Natural tank decor??

locko75

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
3
HI - Another newbie question i'm afraid.

Is it safe to use wood, bark, moss etc found in the garden/woods in the enclosures or should i only use decor bought in an exotic petshop? Is there an excepted way to "sterilise" stuff from the wild?

It seems silly to pay good money on things i can get free. Also the more inexpensive this is the happier my wife will be. I'm still trying to bring her round to the idea that keeping T's is a good idea.
 

Dal

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
5
i dont know about moss but i took some bark from outside and boiled it for like 10mins and it worked perfectly for me.
 

Motorkar

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
468
I use wood from nature. Boil it for 10 minutes in salt water and then bake it. At the end I impregnate it with shellac.

I also use moss from the forest and I don't have any problem with pests or mold or anything else. Also moss is good way to suck that humidity from the substrate and transfer it up. Also I use other live plants in the enclosures: ivy, orchids...
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
As a newbie, you might be better off starting with simple, easy to maintain cages. You can use natural materials, but they require extra efforts and awareness to produce safe results. And cage clean-up and maintenance will be easier if you don't try to get too fancy. As you get more familiar with keeping tarantulas you could experiment with fancier enclosures.

If this thread draws much attention and response, someone will sooner or later point out that "natural" enclosures are anything but. We rarely come close to duplicating natural conditions in our cages, no matter how much we try. And most people who try to create natural environments misunderstand the environment that the spider really lives in. In the end, "natural" set-ups are for our own sense of esthetics, and are not to the advantage of the animals we put in them.
 

locko75

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
3
Thanks to all for the advice.

I'm not trying to recreate anything in peticular, i just want to find something for the Avic to climb up and to use as a hide for the B. Klassi. My worry was introducing parasites or fungi to the enclosures. It will still be very simple, and free!!
 

Motorkar

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
468
Putting real wood and plants is very good experience, besides good looking enclosure you get air to be produced by the plants, natural ballancing the humidity.... And also you have so much fun to make such a setup!

But be careful, research a lot about the plants you want to plant, what they require. What humidity, what light, temperature, if they are poisonous..... Few examples:
Orchids do extremley well in the arboreal enclosures becouse of high humidity, temperature and they don't need lot of light and its not poisonous if some feeder decides to eat it while I drop it into the enclosure. I planted dying orchid into my A. versicolor's enclosure and the plant began its new life, it healed itself there.
In B. smithi's enclosure I don't know what plant it is, I brought it back few years back while I was on a trip. The plant is not posionous, it needs low lightning, very little of light and avrage room temperature, it even can go a bit colder for it.

Another good plant for both types of setups are Tillandsias. These aren't poisonous eider. There are two difrent sorts: Ones wich needs high humidity and ones wich needs low humidity. Each of these sorts have few kinds of them, you can search in the flower shop for them, just make you pick the right one for the enclosure's humidity. These plants are exelent becouse they don't need substrate to grow. You just put it there and it will grow.

There is another plant called Pothos. Non poisonous, they grow basiclly in any enclosure, yiu just need to water it every few days. You plant it into substrtate and thats it. Robc uses these, you can check his videos about on youtube.
 
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