Do you keep Aussie Ts moist or dry?

gumby · Jan 26, 2010

So I'm in the process of ordering some Phlogius sp aussie goliath 3/4-1" and was trying to figure out if I will keep them on the dry side or moist side. normally I use a little coconut fiber and moss mixture for my Ts. So they wont get way to damp but I just wanted to see what others are doing!

dragonblade71 · Jan 26, 2010

Congrats on buying one of the largest species of tarantulas in the world....well, when they're fully grown!

Since the Aussie Goliath is in the Phlogius genus, I would probably keep conditions a little bit on the humid side. You could moisten a section of the substrate and allow the spider to choose between dry and moist areas of the enclosure. There are quite a few people who have purchased Aussie Goliaths on the Australian Tarantula Association site http://www.theata.org/ and the Green Scorpion forum http://www.thegreenscorpion.com.au/welcome.toy so you would likely get a lot of useful information over there.

jbm150 · Jan 26, 2010

gumby said:
So I'm in the process of ordering some Phlogius sp aussie goliath 3/4-1" and was trying to figure out if I will keep them on the dry side or moist side. normally I use a little coconut fiber and moss mixture for my Ts. So they wont get way to damp but I just wanted to see what others are doing!

Musta ordered from James, me too. Have a goliath and sarina on the way, I'm freakin' stoked

I did a search for phlogius and phlogius+care in the Discussion section and found some good info. Pretty much like dragonblade says. It might be ok with a hide but it might prefer to burrow so give it enough substrate as well. As adults, phlogius sp. seem to be content with a hide but are bold and will stay out most of the time.

Gonna check out the ATA and see what they have to say too

Merfolk · Jan 26, 2010

How big those get? Max size.

Hamburglar · Jan 26, 2010

I have a couple goliaths.. I keep them pretty much the same as most of my other spiders. They are kept on dry peat, however, I wanted to see how they took to burrowing so I put one of them in a tall deli cup. It burrowed to the bottom, which is about 5" of peat, within a day. Its burrow is complete with two entrances. Mine are pet holes though. I haven't seen the one in the tall deli cup since the day I got them. They both have webbed heavily on the top side. I mist every couple of days.

syndicate · Jan 26, 2010

I keep all my Phlogius species similiar to Haplopelma and they do great like this ;]
-Chris

jbm150 · Jan 26, 2010

Merfolk said:
How big those get? Max size.

Bout 10" or so

Hamburglar said:
I have a couple goliaths.. I keep them pretty much the same as most of my other spiders. They are kept on dry peat, however, I wanted to see how they took to burrowing so I put one of them in a tall deli cup. It burrowed to the bottom, which is about 5" of peat, within a day. Its burrow is complete with two entrances. Mine are pet holes though. I haven't seen the one in the tall deli cup since the day I got them. They both have webbed heavily on the top side. I mist every couple of days.

Good eaters? Yeah, I've heard they are pretty shy as juvies but become more like LPs later on (out and about most of the time). Hopefully, anyways

Adversary · Jan 26, 2010

I got one from James too. It's good to know that you keep them like Haplos.

robd · Jan 27, 2010

I have an aussie T that was sold to me at about 2 inches and it's now almost 3. It was sold to it's previous owner as Phlogius crassipes. Is there such a thing? Or is it Selenocosmia crassipes now?

In my experience with my juvy version of that ^, it either digs down to the bottom or close to the bottom... OR it will web the entire top surface up and down and kinda have a big circular tunnel around the entire enclosure. Especially with deli cups. Makes it a pain in the but to feed it. Cause whenever I open the lid it comes right to me. And isn't necessarily pleased to see me.

jbm150 · Jan 27, 2010

robd said:
Cause whenever I open the lid it comes right to me. And isn't necessarily pleased to see me.

So excited, I can't wait til mine grow up

Should be here today or tomorrow. As for their growth, any ideas? I think most Phlogius sps grow fast; its the Selenotypus sps that are slow growers if I recall.

gumby · Jan 27, 2010

Im excited to get mine as well! I was watching a breeding video on steve nunns website and they are awesome!

I think I will be keeping mine with 75% moss 25% coco fiber. and I will be misting them a little less then my Avics but more then my brachy. I tend to have three different levels of misting depending on Genus. Avics on the high end brachy on the low end and then there are a few in the middle. My Haplos are in the middle too.

jbm150 · Jan 27, 2010

Mine came today and in perfect health. And they're much bigger than advertised! The goliath, which was supposed to be 3/4 - 1" is actually about 2". Its a beast. Unfortunately, the sarina came as a crassipes. I'm not sure if its labeled wrong or he had no more, it is what it is. A beautiful little speed demon

Rehousing was...taxing. They're fast as blazes and they don't necessarily stop after a few strides. The goliath really didn't want to leave its vial. It is a feisty little sucker and took out its anger on my paintbrush. It took half an hour but I finally managed to get the thing outta the vial and into its new digs. God I love tarantulas

gumby · Jan 28, 2010

wow thanks for the heads up on their size! I was making cages for 1" Ts but never turn down an extra inch.

joshuai · Jan 29, 2010

I am really interested in this species and would love to see all you got on them, i got a small order coming from james also.:liar:lol small!

jbm150 · Jan 30, 2010

How'd your Ts come in, Gumby? Safe and healthy, I hope

Mine have taken to their homes and are webbing it up nicely. They haven't shown any inclination to dig at all despite having several inches of substrate. I don't know if they're waiting until their web lairs are created first or for the substrate to dry up a bit or what.

I also just fed them, they are different than my other Ts. They pounce, envenomate, and then leave the cricket to die. Instead of eating, they both started putting webbing all over their enclosures, even up to the top. Kinda cute, when they crassipes webbed the roof, rather than walk down the wall, it just jumps down. Does it every time

Then they go back to the cricket, drag it to a particular spot, leave it, and go back to webbing. After a few minutes of webbing, they went back to eat on the cricket but only for a few minutes after which they walk away and chill. I suppose they'll go back and forth eating on it throughout the day. None of my other Ts do that, once they get ahold of prey, they eat it right away. But BOTH the Aussies did the same thing. I'll be curious to see if they do it again next time.

gumby · Jan 30, 2010

Cool webbing. mine should be here on tuesday or the near then anyways. What kind of set up have you made for them including size and bedding? I was planing on giving mine about 2" of coco fiber and on top of that placing about 4" of moss. I've had good luck with burrowers by doing things this way because I still see them often but they have places they can hide when they wish. They also seem to form the moss into cool looking structures as oppsed to when I just give them coco fiber. Im getting five so I cant wait to see what they end up doing with the moss. I had some plastic ware that had an 8" floor and was 5" talI and round I was going to use for set ups when I thought they would be around 1" but now I'm thinking a larger cage is in order. Maybe one with a hatch that comes out of the lid.

joshuai · Jan 30, 2010

Hay i got ten coming in also wed, they sound super interesting. and a Pamphobeteus sp. not sure which one, i told james to surprise me.lol How big were the Phlogius sp you got? Sound like good webbers!

tiger cowboy · Jan 30, 2010

I've got 2 coming in, hopefully on Tuesday. From jbm's description these things sound entertaining

jbm150 · Jan 30, 2010

I use all coco fiber. You can see their enclosures on my new picture thread, down at the end of the first post. Like you, wasn't expecting such large spiders and I had to quickly improvise with them

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=172537

The substrate was somewhat damp so they may not be too thrilled about digging quite yet. It'll dry out soon though. I imagine once they burrow, i'll probably very rarely see them. And I'm SO looking forward to rehousing

jbm150 · Feb 5, 2010

Hope everyone is enjoying their Phlogiuses...Phlogii...whatever...

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with them. My goliath has 6" of substrate but has yet to dig. He does have a pretty cool web though. And boy does it like to kill things. I put a tiny cricket anywhere on its web (which is pretty much everywhere) and he flies out and tackles it! I think of all the tarantulas I have and have seen, this goliath is by far the creepiest. It looks like a kukulcania, its so dark and leggy.

The crassipes has much less webbing but two burrows. I put another little cricket in with it and immediately, its legs were at the burrow entrance. Once the cricket moved within an inch or so, he blasted it. He initially took the cricket into the burrow but decided against it and brought it back out. And again, walked away from it and let it sit there a while before actually eating it. He isn't a pet hole at all, spends equal time in its burrow and chilling out in the open.

I really hope they grow fast, they're just so cool

Do you keep Aussie Ts moist or dry?

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnoemperor

Arachnoprince

Arachnopeon

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoangel

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoangel

Arachnopeon

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince