My GBB sling not webbing?

[Jeff23]

I'm sorry, I missed your post. I honestly don't know if Ts can take fluids in through their book lungs or not. So perhaps it is smothering them rather than them drowning. I'm not sure.

Maybe someone can post some info on it. @AphonopelmaTX

I don't know either and certainly don't want it to seem like I know. I thought someone had stated as such in another thread somewhere, but either way I think we all agree that death is the result if it is held underwater.

There is another video on a thread somewhere showing a small sling that looks like it is water skiing in its water dish - pretty hilarious.

 

[Venom1080]

Do they have to have webbing points to survive? No, they can make due without them. Will it benefit them to have extra stuff to web on in the enclosure? I think it does.

We do the same thing for Avics. Lots of anchor points to help them build their web tunnels are agreed on by most people on here. Why not give the same benefit to other webbing Ts that clearly make use of them?

duh, hide, thought i forgot something.

i really doubt it benefits them at all. all it does is allow them to make a cooler looking web. Avics build their own hides, none of my avis use their hides, they just web up a ton everywhere. thus, giving them more things to attach webs to are good, it lets them expand their hide more easily. as far as i know, GBBs use hides. they dont make their own hides when a suitable hide is already provided, thus theres not a need for extra anchor points.

 

[Trenor]

as far as i know, GBBs use hides. they dont make their own hides when a suitable hide is already provided, thus theres not a need for extra anchor points.

My three GBBs will use their hides but I see them more often hiding in their web tunnels. They hunt from them and if it's molt time they block off a section of tunnel to molt in. I honestly see them in the tunnels more than anywhere else including their hides. To me those things are all beneficial to the GBBs even though they could do without the web tunnels and still live.

Maybe the slightly different setups allows us see two different ways they will react to their environment.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

I'm sorry, I missed your post. I honestly don't know if Ts can take fluids in through their book lungs or not. So perhaps it is smothering them rather than them drowning. I'm not sure.

Maybe someone can post some info on it. @AphonopelmaTX

The book lung slits are surrounded with dense hair (yeah, yeah, I know technically it's setae) which repels water and forms air pockets which a tarantula can breath from. Since the metabolism of tarantulas is so low, they can live off such a small amount for a while. How long exactly I don't know. Tarantulas can float on water due to the entire body being covered with dense hair, but eventually I imagine it will sink but the book lungs will still have those air pockets surrounding them so the tarantula could survive. This is all true for other mygalomorph spiders as well. Surely, some have seen the video(s) on YouTube or TV of Atrax robustus being found at the bottom of swimming pools in Sydney Australia. Upon being taken out of the pool, they are still alive. Atrax spp. and related taxa are not covered with dense hair like tarantulas are so they don't float. Seeing as how tarantulas at an early instar haven't developed the cover of dense hair, I would assume it would eventually sink in a body of water but remain alive for a time as it depletes it's reserve of trapped air around the book lungs. Of course tiny spiderlings may float indefinitely because they are too light to break the surface tension. Even as adults or large juveniles tarantulas can be forced underwater and still remain alive. Someone recently posted a link to a YouTube video of someone else's Hysterocrates gigas swimming underneath the water to take refuge to some kind of adverse stimulus. That goes to show that even when forced underwater, air remains trapped around the book lungs for proper respiration.

We can even compare tarantulas to their prey, the cricket. Crickets drown easily in a tarantula's water dish because they do not have a dense covering of setae around their spiracles (opening to the trachea). Because their bodies are not covered in dense setae, they have to keep themselves afloat by moving, something akin to treading water, but eventually they tire out and water rushes into their trachea through the spiracles, they drown, and we are left to fish them out and clean the water dish.

So is it possible a tarantula can drown? Yes, if there is something wrong with plates covering the book lungs then conceivably water can enter through the slits and they will drown. It's also conceivably possible that a tarantula, if under the water surface, could eventually suffocate as it runs out of oxygen. I wouldn't count on either of these scenarios likely though.

 

[Trenor]

The book lung slits are surrounded with dense hair (yeah, yeah, I know technically it's setae) which repels water and forms air pockets which a tarantula can breath from. Since the metabolism of tarantulas is so low, they can live off such a small amount for a while. How long exactly I don't know. Tarantulas can float on water due to the entire body being covered with dense hair, but eventually I imagine it will sink but the book lungs will still have those air pockets surrounding them so the tarantula could survive. This is all true for other mygalomorph spiders as well. Surely, some have seen the video(s) on YouTube or TV of Atrax robustus being found at the bottom of swimming pools in Sydney Australia. Upon being taken out of the pool, they are still alive. Atrax spp. and related taxa are not covered with dense hair like tarantulas are so they don't float. Seeing as how tarantulas at an early instar haven't developed the cover of dense hair, I would assume it would eventually sink in a body of water but remain alive for a time as it depletes it's reserve of trapped air around the book lungs. Of course tiny spiderlings may float indefinitely because they are too light to break the surface tension. Even as adults or large juveniles tarantulas can be forced underwater and still remain alive. Someone recently posted a link to a YouTube video of someone else's Hysterocrates gigas swimming underneath the water to take refuge to some kind of adverse stimulus. That goes to show that even when forced underwater, air remains trapped around the book lungs for proper respiration.

We can even compare tarantulas to their prey, the cricket. Crickets drown easily in a tarantula's water dish because they do not have a dense covering of setae around their spiracles (opening to the trachea). Because their bodies are not covered in dense setae, they have to keep themselves afloat by moving, something akin to treading water, but eventually they tire out and water rushes into their trachea through the spiracles, they drown, and we are left to fish them out and clean the water dish.

So is it possible a tarantula can drown? Yes, if there is something wrong with plates covering the book lungs then conceivably water can enter through the slits and they will drown. It's also conceivably possible that a tarantula, if under the water surface, could eventually suffocate as it runs out of oxygen. I wouldn't count on either of these scenarios likely though.

Thanks for the information. I figured you would know.

 

[Andrea82]

At first, i provided my GBB's with a hide, but they never used them and even went so far as to completely web them over, including the entrance from the outside. So i stopped using hides. When rehoused a couple of weeks ago and provided with lots of sticks and small leaved plants, they have made their own hide. So i guess it is not only preference of the keeper, but of the spider as well, as with just about everything.

 

[Jeff23]

At first, i provided my GBB's with a hide, but they never used them and even went so far as to completely web them over, including the entrance from the outside. So i stopped using hides. When rehoused a couple of weeks ago and provided with lots of sticks and small leaved plants, they have made their own hide. So i guess it is not only preference of the keeper, but of the spider as well, as with just about everything.

I have four GBB slings. None of them use the hides. The three that I have had for a month have also covered their hides with web. All of them are out in the open always.