Canadian Gold

[kosh]

while in Lowes yesterday i went ahead and bought a bag of Canadian Gold peat moss.....
so now i need to know.....what is the most popular/successful mix ratio with Vermiculite??
:?

 

[Cronoss]

To tell you the truth .i've had the best luck with straight vermiculite.it doe'nt mold.and if a cricket dies &starts growing
fungus.it will not spread.plus it holds moister longer than peat.
just my opinion.

 

[Botar]

The substrate topic is one in which you will get a lot of different answers. Along the lines of the mix, I've heard of people having success with a 75% peat 25% vermiculite mixture. That may give you a starting point, but eventually you'll wind up with what works for you.

Botar

 

[Code Monkey]

For slight moist to dry species I go with 1:1, for moist species I up it in favor of verm to a 3:2 verm/peat ratio. But that's me.

 

[kosh]

mmmmdonuts.....well to tell you the truth i have my adult male G. rosea on 100% verm right now.....and although what you say is true about verm vs. peat....about all my spider can do is bulldoze the stuff around (which he does frequently) so i want to try a peat/verm mix to give him a chance to burrow if he wants to.....i have some B. albopilosum slings that are on 100% peat and they burrow like mad....i hardly get to see several of them but the stuff (peat) does tend to get stinky after a while and it has molded a little when cricket parts stay on it too long.......so there again maybe some sort of verm/peat mix might be better....

heres an idea...since i keep my G. rosea in a 10 gallon tank i could put 100% peat on one side of it and the other side 100% verm and put a verm/peat mix in the middle and see what the spider prefers!!......might be a pain in da butt to do that though....

 

[Botar]

Kosh,

Sounds like an interesting experiment. I'd be interested in hearing how that turns out.

Botar

 

[Joy]

Originally posted by Botar
Kosh,

Sounds like an interesting experiment. I'd be interested in hearing how that turns out.

Botar

I'd be interested in hearing, too. But knowing the inherent ingratitude of arachnids, I predict your spider will turn up its (figurative) nose at both substrates, bulldoze a bare spot on the floor, and sit on that!

Joy

 

[looseyfur]

bed-a-beast

any thoughts on bed-a-beast?
heres something odd to think about I went to home depot and ask the woman in the garden section for a bag of verm, she stated that HD doesnt carry it anymore cause it has asbestos in it... go figure. perhaps she was just high- but I couldnt find a bag of verm there to save my life. IE the bed-a-beast which is pretty well received and is a good substrate for digging or "bulldozin" T's cause its not prone to cave in if its a bit damp...

Ed

 

[Code Monkey]

Re: bed-a-beast

Originally posted by looseyfur
any thoughts on bed-a-beast?
heres something odd to think about I went to home depot and ask the woman in the garden section for a bag of verm, she stated that HD doesnt carry it anymore cause it has asbestos in it... go figure. perhaps she was just high- but I couldnt find a bag of verm there to save my life. IE the bed-a-beast which is pretty well received and is a good substrate for digging or "bulldozin" T's cause its not prone to cave in if its a bit damp...

Ed

They don't carry it because of a misleading asbestos scare from the EPA. Neither does Wal-Mart and Target, and I'm sure a bunch of other stores. Scott's no longer makes any product with vermiculite. I've posted on this several times so you'll get the short version:

Asbestos was detected in four vermiculite mines within the U.S., a subsequent random sampling found trace amounts in about 15% of commercial products. The end.
The amounts were *barely* detectable and did not exceed any legal limits. The vast majority of verm does not have any asbestos in it, and for that which does, it is believed that it is impossible to get it into the body in any which is harmful. I suppose that if you grind it all into powder and snort a quart of it a day, maybe. Of course you'll die of asphyxiation long before the asbestos does anything to you.

Ace Hardware, any feedstore, and most garden stores still carry it. just don't expect to find it at most big chain stores which are more concerned about what their lawyers tell them than what the customer wants.

 

[Code Monkey]

Bed-A-Beast, aka ground coconut coir is ok in my experience for dry species. If it's kept wet it can support scuttle flies like you wouldn't believe. Some people swear by it for moist species, but I don't like it. What I haven't tried is the "mulched" coconut coir like T-Rex Bark. I think I'm going to give that stuff a try one of these days.

 

[jwb121377]

Lowes sells vemiculite for $2.79 a bag here in the Washington Dc area. It's the only major chain I have found it at.

 

[Cronoss]

I agree with joy lol=D
lets see what happens.

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by kosh
heres an idea...since i keep my G. rosea in a 10 gallon tank i could put 100% peat on one side of it and the other side 100% verm and put a verm/peat mix in the middle and see what the spider prefers!!......might be a pain in da butt to do that though....

This is an interesting idea as others have pointed out. The only catch is that for you to know what influenced the spider to do what, you'll need to repeat it with the placement of the different mixes in different places to rule out spatial preference in the tank rather than the substrate itself being the deciding factor.

 

[kosh]

good point CM.....i guess i would also have to remove the artificial burrow so there would be no bias towards that either...for the past few months he has stayed on or near his web pad next to the artificial burrow...only in the past few days has he bulldozed a depression on the other side of the artificial burrow and been hanging out there......but he has been really bulldozing alot the last 3 days or so......actually an unusual amount...so im not really sure whats up with him right now.....thats what prompted me to get the peat....i was thinking his sudden increase in activity might mean he wants to try and build a burrow or something....it did drop several degrees below 70° in his tank a few nights ago (for a night or two consecutively)...so perhaps the temperature drop signalled him to get underground?!?

i also think that even though the experiment might be interesting....it might take a significant period of time with each variation on the setup and the spider is a mature male (ultimate as of 1st week of 06/02)....so im not sure if he would be around long enough to see the experiment to its fruition!?!?
but i dont know....how long will/could he live after his ultimate moult??

 

[Joy]

Originally posted by kosh

how long will/could he live after his ultimate moult??

Grammastola males are famously long-lived. In general you can count on their living at least one year after maturing, and two is not uncommon IME.

Joy