An almost fatal mistake

[Gail]

I've been moving my larger slings - 1"+ - into larger homes and putting them into the "preschool" - my 55 gallon tank. One of the little ones which was just an inch was put into a 4x5x3 inch clear plastic food storage container with airholes in the lid. I was CERTAIN that none of the holes were big enough to allow it to escape because it's butt was so fat - fatter than the diameter of any of the holes. I was WRONG. This morning, I slept in, didn't go into the spider room until 9 am. To my horror, when I looked into the 55 gallon tank there was my baby floating in the 16 oz deli cup of water that I keep in there for humidity!! Fortunately for her she had not been in there long enough to become completely soaked and sink. I lifted her out on my fingers and I feared the worst, as she didn't move. I carefully wicked the water off of her with a soft artist brush and after about 10 minutes she recovered. I have learned my lesson - even if the butt is bigger than the holes they can still pull it through some how. I am just lucky I found her in time. Now I hope that her ordeal doesn't have any lasting effects or cause her to get any fungus infections from having been so wet.

Gail

 

[Botar]

Sorry to hear of the trouble Gail, but thanks for the post. I'd rather learn from the experiences of others than to have my own of a similar nature. Your description of the escape may be how I lost my C. crawshayi... still MIA.

Botar

 

[looseyfur]

meaning to ask

Gail
was meaning to ask you and anyone else intrested ...
could you post a pic of your "setup" I am about to finally convience my wife to be that I need to "take ownership" of the tiny study for a spider room. Just want to get a few ideas on the best set up . I will soon have slings and have several T's in diffrent stages of growth. Never had a whole room to play with though

horray!
Looseyfur
e.

 

[Gail]

Here's a pic of part of the spider room. This is the 55 gallon tank that I use as a "preschool". The plastic drawer in the lower right is my "nursery" and some of my adult and sub-adult spiders are stacked on the shelf under the 55 gallon tank. Other adults are kept in similar housing and stacked up in "available space" - my spider room also happens to be my home office I keep the few live feeders (I feed mostly thawed frozen crix now and only have a few types of live insects for my fussy spiders and the aboreals) in the closet - several colonies of mealworms, large totes with screen lids for live crickets and roaches, and a shoebox of waxworms.

Gail

 

[Theraphosa]

here's my setup inside my room.. not that great like Gail... that big white thing is the heat for my all my Ts and myself

 

[Tarantula Lover]

hey

nice setups everyone!!!

James

 

[conipto]

Here's an example of a bad setup:

 

[King_Looey]

Im frightened to death of my youngest spiders drowning, so i keep cotton wool in the water bowl untill they are bigger. This is fine, as long as you remember to change the cotton wool every few days.

 

[Gillian]

Originally posted by conipto
Here's an example of a bad setup:

Bill,
Your's isn't that bad...

Peace,
Gillian