Tarantula cage idea thread

CyclingSam

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May 22, 2016
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What DLS does that Avic on the left have, and container size?
The container is about 8.5H x 4W x 4L. The Avic. avic. is about 4"DLS. When this picture was taken, she had just molted. I transferred her to the larger one on the right. The one on the right is about 17H x 7W x 7L. She is still in that enclosure.
 

crystalfreakkk

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0E733DFB-179D-4A71-8CB9-4CC294F697D3.jpeg 82061EF1-7C47-4ED5-84D0-795A22CA39E6.jpeg 618D2793-641F-4DAE-ABD0-7F9004D9614D.jpeg 153350A4-90D1-4A22-87D8-2340D726FF32.jpeg 3BAD0499-8F6F-490A-9B8D-3873C691C156.jpeg CFB965AC-A112-4274-ACDC-C443D30DB52D.jpeg 7126C989-91CF-4EC7-958B-5053E90D5604.jpeg 1E889D7E-7A08-4FB1-BA29-C74162D26821.jpeg 86BBB9F8-33FA-41EC-B7BA-1A72B9F2201D.jpeg Okay! I’m pretty proud of this. I just got three C. Versicolor slings and for their enclosures I bought amac containers from the containerstore and I figured since they web up the top I glued everything to the top. I think it turned out great. I’ve only done two out of three and they both look so good and unique. I swear I’m obsessed.
 

Dave Jay

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View attachment 271965 View attachment 271966 View attachment 271967 View attachment 271968 View attachment 271969 View attachment 271970 View attachment 271971 View attachment 271972 View attachment 271973 Okay! I’m pretty proud of this. I just got three C. Versicolor slings and for their enclosures I bought amac containers from the containerstore and I figured since they web up the top I glued everything to the top. I think it turned out great. I’ve only done two out of three and they both look so good and unique. I swear I’m obsessed.
They look great!
 

boina

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View attachment 271965 View attachment 271966 View attachment 271967 View attachment 271968 View attachment 271969 View attachment 271970 View attachment 271971 View attachment 271972 View attachment 271973 Okay! I’m pretty proud of this. I just got three C. Versicolor slings and for their enclosures I bought amac containers from the containerstore and I figured since they web up the top I glued everything to the top. I think it turned out great. I’ve only done two out of three and they both look so good and unique. I swear I’m obsessed.
They look great but they are very much too wet. Stop misting. C. versicolor do much better when kept dry. You can get away with some moisture but this is dripping wet.
 

ahimoto

Arachnopeon
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Apr 2, 2018
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11
of course , they are small now... but how you will feed them when they will star do webinds...you will lift with that lid
 

Andrea82

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View attachment 271965 View attachment 271966 View attachment 271967 View attachment 271968 View attachment 271969 View attachment 271970 View attachment 271971 View attachment 271972 View attachment 271973 Okay! I’m pretty proud of this. I just got three C. Versicolor slings and for their enclosures I bought amac containers from the containerstore and I figured since they web up the top I glued everything to the top. I think it turned out great. I’ve only done two out of three and they both look so good and unique. I swear I’m obsessed.
It looks great but ehm...you might want to switch them around since C.versicolor webs at the top of an enclosure. That short part which is now the lid should be the bottom. If you're going to use it like it is now, you'll be tearing its web everytime you're opening it like @ahimoto mentioned and potentially have a runner.
 

crystalfreakkk

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C. versicolor do much better when kept dry
I had just made it so I wet the moss, it’s dryer now. I like to have some moisture in there for them since they don’t have a water dish.

It looks great but ehm...you might want to switch them around since C.versicolor webs at the top of an enclosure. That short part which is now the lid should be the bottom. If you're going to use it like it is now, you'll be tearing its web everytime you're opening it like @ahimoto mentioned and potentially have a runner.
Now that you say that I realize you’re probably right... it’s not a problem right now since they’re webbing about the lid. When they grow more though that may become an issue. I’ll have to rehouse them eventually since these enclosures are for slings. I guess I’ll just have an opportunity to make new enclosures then.
 

Andrea82

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I had just made it so I wet the moss, it’s dryer now. I like to have some moisture in there for them since they don’t have a water dish.



Now that you say that I realize you’re probably right... it’s not a problem right now since they’re webbing about the lid. When they grow more though that may become an issue. I’ll have to rehouse them eventually since these enclosures are for slings. I guess I’ll just have an opportunity to make new enclosures then.
I'm a big fan of giving them waterdishes, however small. Just a bottle cap or something works great. I find it gives me more control about the climate in the enclosure. Misting gets everything wet, but dries up within hours. I see my Avic drinking fairly often. :)
 

crystalfreakkk

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I'm a big fan of giving them waterdishes, however small. Just a bottle cap or something works great. I find it gives me more control about the climate in the enclosure. Misting gets everything wet, but dries up within hours. I see my Avic drinking fairly often. :)
I put a bunch of moss in there and I think that that is helping, I haven't sprayed directly on the slings. Just keeping the substrate damp-ish. They seem to be doing well, when they get bigger I'll give them a dish. My A. Avic has a dish and never drinks from it but I've seen my C. Versicolor drink from the side of their enclosures. I would just be nervous that they would drown, they're very small.
 

Andrea82

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I put a bunch of moss in there and I think that that is helping, I haven't sprayed directly on the slings. Just keeping the substrate damp-ish. They seem to be doing well, when they get bigger I'll give them a dish. My A. Avic has a dish and never drinks from it but I've seen my C. Versicolor drink from the side of their enclosures. I would just be nervous that they would drown, they're very small.
Theraphosidae can't drown, they float and even walk on water :)
If a spider drowns, it's because it was already injured or fell in during a molt.
See:
 

Dave Jay

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I put a bunch of moss in there and I think that that is helping, I haven't sprayed directly on the slings. Just keeping the substrate damp-ish. They seem to be doing well, when they get bigger I'll give them a dish. My A. Avic has a dish and never drinks from it but I've seen my C. Versicolor drink from the side of their enclosures. I would just be nervous that they would drown, they're very small.
They won't drown because their 'hair' traps air effectively encasing them in a bubble, the only thing that would effect that would be remnants of detergent in the dish which would reduce the surface tension of the water. Something to be careful of. I agree that drinking droplets of water is possibly a more natural behaviour, mimicking rain or dew. I usually spray a wall and some decor for new arrivals so they can find water instantly, but a dish is a much more reliable source of water , their thirst may not always coincide with you spraying . You could add a small stainless steel screw to the dish for peace of mind, but it's not really needed.
That said, I've seen lots of how to keep slings videos by experienced keepers that don't include a water dish, so the method you're using is not unusual.

Btw, never use any copper, brass or any other metals containing copper in an inverts tank as copper is toxic to inverts in very small doses. Even tapwater can contain enough copper to kill inverts, it could be in the supply itself , but the most danger comes from copper pipes and copper water heaters.
 

boina

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Btw, never use any copper, brass or any other metals containing copper in an inverts tank as copper is toxic to inverts in very small doses. Even tapwater can contain enough copper to kill inverts, it could be in the supply itself , but the most danger comes from copper pipes and copper water heaters.
Not really. I've found this somewhat surprising so I looked it up. Invertebrates actually need copper in their diet. It is part of their blood (hemocyanin), so without it they can't breath and will die. Larger amounts, however, may be toxic. As usual it's the dose that makes the toxin. In aquatic animals high amounts of copper in the water can be a real problem as it damages the gills first and later kills the animal. Even crabs living in high copper concentrations have mechanisms to detoxify copper and get rid of it, though. Dietary copper get's sequestered in the midgut. Source.

Arachnids don't usually live in coppery water where they are surrounded by it and can't avoid it. Their only way to take up copper is via their diet or their water - and they need it, at least in small quantities. Without it their hemocyanin won't work. I'd imagine it is rather hard to feed a spider enough copper for it to become toxic.

(@Ungoliant :))
 

Dave Jay

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Not really. I've found this somewhat surprising so I looked it up. Invertebrates actually need copper in their diet. It is part of their blood (hemocyanin), so without it they can't breath and will die. Larger amounts, however, may be toxic. As usual it's the dose that makes the toxin. In aquatic animals high amounts of copper in the water can be a real problem as it damages the gills first and later kills the animal. Even crabs living in high copper concentrations have mechanisms to detoxify copper and get rid of it, though. Dietary copper get's sequestered in the midgut. Source.

Arachnids don't usually live in coppery water where they are surrounded by it and can't avoid it. Their only way to take up copper is via their diet or their water - and they need it, at least in small quantities. Without it their hemocyanin won't work. I'd imagine it is rather hard to feed a spider enough copper for it to become toxic.

(@Ungoliant :))
Thanks for that bit of light breakfast reading! It took me the better part of an hour to get through it, it's tedious reading papers on my phone! I do appreciate you providing the link though, I'm always interested in learning. :)

It's a shame it deals mainly with marine molluscs and crustaceans, it would be good to know more about how arachnids deal with excess copper, whether they store it, if dietary copper is sequestered in the midgut and whether moulting is tied to copper levels as with crustaceans. There may well be a paper out there dealing with copper and arachnids but I'll wait until I can use my pc.

It does state however "Copper is an essential trace element for all animals but the
optimal range of environmental concentrations that avoids deficiency and toxicity can be rather narrow."

We don't really know how much copper spiders need, whether they store it, how they deal with excess and at what level it becomes toxic to them. You would have to assume a spiders requirements are met through their prey and to some extent the water they drink. The level at which copper becomes lethal to spiders may be known due to copper being a common component of pesticides, although they are mainly pesticides aimed at aquatic invertebrates.
I found it interesting that some inverts will increase the copper in their "blood" when they have parasites, presumably because the smaller parasitic invert has a lower tolerance to copper than the host, but that's just speculation on my part. An interesting paper I think.
Being that low level toxicity mainly effects gills, land inverts can probably tolerate much higher levels of copper before suffering any toxic effects, something I have discussed with Mark Newton in regards to scorpions. I still feel that it may be possible that there may be an accumulative effect with toxic levels being reached over months or years given the low exposure and low metabolisms involved.

I know for sure that copper in tap water can kill aquatic inverts in an aquarium, the most common way toxic levels of copper in tap water are reached is through prolonged contact with copper piping or copper storage type water heaters. Hot water is not used with tarantulas of course, but I would run the tap before filling a water dish, we don't know what levels of copper may be in the water and we don't know what a spiders tolerance to copper is. Personally I err on the side of caution and treat any tap water used with inverts, removing chlorine and "detoxifying" ammonia and heavy metals. I use bottled spring water as drinking water, which I'm sure has some copper present, as well as other metals and minerals, but only in trace amounts. I assume that this is better than using distilled water as pure water would provide nothing but hydration.

So yes, I should have said once an inverts tolerance to copper is exceeded it becomes toxic to them. That is true of most substances in relation to most organisms though. Perhaps better to say that most invertebrates are more sensitive to copper levels than most vertebrates? Until I get better information on the tolerances of land invertebrates I am still going to be wary of copper toxicity, I can't say spiders aren't sensitive to copper in relatively low concentrations.Gardeners have long used copper as a deterrent against terrestrial inverts for years, copper nails through soil to deter pests from root crops and copper mesh as a physical/chemical barrier around/under plants or covering the drainage holes in pots are a few that spring to mind.

But back to the reason I mentioned copper in the first place, I wouldn't put a brass or copper screw in their drinking water if I were to put one in, I would use stainless steel as brass or copper screws MAY raise copper levels in the water to a toxic amount.
I know the tarantula won't drown, but crickets do, in my frog tanks I have driftwood in the bowls so crickets and roaches can climb out, a screw will serve the same purpose in a small water dish.
I only mentioned it at all because it would serve to give the OP peace of mind knowing that there is absolutely no chance of her slings drowning.
 
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TreMul

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I've been using these for juvies. It's a lettuce keeper for those who don't recognize it. They have a divider, so you can house two at a time, and they have 41Y5QhejZBL._AC_SY400_.jpg a vent. Of course I put more holes in but you get the idea:
 

Andrea82

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I've been using these for juvies. It's a lettuce keeper for those who don't recognize it. They have a divider, so you can house two at a time, and they have View attachment 338377 a vent. Of course I put more holes in but you get the idea:
Two at a time....that does not sound good. Is the lid divided too?
 
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