Well arachnophobia is the most common phobia in America, so there's a pretty good chance one of the kids in the house had it. I guess it was bad luck that it was the pussy who has anxiety attacks. Maybe decent likelihood was too strong, but any likelihood really should have warranted him asking. It's not like having fish at all for reasons a few other people stated.

How much joy does it really bring his life to have a spider in a tank? I'm sure it's not even close to the amount of terror it brings the other kid. Really just doesn't seem worth it if OP is anything but a huge douche.

a lot of people are afraid of spiders. i'm not too keen on them myself! but as you allude to, what % of those people do you think would have a panic attack requiring medication at simply being informed that there is a spider in a glass tank on the premises?

i've already said i would now get rid of it, and he seemingly has no choice on the matter anyway. but let's not view this as anything but a huge stroke of misfortune caused by irrational behaviour from the suitemate.

Pretty sure 1 in 10 is a better guess for western people who would totally be not ok with sharing a room with a giant spider.

I wouldn´t like it very much, either, although i´ve heard the things are delicious:

they are not sharing a room.

What a loser.

OP still hasn't once mentioned what kind of value having the spider brings to his life. Do you look at it in its cage and feel happy? Like I just don't get it. I'm not saying there can't be value to it, I'm just trying to understand what it could be. I don't really buy the fish tank comparison. Fish tanks are soothing with the bubbles and the swimming and the pretty colors. Where's the value in watching a big hairy spawn of satan crawling around and eating other insects while secretly wishing it could get out of the cage and kill all of you?

get rid of it ffs. I am also quite afraid of spiders, not deathly afraid since I have the curtosy of living in a country where we do not have any poisonous spiders at all. However with this fact in my head It still takes a decent amount of time to put a living spider on a paper and toss it out the window.

If a ****ing tarantula were in the next room i would put on some serious ****ing boots and stomp it to death and say **** you to the roommate for not letting me know, and probably just pay up to him.

"next time i will have you booted of camp."

in b4 wuss-comments, i can handle myself in fist fights if villain ain't a mma-freak or something, but a ****ing spider in the same room just need to go.
Two different things and its friggin nasty, i cannot believe how uncomfortable he must be having arachnobobpagaohia. Sitting in a damp room studying/at computer is probably freaking him out pretty much all the time just because he imagines the spider being in there somewhere.

Yeti, have you heard of humans - real humans - often being afraid of spiders?

omfg, i laughed quite a bit

of course you wouldn't, you complete imbecile

So if his suite mate was a homophobe and had panic attacks whenever he saw two gay guys together, would OP never be allowed to bring his bf back to the room even if the roommate was cool with it? Or should he have asked all the suitemates for permission to do SOMETHING PRIVATELY IN HIS OWN ROOM WHICH DOESN'T AFFECT ANYBODY ELSE!

you: hiya! roommate!, did you see my new pet spider?!?!?!

me: oh, sorry, that died.

That comparasion is ******ed.

lol this analogy is beyond awful

Totally not the same. Homosexuality is a distinct and defining personality trait of an individual, very much like gender or skin color. The desire to own a pet, especially an exotic pet that is scary or disgusting to a rather big proportion of people, is not.

i'm guessing in his mind it's totally "cool" and when he brings chicks over, they'll be impressed he's got a badass tarantula.

then just think about when he turns on his blacklight, lights his incense, and plays some dave matthews, how wet her vagina will be. they can stare at his salvadore dali posters, that he's accentuated with glow in the dark paint.

this is a really dumb analogy. homosexuality is a sin.

It's a hobby for me. Even though it has big scary fangs and lots of long spindly legs, I really do enjoy taking care of it, like I said, in a way that people who have fish tanks do. It may not be relaxing in the same sense, perhaps just interesting, primarily because people have so many misunderstandings about tarantulas. I could (and have before with others) handle it if I wanted to, but won't for the suitemate's sake if I do keep it.

OP lives in a building where pets are specifically not allowed. If I get an apartment with someone in a building where pets aren't allowed, if they get so much as a cricket without checking with me first, they are a jerk. How is anything but 100% obligatory to check with all of your roommates when you get an illegal pet, let alone a GIANT POISONOUS SPIDER.

And your analogy is ridiculous.

jesus christ stfu

Just tell him you got rid of it, keep it out of sight.

Spend $90 on a fabulous hair cut.

in reality, why don't you just approach him and say, listen, let's try out me keeping this for a week or two and if it still freaks you out, i'll get rid of it.

tell him it'll never leave it's cage and the cage will never leave the room. the door will remain closed.

Giant...no.
Poisonous...no.
Spider...yes!

I guess at least your reading comprehension is developed enough to know that I bought a spider and not a scorpion or snake.

As usual the people at the extreme ends of each side of the debate are all wrong.

This is almost verbatim what I told him. He wasn't really interested in anything I had to say. I'm hoping that in a day or two more, when he has seen that it hasn't crawled into his bed, wrapped him in a cocoon and sucked all his blood he'll maybe be a little more rational about it. I doubt it though.