Calista my first Tarantula...a Singapore Blue L violaceapes affair

[Meng Lee Khaw]

So I had a dekko of the T's up on sale last week on our local version of Craigslist. Some chap was selling a 4.5" female Singapore Blue. Did a bit of reading and decided to take the challenge up.

I got a bunch of substrate made up of coconut husk, peat and soil. Some plastic flower pots, a hot glue gun, some dried moss and a vertical terrarium.

Cut the pots into halves and glued them into a tower to make a hide and covered it with moss. It was a sort of "L" shaped structure with the lower part buried in the substrate to provide a deeper hide.

Went to pick the girl up and this was the box she was in...

I didn't notice it at first but later when I got home and unboxed her I noticed tiny maggots in her enclosure. Not to mention she'd been kept in this box for a long time. It kinda cheesed me off that the previous owner kept it in such a condition.

She was a little sluggish and too a bit of prodding to get her into the new enclosure(this really surprised me as I was expecting a lot of speed and skittishness!).

Here she is in the new tank!

She sat in this corner next to the water dish for an hour or so before slowly moving around to the back of the enclosure.

The last I saw of her before knocking off to bed was he perching on the backboard near the hide. Fingers crossed!

Next morning I saw she had settled into the hide. Headed off to work but could think of nothing but how to improve the tank. When I got home there was no peek from her. I could see she was still in her hide and had webbed the floor up. Nevermind, at least she's settling in! Picked a few dubia roaches on the way back, dropped one in and didn't hear anything...thought maybe she missed it so I dropped a second one in...heard a bit of scuffling and so took a peek...saw she had both roaches in her clutches...okay, she's a greedy bint...lol

Next few days ware the same. Occupied with thoughts on how to improve the enclosure. Heh, on the way home I stopped by a strangling fig tree to grab a few vines, stopped by the local pet store too for some silk leaves and more moss.
(Note to all: Strangling fig vines have a sticky sap...driving back home with hands literally glued to the steering wheel)

A bit of snipping here and there, a spot of glue and some patience and viola!


I read on a few blogs that putting in more foliage and cover encourages Blues to come out more often. So I had my fingers crossed that this would lure her out.

The next day I saw this!

When I approached closer to have a better peek she scuttled back down but heck, this was progress. Gave her the biggest dubia I had and she destroyed it!

All this while she'd been munching away at 3 roaches and I was expecting some compressed ball of roach carcasses to be dropped out at some point. So yesterday when I got back from work I found a marble sized stinky ball of squished roaches outside her hide. Some fruit flies were hovering around it and some tiny ants had got in too.

Spent the next hour ant proofing the tank with a talcum powder rubbing alcohol mix. Also sprayed some peppermint oil around the window area where the ants came from. Killed all the stragglers.

Quite a bit of activity so I expected her to be well spooked but later in the evening she came out for a wander.


Eee...bright light!


After this pic was taken she sauntered over to the glass pane on the right and promptly did her business all over the glass...it looked like there was some kind of ninja pigeon doing kung-fu sniper shits in the tank.

She then wandered on a jolly circuit, climbing under the mesh, around the tank, etc

Looks like she's all settled in!

Updates to follow

 

[Misty Day]

She looks much happier in her new enclosure! Id watch the mesh on the top of the cage though, T's have been known to chew through it and escape. She's beautiful.

 

[Kymura]

Her enclosure looks beautiful
Shame how she was kept.
Very curious about the talc alcohol thing for the ants?

 

[Meng Lee Khaw]

Her enclosure looks beautiful
Shame how she was kept.
Very curious about the talc alcohol thing for the ants?

Hi Kymura,

Thanks!

Yeah, I learnt about a few ways to keep ants out via Ants Canada's youtube page. You can use vaseline but some ants may be able to cross over it. Talc mixed with rubbing alcohol basically saturates the talc into a quick drying liquid so you can paint a nice film of talc on the surface. Most bugs, let alone ants find trouble getting a grip and fall off. I have a OBT enclosure where I lined the top of the tank with this mix...I didn't realise the OBT was semi arboreal so had to take emergency measures to make sure it didn't make a hide up top as this was a top lid tank(am going to modify it to a mesh lid and then I can get rid of the talc barrier.

The final product that is a surefire stop measure is liquid fluon, which you can buy from amazon and eBay. You have to apply this in one go, like the talc alcohol solution, if you paint back over it screws up the line.

 

[Meng Lee Khaw]

She looks much happier in her new enclosure! Id watch the mesh on the top of the cage though, T's have been known to chew through it and escape. She's beautiful.

Thanks! Yeah, she wanders around a fair bit from time to time...will definitely keep an eye out on the mesh!

 

[Kymura]

Hi Kymura,

Thanks!

Yeah, I learnt about a few ways to keep ants out via Ants Canada's youtube page. You can use vaseline but some ants may be able to cross over it. Talc mixed with rubbing alcohol basically saturates the talc into a quick drying liquid so you can paint a nice film of talc on the surface. Most bugs, let alone ants find trouble getting a grip and fall off. I have a OBT enclosure where I lined the top of the tank with this mix...I didn't realise the OBT was semi arboreal so had to take emergency measures to make sure it didn't make a hide up top as this was a top lid tank(am going to modify it to a mesh lid and then I can get rid of the talc barrier.

The final product that is a surefire stop measure is liquid fluon, which you can buy from amazon and eBay. You have to apply this in one go, like the talc alcohol solution, if you paint back over it screws up the line.

Thanks SO much, definitely going to give this a try. We have ants so badly here we literally had an exterminator come out. Said they are Argentine ant, (doesn't mean a thing to me) anyway, they infest everything and I worry constantly over my T's

 

[Meng Lee Khaw]

Thanks SO much, definitely going to give this a try. We have ants so badly here we literally had an exterminator come out. Said they are Argentine ant, (doesn't mean a thing to me) anyway, they infest everything and I worry constantly over my T's

Yeah, I get tiny little ghost and crazy ants. They ignored my T's the next day but climbed over box housing my King Baboon to get to the box with my feeder crickets. They were attacking and eating the crickets in moult.

Here's a video from Ant's Canada talking about fluon(Check out his vids, though ants aren't my thing, his vids are fascinating!). Most importantly is to store it in a dark place and not shake it to mix it up. Instead turn it upside down slowly every 4 weeks or so. Also, it helps if you mix it with water before application.

Here's a vid on proper mixing preparation and application.