A few tarantula Q's

[infinity]

As I see tarantulas appear to be more in fashion in this forum and my username for the BTS has messed up twice, I thought I'd post in here... (sorry to all you die hard mantis fans)

For all those burrowing species... How can you tell whether the tarantula is still alive?! - if you never see it and it only comes out at night RARELY, how can you tell whether it is still alive, eating and hasn't died due to a cave in? - because annoyingly for me, the prey I put in there funs down its tunnels so I can't tell whather they're being eaten...

and how do you sterilise Kgs of dirt when you only have a small microwave?

more questions to come when I can think of them

 

[PseudoDave]

I encourage them to burrow on the side of the tank. They will generally burrow underneath of something, so i place a piece of cork in a corner of the tank and the tarantula makes a kind of giant ant-farm style display for you, sometimes they carry on depending on the species and go across of the bottom of the tank, upto you how you deal with that, hehe. You may find your species to be sensitive to light in the tunnel though, for this use the ant farm trick again with a sheet of 'clear-red' laminate or similar to give them a red spectrum in the tunnel, they dont mind it so much and you can observe them. Just my 2p

 

[infinity]

yeah I tried that... in fact i've actively encouraged it by using narrow tanks so I can see the *ant farm effect*... but they seem to have burrowed as far away from the edge as they can get... 2 I see regularly, 2 I don't and one of those two I can't even find the entrance to the tunnel!- it's not a very big containerbut still i can't find it. Although I did ease the soil away from the edge a little and he/she was down there moving around - I guess with this one I'm just worried about cave-ins...

 

[PseudoDave]

They're pretty good tunnel makers, the most risk of cave-in comes from an over caring owner Try not to worry about it, i dare say there is atleast a little webbing around the tunnel helping to support it, the substrate will be weaker the dryer it gets, so obviously keep humidity levels up to aid that a little. Other than that, i doubt that you have much to worry about, you could always try making a cave out of strong stones, maybe even silicon them together, then bury it in the substrate, if it can be encouraged to burrow down into your home-made cave, then it wont cave in, even if a little substrate does.

Good luck,

Dave

 

[garbonzo13]

Try using PVC piping cut in half against the glass of your enclosure, then you can make the tunnel as long as you want to, the longer the more apt you T may be to use it. I keep mine in my computer room. It is the darkest room in the house, and I don't use the lights much so my T has normal day/night light situations. Infinity ever try Arachnoboards? They have alot of info on T's and Scorps. I ran into them when this forum went down. Also what species do you have?

 

[infinity]

I have loads - as it happens more Ts than mantids (went nuts at the exhibition! ) I have about 4 H.gigas, 6 P.murinus, 4 Avic avics, 2 L. parahabana, and 4 (teen) B.vagans and 6 (toddler) B.vagans

it's the gigas that are (I would say) the trickiest but also the easiest to look after... - they spend 99% of their life in their burrow - which makes cleaning and feeding dead easy- but the substrate really has to be watered a lot to maintain the tunnels - but the tricky thing is that I appear to have loads of scuttle flies running around - they don't appear to cause any harm but it's a pain when i open up the lid and it's like opening up a new pot of fruit flies...

for noobs, I'd recommend the redrump (b.vagans) - dead easy to take care of, do well at room temp (in my bedroom ) and look kinda regal.

 

[Samzo]

*infinity wants to give sam an avic.avic*

 

[garbonzo13]

Infinity, do you use a layer of pebbles/rock at the bottom of the soil? You can do that and have a small tube in a corner to add water to pebbles, it distributes better than just pouring it on top. Also less likely to cave in on T's. Sounds like you got a good collection there bro. I am looking at getting some B. smithi, B. vegans, L.Parybana, and would love a T. apophysis. (I wonder if we can sweet talk our administraters to open a T addition here.) There are SOOOO many to choose from, I can't wait for the reptile show here.....maybe they will have some..I hope, I hope, I hope. :wink:

 

[infinity]

I don't use pebbles but the thing is that I keep the H.gigas (the burrowing species) in a large kinda sandwich box on it's side with a window at the top in the lid... this means that to water, I have to spray through that hole...(either that or take the lid off completely) - which i do occasionally to clean out stuff and let the scuttle flies escape..

L. parahabana (can never remember how to spell it) - seems a little tricky... but then again, I only have slings so...

 

[Orin]

I don't use pebbles but the thing is that I keep the H.gigas (the burrowing species) in a large kinda sandwich box on it's side with a window at the top in the lid... this means that to water, I have to spray through that hole...(either that or take the lid off completely) - which i do occasionally to clean out stuff and let the scuttle flies escape..L. parahabana (can never remember how to spell it) - seems a little tricky... but then again, I only have slings so...

Scuttle flies = dead uneaten bugs

Try feeding them less or using roaches instead of crickets as the roaches tend to survive in the cage till the T gets around to eating them.