Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens arrival

[Tryfn]

The tubs are 250ml deli containers with approx 40 pin holes for ventilation.
Substrate is dry coir.
Bottle cap for water.
GBB's are approx 1cm and arrive tomorrow.
Is this looking okay? Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Mojo288]

Congratulations, beautiful spider. My only suggestion would be for the substrate, it looks like it has some bigger pieces that you would want to take out. I'm not sure if there's a difference between coco fiber and coir, but i find mixing it with some plain top soil makes it easier to tamp down, i personally have a GBB sling on pure coco fiber because i ran out of top soil and its a bit too fluffy for my liking even after a lot of tamping down, the soil will help firm up the footing. For the size of your container the fake plant will provide a decent amount of anchor points for webbing, but if you have some wooden skewers break it into smaller pieces and fill in that top right area a bit for a couple more (i prefer small broken cork bark pieces but the skewers work just as well).

 

[Tryfn]

Thanks for the input. Coir and coco fibre are the same, I'll try and rremove some of the lumps. Wooden skewers/cork bark is a good idea I'll see about adding some.

 

[Tryfn]

A couple more questions:
Should the substrate be damp for slings at 1cm?
Could the container also be better if I it was smaller?

 

[Mojo288]

Smaller enclosure promote prey predator interaction, but with Chro. cyanopubescens, i'v never had feeding issues. As long as the item is dropped on some webbing, it will pounce. I have a 3/4 inch sling in an enclosure about the same size, just square. As for dampening the substrate, i don't for this genus. I just make sure they have a relatively large water dish always topped off and clean.

 

[Tryfn]

They arrived Friday morning and no signs of webbing yet. Am I too impatient or do they take time to settle?
All were offered a pre killed cricket yesterday. I've seen one sling with a cricket, hard to tell if the others have touched theirs.

 

[Mojo288]

no webbing what so ever? or only a little?

 

[Mojo288]

This is one of my Gbb's, it has been in this enclosure for exactly 1 week now, you can see dry sub, some anchor points and a big dish, hes not eating right now (uneaten wax worm), but you can see the bald spot in the second pic so im pretty sure hes in premolt , and hes sitting in a web hammock.

 

[Tryfn]

There is a little webbing. Guess they're just taking time to settle. Thanks for the pictures. I still need to add some more anchor points

 

[Tryfn]

Found this in another thread. "GBB sudden death,no curl,no molt."
Thoughts?

People, this was a 1cm specimen...at this size damp sub would indeed be advisable as its not quite an arid specimen yet.

cold blood, May 29, 2017

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Actually 'GBB' are kinda hardy even as slings... don't worry too much.

Personally I always offered to those just a couple of (room temperature) drops of water sometimes, until the cage-upgrade for add a water dish.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

View attachment 249270 View attachment 249271
Is this looking okay? Any suggestions welcome.

The set up is ok for a sling of such size, even if, personally, I would had used something just a bit slightly taller.

 

[Mojo288]

Found this in another thread. "GBB sudden death,no curl,no molt."
Thoughts?

I can't really say anything to disprove that statement, i can only provide you with information that pertains to how i have been able to successfully rear this species from a sling. That being said, i'm pretty sure cold blood has more experience and time working with T's than i do, but i have not had issues with my setup at all. Also something to keep in mind is whether or not a water dish is included, at this size many keepers use enclosure that are small, making it difficult to fit a water dish. As i said, i like to use a relatively large water dish, the more surface area the water has, the more it can evaporate and thus boost humidity. If your T is gravitating towards the water dish all the time, you would probably need to dampen the substrate a little, but i don't think that is the case here. Some T's need more time to settle in than others, and sometimes slings, especially at this size, die for unknown reasons even when kept properly as other posts in that thread mentioned.

 

[cold blood]

yeah, i wouldnt keep it damp, but i would dampen an area till its an inch.