How I rehoused a communal 5x P. regalis group (image heavy)

Well, my 5x P. regalis group was getting a little cramped.





Obviously with these little guys a 5x5x10” cage would no longer suffice. Time to rehouse! Moving 5 fast spiders is a pretty scary thought. So here's how I did it.

First, you need a new house for the group. So, I started with some acrylic.



Some acrylic cement and we end up with something resembling a cage.






Kind of bland looking. So let's fix that.










Well, that'll do for now. Here's a comparison of the size difference between the old and the new. The old was 5x5x10 the new 24x14x18.



The End.







Oh wait, wasn't the point of this thread the “how to move a communal group of 5 quick pokies?” Alright, here you go.





And the guys enjoying their new crib.





The finished cage with 5 (hiding) P. regalis.

great job!

Wow excellent Job. Great looking tank!!!. Great design!!! Did you make other custom tanks or are the 5 P. regalis the only tarantulas you have?

Absolutely Love it!! :worship:
Awesome job!
can you make couple for me
Please....

Where did you get all those supplies??? That looks like a fun and effective project to work on.

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.

TalonAWD said:

Wow excellent Job. Great looking tank!!!. Great design!!! Did you make other custom tanks or are the 5 P. regalis the only tarantulas you have?

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This is the 3rd (or 4th) cage I've made of acrylic (I made a burrower cage for a H. lividum at the same time.) But this is by far the most interesting one. The other 3 are all regular top-open cages. This is my first front-door cage (the only dual-front door acrylic cage I've seen). It's also the first one with a background in it (using robc's excellent guide.) And it is of course the biggest (the other 3 only hold single spiders though so hey, they don't need to be as big.)

MalevolentScorp said:

Where did you get all those supplies??? That looks like a fun and effective project to work on.

Click to expand...

The foam, silicon, and acrylic all came from either Lowes or Home Depot. The hinges, latches, and a 1/2" by 1/2" square rod came from Tap Plastics (as did the acrylic cement and applicator.) The vents from bestlouver.com. Cork bark from blackjungle.com. Fake plants and coco coir from petsmart or petco.

Yup, certainly a fun project to work on.

Looks great! :clap:

I must say...what a great job...:clap:

That's awesome! Could you post some pictures of the terrestrial setup? I always see the same thing and nothing very creative. I love burrowing T's and would love some ideas for once I get moved.

Loved it. Amazing job. Keep us updated on your future custom terrariums.

Awesome! Looks incredible! I may have missed it, but how big are they? Do you know any of the genders?

Estimating, how much did this all cost?

P. Novak said:

Awesome! Looks incredible! I may have missed it, but how big are they? Do you know any of the genders?

Estimating, how much did this all cost?

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They're currently between 4-5" (one might be over 5"). I'm unsure on the genders, in hindsight that would have been the perfect opportunity to try and sex them.

Cost, I got a great deal on them. Paid $65 at a reptile expo in October for the group of 5 spiders!

Oh you meant the cage. Heh, it's probably more than I want to know about but let's see.

I used 5 pieces of 18x24 acrylic at $13/piece and 2 piece of 24x48" acrylic at $36/piece. So total spent there would be $137, but I built two cages. The other is 10" wide 14" deep 18" tall setup for a burrower (doing it again I would have made it no wider than 6"). So going by surface area, about 2/3rd of that went into the pokie cage.

So let's say $91 for the acrylic.
Another $6 for a 1/2" square rod (the front doors rest against it, it runs across the top/bottom of the doors.)
Hinges are approx $2/pair so $4 for the cage.
Latches are approx $2/each so $4 for the cage.
Vents I bought 3 dozen and paid $57 shipped, so that's $1.58 per vent for a total of $12.64

Total for cage: Approximately $118.

Then for the decorations, the foam was around $12 for a piece 2' by 8 or 10'. I used 18" so let's say 1/5 was used, $2.40.
I actually used about 1.5 tubes of silicon to coat the background (damn it takes a lot) so two tubes of silicon at $5/each = $10.
Totally guessing but I'd say 3 bricks total of coconut fiber used for the setup, including coating the background. I paid $12 at petco... I need to order some from amazon, last I looked there was some available for $3.99 for the 3-brick packs (+shipping), but I am impatient.
I think it was $15 for the 3 fake plants, I went with "pet" fake plants (as opposed to walmart fake vines I usually use) on this one.
Water dish thingie was $4 I think.
Cork was $31 for those two pieces plus shipping (surprisingly a $100 box of wood was shipped for $14. Hmm, blackjungle no longer has cork for sale?) and prorating the shipping by cost results with $4 shipping on those two pieces.

So decorations total approx: $78.40

Makes the total around $200. I would have guessed $150 before adding it all up.

But I think the most actual fun part of the hobby is making the enclosure and seeing the results.
I spend alot also. I try not to think about it.... But then again the spending on this hobby is nothing compared to my other hobby...My car. I spent $2500 on a turbo set up and that was my christmas gift from me to me...

I say if it makes you happy go for it. You only live once!

Wow that enclosure is beautiful! I think I am going to have to start making my own enclosures .

Very nice! A great job :worship:

amazing job.well done!

The acrylic enclosure is immaculate. I just dont like the way you set up the cork-bark hides and fake plants. It doesn't look very natural or appealing to me.








IMO.

That is very awesome!! I don't come across many custom-makes like that. :clap: :worship:

I would seriously buy enclosures from you. No joke! Thanks for the walkthrough and where supplies like that can be found. I'd love to make my own for tarantulas someday.

Amazing enclosure!

Where did you get the hinges that close the enclosure?

i know this is a old thread but to the OP, what thickness of acrylic did you use. and did you design the cage your self as far as dimensions goes or did you use a program to figure out how many pieces to cut from each piece of acrylic