New person here who'd like a little help

[SqueakMaan]

Hi, I'm brand new to both the boards and the hobby. I recently found myself the caretaker of a Dolomedes tenebrosus. I've been looking around the Boards and I've found them to be both informative and interesting as well as entertaining. However, I would like to find out more about this spider and how to care for it. If anybody has any helpful tips or info I would be appreciative.

 

[cacoseraph]

keep open water in it's cage! (like a water dish, but a good size one... and make sure there is a little stone or something in the dish so any prey items can climb out)

welcome to hobby & board... both are amazing

 

[SqueakMaan]

Thanks. I have a pretty good size water dish in there. I've noticed he spends more time on a peice of cork bark i have in there than around the water.

 

[cacoseraph]

1) heh, i just watched the japanime with Dark Snyder in it

2) good, the fact it's not hovering on it's water dish is *probably* a good indicator that the RH is acceptable to it

 

[SqueakMaan]

Yeah, funny Anime. I hate to keep bothering people with questions but what does RH mean?

 

[Wade]

I encounter D. tenebrosus just as often away from water as near it. Some other Dolemedes (like D. triton) seem to do best in a semi-aquatic set up, but D. tenebrosus seems to do just as well in a setup simmilar to what you'd use for a small arboreal tarantula. I currently keep them in gallon jars with slabs of cork and a 4-oz condiment cup as a water dish.

RH = Relative Humidity

Wade

 

[orcrist]

I keep several of these. My setups consist of whatever container with about an inch of water in the bottom, and rocks or whatever for it to climb out on. It should have a good sized dry surface. If you feel like it, you can also keep several in one tank, if they're all similarly sized. Wierdly, most of the meals for mine have been smaller spiders that I didn't have room for. They are very aggressive when it comes to capturing prey. I've had one pounce like a jumping spider a few times. In many cases, the prey brushes their leg, and suddenly there's a blur of motion and the prey's in the jaws.