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  1. boina

    Caribbean versicolor

    We rarely have dry cold days. Usually it's raining. Sometimes it's snowing. Humidity: high. These are low lying marshlands saturated with water, even though our village is a little elevated, since the surrounding flood plains will be, well, flooded (as they are supposed to be) after heavy rains...
  2. boina

    Caribbean versicolor

    My house values are 50 to 60% humidity miniumum on hot summer days, average between 70 and 80%, at times up to 90%. You still think that's too dry? I can assure you that nothing is ever dry around here. I'm living in the country side, in a wet area between high trees that provide even more...
  3. boina

    Caribbean versicolor

    Well, I've done plenty of research and I consider myself pretty experienced but I've still managed to kill all three true Avics I had (huriana, minatrix, avicularia), huriana and minatrix after several years, but still before their natural life span was over. To this day I've no clue as to why...
  4. boina

    Red orb mold

    Uhhh...no? Anyway, I'm not sure this is really part of the mold, or a water droplet on top of the mold. A lot of filamentous molds are actually quite hydrophobic. They are coated with proteins that are actually called hydrophobins and water will form droplets when placed on top. I'm not exactly...
  5. boina

    Do Spiderlings Need Small Terrariums?

    No, it's not required, but it's certainly helpful. There are actually some experiments that show that slings tend to grow better in smaller enclosures. Personally, out of ignorance I put the very first sling I ever got (E. campestratus) into a relatively large enclosure and it did not go too...
  6. boina

    G. Rosea Cage Size

    The new cage is perfectly fine. While it's true that slings and small juveniles may grow better in smaller enclosures, for an adult the size of the enclosure is basically limited by the space you have for it, although a bigger enclosure should have some structures in it, like a selection of...
  7. boina

    Dumb question about fangs

    No liquid at all. Blood or hemolymph wouldn't be visible through the exoskeleton at all - it's too thick, even when freshly molted. The exoskeleton of arthropods is made of chitin, but this chitin may be modified with proteins and metals, for example to make the joints softer - and the fangs...
  8. boina

    Average tarantula sizes (fully adult)

    Please, give sizes of some "wild" specimens, I'm really curious about them!
  9. boina

    Average tarantula sizes (fully adult)

    I can add a few more: Omothymus schioedtei at 6". She was just out on the front glass for the first time in like two years (!) and is freshly molted. Tapinauchenius and Pseudoclamoris - very underrated genera in my opinion, probably due to their small size: - P. burgessi: 4.5", or maybe just...
  10. boina

    Average tarantula sizes (fully adult)

    One point that has annoyed me for a while is that you can't find reliable data for average tarantula sizes. Most sites give maximum sizes and even those are usually wildly inaccurate and in many cases I've the strong impression people just copy from other pages or pull random numbers out of...
  11. boina

    Do Vietnamese centipedes need calcium supplements?

    What would a centipede need calcium for? Reptiles need it for their bones - but centipedes don't have bones. Their exoskeleton is made from chitin and does not contain calcium, so extra calcium would just be excreted. Short answer: no arthropods do not need extra calcium.
  12. boina

    Webbing

    Actually, you may be doing something right. Most Africans have a tendency to web a lot if given the chance. I like to experiment a bit (within reason) and I don't adhere to the school of thought that decrees that spiders do better in smaller enclosures (I'm talking about adults here - slings...
  13. boina

    New spiders coming in

    First two: No idea. Hapalopus: slighlty moist (don't overdo it), can also be kept mostly dry, unless you live in a very dry environment. I live in wooded marshlands, outside of a city where ambient humidity is never below 60% and can be over 80%. In these conditions I keep both my Hapalopus...
  14. boina

    M.balfouri don’t burrow.

    Very nice enclosure for a balfouri! All of mIne only burrowed as slings and small juveniles (I had 6). Starting from large juvenile they webbed over absolutely everything but didn't burrow anymore.
  15. boina

    Always willing to learn, and not afraid to admit fault.

    Hi @Dorifto I know that those kind of enclosures can work, but they need quite a bit of care/experience to work properly and I've seen them go wrong, too - that's the reason why I never recommend something like this to a beginner. And the argument that they have rain in nature doesn't count...
  16. boina

    Is this mushroom possibly deadly to a tarantula?

    No. Just no. Human lungs and a human immune system can deal just fine with any fungal spores. You need to be severely immunocompromised or be exposed to large amounts of spores over a long period of time for them to affect you. @TheDarkAbyss - You never disinfect anything in your tarantula...
  17. boina

    How did you get rid of fungi?

    I'm in Germany, too, and I use - coco fiber earth. Very sucessfully so. No, nothing gets into the book lungs, that's a myth. But I use soil microfauna in every enclosure that has moisture. I originally created that by using a couple of spoons of soil from a nearby wood (no pesticides in a wood)...
  18. boina

    Always willing to learn, and not afraid to admit fault.

    You are taking a pretty high risk here. It may work out - or it may not. It looks very pretty. But a setup with many live plants introduces a lot of bacteria and microfauna that would not be able to survive in a dryer setting. If you get a good population of bacteria and microfauna it will work...
  19. boina

    Many questions about dubia colony from confused newb

    You can use a heat mat, but you don't need to (I don't). Dubias actually have quite a temperature range they thrive in. They will definitely breed and grow faster if you raise the temp, but 75F is good enough for them to slowly breed. If you use a heat mat you could keep a bit of space between...
  20. boina

    Many questions about dubia colony from confused newb

    Very few. I rarely have Dubias die on me, except from old age, meaning nearly all dead Dubias I find are adults.
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