overdecorating makes feeding, molt checks, and rehousing harder once webbing fills in.