Part 2: Changing times – not everything was better in the past, but different

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Finally Sunday, finally trading day. I tend to be one of those impatient types. The kind of person who sets the alarm clock to 6 a.m. on days like this and is still afraid of not being at the destination on time.
Surprisingly, the huge journey of around 50 minutes turned out to be exactly as my app had predicted. I arrived in Marbach at 10 a.m. and rubbed my eyes in amazement when I saw the long-haired, black crowd standing neatly in a row. The rush to the stock exchanges still seems to be unchecked. After half an hour of waiting, I was finally allowed to pay my EUR 6 entrance fee and immerse myself in the world of tarantulas.

I hung my camera around my neck as a precaution and was “ready”, so to speak. The positive thing about such a camera is that you are seen as a tourist and I think they buried their hopes of selling me something as soon as they saw me.
Why didn’t I bring any photos of tarantulas with me? For one thing, which is also surprising for me, I lived out my passion for tarantulas and it hasn’t returned after about 15 years of abstinence. On the other hand, I had the feeling that everything I had seen at two tables was repeated in a different order and arrangement at the other exhibitors. Three aisles further on, my attention span was at rock bottom. I said to myself, Frank you’re at a tarantula fair, what do you expect.
So far I’ve had two highlights, a Heteropteryx dilatata jungle nymph locked in a box so narrow that I didn’t want to capture it on camera. The same picture was repeated with the Extatosoma tiaratum- Australian Ghost Grasshopper. I had to restrain myself from making a rescue purchase, but I didn’t want to reward them for their disgraceful deed. A little disappointed, I glanced at the stage and thought to myself, come on, I’ll go up there and then I’ll get some accessories to make the visit at least a little worthwhile.
And there it was, my personal reward. A mantid dealer who not only knew something about his animals at first glance.

Unfortunately, I didn’t use my voucher as there were only female Hymenopus coronatus left and I didn’t want to stress myself out looking for a male. I also didn’t find any dealers selling heating mats or other lighting at the whole fair. As I had nothing left in reserve at home either, I didn’t compromise and left the orchid mantis where it was obviously doing well.
So I made my way to a seller of plastic tins and food animals, who had his stall right at the entrance. 5 Braplast tins for 7 EUR and a large pressed ball of spaghnum moss for 7.50 EUR were the bargain of the day for me until I discovered the Cuban Isopods. There they were, standing inconspicuously between white Isopods and pea aphids. I had never seen them before. White Isopods are more common, but I’d never seen Cuban Isopods before. I drove home with the rarest and most exotic specimens of the whole tarantula fair and with the next mission in mind, to get oak leaves and rotten wood from the forest.

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