I Know of Enclosure Size Minimums BUT...

[ILVC]

I have a 1 1/2 in 'juvenile' B. Hamorii I got a few weeks ago and I am looking at the medium coffin crib through tarantula cribs (10x5x5in.) as a possible enclosure upgrade (Black Friday deals). My question is this- Would a B. Hamorii of this size be too humidity dependent to make this enclosure feasible? This is a female, so I hope to have her for years and years and this enclosure could be the only one I need for most of the first decade of its life. The specific enclosure is below. Thanks everyone.

 

[Wolfram1]

you could make this work for 2-3 years probably

humidity dependant? what exactly do you think would be the problem?

no a decade would be way too long, by that time it will have easily outgrown this twice over


(personally i don't like this design at all, not because it isn't funktional, it is, but because to me it seems tacky.)

especially if you could get something similar to this, in various sizes, for much less.

i think this is about 1,5€ her in AUT surely there are similar products in the us.

 

[DonLouchese]

Most likely you "could" make it work. But the enclosure is not the best option for a B hamorii. It's more of an arboreal set up. As well I wouldn't go for the design like this as well. It looks interesting at first sight , but really stale after a few days you've got to look at it. As well the enclosure takes a lot more space than it should because of his design so yeah.

I'd go for anything that has a lot more width and length.

Ps. B hamorii is not humidity dependant at all. And any enclosure with a water dish is more than enough for 90% of tarantulas.

Best regards,

Don

 

[ILVC]

you could make this work for 2-3 years probably

humidity dependant? what exactly do you think would be the problem?

no a decade would be way too long, by that time it will have easily outgrown this twice over


(personally i don't like this design at all, not because it isn't funktional, it is, but because to me it seems tacky.)

especially if you could get something similar to this, in various sizes, for much less.
View attachment 461402
i think this is about 1,5€ her in AUT surely there are similar products in the us.

I appreciate this feedback. I do have another b hamorii that is 8 years old and is only about 3 in DLS, maybe 3 1/2, so I don’t know that it would grow out of it in a couple years or not. It absolutely could, though.

as for the tackiness- The campiness is what I’m going for and should clarify that. I work at a library and display my tarantulas, so having the enclosures be a discussion piece and aesthetically pleasing (or silly) is important to me. The coffin will possibly get stale for me, but we’ll get new patrons in all the time who will see it for the first time and that sounds fun to me.

For the humidity, I worry that the containers size would make maintaining humidity difficult. Probably not given I have larger acrylic tanks that hold humidity fine, but I am a worrier and this T is by far my smallest and one I’m counting on having for most of the rest of my life.

 

[DonLouchese]

If you like the idea and the enclosure so much I'd tell you to straight for it. But I would very much advise u then to make your B. hamorii an enclosure that is in a square, and doesn't have as much height. And it would be probably 10x more interesting to put an arboreal tarantula in that enclosure. Which will web a lot and make the enclosure stand out. Your B. hamorii will be on the bottom and they don't web at all. Mostly only when it comes to molting.

Regards,

Don

 

[Denn]

Ps. B hamorii is not humidity dependant at all. And any enclosure with a water dish is more than enough for 90% of tarantulas.

Best regards,

Don

For the humidity, I worry that the containers size would make maintaining humidity difficult. Probably not given I have larger acrylic tanks that hold humidity fine, but I am a worrier and this T is by far my smallest and one I’m counting on having for most of the rest of my life.

As Don has mentioned above, B hamorii is not humidity dependent so you don’t want an enclosure that retains humidity. If anything, if it was me, I’d be drilling holes into the removable lid to reduce humidity, especially as it’s acrylic.

Just a water dish will suffice, just over fill slightly and have it in the corner. The rest of substrate bone dry.

I’m not too familiar with these novelty enclosures, but could you not have it flat down instead of standing upright? This would make it a lot more suitable for your hamorii.

 

[fcat]

I love that you are keeping them at the library. Tell me about your patrons at the library though... Is this a university library where you definitely don't have to worry about a younger demographic's first experience with a tarantula being associated with a coffin? On the bright side I don't think it looks like a coffin as much when used terrestrial.

My two cents... A 1.5" will be swimming in that, and it might slow down growth, it might lend to burrowing behavior, and that's a lot of real estate. It's a long trek to the water dish. When I had to move my 3" to a larger enclosure, the next size I had was 5"x8" and I placed two water dishes at opposite ends, so he never had too far to walk. Making sure this species can find is food is a little easier when they are known to be top dwellers, but thats based on you having a brachypelma like everyone else out there putting it in an appropriately sized container...they almost never burrow but if they did it would probably be due to the size of enclosure they are kept in, and other external factors like to insulate from the cold (unlikely).

i have adopted quite a few "hairkickers," and was warned that they kick at everything...even watering them. One thing I almost always end up doing is rehousing them...no one on Facebook keeps their spiders correctly . They are almost always in too large of a container. Now I know I don't have some special way with tarantulas, I know they can't remember that it's me making the noises and disturbing them...but I don't see hairs kicked until I'm doing rehouses. On the other hand, all of my "defensive" spiders were given hides and places to make burrows, and we don't have any bad altercations. Sometimes they have a beef with the water...but it's the same beef everyone has. Mortal enemies. Where are these threat poses I was warned about?? Well I imagine I would have to go into their burrow to find them. The too small enclosure made them think they had their entire burrow to defend. But that's not your friendly neighborhood brachypelma...they dont retreat let alone move half the time.

in short, go smaller for now like a 4x4 amac. And get another spider that will fit in the enclosure you like, as long as you aren't scaring little children

 

[Wolfram1]

as i understand it this will be put on its back when in use, otherwise it wouldnt make sense for a terrestrial & i will have misunderstood the dimentions

i think it may dry out quicker than i'd like but still well within a managable level

any humidity management will have to be adapted to the specific enclosure by your own watering practices anyway

keeping a water disch and maybe a third, or the lower strata slightly moist should be perfectly doable

the speed at which it dries will have to be determined by you by trial and error

 

[DonLouchese]

When I'm reading through the comments and after a while it gets to me that this thing can be actually placed as a real coffin laying the orange back down.

Excuse me for my slow brain cells :I, working and reading Arachnoboards is sometimes tricky.

Best of luck in making the best library enclosure.

 

[ILVC]

I love that you are keeping them at the library. Tell me about your patrons at the library though... Is this a university library where you definitely don't have to worry about a younger demographic's first experience with a tarantula being associated with a coffin? On the bright side I don't think it looks like a coffin as much when used terrestrial.

My two cents... A 1.5" will be swimming in that, and it might slow down growth, it might lend to burrowing behavior, and that's a lot of real estate. It's a long trek to the water dish. When I had to move my 3" to a larger enclosure, the next size I had was 5"x8" and I placed two water dishes at opposite ends, so he never had too far to walk. Making sure this species can find is food is a little easier when they are known to be top dwellers, but thats based on you having a brachypelma like everyone else out there putting it in an appropriately sized container...they almost never burrow but if they did it would probably be due to the size of enclosure they are kept in, and other external factors like to insulate from the cold (unlikely).

i have adopted quite a few "hairkickers," and was warned that they kick at everything...even watering them. One thing I almost always end up doing is rehousing them...no one on Facebook keeps their spiders correctly . They are almost always in too large of a container. Now I know I don't have some special way with tarantulas, I know they can't remember that it's me making the noises and disturbing them...but I don't see hairs kicked until I'm doing rehouses. On the other hand, all of my "defensive" spiders were given hides and places to make burrows, and we don't have any bad altercations. Sometimes they have a beef with the water...but it's the same beef everyone has. Mortal enemies. Where are these threat poses I was warned about?? Well I imagine I would have to go into their burrow to find them. The too small enclosure made them think they had their entire burrow to defend. But that's not your friendly neighborhood brachypelma...they dont retreat let alone move half the time.

in short, go smaller for now like a 4x4 amac. And get another spider that will fit in the enclosure you like, as long as you aren't scaring little children

As a matter of fact it is a public library! But I absolutely plan to use it as the Halloween/ October T. There are several others I have that I rotate out on the days I’m there. The A Geniculata tends to be the crowd favorite for its size and willingness to sit out in the open and bask in the attention.

but yes, the enclosure would be on its side giving me a 10 in length and a 5 inch width at the widest part of the coffin. I have the T in a 4x4 cube right now.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I did go ahead and order it, but it seems like it’s in the best interest of the T to stick to the 4x4 for the time being and make the coffin debut closer to next spooky season.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

I have a 1 1/2 in 'juvenile' B. Hamorii I got a few weeks ago and I am looking at the medium coffin crib through tarantula cribs (10x5x5in.) as a possible enclosure upgrade (Black Friday deals). My question is this- Would a B. Hamorii of this size be too humidity dependent to make this enclosure feasible? This is a female, so I hope to have her for years and years and this enclosure could be the only one I need for most of the first decade of its life. The specific enclosure is below. Thanks everyone.

This will answer many of your questions and is the best starting place.

Tarantula Information for Beginners (and More)

Below are some helpful resources. (Rather than having half a dozen or more pinned threads, which clutter the top of the board, we are pinning this index.) While the focus is on beginners, there are other threads on health and more advanced species that may be useful to more experienced keepers...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Gevo]

I'm glad you went ahead and ordered it! I'm sure the coffin shape is going to be a hit with kids and other patrons.

Yes, those coffin enclosures are made so they can be used for either arboreals or terrestrials, depending on whether you lay them down or stand them up.

For size, I don't actually think you're going to have much trouble for a B. hamorii of that size, but it's true that you might have to rehouse sooner than you think. That's just part of tarantula keeping, though. We can estimate how long an enclosure will last us when we have slings and juveniles, but ultimately, it's going to be the tarantula that decides how big it gets and how quickly.

I have a B. hamorii that's slightly bigger, around 2 inches or so, and I have it in an 8x8x8 acrylic cube from Primal Fear Tarantulas, and I find that it's a good size. Mine likes to burrow deep, so I've got about 5 inches of substrate in there that it's dug right out into a burrow all the way to the bottom, and that's mostly where it stays these days, so there's some "wasted" space in the enclosure, but it's nothing unmanageable or worrisome as far as the tarantula's safety or ability to find food goes, and there's space to grow for at least a couple of years (I hope!).

For moisture, I highly recommend starting with bone dry substrate and then just overflowing the water dish periodically to maintain a little moisture. When I filled mine, I used a soil labelled "tarantula mix" from my local specialty reptile store, and since it was a specialty store that also sold tarantulas, I trusted it'd be good. (Kind of stupid in hindsight, since tarantulas' needs vary, but I'm new to this and wanted to simplify/streamline my decision making!) When I opened the bag, I was surprised at how moist it was, so I added some very dry coco fibre and thought it'd be fine.

It was not fine. The enclosure has decent ventilation from the upper sides and lid, but because the soil was already a bit damp and then packed down into the bottom, it hasn't dried out quickly, and I've had to aerate it with a chopstick and have been having some issues with mold. I rehoused my G. pulchra at the same time but used Reptisoil and coco fibre for that enclosure, and I've had absolutely no issues with that one as far as moisture goes. B. hamorii like really dry environments, so I've been a bit worried and have been checking regularly for signs I need to redo the whole thing (UGH! I hope not!). Mine seems pretty happy, and since it burrowed down where it's moister than on the surface and is just chilling in there, grooming and doing spider things, I'm assuming it's okay, but it's not fun to have to be on mold patrol and to keep poking holes to help that damn soil dry out properly. I'd much rather have the problem of needing to add a bit of moisture more frequently than the problem of needing to dry out soil that has too much moisture.

 

[darkness975]

I have a 1 1/2 in 'juvenile' B. Hamorii I got a few weeks ago and I am looking at the medium coffin crib through tarantula cribs (10x5x5in.) as a possible enclosure upgrade (Black Friday deals). My question is this- Would a B. Hamorii of this size be too humidity dependent to make this enclosure feasible? This is a female, so I hope to have her for years and years and this enclosure could be the only one I need for most of the first decade of its life. The specific enclosure is below. Thanks everyone.

Those coffin cribs are more suited to a true spider like a Latrodectus spp.

 

[cold blood]

Would a B. Hamorii of this size be too humidity dependent

tarantulas are not humidity dependent...amphibians are.