Housing pinktoes together

[SkyeSpider]

In the next few months, I'm planning on experimenting with keeping several A. avicularia in one enclosure. I'm seeking others' opinions on my setup ideas.

I think that my maximum to keep in the enclosure at one time will be four. Preferable two males, two females. Would another ratio work just as well?

The size of the cage will either be 30-40 gallons. I'm thinking of using live plants for it, but I PREFER the easy of care with plastic ones.

So far, these are my only plans. Any advice or constructive critisism is welcome.

-Bryan

 

[savian]

Sounds like you are off to a good start so far with the 2 and 2 idea. I would go for the plastic plant just because of if you get a mite problem or some other such thing. Also the 30 sounds good for size but in the end go with what you can work in easy and not have escapes when you are working in it. Hope your experiment goes well.

 

[JacenBeers]

I plan on doing the exact same thing but only with two pinktoes and only in a ten gasllong tank. I wanna provide lots of plants for them and give them lots of climbing space.

 

[Paul Day]

JacenBeers:

A 10 gallon is really too small for 2 adult pinktoes. You really need a lot of space to reduce canabilism. This means at least a 30 gallon for 2, with lots of room for errors. Well planted is also very important.

Pauly

 

[Wade]

"Experimenting" is definitely the right word here. How long will it take to turn 4 spiders into 1?

Wade

 

[Immortal_sin]

I would like to experiment with this as well, but I was thinking something along the lines of the huge net reptile enclosures, made of mesh screen material, or better yet, a sun room where they are free ranging.
I would assume that it might be sucessful for a limited time only, as I've never heard of anyone doing it sucessfully long term.
I've also heard of keeping Poecilotheria spp from the same eggsac together sucessfully, at least for the first few months. Someone always ends up getting munched though.
As far as advice, I would give them as much space and hiding areas as possible, and I'd go with the sibling idea, make sure you start them small, and ones from the same eggsac may make it longer.
Good luck, and be sure to keep really good notes on it!
Holley

 

[krucz36]

IS: the only problem with the net enclosures is the lack of humidity...do you have a room they can be in with high ambient humidity? since i have a mix of desert and high-humidity animals i do it on a cage-by-cage basis, but i can see where keeping an area at high humidity would be advantageous.

i tried keeping some pinktoes together...and made a terrible error. i had a mature male, and another i believed to be a mature female. i put them in a 20 gallon tank with lots of room to roam and numerous hides.

sadly, after a tumltous affair, the second t turned out to be a male...i shudder to think of how confused the poor bugger was.

sigh

 

[Unregistered]

"IS: the only problem with the net enclosures is the lack of humidity..."

Actually the benifets of multi-tarantula setups is an increase of humidity due to more spiders being present.

Pauly

 

[krucz36]

the issue there wasn't the number of tarantulas. it was asking Immortal_Sin if it's possible to keep steady humididty in a mesh-sided cage, a la the chameleon cages you see in herp stores.

 

[Immortal_sin]

Garth,
it's just speculation at this point!
I was thinking about clear plastic, like the part of the cage that holds the substrate in...you could use like clear visqueen, or something?
Also, what about hooking up a mister..
I'm just thinking out loud....
Haven't done it ...may not ever!
Holley

 

[Paul Day]

Yeah, it is... you just need a humidifier

Pinktoes though, do not have humidity problems. I've seen several successful setups with Pinktoes in completly dry enclosures with little but a water dish, and these are from experienced individuals. Always mist of course, but I think a lack of ventilation is the biggest killer of Avicularia.

I personally thinking using a "Reptarium", which is similar to what you describe, is a good idea for such a setup.

Pauly

 

[krucz36]

Originally posted by Immortal_sin
Garth,
it's just speculation at this point!
I was thinking about clear plastic, like the part of the cage that holds the substrate in...you could use like clear visqueen, or something?
Also, what about hooking up a mister..
I'm just thinking out loud....
Haven't done it ...may not ever!
Holley

i hadn't considered that. that's a good idea.
maybe pvc, or thin steel...something you could make a framework out of
tha would be very cool looking.

 

[skinheaddave]

Holley,

As I've mentioned in a couple other threads, we have a "wet rack" that we use to house my humidity-loving species. While they are each in their own enclosure, the principle is the same. All you would have to do is ensure a better seal. Also, you would probably want some way of accessing only small portions of the enclosure at any one time (big doors = spiders running away when you are dealing with another area of the enclosure).

Anyhow, the entire rack measures about 5' x 5' x 16" and the humidity varries from 90+% down to 65%, depending on location. The entire thing is misted by a cool mist humidifier and is controled using the built-in humidistat. Actualy, this is the first humidifier whose humidistat seems to do a decent job. Previously I've rewired the things to bypass the humidistat and just stuck them on a timer.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[krucz36]

that's a good way to do it dave. a friend of mine uses a humidity tank for slings, which he maintains at a high level. easier than making his whole bedroom 80% humid! that could be interesting to, tho, especially in january...

 

[Immortal_sin]

Dave,
yes, awesome idea...I believe we could get something like this to work for the arboreal setup as well.
Would you mind emailing me detailed pics of your setup, and then I can see how I would adapt it?
I may start working on this sooner than I anticipated
Holley

 

[krucz36]

i did see a tank at a store called pet kingdom here in san diego. it was a tall (7"+) plex tank, about 2 1/2' of it was base. inside it had a large-ish ficus growing and about 30 pinktoes living all together. i asked the owner about mortality & cannibalization, but he said they had no problems. of course, he's not going to fess up to some scraggly stranger if he IS having trouble, but still, they all were bunked down in their own areas and none looked malnourished or sad.
this was a while ago, though, so as far as i know they could have eaten each other already.

g