Tliltocatl schroederi

The Central Valleys of Oaxaca in Mexico are a landscape of dry, rocky slopes and sparse vegetation. This is home to Tliltocatl schroederi, described in 2003 as Brachypelma schroederi and placed in Tliltocatl in 2019. Unlike many of its relatives it carries no red hairs on the abdomen. Instead it is dark brown to black with a velvety sheen, which earned it the name Mexican Black Velvet. Understated elegance, at its best just after a moult. The photo shows the contrast well: a velvety black abdomen and femurs, with pale silvery-grey bands on the lower legs.

Like the rest of the genus it is calm and slow-moving. It spends most of its time in or at the mouth of its retreat, happily uses existing hollows and reshapes the substrate to suit itself. When disturbed it usually retreats, and may kick urticating hairs from the abdomen. Growth is slow, so every moult is an event. We offer females and males of around 2-2.5 cm body length: females reach about 5 cm and can live for more than 20 years, while males stay smaller and mature sooner.

A standard terrestrial setup is all it needs: an enclosure wider than it is tall, 5-7 cm of coconut fibre, a cork bark hide and a water dish. Keep most of the substrate dry and mist a small area, for example around the water dish, regularly and lightly, so the spider can choose its own humidity. Room temperature is perfectly adequate. Feed crickets or roaches sized to the spider.

It works equally well as a first tarantula and in the collection of an experienced keeper of Mexican species. Calm, long-lived and quietly beautiful, it is a spider to enjoy watching for many years. The genus Tliltocatl is CITES-listed (Appendix II, EU Annex B). Our specimens are captive bred and come with origin documentation.