Digital Thermometers, where do I place it?

[GBBT]

Hi all

Please be kind, my daughter has become a tarantula owner as of this morning and we are a bit confused on one part of the set up. We have been sent a digital thermometer with a probe. We have a plastic faunarium that came from the Spider Shop as a start up tank with a Green Bottle Blue T. We have set it all up following all the instructions but there are none for this bit of kit. Any advice would be really appreciated. Please let me know if you need more info.

Many thanks

 

[m0lsx]

Providing your home is warm enough for you, then it is warm enough for your tarantulas. So no need for a thermometer. I have around 70 T's, all living perfectly happily without a thermometer or humidity gage.

 

[GBBT]

Thank you so much, that is good to know

 

[Oursapoil]

Good morning and welcome to the forum
What a wonderful new hobby to start with your daughter, I trust you will find it really rewarding and will appreciate the time you'll spend together taking care of your T(s). This is a wonderful, safe and very helpful forum, depending on your daughter's age she might like reading from it a lot. My sidekick is 10 years old and religiously gets on everyday for the latest updates and "what's New". Cheers to the future generation of hobbyists.

 

[VaporRyder]

Hi and welcome to the hobby!

In my opinion, the probe can be placed anywhere in the tank - if you even want to use the thermometer at all.

The reason I say this is because many people don’t use thermometers for their tarantulas, choosing instead to manage the temperature of the room (or at least the space around the enclosure/s) rather than the enclosure itself.

Tarantulas are generally very happy at ‘normal’ room temperature - although that does of course vary depending on where you’re from, and whether you personally like it warm or cool. A general rule is that if you are comfortable in the room in a T-shirt, your tarantula will be fine.

The species that I keep are from Africa, South America, and the Indian sub-continent. I like a fairly warm room myself and set my thermostat to 24 degrees Celsius. This is a good ‘mid range’ temperature for the spiders that I keep.

I do happen to have a thermometer and hygrometer (for humidity) built into the lids of a couple of my enclosures - but I tend to ignore them both for two reasons.

1) I manage the temperature of my room and the thermometer simply tells me what I already know.

2) It is not important to chase humidity numbers - and doing so can actually lead to husbandry errors that are detrimental to (and sometimes even dangerous for) the tarantula.

Cheers!

 

[GBBT]

Thank you all for being so friendly. To be honest, I am terrified of spiders, my daughter is 16 and wants to become a Forensic Entomologist so loves them. However, I am finding her newest addition interesting to watch and find out about

 

[Oursapoil]

Thank you all for being so friendly. To be honest, I am terrified of spiders, my daughter is 16 and wants to become a Forensic Entomologist so loves them. However, I am finding her newest addition interesting to watch and find out about

I know the feeling, Enzo is 10 and already decided on the same career path

 

[VaporRyder]

Thank you all for being so friendly. To be honest, I am terrified of spiders, my daughter is 16 and wants to become a Forensic Entomologist so loves them. However, I am finding her newest addition interesting to watch and find out about

Wow! That’s great! Best of luck to her!

You will likely find that watching your daughter’s new charge will ease your spider anxiety as you see that they’re just animals, with vulnerabilities, minding their own business. I was once a terribly arachnophobic and insectophobic guy - and gradual exposure in a reptile store led to interest, which gradually overwhelmed my fear. Now spiders are my favourite animal and I can’t even bring myself to harm a house spider!

 

[Ditch crawler]

Hi all

Please be kind, my daughter has become a tarantula owner as of this morning and we are a bit confused on one part of the set up. We have been sent a digital thermometer with a probe. We have a plastic faunarium that came from the Spider Shop as a start up tank with a Green Bottle Blue T. We have set it all up following all the instructions but there are none for this bit of kit. Any advice would be really appreciated. Please let me know if you need more info.

Many thanks

Hi, I bought exactly the same set up as you from the Spider shop, I put the probe in the rear right hand corner and cut a narrow strip in the lid to accommodate the probe wire, this ensured that the lid still fits securely, the actual gauge I stuck on the front of the tank with double sided tape, I didn't bother with the heat pad though.

 

[GBBT]

Thank you all for being so friendly. To be honest, I am terrified of spiders, my daughter is 16 and wants to become a Forensic Entomologist so loves them. However, I am finding her newest addition interesting to watch and find out about

Hi, I bought exactly the same set up as you from the Spider shop, I put the probe in the rear right hand corner and cut a narrow strip in the lid to accommodate the probe wire, this ensured that the lid still fits securely, the actual gauge I stuck on the front of the tank with double sided tape, I didn't bother with the heat pad though.

That's helpful to know, thank you

 

[VaporRyder]

Key point. If you are using a heat pad, the thermometer probe placement and the thermometer itself becomes more important. IIRC, and it’s been years since I heated a reptile (mostly ceramic heating systems for snakes in wooden vivariums), you need to be measuring temperature at the hottest point. If the pad is on one side of the enclosure - it should never be on the bottom of the enclosure - the thermometer probe should be inside the tank on that side. Heat mats or pads should only be used with a thermostat - which itself will have a probe. The thermostat probe should be between the mat and the glass (or acrylic).

As discussed, unless you live in a particularly cold house, it would probably be best to just use room heating or space heating. You can certainly use tank heating via a heat pad - but it must be done correctly or it could kill your spider. Whatever you do, do not place a heat pad inside the tank, even under the sustrate - the spider will seek the warmth and burrow down to it and will not have any sense of being too hot. Spiders have sadly cooked themselves this way.

 

[GBBT]

Tgamjp

Key point. If you are using a heat pad, the thermometer probe placement and the thermometer itself becomes more important. IIRC, and it’s been years since I heated a reptile (mostly ceramic heating systems for snakes in wooden vivariums), you need to be measuring temperature at the hottest point. If the pad is on one side of the enclosure - it should never be on the bottom of the enclosure - the thermometer probe should be inside the tank on that side. Heat mats or pads should only be used with a thermostat - which itself will have a probe. The thermostat probe should be between the mat and the glass (or acrylic).

As discussed, unless you live in a particularly cold house, it would probably be best to just use room heating or space heating. You can certainly use tank heating via a heat pad - but it must be done correctly or it could kill your spider. Whatever you do, do not place a heat pad inside the tank, even under the sustrate - the spider will seek the warmth and burrow down to it and will not have any sense of being too hot. Spiders have sadly cooked themselves this way.

Thank you for the advice. The heat mat was going to be stuck outside to the back near a lower corner. From what people have said, we should only need to use it in the winter months as my daughter's room is the smallest room on the corner of the house so can get quite cold. That's horrifying to think of the poor spiders getting cooked

 

[VaporRyder]

I feel bad for being such a doom monger now! Sorry about that! Many people use them properly without problems, would just hate to think of someone not knowing and having a bad situation. They work mostly by infra-red radiation, so they gently heat things within the tank such as hides and the spider itself. There is a bit of conduction on the glass too. Anyway, I’ve accidentally gone too deep and you’ll have plenty of time to learn this stuff before it becomes cold enough to be relevant! Enjoy your new spider!

 

[octanejunkie]

Good morning and welcome to the forum
What a wonderful new hobby to start with your daughter, I trust you will find it really rewarding and will appreciate the time you'll spend together taking care of your T(s). This is a wonderful, safe and very helpful forum, depending on your daughter's age she might like reading from it a lot. My sidekick is 10 years old and religiously gets on everyday for the latest updates and "what's New". Cheers to the future generation of hobbyists.View attachment 59343View attachment 59344View attachment 59345

Every time is see pics of @Oursapoil and Enzo I think of this reel

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[TokeHound]

I wanted to give my inexperienced 2 cents. I am new to the hobby and I have three slings. I was struggling with them eating until it was brought to my attention that temperature might be an issue since everything else I was doing was correct. I realized that my husband likes to keep the house at 65° year round. I freeze in this damn house. We have a two story townhouse and my T's were downstairs in the kitchen. I decided to move them upstairs into my office where it's about 4° warmer even with the AC on. I also then decided to close the only AC vent into that room, and it has become significantly warmer than that. I want to say it's about 73-75° in there. All my T's are now eating without a problem. And no thermometers in my enclosures. I was just grateful that the temperature was brought to my attention. Good Luck

 

[VaporRyder]

Yeah, that’s way too cold for me lol.