Cyriocosmus ritae care
- Thread starter MaskFac3
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SamuraiSid
Arachnodemon
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2010
- Messages
- 758
there are two dominating philosophies with T's in general. The "naturalist" approach and the "captive" approach. Naturalists will throw around temp, humidity, sub depth, etc at you, as these are the conditions the T's live in the wild. But keep in mind, your T's arent in the wild.
The "captive" approach is maintaining simplicity in care for a T, and I expand below:
Temperature is largley irrelavent, just keep it at room temp (60F - 85F) and know they could likely survive more than this, although that would be considered extreme.
Humidity is an issue depending on age of the T. Slings are more prone to disecciation than mature speciemens. For the sling, maintain slightly moist sub, adults will do fine in bone dry conditions with only a waterdish and well hydrated feeders. If an adult has been kept at higher temps, they need to be acclimatized to bone dry conditions, but this is a simple task. The popular thing to do is mist every so often, however the likelyhood of infestation increases dramatically, and overall maintenance goes up. If you have any intention of keeping more than a few T's, I highly suggest you acquaint yourself with the KISS method. (Keep It Stupid Simple).
You could succesfuly keep this species on 1" of substrate while providing an appropriate sized hide. If your interest is to allow for burrowing keep in mind this dwarfen beauty may spend more time out of sight than you will enjoy. 3"-5" of sub for burrowing, ensuring its packed down tightly. With any type of coco coir I suggest adding 2" give it a light spray, and stamp it down. Repeat until you get the desired depth.
The "captive" approach is maintaining simplicity in care for a T, and I expand below:
Temperature is largley irrelavent, just keep it at room temp (60F - 85F) and know they could likely survive more than this, although that would be considered extreme.
Humidity is an issue depending on age of the T. Slings are more prone to disecciation than mature speciemens. For the sling, maintain slightly moist sub, adults will do fine in bone dry conditions with only a waterdish and well hydrated feeders. If an adult has been kept at higher temps, they need to be acclimatized to bone dry conditions, but this is a simple task. The popular thing to do is mist every so often, however the likelyhood of infestation increases dramatically, and overall maintenance goes up. If you have any intention of keeping more than a few T's, I highly suggest you acquaint yourself with the KISS method. (Keep It Stupid Simple).
You could succesfuly keep this species on 1" of substrate while providing an appropriate sized hide. If your interest is to allow for burrowing keep in mind this dwarfen beauty may spend more time out of sight than you will enjoy. 3"-5" of sub for burrowing, ensuring its packed down tightly. With any type of coco coir I suggest adding 2" give it a light spray, and stamp it down. Repeat until you get the desired depth.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2010
- Messages
- 184
I have a C. ritae. She's a cute lil' thing--about 1". I keep her in a yogurt parfait cup from Chickfila, with holes poked in it for ventilation, mostly coco coir and some sphagnum moss for its anti-fungal properties. The coir is kept damp and she has little burrows all over the place. I see her a lot thanks to the nice clear plastic of the cup. (I call her a "her"--molts have been too tiny to sex. 
)
I agree with what Samurai Sid said...I think humidity and temp is given a little too much emphasis.
All my Ts are kept at room temp. I';d say the hottest their room gets is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Slings are kept damp, juvies and adult desert species are kept dry with a water dish, and the H. lividum is kept 1/2 wet, 1/2 dry (his burrow side) with a water dish.
)I agree with what Samurai Sid said...I think humidity and temp is given a little too much emphasis.
All my Ts are kept at room temp. I';d say the hottest their room gets is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Slings are kept damp, juvies and adult desert species are kept dry with a water dish, and the H. lividum is kept 1/2 wet, 1/2 dry (his burrow side) with a water dish.
Tonys spiders
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2011
- Messages
- 136
C ritae is a peru species and its fairly humid in peru. I agree as far as temperature goes, as this can vary in nature aswell, but i do not reccomend keeping them dry with a water dish as ive had a few have hard times molting when i was away for 2 weeks or so and one molted unexpectedly, it was to dry and had part of the abdonimal exuvium stuck when i came home. Id reccomend misting a small section of the cage to keep a portion moist. I often see my sellatus, bertae, and ritae at night hover over damp spots and digging in the moist areas more often than the drier.
Just my 2 cents though.
Tony
Just my 2 cents though.
Tony