DIY Tarantula enclosures

[MxVMorningstar]

I ended up receiving a 5gal fish tank and a smaller container for free for my future spiders, which I hope to get by mid January. I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts? I ended up drilling holes into them.

I know that the 5gal may be a lil too big and bc of that i may need to add more substrate and/or hides.. but lmk what you think!

The smaller container is 7 inches by 4.5 inches. It has holes on the front, back, sides, and top, and will only be used temporarily.

Im hoping to get a fulfilling life for my 5gal.

-

Doing a few days test to see how humidity is and if it need more or less ventilation. On hour 30 and so far it's done well! Both are damo but not wet, no condensation but I may need very small heater near by and to get a temp reader as well because it's very cold where I am rn.

5gal- 18 holes on top, front 15 holes, sides 6 holes each, back 5 holes. For a G. Pulchstripes sling

Small- 6 holes on top, 4 on back , 4 on front, 3 on each side. Tenp home for giant white knee sling.


We are first time T owners. :>

 

[viper69]

Sure looks like they will escape

 

[Andrew Clayton]

I ended up receiving a 5gal fish tank and a smaller container for free for my future spiders, which I hope to get by mid January. I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts? I ended up drilling holes into them.

I know that the 5gal may be a lil too big and bc of that i may need to add more substrate and/or hides.. but lmk what you think!

The smaller container is 7 inches by 4.5 inches. It has holes on the front, back, sides, and top, and will only be used temporarily.

Im hoping to get a fulfilling life for my 5gal.

-

Doing a few days test to see how humidity is and if it need more or less ventilation. On hour 30 and so far it's done well! Both are damo but not wet, no condensation but I may need very small heater near by and to get a temp reader as well because it's very cold where I am rn.

5gal- 18 holes on top, front 15 holes, sides 6 holes each, back 5 holes. For a G. Pulchstripes sling

Small- 6 holes on top, 4 on back , 4 on front, 3 on each side. Tenp home for giant white knee sling.


We are first time T owners. :> View attachment 488888 View attachment 488889 View attachment 488890 View attachment 488885 View attachment 488886 View attachment 488887

When you say sling we need sizes as it could be smaller than 1cm and if so they are far too big, and you will be waiting a year or 2 before they are any use.
Here is a photo of a Nhandu Coloratovillosus sling in a 25ml pot so what you're seeing is only 2cm wide which is less than an inch and the T is just over 1cm.

These get to around 6 inches but nearly all T's are this small and smaller as slings.

 

[Mustafa67]

I ended up receiving a 5gal fish tank and a smaller container for free for my future spiders, which I hope to get by mid January. I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts? I ended up drilling holes into them.

I know that the 5gal may be a lil too big and bc of that i may need to add more substrate and/or hides.. but lmk what you think!

The smaller container is 7 inches by 4.5 inches. It has holes on the front, back, sides, and top, and will only be used temporarily.

Im hoping to get a fulfilling life for my 5gal.

-

Doing a few days test to see how humidity is and if it need more or less ventilation. On hour 30 and so far it's done well! Both are damo but not wet, no condensation but I may need very small heater near by and to get a temp reader as well because it's very cold where I am rn.

5gal- 18 holes on top, front 15 holes, sides 6 holes each, back 5 holes. For a G. Pulchstripes sling

Small- 6 holes on top, 4 on back , 4 on front, 3 on each side. Tenp home for giant white knee sling.


We are first time T owners. :> View attachment 488888 View attachment 488889 View attachment 488890 View attachment 488885 View attachment 488886 View attachment 488887

Bye bye tarantulas, they’re going through those holes

 

[Ratmosphere]

Deli cups will be your best friend until the tarantula reaches a proper size where it will not escape this kind of enclosure.

 

[fcat]

Can't give much feedback not knowing

Species (so we know the husbandry demands)
Size (so we know what size box it needs)

On the topic on safety...no closed shapes/circles/rounds/hearts, cut those in half...your T could get stuck in the heart of the hide when it gets larger. Might want to turn that one into the broken hearts club.

Opaque container...Any t that needs a hide that large will be too big for the container. Proportions are off, doesn't mean you need to go bigger, just means you don't need to utilize 40% of the floor space. Make sure you leave room for them to safely ambush their prey, molt, but not so much you lose them. You could keep the enclosure but swap out for a smaller hide.

Oh, a skull ... I haven't seen someone use one of those since Tuesday but that was because I didn't get on fake book yesterday. The tribal tattoos of habitat decor. All that is going to do is hurt your T or get it killed. No rocks, sharp objects, closed circles. You won't be able to cut your T out of that without killing it. If you want something appropriate for your T that may live in for literal decades, go natural. This will allow you to observe their natural behaviors and will prevent exposure to toxic substances or deteriorating synthetic materials. Things like cork bark are naturally mold resistant so it's a great material to use. It's also very lightweight. And can be cut how you see fit. There are other safe non-natural and cheap hides you can fashion as well, like PVC pipes from the plumbing section at your hardware store. Just cut them in half. No closed circles/shapes/polygons or hearts but look how I just turned that into two hides... Just smooth down the edges on that man made stuff and hope that they used safe chemicals when making it...once you expose whatever is under the toxic chemical sealant (paint) will no longer be sealed in. Or repurpose it.

Same thing with the fake plants. Make sure they are from tarantula safe fake plants dot com. I'm kidding...that site doesn't exist... No one is out there dedicating research to put a safety seal on a fake plant. Better route is the reptile or fish branded stuff, but you need to boil it still and make sure no dyes bleed out. Plastic plants are usually better. As long as they aren't sharp.

inaturalist is a real website that is scads of photos of specimens in the wild. Sometimes even pictures of their burrow entrances. Use that for inspiration when it comes to placement of things like hides and plants and ground cover. A webber will need anchor points, a burrower may only find them a nuisance and try to dig them up. A turret builder needs something it can easily carry and build into a permanent structure. Make sure they don't have sharp stakes. Or they may feel safe having cover...you'll just have to observe.

Vent holes need to be smaller than the carapace both in surface area (birds eye view) and height (side/profile view...and they are very thin!!)

 

[Introvertebrate]

...................Oh, a skull ... I haven't seen someone use one of those since Tuesday but that was because I didn't get on fake book yesterday. The tribal tattoos of habitat decor. ........................

I don't think you understand. We're scary people who keep scary animals. Decor-wise, we've got to stick with the scary motif as well. Hence the skull.

 

[MxVMorningstar]

When you say sling we need sizes as it could be smaller than 1cm and if so they are far too big, and you will be waiting a year or 2 before they are any use.
Here is a photo of a Nhandu Coloratovillosus sling in a 25ml pot so what you're seeing is only 2cm wide which is less than an inch and the T is just over 1cm.
View attachment 488894
These get to around 6 inches but nearly all T's are this small and smaller as slings.

Both slings are gonna be an 1in

A g. Pulchstripes and a giant white knee.
Luckily I do have a way to make the holes smaller until they get bigger

 

[Ratmosphere]

Yea those holes will be way too big for a 1". You can hot glue them shut or enough to keep an opening for a small air hole.

 

[MxVMorningstar]

Can't give much feedback not knowing

Species (so we know the husbandry demands)
Size (so we know what size box it needs)

On the topic on safety...no closed shapes/circles/rounds/hearts, cut those in half...your T could get stuck in the heart of the hide when it gets larger. Might want to turn that one into the broken hearts club.

Opaque container...Any t that needs a hide that large will be too big for the container. Proportions are off, doesn't mean you need to go bigger, just means you don't need to utilize 40% of the floor space. Make sure you leave room for them to safely ambush their prey, molt, but not so much you lose them. You could keep the enclosure but swap out for a smaller hide.

Oh, a skull ... I haven't seen someone use one of those since Tuesday but that was because I didn't get on fake book yesterday. The tribal tattoos of habitat decor. All that is going to do is hurt your T or get it killed. No rocks, sharp objects, closed circles. You won't be able to cut your T out of that without killing it. If you want something appropriate for your T that may live in for literal decades, go natural. This will allow you to observe their natural behaviors and will prevent exposure to toxic substances or deteriorating synthetic materials. Things like cork bark are naturally mold resistant so it's a great material to use. It's also very lightweight. And can be cut how you see fit. There are other safe non-natural and cheap hides you can fashion as well, like PVC pipes from the plumbing section at your hardware store. Just cut them in half. No closed circles/shapes/polygons or hearts but look how I just turned that into two hides... Just smooth down the edges on that man made stuff and hope that they used safe chemicals when making it...once you expose whatever is under the toxic chemical sealant (paint) will no longer be sealed in. Or repurpose it.

Same thing with the fake plants. Make sure they are from tarantula safe fake plants dot com. I'm kidding...that site doesn't exist... No one is out there dedicating research to put a safety seal on a fake plant. Better route is the reptile or fish branded stuff, but you need to boil it still and make sure no dyes bleed out. Plastic plants are usually better. As long as they aren't sharp.

inaturalist is a real website that is scads of photos of specimens in the wild. Sometimes even pictures of their burrow entrances. Use that for inspiration when it comes to placement of things like hides and plants and ground cover. A webber will need anchor points, a burrower may only find them a nuisance and try to dig them up. A turret builder needs something it can easily carry and build into a permanent structure. Make sure they don't have sharp stakes. Or they may feel safe having cover...you'll just have to observe.

Vent holes need to be smaller than the carapace both in surface area (birds eye view) and height (side/profile view...and they are very thin!!)

All of the plants are from a reptile shop here from where I'm from. We got stuff that wasn't too sharp.

As for the log, sadly it's not a real long so I don't think I could cut it :<

Mine luckily as the heart blocked bc I put a fake plant in the middle and there is literally no what a spider could fit through, and the other side which has a heart is buried under the dirt.

I used the skull bc I am rlly into..well skulls, but I am actually native lol. So like skull imagery is pretty important for me. I'll probably either take it out or block it from being able to get inside the skull, and soften the horns, which surprisingly is not sharp at all. They're very rounded despite how they look.

 

[MxVMorningstar]

Yea those holes will be way too big for a 1". You can hot glue them shut or enough to keep an opening for a small air hole.

Def will do that then! Thanks! Sadly only had one size for the holes. Ik it's alot to go thru but I love making my own stuff

 

[Ratmosphere]

Get a drill bit set, 1/16th bit is very useful for keeping tarantulas.

Think they're around $10 on Amazon.

 

[MxVMorningstar]

Bye bye tarantulas, they’re going through those holes

These are the size. Are these rlly too small? I have a way to make them smaller but just asking!

 

[Ratmosphere]

Yea it does look too small, at least in my opinion.

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Mine luckily as the heart blocked bc I put a fake plant in the middle and there is literally no what a spider could fit through, and the other side which has a heart is buried under the dirt.

Yeah you're sadly mistaken here if it wants to it's ripping that fake plant out and they will burrow so having it buried is no use either my advice get rid of it and buy some cork bark for a hide.

 

[Gevo]

Welcome! I see you're excited about your new additions and are doing everything you can to prepare for their arrival. That's wonderful! You say these will be 1-inch slings. That's pretty small, but also, it's sometimes hard to know exactly what size they are until you get them because the sizes advertised are approximations, molts can happen between being listed and being sold, etc.

Here are some general housing guidelines for young terrestrial tarantulas:
- Keep the length and width of the container to about 3-4 times the diagonal legspan of the spider (so, a 1-inch sling would do best in something that's 3-4 inches in length and width). This isn't an exact science or anything, but the reason you don't want to go too much bigger than that is because it can make it difficult for the tarantula to catch its prey (crickets and other fast-moving prey often get away and can hide for a long time in large enclosures). Also, larger containers are going to require deeper substrate, and some slings can then burrow down really deep and get lost in there, making it hard to monitor their health and development.
- Terrestrials are heavy bodied and prone to falls, which is why you see advice above to remove anything sharp and pointy. This also means that the substrate should be high enough that the spider has only about 1.5 times its diagonal legspan from the dirt to the ceiling. That way, if it goes wandering and climbs up onto the lid and then falls, it won't split open its abdomen on impact.
- Always provide a water dish. Most of us use bottle caps because they'll inevitably get buried and filled with dirt, especially by G. pulchripes. Don't worry so much about humidity.
- Tarantula abdomens are squishy and flexible, so they can fit through openings that are much smaller than most people think. A lot of people look at the booty and use that to judge what they can or can't squeeze through, but they can actually fit through anything they can get their carapace (head) through, so that's what you'll want to use to gauge the safety of those vent hole sizes. Generally, it's better to go for a larger number of smaller vent holes than a few larger ones.

Aside from the points about the pokey bits on the skull and the entrapment risk of the heart hole (when the tarantula is larger), the decor thing is entirely personal. Some people prefer sparser enclosures and might have different opinions of what to put in there, so here are some guidelines to help you separate what's about safety and what's about preference:
- Don't put anything sharp or heavy in. Falling on something sharp or hard can be fatal even if the substrate height is otherwise fine, and heavy objects can collapse burrows and crush the animal if it's underneath it when it happens. A good option is 3D printing for those who want skulls or other decor because these objects tend to be lightweight, and you can look for designs that don't have sharp points or open eyesockets and nose holes and such that spiders can get stuck in. If that interests you, check your local public library to see if they have a makerspace you can use.
- Plastic plants are fine, but silk or fabric plants can be dicey if they leak dye. Some people try real plants, but they tend to get dug up by the spider, and it's hard to keep plants alive without making things too muggy and soggy for the spider's wellbeing, so fake plants are generally preferable, especially for beginners.
- Don't use any dyed mosses or other decor. Buy things that are meant to be used with reptiles, not things from craft stores that are often sprayed with who-knows-what.
- Be mindful of clutter. It's okay to have a small amount of sensible, appropriate decor in an enclosure, but keep two things in mind: 1). It's entirely for your enjoyment, and the spider does not give a hoot about any of it and is just as happy with just some dirt, a hide, and a water dish; and 2). Clutter gives prey spaces to hide, so keep it to a minimum.

If you haven't yet, also check out this thread: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/tarantula-information-for-beginners-and-more.318718/

 

[MxVMorningstar]

Welcome! I see you're excited about your new additions and are doing everything you can to prepare for their arrival. That's wonderful! You say these will be 1-inch slings. That's pretty small, but also, it's sometimes hard to know exactly what size they are until you get them because the sizes advertised are approximations, molts can happen between being listed and being sold, etc.

Here are some general housing guidelines for young terrestrial tarantulas:
- Keep the length and width of the container to about 3-4 times the diagonal legspan of the spider (so, a 1-inch sling would do best in something that's 3-4 inches in length and width). This isn't an exact science or anything, but the reason you don't want to go too much bigger than that is because it can make it difficult for the tarantula to catch its prey (crickets and other fast-moving prey often get away and can hide for a long time in large enclosures). Also, larger containers are going to require deeper substrate, and some slings can then burrow down really deep and get lost in there, making it hard to monitor their health and development.
- Terrestrials are heavy bodied and prone to falls, which is why you see advice above to remove anything sharp and pointy. This also means that the substrate should be high enough that the spider has only about 1.5 times its diagonal legspan from the dirt to the ceiling. That way, if it goes wandering and climbs up onto the lid and then falls, it won't split open its abdomen on impact.
- Always provide a water dish. Most of us use bottle caps because they'll inevitably get buried and filled with dirt, especially by G. pulchripes. Don't worry so much about humidity.
- Tarantula abdomens are squishy and flexible, so they can fit through openings that are much smaller than most people think. A lot of people look at the booty and use that to judge what they can or can't squeeze through, but they can actually fit through anything they can get their carapace (head) through, so that's what you'll want to use to gauge the safety of those vent hole sizes. Generally, it's better to go for a larger number of smaller vent holes than a few larger ones.

Aside from the points about the pokey bits on the skull and the entrapment risk of the heart hole (when the tarantula is larger), the decor thing is entirely personal. Some people prefer sparser enclosures and might have different opinions of what to put in there, so here are some guidelines to help you separate what's about safety and what's about preference:
- Don't put anything sharp or heavy in. Falling on something sharp or hard can be fatal even if the substrate height is otherwise fine, and heavy objects can collapse burrows and crush the animal if it's underneath it when it happens. A good option is 3D printing for those who want skulls or other decor because these objects tend to be lightweight, and you can look for designs that don't have sharp points or open eyesockets and nose holes and such that spiders can get stuck in. If that interests you, check your local public library to see if they have a makerspace you can use.
- Plastic plants are fine, but silk or fabric plants can be dicey if they leak dye. Some people try real plants, but they tend to get dug up by the spider, and it's hard to keep plants alive without making things too muggy and soggy for the spider's wellbeing, so fake plants are generally preferable, especially for beginners.
- Don't use any dyed mosses or other decor. Buy things that are meant to be used with reptiles, not things from craft stores that are often sprayed with who-knows-what.
- Be mindful of clutter. It's okay to have a small amount of sensible, appropriate decor in an enclosure, but keep two things in mind: 1). It's entirely for your enjoyment, and the spider does not give a hoot about any of it and is just as happy with just some dirt, a hide, and a water dish; and 2). Clutter gives prey spaces to hide, so keep it to a minimum.

If you haven't yet, also check out this thread: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/tarantula-information-for-beginners-and-more.318718/

Thank you so much, this is so helpful. I am rather excited about the new additions <3
I will probably replace the skull or what do you think if i some was able to very securely secure it up on the tank wall and made sure that the spider can get inside of it?

 

[Ratmosphere]

Bad idea. The skull looks sick, but isn't practical and only adds a risk of harm to the tarantula. If this were my enclosure, this is how I would set it up.

• Hot glue the air holes to minimize the opening.
• Add more substrate to half or more of the enclosure.
• Choose one hide, preferably cork bark or one of the items in your picture.
• Add a water bottle cap for a water dish.

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Thank you so much, this is so helpful. I am rather excited about the new additions <3
I will probably replace the skull or what do you think if i some was able to very securely secure it up on the tank wall and made sure that the spider can get inside of it?

Skull looks cool but just a hazard I'd get rid of it, cork bark for a hide, add a water dish.
Just wait till they arrive and there in there homes you will be online looking for more trust me lol it's a rather addictive hobby. I've got a G pulchripes I'm sure is around an inch, gonna be feeding soon I will get a pic of it.

It's closer to 1¹/² inch the piece of card there I cut to 1 inch for reference. Take note of how small the carapace still is with it at this size so 1 in specimen is going to be smaller.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I ended up receiving a 5gal fish tank and a smaller container for free for my future spiders, which I hope to get by mid January. I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts? I ended up drilling holes into them.

I know that the 5gal may be a lil too big and bc of that i may need to add more substrate and/or hides.. but lmk what you think!

The smaller container is 7 inches by 4.5 inches. It has holes on the front, back, sides, and top, and will only be used temporarily.

Im hoping to get a fulfilling life for my 5gal.

-

Doing a few days test to see how humidity is and if it need more or less ventilation. On hour 30 and so far it's done well! Both are damo but not wet, no condensation but I may need very small heater near by and to get a temp reader as well because it's very cold where I am rn.

5gal- 18 holes on top, front 15 holes, sides 6 holes each, back 5 holes. For a G. Pulchstripes sling

Small- 6 holes on top, 4 on back , 4 on front, 3 on each side. Tenp home for giant white knee sling.


We are first time T owners. :> View attachment 488888 View attachment 488889 View attachment 488890 View attachment 488885 View attachment 488886 View attachment 488887

They look rather large for slings ?