Best Way to unburrow Cobalt Blue ??

AphonopelmaTX

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Rehousing Haplopelma is only hard if you make it hard. Get a large bucket, or other container, hold the tank facing down into the bucket and shake until the substrate and spider fall out into the bucket. Then put a cricket tub over the spider and secure the lid.

Takes about 20 seconds.
This is probably the best advice I've seen on rehousing Haplopema spp in a while. So many psych themselves out over it and I would say that would increase their chances of being bit.
 

catfishrod69

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i get what you are saying, but no matter who you are on this earth, clumsy or super calm, accidents happen...you could lose your grip or anything...and buckets can be knocked over on accident too, without meaning to or being clumsy...and yeah if the T bolts you could catch it, but what happens when it bolts up your arm? or right under the falling tank or bucket? and i believe that some T's would bolt in that situation, not just a H. lividum....like is always said, every T has their own personality, so 1 might bolt, 1 might hide, 1 might rear up


If you drop the tank I'd wonder why you were so clumsy when dealing with a live animal. Same goes for knocking over the bucket.
If the T bolts (and they don't in that situation) then you catch it.
 

groovyspider

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how i did my rehousing for all 3 of my haplos where...
Well first my h.minax (worst of all of them they have god speed lol) when i recieved her she had low substrate so i put her enclosure in a 30 gallon tall in the bathtub and i dug her out with some tongs and a soup spoon.. needless to say say she came out like a bat outta hell ran up the 30 gallon and was on a flat end so i cupped her.
Next was my h.lividum whihc was easy not even a threat display she was out of her burrow so i blocked it cuped her bam done.
next was my lil h.albo and it had a system of tunnels and it was on the bottom so i put a paper plate down an tipped her cage up side down slowly dumped it all out cupped her...
alot of it when working with these guys try to be a step ahead and just common sense with em
H.minax female 7inch
H.lividum female 5inch
H.albo N.A 2 inch
 

Formerphobe

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Get a large bucket, or other container, hold the tank facing down into the bucket and shake until the substrate and spider fall out into the bucket. Then put a cricket tub over the spider and secure the lid.

Takes about 20 seconds.
Hmmm.... I had considered something similar to this.

alot of it when working with these guys try to be a step ahead and just common sense with em
Some of them plot against us. The best laid plans often go awry...
 

Lopez

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i get what you are saying, but no matter who you are on this earth, clumsy or super calm, accidents happen...you could lose your grip or anything...and buckets can be knocked over on accident too, without meaning to or being clumsy...and yeah if the T bolts you could catch it, but what happens when it bolts up your arm? or right under the falling tank or bucket? and i believe that some T's would bolt in that situation, not just a H. lividum....like is always said, every T has their own personality, so 1 might bolt, 1 might hide, 1 might rear up
I do understand your concerns, but look - you (and in this whole post, my use of the word "you" is not specifically aimed at you, more the spider community as a whole) cross the road all the time, right? And you use an iron without taking half your skin off? You can walk round a harbour without staggering into the water?

Yes, you could knock over a bucket or lose your grip, but only if you were utterly careless, had no control over your motor functions, or were not paying any attention to the task at hand, but it's not exactly likely is it?
You can "what if" forever, what if you were rehoming a spider and all of a sudden there was an earthquake, what if you were digging out a Haplopelma and a truck blasted it's horn outside and you rammed the forceps through it's abdomen, what if you were doing your little operation in the bath and the tap failed and flooded the bath with water, what if you were sitting there with your high powered lights in a virtually surgical environment carrying out a high pressure rehoming when a fuse went and plunged you into darkness?
You get the picture I'm sure.

At the end of the day, we are talking about shaking a little fish tank of mud into a bucket, if you can't get that right then maybe you should look into a hobby that requires less skill, like listening to music or something ;)
 

catfishrod69

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yes i completely understand....you are right...many variables in any rehousing situation...i just consider the tub to be best, and digging the most of the time when you spook them enough come to the top and stop...just my personal preference..sorry i seemed to be saying that your way of rehousing was completely the worst, cause its not



I do understand your concerns, but look - you (and in this whole post, my use of the word "you" is not specifically aimed at you, more the spider community as a whole) cross the road all the time, right? And you use an iron without taking half your skin off? You can walk round a harbour without staggering into the water?

Yes, you could knock over a bucket or lose your grip, but only if you were utterly careless, had no control over your motor functions, or were not paying any attention to the task at hand, but it's not exactly likely is it?
You can "what if" forever, what if you were rehoming a spider and all of a sudden there was an earthquake, what if you were digging out a Haplopelma and a truck blasted it's horn outside and you rammed the forceps through it's abdomen, what if you were doing your little operation in the bath and the tap failed and flooded the bath with water, what if you were sitting there with your high powered lights in a virtually surgical environment carrying out a high pressure rehoming when a fuse went and plunged you into darkness?
You get the picture I'm sure.

At the end of the day, we are talking about shaking a little fish tank of mud into a bucket, if you can't get that right then maybe you should look into a hobby that requires less skill, like listening to music or something ;)
 

spiderengineer

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I realize this is an old thread but while it has been bump up I am curios if anybody has try the flooding method. I mean not just literally flooding the burrow, but generating a small trickle of water to simulate the on coming potential of a flood to coaxes the Haplopelma out. I saw it down in a nat geo video that was posted on here a few months ago, in the video a park ranger in africa did this method to an baboon species and it work pretty well and seem super simple. so I was wondering if anybody has done it. I was thinking about try this but none of my haplopelmas need rehousing yet.
 

zonbonzovi

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^Works great...unless you're unlucky enough to flood during a molt that you're unaware of.
 

bloodred1889

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Just went through hell...
was rehousing/cleaning out my Haplopelma lividum female, its been years and she was in a roughly 7x7x15 inch tank, so a tall and thin tank with a very deep burrow.
firstly I tried lopez's method of dumping soil into a bucket, but the soil would not budge, some did but it just would not come out, so I tried the flooding method, but the T was being really stubborn, in the end it was a digging/flooding dumping kinda effort, which made me feel like a complete novice!
The main reason it was such a mess was because I was afraid i would hurt her or the soil would squash her, but she is tougher then I thought.
I'm not a tarantula keeper novice, but i guess I'm a digging burrowers out novice :(
plus... I will have to do it again someday...
I just want my Cobolt to be happy.

<--- Tired!
 

bloodred1889

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In fact here is a picture of her tank, the reason the soil was so hard to dump out is because the top of the tank had a lip around the edge which stopped the flow of soil. Just the stupid way the tank was made by a friend. :p

View attachment 113176
 

spiderengineer

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i need to start thinking about investing in tanks like that those are perfect for burrowing species and don't take up space horizontally. to bad I would have to make them
 
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