Am I About to Kill My Blondi With This Enclosure?

[Hwydrone]

Hey guys, I’m in a bit of a pickle here.

Just so you know this my first attempt at a bio-active setup and there’s a perfectly healthy, 5.5" female T. blondi at stake. So please be gentle, lol.
Started by doing a lot of studying on the how-to’s. Grabbed a 10 gallon aquarium I had on hand. Decided to go with lava rock for a drainage layer, a plastic mesh substrate barrier and a hefty amount of homemade terrarium soil mix that I inoculated with some leaf mould for beneficial bacteria.
The plants, moss and hardscape were wild collected from my private stretch deep in the woods near our cypress pond; far from any commercial farming operations and/or pesticides. Nothing has been heat treated or sterilized.

I finished this setup over a month ago and after introducing springtails and isopods, I left the setup to "grow in" so to speak. Not sure if this is common practice before introducing a T to their new home but (this being my first time setting up a live enclosure) I thought I’d monitor it for a while to make sure I didn’t accidentally build a terrarium for a colony of fire ants or some sort of tarantula-eating parasite or whatnot. Obviously I want to make sure the setup is safe before I introduce her.

Which brings me to my issue…

In the pics, if you look closely at the roof of her hide (which is real red oak bark, btw, not cork bark) there’s a large patch of white, powdery fuzz that appears to be a wood-borne mycelium of some kind. This was not visible when I finished the setup. It has grown to this size in 5 weeks time and practically covers the entire roof of the hide. From what I’ve read so far, T’s are not affected by fungi but what’s concerning me is there are spores that have precipitated onto the floor of the burrow that are beginning to overtake the leaf litter. Can’t get it on camera but in person it resembles a burrow that has been dusted with chalk or baby powder.

Can anyone identify this fungus for me or let me know if spores are harmful to tarantulas? Google can’t seem to confirm or deny anything regarding the effects of fungal spores on T’s and I absolutely do not want to stick a female T. blondi in an enclosure that’s potentially the tarantula version of The Last of Us.
Then again, I also don’t want to dismantle this whole setup and start over just because I’m paranoid about a harmless chunk of deadwood fungus.

In short, either I’m being overprotective or I’m about to kill my blondI and I can’t figure out which is which.

 

[Wolfram1]

it looks a little too wet in general (i assume there is only top ventilation and even the plant shows yellowing in the leaf tips, a sign of overwatering) and you would really want at least half the surfaces without moss, they dont particularly like walking on it, check out @Dorifto or @Alveus, they both have some very nice planted terrariums that you could emulate, might chime in with some good advice too XD

yes, while a little bit of mold here and there are no issue, having this kind of large scale mold-problem has caused some issues with spiders, i have heard of deaths related to it from other keepers, but its hard to say if it was the mold itself or if the conditions that are favourable to the fungus/mold, that ultimately caused the deaths

personally, i would not put a spider into that as is, especially if it hangs overhead and rains down spores on it every time the spider comes into contact with it
let it dry out some and you could see if it goes away after a while, these things can run their course, after consuming all the nutrients available to them they sometimes go away,
not always though and in this case i doubt it

it looks pretty good on its own, the moss seems to love it, just not ideal for a spider

 

[fcat]

Lava rock, mesh and isopods sounded risky to me...

 

[Dorifto]

So please be gentle, lol.

@viper69 ??? A yes or no would be welcomed

Decided to go with lava rock for a drainage layer, a plastic mesh substrate barrier

Imho this is the only big mistake I see, since it will constantly drain moisture from the substrate above, so you will find yourself adding moisture constantly or having stagnant conditions down low if you didn't add any drain plug to the bottom part to drain that moisture. Imo this kind of features are more suitable for dart frogs etc where a constant misting and high humidity conditions are required. In those cases the substrate can't absorb that excess of moisture, so draining it's necessary.

When talking about moisture dependant Ts, you want that moisture to stay in, one to not constantly need to add more moisture to it, and two to keep more stable conditions inside. So as you can see the drainage layers go against that requeriment. Two, it won't let the T to dig down or burrow freely, so likely you will encounter yourself with a T that ripped of that mesh and startet removing those balls or rocks, increasing chances of suffering complete substrate collapses. You can achieve same draining effect by adding some sand to the bottom layer, but it still will allow the T to dig down safely, since the substrate still will have enough strenght to not to collapse. Also since it won't create so many big air pockets, it will allow to that drained moisture to be being spreaded again to the adjacent substrate once it starts to dry, keeping the conditions more stable.

Ventilation wise, I can give you more specific suggestions since we can't the top of your enclosure, but like always suggest, I'd recommend you to add few holes right above the substrate, then glue some round grilles or mod it like the picture below, to create an upward air current to keep it well aerated.

IMG_20220630_223820.jpg

• Dorifto
• Jun 30, 2022
• 4

Fish tank mod

Cuc wise, isopods are not a big deal, specially if they have plenty of decaying matter to feed from. Anyways always use small to medium ones, since they tend to be less bold and agressives when looking to food sources.

Feel free asking any questions!

 

[Alveus]

The bigges issue i see here is, as already mentioned, the lack of ventilation.
I don't know how much of a problem this is for a T. blondi. I never studied the habitat and needings of this T. (was never interessted in ceeping this species)

But for many other T's it could be problematic.



The drainage:
In my opinion it's useless. Especially for burrowing T's.
No Tarantula needs that moist substrat, that you would need a drainagelayer.

Also like Wolfram already mentioned: Tarantulas don't like to walk on moss/ plants.

Theraphosa blondi lives in the rainforest of brazil in the shadow of tree giants. You won't finde a lot of mosses there.
Here, watch this video.

For the fungus on the wood.
Most funghi spores can't harm a livinging creature. As long it's not mold.
For me it looks like the mycelium of a harmless woodmunching funghi.

So for what i would do:

Disassemble the whole thinge.
Get a propper ventilation. Dorifto gave you already some good advice.

Skipp the drainagelayer.

Build diffrent areas in the enclosure.
The best thing about big Enclosures is that you can work with diffrent areas. One side you can keep more on the dry side. Perhaps with some bigger plants to provide shade and cover from above for the T.
There you make also the preburrow for the T. On the other side you can make a moist area wit mosses and stuff.

Btw if you wan't your mosses to drive without constantly flooding your enclosure, buy one of these smart mini spray systems. (You can finde them for not much on chinese sites. You can pm me for details. I don't know if it's legal to poste it here)
With those you can ceep your mosses wet but the soil don't get soaked.

 

[viper69]

@viper69 ??? A yes or no would be welcomed


Imho this is the only big mistake I see, since it will constantly drain moisture from the substrate above, so you will find yourself adding moisture constantly or having stagnant conditions down low if you didn't add any drain plug to the bottom part to drain that moisture. Imo this kind of features are more suitable for dart frogs etc where a constant misting and high humidity conditions are required. In those cases the substrate can't absorb that excess of moisture, so draining it's necessary.

When talking about moisture dependant Ts, you want that moisture to stay in, one to not constantly need to add more moisture to it, and two to keep more stable conditions inside. So as you can see the drainage layers go against that requeriment. Two, it won't let the T to dig down or burrow freely, so likely you will encounter yourself with a T that ripped of that mesh and startet removing those balls or rocks, increasing chances of suffering complete substrate collapses. You can achieve same draining effect by adding some sand to the bottom layer, but it still will allow the T to dig down safely, since the substrate still will have enough strenght to not to collapse. Also since it won't create so many big air pockets, it will allow to that drained moisture to be being spreaded again to the adjacent substrate once it starts to dry, keeping the conditions more stable.

Ventilation wise, I can give you more specific suggestions since we can't the top of your enclosure, but like always suggest, I'd recommend you to add few holes right above the substrate, then glue some round grilles or mod it like the picture below, to create an upward air current to keep it well aerated.

IMG_20220630_223820.jpg

• Dorifto
• Jun 30, 2022
• 4

Fish tank mod

Cuc wise, isopods are not a big deal, specially if they have plenty of decaying matter to feed from. Anyways always use small to medium ones, since they tend to be less bold and agressives when looking to food sources.

Feel free asking any questions!

No- but too much of anything kills animals generally

 

[Hwydrone]

Starting to think I went about this all wrong and now I’ve got bigger problems than a bit of fungus.

Toss the lava, pull the hide, bake the fungus, then go shopping for one of those fancy acrylic jobs or maybe a front opening Repti-Zoo or something instead of this junky old fish tank. As much as I want to mod this 10gal, I‘d rather not lose the option of using it as a fish tank in the future. Also, I’m not 100% certain I can drill multiple holes in a plate glass cube without destroying it. So that’s out. Pretty sure my problem is I’ve been watching too many vivarium/terrarium DIY videos on youtube lately.

Especially this one:

Ol’Dave did a rehouse for his T. stirmi with a drainage layer out of some hydroclay and flimsy window screen, tossed a bag of potting soil on top, covered 90% of the substrate with moss (along with a bunch of other junk he dug out of the woods) and immediately added his T. stirmi to it. No worries whatsoever.

Seeing that I thought to myself, "Seems legit. Why not? I can do that, only better! I’ll use lava bc I’m too cheap for hydroclay. Just as good. No window screen but I’ve got enough cross stitching mesh to tile a house with. It’ll be fine. I don’t have a $350 Exo-terra but I’ve got plenty of aquariums and screen lids. I’ll make do. Either way, I GOTTA have a drainage layer for some reason! Dave said so!"

And here we are…

…a completely unnecessary, counterproductive "drainage layer" in a tank with NO DRAIN that forces me to mist constantly and a screen top that can’t hold humidity well enough to keep moss alive, all in a fish tank with no vents for proper air exchange and there’s a mystery fungus squatting in what was supposed to be my girl’s new house. Looks like I’m rebuilding this thing after I hit the market for a new terrarium.
Sucks I wasted a month waiting to see what happens when you throw a bunch of wild caught dirt and sticks into a glass box. At least now I know. Good thing I waited too. Otherwise I’d be digging my blondi out of this crap. Sure looked good though.

Ohhh it’s gonna be a long weekend…

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[fcat]

A 10g would've been too small for her anyway

 

[Wolfram1]

you can make use of aquariums for spiders, but if you do they are more suitable for arid species as the reduced airflow is less of an issue if there is less moisture in play

you should know Dave doesn't really care for the moss, he uses it as a decoration and waters according to the spiders needs, sometimes the moss dies other times it dies so slowly you'd barely notice.
he uses more moss then most of us would, but there is sill always a decent amount of soil visible around the burrow and the spiders spend most of their time there
so the way i see it he is manipulating the spiders to set up shop exactly where he wants them to do so simply by excluding the other areas with the moss, and it adds a good look at the same time

i think your main mistake was thinking the moss should be thriving, growing even , that kind of environment doesn't really work for the spider, not even moisture dependant ones

plants are different they can even help you by showing signs of underwatering and they don't do too well if the roots can't breath or the soil starts to rot

 

[Hardus nameous]

Theraphosa care and info

We have had so many threads lately on Theraphosa, and I find myself repeating the same thing time and time again. This thread will cover most of the common questions, hopefully it should be useful to some of the newer keepers, and may even save a few spiders from neglect. I'll start by going...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Alveus]

So. I googled what 10 gallon means. Yeah.... a little bit on the smaler side.

So to set things right:


Mosses in enclosures:
are crossbreed between a princess and a prima donnas.
Especially this Polytrichum(?) Sp. You got there.

They need constantly moist leaves. Otherwise they die slower or faster. But they only grow, if their leaves are moist. So the best option is to have a fully seald enclosure and moist substrat. But not for all mosses... Polytrichum sp. For an example dies fast without an propper airflow.
However: not suitable conditions for a Tarantula.
But you could help your selfe with a misting system. Set on short spray duration but many repetitions.
Not much water entering your enclosure, but your mosses stays moist and happy. Or you have the time to go and spray them 6times a day.

Or you get your selfe some Selaginella sp. instead.

Ventilation:
If you don't want to remoddeling your tank. You could use those small Ventilators for Computers. Put one ore two on the screentop of your tank.


Drainagelayer:
I don't know what it is with this absolut useless drainagelayer in tarantulaenclosures among those youtubers.

Think about... what is a drainagelayer good for, if you can't drain the drainagelayer??????

Yeah exactly... a drainagelayer needs an outlet (also called drain.) to drain the water. Thats the whole point of it.

So you got 2 options:
1st: drill a hole and install an outlet
Or
2nd: accept that a drainagelayer without a drain is an absolut shenanigans.

 

[Dorifto]

As much as I want to mod this 10gal, I‘d rather not lose the option of using it as a fish tank in the future. Also, I’m not 100% certain I can drill multiple holes in a plate glass cube without destroying it.

Drilling glass it's not the same as cutting it, it's much easier, and perfectly doable by a complete novice.

You only need a round diamond drill bit, not an arrow shaped carbide one. It's as easi as running the drill slow and adding water constantly to cool the glass. You can achieve this using a misting bottle or placing a doughnut shaped putty around the hole and filling it with water.

Sliding door lock tutorial

Hi guys, recently I have installed some integrated door locks into my enclosure sliding doors, since my little daughter is amazed with the Ts, and she want to kiss them... 😅 So let's go! Tools: Variable speed drill, not a must, but it will help a lot. Round glass bit. A flat surface to...

arachnoboards.com

Do it slowly and with a steady hand, and you won't have any issues. The cracked glass you can see in the video, was cracked beforehand, and use it like a tester if it was doable to drill it in that state, finally used it like a guide as you can see.

Once you have drilled the holes, then you need to glue the inner panel (glass is highly recommended) and the L shapped profile. On top of both goes the perforated aluminium grille. Done.

Top part it's the easiest. Bond a panel, then the grille, some hinges to it, and a last panel like a door. Did your tank came with a top screen?

Ol’Dave did a rehouse for his T. stirmi with a drainage layer out of some hydroclay and flimsy window screen, tossed a bag of potting soil on top, covered 90% of the substrate with moss (along with a bunch of other junk he dug out of the woods) and immediately added his T. stirmi to it. No worries whatsoever.

This is the only thing that I do not recommend from his enclosures and advices, I also mentioned him the reasons behind it xD, besides that, all of his advices are among the best you can find around the arachno and youtube world. I like him because it's approach and since he is very easy to understand, even for novices.

Also there is one thing that a lot of people tend to ignore from him, it's room it's climatically controlled, and he lives in a quite humid country, so even with fully top vented setups, the humidity loss won't be a huge issue compared to one that lives in a place with dry climatic conditions, hence why sometimes fully mesh screened enclosures can be a pita.

Imho modding your setup it's your best bet if you want to approach this build from the cheap side, it will take you an hour or drilling and few bucks more in material. If not you can build your own one if you have access to a local glazier with good prices. Here a full tank cost around 45 bucks in materials or even cheaper if you buy in bulk.

This is an euro style setup

IMG_20200523_002020.jpg

• Dorifto
• Oct 2, 2021

original_250afeb4-3cee-4ff4-b5ce-6fa193dbb5d0_IMG_20211118_141027.jpg

• Dorifto
• Jul 18, 2022
• 3

You can use it as is, but make sure to control any signs of stagnant air inside, like a lot of condensation etc. I do not recommend only top vented setups since the T gets atracted to the air currents falling down from the sides, so they use to end up climbing the glass to find any scaping point etc... that's for me their biggest drawback.