- Joined
- Apr 23, 2004
- Messages
- 2,104
Well, a few weeks ago I responded to a thread or two in which the topic of Smeringus mesaensis' came up. I mentioned that the one I've had for about a month now has always dug craters in the loose sand and hid in them, like it wanted to burrow. Everyone else who responded who owned this species said that theirs never attempted to burrow as it seemed mine was. Invertcare's site says that they are an obligate burrower (click here for the caresheet), which got me wondering...I doubted that Invercare's caresheet was wrong, but why wasn't anyone else's attempting to burrow?
So, I said that that night I was going to take Satan's Little Helper out and put it in a temporary holder while I redid the sand (link here). I did not add anything to it, just regular play sand from Home Depot unlike when I made the tank for my H. arizonensis I added some peat moss. A few days passed of putting the tank on the open oven door at 175 degrees for a few hours to help it dry faster (high humidity here, waiting for something to dry could take a while) and a night of leaving it in front of my bedroom fan to dry it out too. Once I deemed the substrate dry enough (S. mesaensis supposedly don't do well with humidity) I transferred SLH back to it's original home.
That was about a week ago, and for the past 4 nights or so it has had a habit of scrabbling very loudly against the sides of the tank trying to escape. Sometimes just sitting there with it's pincers hanging out the slats like a forlorn inmate in his jail cell.
I come home from work today and as usual go check on my pets first thing. Lucifer (my arizonensis) had lengthened his burrow another 4-5" so it must be close to almost 45" long
unfortunately 3/4 of it is backfilled with sand lol
my tarantula had barely moved, Babycurus jacksoni's hiding as usual, L. mactans hanging in it's web, then I noticed SLH's tank. Peering around with the red light I couldn't see it but noticed a strange "hole" in the sand...more like a slit actually. I excitedly looked at the side of the tank and sure enough...SLH had dug a burrow!!! only about 5-6" long but quite wide.
Here's some pictures:
My initial view in to the cage (picture it in pure red light lol):
closer inspection:
and the moment of "YES!":
now...that "YES!" may turn in to a "DRAT!" depending if it decides to stay subterranean for a long time lol.
So yes, my S. mesaensis Satan's Little Helper DID want to burrow...just wondering how long the sand will hold it up :? not sure if they dig as much as the arizonensis' do or not...
So, I said that that night I was going to take Satan's Little Helper out and put it in a temporary holder while I redid the sand (link here). I did not add anything to it, just regular play sand from Home Depot unlike when I made the tank for my H. arizonensis I added some peat moss. A few days passed of putting the tank on the open oven door at 175 degrees for a few hours to help it dry faster (high humidity here, waiting for something to dry could take a while) and a night of leaving it in front of my bedroom fan to dry it out too. Once I deemed the substrate dry enough (S. mesaensis supposedly don't do well with humidity) I transferred SLH back to it's original home.
That was about a week ago, and for the past 4 nights or so it has had a habit of scrabbling very loudly against the sides of the tank trying to escape. Sometimes just sitting there with it's pincers hanging out the slats like a forlorn inmate in his jail cell.
I come home from work today and as usual go check on my pets first thing. Lucifer (my arizonensis) had lengthened his burrow another 4-5" so it must be close to almost 45" long
unfortunately 3/4 of it is backfilled with sand lolmy tarantula had barely moved, Babycurus jacksoni's hiding as usual, L. mactans hanging in it's web, then I noticed SLH's tank. Peering around with the red light I couldn't see it but noticed a strange "hole" in the sand...more like a slit actually. I excitedly looked at the side of the tank and sure enough...SLH had dug a burrow!!!
only about 5-6" long but quite wide.Here's some pictures:
My initial view in to the cage (picture it in pure red light lol):
closer inspection:
and the moment of "YES!":
now...that "YES!" may turn in to a "DRAT!" depending if it decides to stay subterranean for a long time lol.
So yes, my S. mesaensis Satan's Little Helper DID want to burrow...just wondering how long the sand will hold it up :? not sure if they dig as much as the arizonensis' do or not...