Lasiocyano sazimai
Brazilian Blue Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A stunning blue terrestrial that appreciates ventilation and a slightly more natural moisture gradient.
Group: TarantulasDifficulty: Spice 3: IntermediateSetup: Terrestrial/opportunistic burrowerHandling: 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 | Low-Moderate ambient (50-65%) with good airflow; dry surface, damp lower pocket, full dish |
| Setup Type | Terrestrial/opportunistic burrower |
| Substrate | Dry-to-lightly-moist soil mix with hide |
| Feeding | Slings 2×/week; juveniles every 7-10 days; adults every 2-3 weeks |
| 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
- Horizontal terrestrial burrow setup for juveniles
- Larger floor-space terrestrial build for the adult
Warnings First
- Can be skittish
- Avoid soggy substrate
- Protect from falls
- Slings need the damp pocket that adults do not. Keep pebbles in the dish through the whole grow-out so a sling cannot drown while you are keeping it damper.
Simple Care
- Give a hide and enough substrate to dig.
- Keep a dry surface with a small moisture zone.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown.
- Good ventilation helps.
- Temperament: skittish. Quick to bolt for cover; not a handling spider.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- This species is often kept like a dry terrestrial, but a subtle moisture gradient is useful for slings and premolt.
- Provide a cork starter burrow. Many juveniles will use it heavily when settling in.
- Be specific about the ventilation. The moisture gradient depends on it. Put vents low on two opposite walls, at or just above the substrate, so air crosses the floor and keeps the damp lower pocket separate from the dry surface. Without that, the gradient collapses within a week and you end up with the soggy substrate the critical notes warn about, even though you never added extra water.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity are one setting. Feed moisture in at the burrow end and from the dish, then let airflow carry it off, rather than sealing the enclosure to hold a reading. On a species that uses a cork starter burrow heavily, the burrow is the part that goes stale first if the air is not moving.
- Judge by hand rather than by gauge. The surface and the open substrate read dry, the lower layer near the burrow stays lightly damp with no free water when squeezed. That contrast is the gradient, and it should be findable by touch.
- Keep a shallow water dish with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Slings are kept damper than adults on this species, which means more spilled and standing water in a small enclosure, and that is exactly the situation where a sling drowns.
- Mist into the cork starter burrow rather than over the open substrate. That puts the damp exactly where a settling juvenile spends its time and leaves the dry surface and airflow intact.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Blue color develops with growth. Don't overfeed or overheat to rush size.
- Feeding schedule: slings 2×/week; juveniles every 7-10 days; adults every 2-3 weeks. Keep prey smaller than the abdomen, feed more often if it looks thin, less often if it's plump.
- Molting: a premolt Brazilian Blue turns sluggish, hides, and stops eating for days or even weeks. Normal, not illness. Pull uneaten feeders, leave it be, and wait 5-10 days after the molt before offering food again.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Brazil, especially rocky highland or campos rupestres style habitats.
- Habitat translation: Dry-to-moderate terrestrial setup with a retreat and subtle moisture gradient.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Do not chase blue coloration with heat or overfeeding; stable molts matter more.
- Slings need more moisture control than adults: they desiccate easily at that size, so keep a small water dish or a reliably damp corner available at all times, though ventilation remains just as important.