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HousingI keep my tarantulas in glass terrariums with front doors that slide up and down. The reason for my preference of this type of door over doors that slide horozontally is that very strong spiders (like the huge T. blondi, for insatance) may be able to wedge a leg or two in the small gap between door and side wall, push the door open and escape. For this type of terrarium I recommend a lock to prevent the cage from being opened by the animal. I have never heared of a spider that was able to open doors that slide up and down. To avoid stagnant air and excessive humidity inside the terrarium the housing should have good ventilation. I have different types of cages, some with one ventilation grid on the top, some with two ventilation grids (front and top). My general experience is that terrariums with just one ventialtion grid tend to fog up very quickly obscuring the view almost entirely. My terrariums with two ventilation grids hardly ever fog up at all, except when I have just finished spraying the plants. Apearently having good ventilation is also beneficial for arboreal species like Avicularia. The sudden death of these spiders has frequently been attributed by experienced breeders to high humidity levels in the cages and insufficient air ventilation. Also, constantly high levels of humidity promote growth of fungus and mite infestations. With the cages withjust one ventilation grid I found that a splinter of wood (or plastic or anything else) between the cage and the front door creates a gap of about 2 mm width and this allows now the air flow that prevents the buildup excessive humidity levels. For the larger terrestrial species I use terrariums of 30x30x20 cm (length x depth x height), the smaller ones I keep in 25x30x20 cm terrariums. For the arboreal sprecies I use 25x25x40cm to allow them to build their webs between the branches of mini-Ficus tree or roots that I put in the terrarium. If you want to construct your own cage, then the glass plates can be clued together with silicon rubber. Be sure to use a type of silicon that is labelled “non-toxic after drying” and let it dry until the smell of the solvent has disappeared. All spiders need a hiding place during the daylight hours as they strongly dislike bright lights. My arboreal tarantulas usually glue a few leafes of some plants together with their silk an create a nest with several exits. It is also possible to glue a piece of cork or roots to the walls to provide an anchor for the nest. Terrestrial species get a piece of cork, a hollow coconut shell or a similar hiding place. Usually they will accept that and dig under the piece of cork as soon as they are placed into the cage, lining the walls of the burrow with silk to stabilize them. Humidity/WaterThe level of humidity necessary for the spider depends on the species and its origin. Desert tarantulas will thrive on humidity levels between 30 and 50 %. However, this does not mean that they don’t need water! Every cage needs a water dish for the tarantula to drink. I see my Brachypelma species drinking quite frequently. Keeping the animals relatively dry also prevents mite and fungus growth. Rainforest species on the other hand need a somewhat higher humidity between 60 and 70 %. This can be achieved by planting live plants in the terrarium and moistening the soil to raise humidity levels. Be careful not to overwater the cage or mold (and mites) will grow starting from discarded food, dead crickets and plant debris. Rainforest species drink from liquid droplets on the cage walls, so it is necessary to spray the terrarium. I usually spray the terrariums about once a week, which seems to be sufficient for the spiders. In between I leave the cages to dry out almost completely, this seems to kill the mites and does not harm the spiders. TemperatureTarantulas can be kept quite nicely at slightly above room temperature (approx. 20-25°C). As far as I can tell this works for most species. However, if breeding is intended then one may consider to keep some or all animals at an elevated temperature to accelerate growth and development of the animals. If kept at the same temperature, male spiders will usually mature much earlier than the females from the same eggsac plus males will usually die within about 6 to 12 months after maturing (ultimate molt). This is poses a special problem if only animals of the same eggsac are available. In this case, the males should be identified as soon as possible and then kept at somewhat lower temperature. A difference of 3 °C will make a difference of months or years over the course of several years and thus the males will mature at about the same time as the females that are kept warmer (and perhaps with more feeding). For my collection heating is done by the fluorescent lights. They produce enough heat to raise the temperature to about 25°C during the day. At night they are turned off and the temperature drops to about 20°C. Therefore I found it not necessary to install additional heating. If heating is necessary for one reason or the other, one should not use heating pads that are installed underneath the cages. When it gets to warm, a spider will instinctively start to burrow into the substrate to get away from the heat. With a heating pad installed, the temperature would rise as the animal burrows deeper and deeper. If the tarantual remains too close to the heating pad, it may dissicate and die. For the cage with the Leaf Insects, that develop very slowly at room temperature, I installed an infrared heating lamp (25 W) and reduced the power by a switch to about 20%. This heats the cage up to about 28-31°C during the day. At night the heating is turned off by a timer switch. LightingTarantulas avoid bright lights whenever possible. Therefore, no additional lighting needs to be installed for the health of the animals. However, I like to put living plants into the cages and they require considerable amounts of light to grow properly. Therefore I installed fluorescent lights. The normal types of fluorescent light tubes (called standard white, warm white etc...) are not well suited for the needs of plants as they can use only a small fraction of the emitted light and growth is poor. Better are special lights for flowers like GrowLux, for instance. Unfortunately their light looks slightly pink to us and this is quite annoying after a while. Better are so called full spectrum fluorescent light tubes. They emit a white light that still contains the fraction useful for plants (Light temperature around 5500-6500 °C, which corresponds to the midday sunlight). I give about 10 hours of additional light during the summer months and 8 hours in winter which appears to be sufficient. GroundIn my cages the ground consists of two layers. The bottom layer is 2mm size aquarium gravel (approx. 2 cm) and the top layer is cocos fibre (approx 4 cm). The gravel layer serves as drainage to keep access water away from the cocos. This prevents a sogging wet substrate and helps to control the humidity level. The fibrous cocos layer evaporates a lot of water and therefore increases the humidity. Also, it serves as potting ground for any plants in the cage and allows the tarantula to dig at least a bit if it is a terrestrial species. PlantsI use living plants inside the tarantula cages for optical reasons, because I think it looks more natural when there is a bit of green in the cage. Also, plants will help raise humidity levels in the air for rainforest species. I believe that when live plants are used, there is more of a micro-climate inside the cage, lessening the risk of mold growth and also providing more hiding places for the animal. Two disadvantages are obvious, though. First, with more hiding places you will see the spider less often and second, the terrarium requires more care (pruning plants, cutting off dead leafs, replacing dead plants...). Plants need fertilizer to grow properly. As the cocos fibre ground is very low in nutrients, I have to water the terrariums every now and then with a dilute fertilizer solution. This should not harm the spider as long as there is no insecticide added to the fertilizer. When using plants inside a terrarium I prefer the ones that I have grown myself from seeds and cuttings, unless I know exactly the history of the plants. BEWARE: ALL PLANTS THAT YOU CAN BUY IN A FLOWER SHOP ARE LACED WITH INSECTICIDE!!!! Even if the shopkeepers tell yu they are not, most of them are from Holland and they definitely use a variety of insecticides during plant growth. They will kill a pet spider quickly when such plants are placed inside the cage. Also the soil of those pot plants is toxic to tarantulas! Therefore, before using such plants in a terrarium I rinse them thoroughly under running water after I buy them in the shop. Then I grow them for several months in my flat, away from the spider cages until most of the insecticide has decomposed. Better even, I take cuttings and grow my own plants from the plants that I bought in the shop. Very densely grown plants (like some species of Tillandsia) I soak in a bucket with water for several hours, change the water once or twice and then let them dry again before using them in the cage. Don’t use spiny plants like some Euphorbia or cactus species! The tarantula will most likely climb the walls of its cage. When it looses its grip it may fall and fatally injure itself on such a plant. Now follows a list of plants that seem to work well in tarantula cages: Desert terrariumLithops spec. (living stones) Rainforest terrariumFicus benjamin (cut roots, use small pot for planting to reduce growth and create a “bonsai”) These are just a few possible plants that I have used successfully in my cages with tarantulas and snakes. However, my snakes kept “redecorating” the cages so eventually the plants gave up the fight and died away. The same might happen with spider terrariums where the inhabitant is a digging species. They might just dig out the plants and drop them somwhere else. If you know of other plants that are suitable for use in tarantula or snake cages, then just drop me a line. I always welcome new input! |
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