Cobalt Blue Tarantula (Cyriopagopus lividus / formerly Haploplema lividium)

Care Sheet

Scientific Name: Cyriopagopus lividus formerly Haploplema lividium

Common Name: Cobalt Blue Tarantula

Type: Terrestrial, Fossorial Obligate Burrower

Endemic Location: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

Body Length: 3.5”  (9cm)

Diagonal Leg Span (DLS): 5” (13cm)

Growth Rate: Medium

Life Expectancy: Females 15-18 years / Males 5-6 years

Recommended Experience Level: Advanced

The Cyriopagopus lividus, formerly known as the Haploplema lividium, and commonly known as the Cobalt Blue Tarantula, was described by Smith in 1996. This tarantula is an Old World fossorial tarantula endemic to Myanmar. Like most Asian species of tarantula, the Cobalt Blue can be a VERY defensive tarantula. It is important to note the difference between aggressive and defensive..and aggressive suggests the tarantula will attempt to attack unprovoked. This t is described as defensive because it only reacts to perceived threats to its safety. Usually giving an impressive threat pose and slapping the ground when you disturb its enclosure. This tarantula has been known to bite when they feel in danger and can quickly escalate from threat pose to attempting to bite, so heed their warnings and back off and give them space when necessary. Despite their bad attitude, this is a gorgeous species with an amazing blue coloration which is why it is so popular among hobbyists. The down side of this species is that even though it is gorgeous, it spends the majority of its time deep in its burrow, usually only allowing you to see the front half of it that will hang out the front of its burrow. This species grows to about a 5in leg span and lives for about 15-18 years with males living only about 5 or 6 years. This species does exhibit sexual dimorphism as males are light tan or bronze in color and much leggier. Additionally, males gain palpal bulbs on their pedipalps and tibial apophyses (mating hooks). The female eventually becomes larger than the males.

I keep my spiderlings in my basic fossorial spiderling enclosure with more depth than width. I fill the enclosure up about 2.3 with substrate and make sure there is enough room between the top on the enclosure and the top of the substrate for the t to web up its tunnel entrance. I keep the substrate damp and provide a water dish if there is room. If i can't fit a water dish in the enclosure, I drip water on the webbing. When they outgrow this enclosure, I rehouse the juvenile tarantula into an acrylic fossorial juvie enclosure with more depth than width. Again I fill the enclosure up ⅔ with substrate that I keep damp. I provide a water dish and make a starter burrow on the side of the enclosure to help get it started burrowing. My juvenile cobalt blues seem to tend to make elaborate tunnels out of their burrow and across the floor of their enclosure, so putting in little pieces of cork bark or fake plants for them to use as anchor points for their webs may be helpful. Once they outgrow their juvenile enclosure, I move this tarantula into an adult enclosure at least 5gal in size. You want a minimum of 3x the leg span of the tarantula in width and give this tarantula plenty of substrate so it can make its deep burrows. I keep the bottom layer of substrate damp by pouring water down the corners of the enclosure to saturate the bottom layers. I am careful not to pour too much too quickly and flood their burrows and don't saturate it to the point of being swampy. If you don't give them enough room to burrow, they will web up the floor of their enclosure heavily and make web tunnels, essentially turning their enclosure into their burrow. This may look cool, but can be very problematic. When this happens, your tarantula has nowhere to retreat to when they feel threatened,so when you open the enclosure to feed or water, it is as if you ripped the roof off their home and are invading their burrow. This can lead to the tarantula being very defensive immediately and even feeling so threatened that they slap, charge, or even try to bolt out of the enclosure or bite. This species is extremely quick, especially as adults and has medically significant venom. A bite from this t will be very painful and can cause nausea, muscle cramp, joint aches, and other serious issues, so be careful and give them the best husbandry possible. If they have a safe route of retreat, they will typically dive into their burrow and hide before getting defensive.

As far as feeding, I start off my smallest spiderlings with confused flour beetles or pre killed small crickets or roaches as they will scavenge feed at this size at least twice a week. I remove any uneaten prey within 24 hours and wait at least 2 days after a molt before attempting to feed. For juveniles I feed 2 small crickets every 7-10 days depending on the size of the abdomen. I wait at least 7 days after a molt before feeding this t again and always check on them 24 hours after feeding to remove any uneaten prey. If I suspect the tarantula is in premolt, I remove uneaten prey immediately and try to feed 7 days later. And as adults, I drop in a large adult dubia or 5 or 6 large crickets every 3-4 weeks depending on the size of the tarantula's abdomen.

Because of the moisture requirements for this species and the damp substrate in the enclosure, it is very important to remove any uneaten or dead prey or prey parts as soon as possible to avoid any issues with mold and mites. Spot clean the enclosure regularly to remove bollosues, molts, or any organic matter that could become a food source for mite. Having absolutely no mites in a tropical style enclosure in next to impossible and not all mites are harmful, but if there is an explosion in the population of the mites, you can add spring tails to the enclosure as they will compete with the mites for the food source and win, eradicating them from the enclosure. This is a great species to consider for a bioactive enclosure and it is on the top of my list for my next bioactive rehouse. The main issue to consider is that since this is a fossorial t, they will burrow down to the bottom and will quickly destroy any drainage layer you make on the bottom. There are bio active packages and set ups available on line that do not use a drainage layer, and that is the route I am planning on trying out when I set mine up in her new enclosure. This tarantula is one of the most popular ts in the hobby because of its striking colors and infamous defensive nature. I do not recommend this as a beginner species and suggest it only to keepers comfortable keeping OW ts that can be fast and have attitude. When kept properly and proper respect is shown when interacting during feeding and rehousing, there are very few, if any issues. But if you attempt to provoke the tarantula or are negligent in your care and husbandry or while rehousing, this t can pose some danger. So always use best practices when rehousing, unpacking, and feeding this tarantula. Be mindful and deliberate in your movements and you will have no problems from these beautiful tarantulas. Of all the tarantulas in my collection, this t always has me in awe over its appearance and attitude whenever I see it out of its burrow. And other than a few threat poses when rehousing, my Cobalt Blue has never shown any other real defensive behaviors and never charged or slapped the ground at me, let alone attempted to bite. I thoroughly enjoy keeping this species.