# 5 & 10 gallon vertical tank for arboreal size recommendations legspan?



## kev48584 (Aug 31, 2012)

I'm about to build my own arboreal tanks (the ones you see in tarantulaguy1976's youtube video). I'm wondering how big does the spider has to be in legspan to be put in a 5 or 10 gallon. what species should be put in those two? pokies? avics? etc. etc. i have most of my arboreal species in those 1 gallon canister jars that you can find in walmart and eventually will have to make custom tanks for them any help would be gladly appreciated thank you


----------



## Tarac (Aug 31, 2012)

Depends on the species/size of course but generally I would consider a 10 gallon Pokie range and 5 gallon Avic range.  My Pokies (adults) are in 8"x18" tall.  I do use a lot of cage furniture and keep at least 3" of substrate even with arboreals for humidity and building material for their dirt curtains so they're not as big as they would seem from the exterior dimensions.  They seem comfy to me, space to stretch out but not lost in a giant enclosure.


----------



## MarkmD (Aug 31, 2012)

I agree as above post being 5,gallon for avic range 4-5" and 10,Gall for Pokies around 5-7", but saying that you could put any arborial Ts in eather of them depending on thair size.


----------



## advan (Aug 31, 2012)

I have both sizes for adult _Avicularia_, _Poecilotheria_, and _Psalmopoeus_. The ten gallons are a little big and aren't used enough by the spiders to make it worth it. When I do make more I will stick with the 5.5 gallon tanks. The down fall to those though is because of the odd size they are more expensive. It is really all your personal preference though. Good luck! -Chad


----------



## Stan Schultz (Aug 31, 2012)

kev48584 said:


> I'm about to build my own arboreal tanks (the ones you see in tarantulaguy1976's youtube video). I'm wondering how big does the spider has to be in legspan to be put in a 5 or 10 gallon. what species should be put in those two? pokies? avics? etc. etc. i have most of my arboreal species in those 1 gallon canister jars that you can find in walmart and eventually will have to make custom tanks for them any help would be gladly appreciated thank you


Ultimately the consideration isn't terribly important or critical. Arboreal tarantulas don't follow the same rules as terrestrial ones. For one, they're evolved to live at altitude, so cage height generally isn't an issue. And, since they spend most of their time hanging from the walls or their nests, the amount of floor space isn't terribly important either.

The only practical limitation is that the cage should be small enough so that the tarantula can track down its food and the water dish fairly readily. (And, they very soon learn where these are located too!)

How big should the tarantula be? This is a bit of an odd question because we normally are faced with a tarantula that's growing and are more concerned about how big a cage is best. We fit the cage to the tarantula, not the tarantula to the cage.

Once it's gone through the "tweens" conversion (see below), the consideration is largely irrelevant. Below that size you're keeping it in some sort of baby container. Larger than that, you're keeping it in an adult cage. It's really not a very big deal.

I'd use a smaller aquarium, say 5-1/2 gallon, for an _Avicularia_ unless it was a huge, old female. In which case I'd use a 10 gallon aquarium.

I'd use a 10 gallon aquarium for a fully grown adult _Poecilotheria_, but maybe only a 5-1/2 gallon one for a smaller one.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.


Enjoy your little 8-legged tree huggers!


----------

