What to do?

[Wg25]

what a beauty and much nicer enclosure

Thanks Stace

 

[kormath]

beautiful specimen. I can't wait till mine is mature enough to show it's colors.

So the sub for these should be more moist? I have mine in eco earth just moist enough to hold shape for it's burrow. But i just saw last night it had closed up much of the burrow and pulled in all the loose diggings on it's head, so now it sits in a small pocket against the side of the enclosure sealed in. I'm wondering if I have the sub to dry?

 

[Wg25]

beautiful specimen. I can't wait till mine is mature enough to show it's colors.

So the sub for these should be more moist? I have mine in eco earth just moist enough to hold shape for it's burrow. But i just saw last night it had closed up much of the burrow and pulled in all the loose diggings on it's head, so now it sits in a small pocket against the side of the enclosure sealed in. I'm wondering if I have the sub to dry?

Both of mine certainly love wet substrate! After a few months all the substrate in my young B.vagans enclosure was bone dry , and as soon as I rehoused him in a big enclosure with wet substrate he settled and dug a huge hole under his hide. Even the female settled instantly in her new enclosure. Also used wet substrate....just sprinkled some of her old dry subtrate on top!

 

[Kymura]

Must a corner a little and see if she stays in that area, if she does then mist a bit more often or slightly overflow her water dish. Don't make it swampy for the poor thing. Encourages mold which isn't your T's friend

 

[kormath]

Must a corner a little and see if she stays in that area, if she does then mist a bit more often or slightly overflow her water dish. Don't make it swampy for the poor thing. Encourages mold which isn't your T's friend

Right. I've already had 1 mold issue I made the substrate just moise enough it holds shape for burrowing, but it's more dry than the first housing i had the sling and in that one it burrowed like mad. This one it has just dug in enough it can pull the substrate over the of itself and hide.

Although it has just molted also so that could be why. I'll go mist a corner lightly and see if he likes that. If so i'll have to redo the substrate as it's now very dry. I wonder if that's why my Boehmei isn't doing anything either. All of the substrate in that one has dried up and shrunk away from the sides. It was a really fine eco earth though, almost like powder. I'll have to see if it likes a bit of peat moss mixed in for moisture and keeping form

 

[Chubbs]

You shouldn't really be misting period for a Brachypelma. B.vagans come from more moist regions compared to most Brachys, but they still prefer it somewhat drier. You have a full water dish, that's all you'll need.

 

[Tuskedwings]

It's pretty easy to get mold. Too much moisture and not enough ventilation are the most common causes, but you can get it from other things as well. It happens quite often, even to those of us with more experience and a larger collection.

Oh ok ._. I'm still new and I only have 2 to look after so far.

 

[kormath]

You shouldn't really be misting period for a Brachypelma. B.vagans come from more moist regions compared to most Brachys, but they still prefer it somewhat drier. You have a full water dish, that's all you'll need.

I've never misted the brachys. but their substrate was slightly moist, it's now bone dry with as dry as it's been here. The hygrometer shows 18%. I know that's way different than what will be inside the cages. We got the hygrometer a year or 2 ago to help with my son's nosebleeds. Found that anything below about 25% and his nose will start bleeding. 18 is the lowest i've seen it in a long time, so turning on the humidifier will help us, and shouldn't be bad for the T's either as they're in a different area of the house.

The corner I misted lightly has drawn the vagans to it, either he's investigating or wanting that little bit of moisture. I also misted the side of the boehmei's enclosure as he's just flipped over to molt. A little extra humidity there should help.

 

[MassExodus]

Wow, 18% ? The humidifier wouldn't bother the spiders if it were in the same room with them

 

[kormath]

Wow, 18% ? The humidifier wouldn't bother the spiders if it were in the same room with them

yeah winters are really dry here. specially when it doesn't get above 10F during the day. Summers are better, we get decent precipitation and there's a river not far from me to add to the humidity. Usually stays in the 30s and 40s on the hygrometer in the summer so we don't use the humidifier then.

That's the main reason I've been hesitant to get an arboreal species where our humidity is so low for the next few months until the melt starts in March. But if i can keep the genic happy with misting every 2 or 3 days depending how fast it dries out i should be able to raise an avic.

 

[corij]

iv got a piece of moss in my terrarium that i mist about once a week with Rainwater and my redrump really likes to sit out on this patch. i dont wet the rest of the tank,just this moss . it took me a while to find the right moss,i got my bit at the edge of a forest the sort of moss that grows thinly on old rotting bark /over pine needles. i laid a scattering of pine needles down first [on top of sub,this lets air in under the moss] then the moss itself, combined its only 1/2 inch thick at the most and really looks good . what iv found is that coco fibre isnt the best substrate if you want aeration ,it compacts much too easily

 

[kormath]

iv got a piece of moss in my terrarium that i mist about once a week with Rainwater and my redrump really likes to sit out on this patch. i dont wet the rest of the tank,just this moss . it took me a while to find the right moss,i got my bit at the edge of a forest the sort of moss that grows thinly on old rotting bark /over pine needles. i laid a scattering of pine needles down first [on top of sub,this lets air in under the moss] then the moss itself, combined its only 1/2 inch thick at the most and really looks good . what iv found is that coco fibre isnt the best substrate if you want aeration ,it compacts much too easily

Yeah i found that out the hard way however the brick coco fiber has more fiber in it so it seems to do a bit better. I've been mixing that with top soil 50/50 to help. My burrowers seem to like that better. Or so i think as i haven't seen either B. albo since i got them.

 

[Chubbs]

yeah winters are really dry here. specially when it doesn't get above 10F during the day. Summers are better, we get decent precipitation and there's a river not far from me to add to the humidity. Usually stays in the 30s and 40s on the hygrometer in the summer so we don't use the humidifier then.

That's the main reason I've been hesitant to get an arboreal species where our humidity is so low for the next few months until the melt starts in March. But if i can keep the genic happy with misting every 2 or 3 days depending how fast it dries out i should be able to raise an avic.

Well Avics don't need high humidity anyway, so that wouldn't be a problem for one regardless. No need to mist really for an Avic, especially not that often. All they need for humidity is a water dish. Most of the tarantulas that require more moisture, are burrowers that come from moist tropical regions, such as Ephebopus, Theraphosa, Megaphobema, Haplopelma, and a few others. I only know of a few arboreals that truly require high moisture, such as Lampropelma. There are probably a lot more people than you may think that live in the same area as you that own arboreal tarantulas, and I'm sure most of them get by just fine.

 

[RedCapTrio]

Nice T and enclosure. Molds do occur even with bone dry sub. I still got confused about moisture and molds as sometimes it just doesn't go together at all times.

 

[Chubbs]

beautiful specimen. I can't wait till mine is mature enough to show it's colors.

So the sub for these should be more moist? I have mine in eco earth just moist enough to hold shape for it's burrow. But i just saw last night it had closed up much of the burrow and pulled in all the loose diggings on it's head, so now it sits in a small pocket against the side of the enclosure sealed in. I'm wondering if I have the sub to dry?

No the sub should still be kept dry. Again, all they need is a water dish.

 

[kormath]

Cool. Thanks @Chubbs . I leave them how they are then

 

[Chubbs]

Cool. Thanks @Chubbs . I leave them how they are then

You're welcome. I should specify a bit, they can tolerate moisture/humidity more than a lot of other Brachys because they come from a more humid environment than a lot of the other species, still I think it's best to keep it simple with species like this that don't require extra moisture/humidity, and to save it for the ones that really do need it more. I feel like when I'm talking to someone who is relatively new to the hobby, it's best to keep things simple and straightforward, especially because I have to consider the fact that that person is likely still trying to grasp the basics of tarantula care, and there's no point in telling them something that may cause them to overthink or stress over something that really isn't that big a deal. Plus it helps for noobs browsing the web whom may stumble across this forum and read this. To me an "advanced" genus/species isn't just a tarantula that can be fast-moving or defensive and possibly have powerful venom, it also has to do with their keeping requirements and how easy/difficult they are to keep alive. Like I've said before, with a lot of species you can bend the rules a bit and tweak the conditions here and there. Some people fret too much over moisture/humidity and half the time it's with species that don't even need it, like Avics. Now while it is still possible to overdo it here as well, you should be more concerned with keeping substrate moist with something like a Lampropelma species or Theraphosa.Both of these are actually prone to having molting issues, and they tend to do poorly if not kept on moist substrate. There's a reason why Brachypelmas are one of the most commonly recommended beginner's species. It isn't just due to their docile nature and slow-movement (which B.vagans is actually one of the few Brachys that is not always that docile and are more prone to being very skittish sometimes even defensive), it also has to do with how simple and straightforward their care is, and the fact that they literally have no special demands when it comes to things like moisture, humidity, substrate depth, ventilation etc. If you can grasp the basics of tarantula keeping, you can keep pretty much any Brachypelma species, and you'll likely have little to no trouble with any of them.

 

[MassExodus]

I just want to say this, although we all know dry species don't need moist substrate, slings, of any species, benefit from a little moisture every once in a while. The little guys molt a lot, so seeing a B vagans or G roses sling in obvious premolt and giving it a little moist area to sit on is not a bad idea. Dry species, sling or not, will let you know when a little moisture is appreciated, and when its not. I like to experiment with my spiders' environment a little. After all, it was a general consensus that genics didn't need moist substrate when I researched it, but that turned out to be incorrect. In fact I'm stumped on how so many people could be so wrong.

 

[RedCapTrio]

Thanks to you @MassExodus my genic get to have a little more moisture than my other Ts. With my GBB almost none.