Fire leg

[raven89]

O i am geting my first T tml a fire leg, presumly a female. I have prepared a 2 feet tank with a soil ans sand mixture with 2 pots for hiding ans a samll water dish for drinking. Is this sufficeint? I added a few branches but i found out that fire leg are burrowers not climber. Do i nd to do anytyhing else in terms of preapring the tank? Do i nd to add like a lamp to shine light on it in the night? What do i have to take note to make sure she is a very happy spider?

Also, i begin to wonder if it is possible to keep 2 tarantula in a tank as the male counterpart may arrive soon.They are a breeding pair

 

[Alice]

if she is an adult, two feet are still a quite generous tank :clap:.
make sure that she has a lot of substrate to borrow in (btw i'd not use the mixture but only potting soil or peat moss) and that the tank is not too high. for a ground dweller, even a fall from a small hight can prove fatal. two hides and a water dish sounds fine, she absolutely doesn't need something to climb on and certainly not branches. i have a bit of cork bark for my more active ground dwellers that they occasionally climb. they can't fall farer than their legspan, though.
and no, you shouldn't try keeping your breeding pair together. the larger female will eat the male if she's not ready for mating, and even if she is she will eat or kill him after a while (in my experience up to a few weeks). so better give him his own tank.

 

[rosehaired1979]

As far as special lighting that is not necessary . The lighting will dry everything up. If your temps stay nice and warm she should be ok but if your room gets cold a heat mat would be good to be put on the side of the tank. Temps need to be 70-85 (est) for this spieces.

 

[gumby]

Good to have you on the boards raven89. First thing a lamp is a bad idea but a heating pad is an ok one if the temp in your house stays around 70 I wouldnt worry about a heating pad. I would for sure put two Ts in that very large tank its to big for one I think. but I would put a divider in that is very strong with no gaps between the sections. I would keep one T. on each side of the tank. make sure they cant get through the divider and then they will be safe. chances are if you just let them roam freely around you will end up with one very large T. and one that magically disapeared. making your one large tank into two smaller ones is good for a few reasons IMO. #1 it makes it easyer for your Ts to find the food you put in. #2 Im guessing you have a Brachypelma boehmei or Aphonopelma bicoloratum and my B. boehmei really didnt move more then 6" unless they felt the crickets in their tanks. good luck.
scott

 

[raven89]

thanks alot guys, i have divided the tank into 2 with transparent acrylic plane, i place the branches on the ground intsead now. by the way is mexican fire leg a active T? does it web? Will it be very harmful to the T if i have a soil and sand mixture?

 

[MindUtopia]

Sand is not ideal because I believe it can get in the book lungs. It may also have a greater chance of causing problems if ingested (like in snakes) but I'm not certain about this. I would never use sand in my tanks personally. I would make sure you really, really secure the divider. If you do a search on here, you will find several stories of T's getting around a tank divider and killing or injuring the other T. Personally, I would use two seperate tanks. Also, I would not attempt breeding until you are certain that your female is in fact a female and that you have a sexually mature male. You may want to do some reading on tarantula sexing and breeding first.

 

[pinkfoot]

thanks alot guys, i have divided the tank into 2 with transparent acrylic plane, i place the branches on the ground intsead now. by the way is mexican fire leg a active T? does it web? Will it be very harmful to the T if i have a soil and sand mixture?

They have sand in the wild, so provided it's not particularly fine, should not pose a problem, IMO. Is this 'fireleg' a B. boehmi? If so, there is no webbing of note, and it's probably going to appreciate a retreat of some kind - a small flowerpot on its side, or the like.

Ts in general don't do much, but the B. boehmi is usually visible.

I have several tanks set up with dividers, and they are totally sealed when the lid closes, but I am monitoring the effects of the T on one side picking up the vibration of the T on the other side of the divider, and whether or not this affects the spiders. Jury's out on that one..!

Just an idea, but maybe remove the branches? The T will not cover much ground area, so the area it does cover should be free of impediments, perhaps.

Hope this helps...

 

[raven89]

Thanks guys, i realised the one i got is probaly a male B.boehmi( it has a small butt), its settle in nicely but its sort of running around the tank the first day climibing the glass wall. Is this alright? Will he start to burrow or spin a web in the near future, its sort of fascinating to see a web, i have a flower pot which i cut into half and place inthe tank covering the top substarte, he doesnt seem to wan to go in, is tis normal behavior? It is abt 7 cm (just the body ,not counting legs) is it an adult?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Well they dont really borrow that much to the best of my knowledge. As for him walking around its very normal T behavior he was just checking out is new pad...... are you sure he is not mature?

They dont really web that much ether.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Thanks guys, i realised the one i got is probaly a male B.boehmi( it has a small butt), its settle in nicely but its sort of running around the tank the first day climibing the glass wall. Is this alright? Will he start to burrow or spin a web in the near future, its sort of fascinating to see a web, i have a flower pot which i cut into half and place inthe tank covering the top substarte, he doesnt seem to wan to go in, is tis normal behavior? It is abt 7 cm (just the body ,not counting legs) is it an adult?

I missed the last part..... do you know what do look for in a mature male Tarantula?

 

[jamesc]

A small butt really isn't any indication of a male. You won't see much webbing from this species. Since your T is climbing, make sure that there isn't much space for it to fall or anything hard or sharp to fall onto. The space from the substrate to the lid should be the legspan of the T for a few reasons. Just make sure it can touch the substrate if hanging from the lid.

 

[raven89]

wat is there to look for in an adult male or female ? What i can find out is to look at the moult only

 

[Talkenlate04]

Well there are other things you can look for....... have you ever seen the hooks that are present on mature males?

 

[raven89]

hmm no i think i will go do some research on sexing but i sit ok if he does not use the hide but stay motionlessly on top

 

[brachymad]

Take a look here and scroll half way down the page it will give you a few clues

http://www.brachypelmas.co.uk/just%20brachypelma/mating.htm

 

[raven89]

hey guys how long does a mature B.bohmei usually lives ???? quite sad if he dies like only a while with me

 

[ErikH]

Generally male tarantulas live a few months to a year after the ultimate molt, although there are exceptions.

 

[gumby]

They have sand in the wild, so provided it's not particularly fine, should not pose a problem, IMO.
QUOTE]


its a good try but I have to say IMO there are many things found in the wild I would not put in my Ts tank. some of the things I would not put in my tank are:
#1 a Tarantula Hawk which is a tarantulas natural predator.
#2 pesticides or chemicals
#3 and sand

all of these are in the wild, but not in my Ts tank because I see them as being harmful.
scott

 

[Taceas]

They have sand in the wild, so provided it's not particularly fine, should not pose a problem, IMO.

Yes and no. Yes, there is sand in the wild. But in captivity, the sand in cages is typically in a loose, free flowing, sand dune style configuration. That can cause a whole rash of problems for any animal regardless of species origin.

These tarantulas more than likely come from an arid sandy climate, yes, but the sand is compacted and hardened into a crust and not loose like you typically think of as a movie-style desert climate.

As for this particular tarantula in question, as was said before, due to its current wandering behaviour, just make sure the substrate is within a leg span's distance of the top of the tank to avoid the tarantula falling and potentially injuring itself.

My B. boehmei doesn't hide much in her hide. She's only 2" or so in legspan at the moment, but she just sits out all of the time. Although she is really skittish and doesn't hesitate to run off in a red and black streak of hair flicking.

 

[raven89]

does that mena i only have months left with this T ? T.T .Has it reach adult yet?