CodeWilster's Enclosures-Picture Thread

[CodeWilster]

I've got so many pics and seem to be working on more display tanks every now and then and so I figured I'd just get a thread going for just pictures of my tarantulas' enclosures. Hope you guys enjoy, you all seemed to really like the blondi enclosure Thanks! And for those who have not yet seen it, it will be in this thread, along with many others!!!

Ok let's get started, hmmm which one first.....ok why not, let's start this off with the 54 gallon corner tank housing an adult female Theraphosa blondi, a bunch of ferns, moss, pitcher plant, and I'm sure a couple Jaguars and South American natives are in there somewhere too. I call it "French Guyana". It's a 54 gallon bowfront tank with a Coralife double dual bulb compact lighting system. (Using a 420 nm actinic dual bulb and a 10,000k dual daylight bulb---so many people ask so there you go). Anyway enough fluff here's the pics...

A couple side shots:

Here's her burrow entrance:

Here's a pic of the ground at the front of the tank:

And one last front shot:

I'll have to post an updated pic later, those little ferns on the ground are a couple inches taller now, and the largest ferns have grown more and longer leaves spreading horizontally since then. I'm going to upload some more picturse here in just a sec, I think I'll do my smaller planted tanks...

 

[CodeWilster]

These two tanks are not connected. They are both planted 10 gallon hexagon tanks side by side, all I use for these is a standard aquarium flourescent lighting system (one bulb) that is about 24" and so covers both tanks. The tank to the right with the yellow bromeliad houses a subadult female Cyriopagopus sp. "blue". The other has no T in it yet, I want to put a C. schioedtei in it if I can find a female in the near future. That one is decorated with ivy and bamboo pieces. This one has a bromeliad that is doing very well, the smaller plants on the bottom are not getting enought light though.

Sorry for the water spots on the glass, was too lazy to clean them off before taking the pic

 

[CodeWilster]

As simple as this one is, it is one of my favorites. Especially with the impressive turret burrow this T made; which by the way is an Ephebopus murinus, lol, get it???

5.5 gallon. No plants. No lighting. One skull. One Skeleton

No idea why I had my hand in the pic, so I'll just say I did it for a size comparison to the burrow

 

[CodeWilster]

I might consider remodeling this tank. It's really nice just not sure if I'm happy with it. I could make it more like the blondi enclosure above which to me would be awesome, and this way I could use bigger ferns and stuff, but I dunno tell me what you guys think.

Right now, it is destined to be a Pokie tank. It is my former fish tank, a 150 gallon tall aquarium, with custom made glass dividers that break it into four separate tanks, each planted with ferns and some nice cork additions. The far right division currently holds a P. regalis female. One tank to the left houses a P. metallica adult female. Second from left holds what I think is a subadult male P. miranda. The far left is empty, but I do have a P. subfusca female that after about two more molts from now should be big enough for it.
Sorry for the photo quality on these ones...

Here is the P. regalis side. Sorry for the water spots again (sucks having well water in my area, at least for plants and glass)

Here she is (in case you guys were starting to wonder if there actually are any Ts in these tanks lol):

Here's the maybe future P. subfusca side of the tank:

And here's a pic of my metallica in her section, I think this was about 2 molts ago.

 

[CodeWilster]

Alright I'm getting tired of uploading and that's the bulk of my non-plastic deli cup tanks anyway. Here's the last few setups, both are supposed to be desert (no live cacti though lol). This first one is for my B. emelia female. She actually does not live in this tank anymore, I keep her in a deli cup inside of it simply because it is too big for her. When she gets bigger I'll let her out, like I did for these pics. The tank was supposed to represent the bankside of a riverbed.

She's a little shy...

Ok and lastly for now, here's my tank for an Aphonopelma sp. "Flagstaff" female. She is also very shy...

Enjoy, everybody!!! I'm currently working on a 30 gallon tall tank for a P. rufilata. I've got this monster cork piece for it, and will set it up similar to my other Pokie tanks above.

I am also working on a 55 gallon tank for my living room. The process is going quite smoothly, all I have left to do is get the tank! lol I want it to turn out like the blondi tank (but this will be a 55 gallon or maybe bigger) but it will be a rectangular tank, housing an M. mesomelas since my living room is much cooler than anywhere else. Will definitely be adding more pics to this thread either way. Thanks and please post a lot of questions and comments!!!!

 

[Koh_]

that's really impressive!!! i wish i could set up like that. wow
very nice especially the enclosure for ur t.blondi

 

[CodeWilster]

that's really impressive!!! i wish i could set up like that. wow
very nice especially the enclosure for ur t.blondi

Thanks! It kind of happened on accident, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any heart put into it (meaning time, money, experience, motivation, space, etc) I was lucky to find the right inhabitants for it the first time, and at this point, it stays the way it looks all of the time and all I ever really need to do is spray it down and turn the light(s) on!!!

 

[Arachnobrian]

Very impressive.

Now I want to try a planted tank. lol

 

[calum]

amazing tanks! It must make observing your T's so much more pleasurable, when they interact with the enviroment and all that.

 

[CodeWilster]

amazing tanks! It must make observing your T's so much more pleasurable, when they interact with the enviroment and all that.

Keyword WHEN they do lol. I kind of regret digging that burrow for the blondi. The brachys, aphonopelmas and pokies are always visible though

 

[jasen&crystal]

great setup's cody, i love the bow front.

 

[glenoweth]

What kind of plants are in it? Did you buy some sead for the small ferns? If you dont mind think you can list some of the plants. thanks

 

[CodeWilster]

What kind of plants are in it? Did you buy some sead for the small ferns? If you dont mind think you can list some of the plants. thanks

I'm assuming "sead" was a typo for seed lol and no I didn't buy any seeds. They started growing after I planted the ferns, I'm almost certain they are just fern spores. If I remember correctly the ferns in the T blondi tank are called "Korean Rock Fern", Polystichum tsu-simense the other plant is just a regular pitcher plant you often see at grocery stores, home depot, etc. (Sarracenia sp. purpurea?) The ferns in the 150 gallon are called "Tassle Fern" Polystichum polyblepharum.
All I really did while selecting plants was choose those that do well in bright indoor lighting (many house plants generally do), ones that did not grow too large (the K. Rock Ferns only get a foot and a half to two feet tall), and ones that can tolerate warm and humid conditions. If you get them from a decent source they will have a little label with this kind of info.

 

[CodeWilster]

Update

I was going to do a good trimming/clean up on all the planted tanks but I figured I'd throw up some pics first. I went back and looked at the old pics and I couldn't believe the plant growth!!! Check it out!

The bromeliad in the 10 hex is starting to lose it's canary yellow color, however two new shoots are coming out on the sides.

The ivy in the other hex is growing pretty well too. One shoot decided to pop out of a hole in the screen, I decided to leave it alone for kicks...(see third pic below)

I'm working on uploading the new blondi enclosure pics now...

 

[CodeWilster]

I was forced to change the lighting system but the plants as you can see didn't mind. All the tank has now is a standard flourescent strip light with a "flora-glo" bulb. The moss is starting to decompose and has turned more of a brownish red color, part of the color is due to lighting though. There are a few tiny snails in there, as well as little rollie pollies and wood lice (isopods). I even saw a little jumper (Phidippus sp) taking it easy in there. What's funny is I never inroduced any of those!!! I have not been able to find a single bit of fungus/mold in there either which is awesome. This big jungle tank is literally its own ecosystem and pretty much takes care of itself. The blondi has not dropped a sac yet, I'm starting to wonder if there was ever an actual insertion. You would not believe how fat she is though, and she is still eating. Still lots of hope!!! Anyway enough yappin' here's the pics...

Here's an outside view:

Other views...

Those little ferns have gotten much bigger!

Here are some comparison pics of a few months ago and now...
ferns spores then,

ferns spores now

blondi's burrow entrance then...

burrow entrance now lol

 

[CodeWilster]

Oh and I almost forgot!!! I took down my old 150 gallon show tank and sold it to my brother (he set it up with Jaguar Cichlids, Leopard Cat, Rainbow Arowana, and a Clown Knife). It was a bit too excessive for four pokies don't ya think? Anyway after being inspired by Syndicate (thanks Chris! and all the others who posted in my "How do you store your monster T collection" thread!!!) I put up a few heavy duty plastic shelving units and ordered a zillion different sizes of plastic tubs from superior enterprise and found somebody local with the plastic 1-gallon jars. Everything is sooo much easier to view, feed, water, clean, etc I love it. Better yet, I could potentially triple or quadruple my collection size (and then after that, start adding more layers to the shelves to fit MORE ts, we've got 14ft ceilings hehe )

<edit> Because I just posted so many pics this thread just skipped to another page, go back one page to see an update and all of the other pics I just posted!!!

 

[Sky`Scorcher]

So awesome!. Your T.Blondi tank looked like you really dug that part out of the amazon.

And the rest are just wow.:worship:

I'm currently working on decorating my tanks as well.

 

[CodeWilster]

So awesome!. Your T.Blondi tank looked like you really dug that part out of the amazon.

And the rest are just wow.:worship:

I'm currently working on decorating my tanks as well.

Thanks! Maybe you could steal some ideas from this thread, or better yet make a cooler tank therefore I have to go and make something new etc. etc. lol

I should also mention that I still have a couple more coming. I still have a 20 long with a 3d background that is just sitting in the garage all brand new and untouched. I think I'm going to put a small broad-leafed plant on one side next to a medium sized log, then try to get some baby tears (or something similar) to cover the bottom and that's it. Oh and to that COPYRIGHT 3-24-09 Cody Will lol jk

I've got a 29 gallon tall tank I don't know what to do with also. I'm sure I'll plant it in some way too. So, yeah this is not the end of this picture thread just yet

 

[shrub1972]

Questions about the 150 gallon tank

How was the 150 gallon tank to clean? Did you have to take all the spiders out at once or did you clean one section at a time, or did it matter? Just wondering because those pics you posted looked great and I thought it was a good idea to save space. I probably (now I say this) will only have 5-6 t's at a time, so a setup like this would work well for me. What's your thoughts?

 

[CodeWilster]

How was the 150 gallon tank to clean? Did you have to take all the spiders out at once or did you clean one section at a time, or did it matter? Just wondering because those pics you posted looked great and I thought it was a good idea to save space. I probably (now I say this) will only have 5-6 t's at a time, so a setup like this would work well for me. What's your thoughts?

I spot cleaned it every once and a while. Biggest thing was keeping it moist for the plants yet keeping it completely ventilated. I never touched the pokies they just kind of hung out behind their cork. They never made a run for it. Feeding them was kind of a pain because it meant grabbing a stool, taking the strip lights off, taking the screen off, and trying to get a cricket to land right in front of the Ts. However, I loved it until the spiders started to flow out of my ears. It fit the four pokes plus 12 5.5 gallon tanks (in the custom stand). For just a few Ts it was an incredible and excessive setup but when I realized I could fit 100x more spiders with the set up I have now, it was a sacrafice I was willing to make