Haplopelma Lividium

[AlbinoDragon829]

Hey, I've been into arachnoculture for a fair amount of time now and I'm finally getting around to more evil species of tarantula. Soon, I will be purchasing a haplopelma lividium (cobalt blue) and I hear it is a massive burrower. Don't get me wrong, but I do want the T to have almost an exact replica of it's natural habitat... But I would like to see it more often than most people say cobalt blue's come into vision... I mean, come on, they are a very good looking species. But to get to my question, what kind of a burrow should I set up, or what else should I do that would benefit my viewing of the T and it's living both? :?

 

[Alonso99]

hi

Foam will do the trick

 

[Steve Nunn]

Hi,
The best natural steup you could get would be to use a few river rocks (you know, the smooth ones) placed against a corner of the enclosure with a larger flat rock to act as a roof, set up to become the walls of a small cave. Throw peatmoss over the entire thing and scoop out one or two teaspoons of peat from the entrance of the enclosure. It's good at this stage to have the peat damp enough to cling together when lightly pressed.You''ll find the T will locate the beginnings of a burrow and continue to dig the entire area out so that you can view the spider from the outside while it's in it's burrow. It works for a while until the T decides to lay enough web down that you won't see a thing regardless of how hard you try, most of the old worlders are like this. It does work for a while though.

Here's a piccy of a Selenocosmia stirlingi that I bred. These spiders like the exact same setup as far as I'm aware and you'll see she's quite happy.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[savian]

I have a male and a female and all I ever did was put one of the half logs into a corner and dig out the rest of it. It is like what Steve said only I use wood not stone. They will come out at night provided that there is no noise and the lights are dim. My female is out under those condition. Good luck with them.

 

[chaset]

Wow

Wow looks like mom really has her legs full there

 

[Martin H.]

hi,

I keep Haplopelma lividum and Co. in tanks like this:

 

[Martin H.]

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fill it 3/2 with garden soil and stick a burrow for her in it:

 

[Martin H.]

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from time to time you have to clean the burrow front:

 

[Martin H.]

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when you pre-stick the burrow at the front site of the tank, you can view in the burrow:

 

[Martin H.]

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and observe her also in the burrow:

 

[Martin H.]

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for larger species like Haplopelma schmidti, Ornithoctonus sp. "Vietnam", Selenocosmia hainana, Hysterocrates spp., I use glass tanks with 10 x 25 cm and 35 cm high.
On this photo you can see from left to right: Ornithoctonus sp. "Vietnam", , Haplopelma schmidti and Chilobrachys fimbriatus. Every evening they are sitting at the entrances of their burrows, where you can observe them. =

 

[Martin H.]

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I use this kind of tank (strait an tall, with holes or a grid at the top and the bottom) for all of my burrowing species.
The wholes/grid at the bottom is for watering and dewatering: about two times a year I put the tanks in the bath tube and fill it with water till the level of the soil in the tanks. I let them for about one hour flooded that the soil can soak with water. While this, the spiders stay in the tanks and somtimes also under water – without any problems.

all the best,
Martin

 

[Martin H.]

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btw, in these kind of tanks, where the spiders can burrow that deep, Haplopelma and Co. aren't anymore evil, bad, nasty, aggressive, etc.. If you disturb them, they run down their burrow and keep quite. They only defend themselves and try to bite when you dig them out, but than in my opinion justly. In my opinion these are not aggessive but very defensive species.

regards,
Martin

www.spiderpix.com

 

[Martin H.]

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Haplopelma sp. "aureopilosum" mating in such a tank:

 

[Immortal_sin]

Martin,
thanks for the pics! What a great idea, don't know why I haven't thought of that myself. I am going out and getting some of those containers right away. I have some spiders that I'm just certain would be happier in them!
Holley

 

[Martin H.]

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Hello Holley ,

Originally posted by Immortal_sin

...What a great idea, ...

It's not my idea, I have "stolen" this idea from Volker von Wirth, who is keeping his burrowing (Asian) T's successfully like this since several years now. These kind of tanks have a lot of advantages compared with normal tanks, in my opinion: you can observe the spider; you can check the spider in the chamber at the and of the burrow, because minimum one side of the chamber is at one wall of the tank; the spiders can dig; the humidity is perfect; ...

all the best,
Martin

 

[Alonso99]

Hi

Where did you get the containers? They look cool

 

[kosh]

i havent seen those containers anywhere....i wonder if you could do something similar with these Round Kritter Keeper :?

 

[Immortal_sin]

don't see why not Kosh.
I have only one of them, and I keep my crickets in it. Too high for them to jump out if I get lazy and don't put the lid back on!
I could put them in something else, and experiment with it for my juve C crayshawi
I may just have to do that....

 

[Henry Kane]

Wow Martin! That is one of the neatest and most organized systems I have seen yet. Thanks for sharing the idea! (Great Idea Volker! )
Have you noticed if any of the harder to acclimate species (like some wild caught Asians for instance) adjust better in a set up like that?

Atrax