New owner of brachypelma emilia

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
Hi everyone! I've read up a bit and am posting to make sure everything is going in the right direction. She is about 3.5cm in size (body). I'm feeding her small live crickets. One every week. I put her in a Exo Terra PT2600 30x30x30cm terrarium with 2 bags of this substrate (10 liters) plus a plastic plant, a piece of cork, an Exo Terra skull and a shallow water dish. Temps in the room are 24C, humidity is at 37%. She has a Exo Terra 4W (smallest) warming pad underneath the enclosure which is plugged in. It's about 25C in the enclosure, humidity is at about 80% which is purely from the humidity of the substrate. She likes the skull and has burrowed underneath. I haven't seen her since. I make sure she has water gel in the dish.

Questions so far:

  • Is the setup right?
  • I heard misting isn't necessary, should I do it when the substrate has dried out or no? Do I need to mist or just let a little distilled water flow down the side?
  • Should I always feed her live food or is there an alternative to live crickets?
  • Dude from the store wanted to sell me a vitamin mix for the crickets, is that necessary?
  • Can she drink tap water or should I stick with the gel?
  • I heard the mesh top of the terrarium can hurt the spider, does it need to be replaced with a vented acrylic top cover down the line?
Thank you!
 

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viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Hi everyone! I've read up a bit and am posting to make sure everything is going in the right direction. She is about 3.5cm in size (body). I'm feeding her small live crickets. One every week. I put her in a Exo Terra PT2600 30x30x30cm terrarium with 2 bags of this substrate (10 liters) plus a plastic plant, a piece of cork, an Exo Terra skull and a shallow water dish. Temps in the room are 24C, humidity is at 37%. She has a Exo Terra 4W (smallest) warming pad underneath the enclosure which is plugged in. It's about 25C in the enclosure, humidity is at about 80% which is purely from the humidity of the substrate. She likes the skull and has burrowed underneath. I haven't seen her since. I make sure she has water gel in the dish.

Questions so far:

  • Is the setup right?
  • I heard misting isn't necessary, should I do it when the substrate has dried out or no? Do I need to mist or just let a little distilled water flow down the side?
  • Should I always feed her live food or is there an alternative to live crickets?
  • Dude from the store wanted to sell me a vitamin mix for the crickets, is that necessary?
  • Can she drink tap water or should I stick with the gel?
  • I heard the mesh top of the terrarium can hurt the spider, does it need to be replaced with a vented acrylic top cover down the line?
Thank you!
1. No
2. Misting is for plants not Ts
3. LIVE food, they will scavenge feed but that doesn’t always work
4. No need for vitamins
5. Ts only water do not use gels! They don’t find gels in the wild
6. Needs to be REPLACED NOW!

Once a week is not wrong, but I feed my Ts including Emilia as often as they are hungry.

REMOVE the heat pad from under the tank IMMEDIATELY or your T will die!

Stop chasing humidity numbers- keep dry

Stop reading caresheets, they kill Ts.
 

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
1. No
2. Misting is for plants not Ts
3. LIVE food, they will scavenge feed but that doesn’t always work
4. No need for vitamins
5. Ts only water do not use gels! They don’t find gels in the wild
6. Needs to be REPLACED NOW!

Once a week is not wrong, but I feed my Ts including Emilia as often as they are hungry.
The setup is wrong because of the top?
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
The setup is wrong because of the top?
That and your T can fall and die, esp this species which is rather stocky.

Only have 1.5x DLS between sub and lid.

Search the forum.
 

Neonblizzard

Arachnomoron
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
611
Hello! It's nice to see you have put a lot of thought into looking after your T.
I'll try help, no hate or flaming, just honest kind suggestions.

1. I would use the cork bark over the skull, it's pretty cluttered in the enclosure with them both in.

2. Use a bottle cap with water in, not gel

3. That enclosure would be brilliant for an adult, but it's too big for a juvenile, the bigger it is the harder it is for them to find food/ keep track of your T/ keep track of live food - you do not want live food to get lost and end up living in there with the T

4. No misting, dry substrate, water dish, that's it

5. No need for heat mats or any heating, they do fine at 18 - 23 degrees if your house is warm, if you're comfortable, so are they

6. replace mesh immediately with acrylic top

7. There's no alternative, crickets it is. But they can have mealworms and other stuff when they are older.

8. I personally feed my crickets and give them water to make sure they are nice and nutritious.

Hope this helps
 

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
Hello! It's nice to see you have put a lot of thought into looking after your T.
I'll try help, no hate or flaming, just honest kind suggestions.

1. I would use the cork bark over the skull, it's pretty cluttered in the enclosure with them both in.

2. Use a bottle cap with water in, not gel

3. That enclosure would be brilliant for an adult, but it's too big for a juvenile, the bigger it is the harder it is for them to find food/ keep track of your T/ keep track of live food - you do not want live food to get lost and end up living in there with the T

4. No misting, dry substrate, water dish, that's it

5. No need for heat mats or any heating, they do fine at 18 - 23 degrees if your house is warm, if you're comfortable, so are they

6. replace mesh immediately with acrylic top

7. There's no alternative, crickets it is. But they can have mealworms and other stuff when they are older.

8. I personally feed my crickets and give them water to make sure they are nice and nutritious.

Hope this helps
Thanks for the input.

  1. I will remove the bark until she outgrows the skull and then swap. Is that alright?
  2. Is the gel a mistake or just suboptimal? Would I be fine using the gel up and then switching?
  3. Too bad! It'll be hard to remove her from the enclosure. I should've waited before moving her. I guess I'll just put the food near her with the tweezers.
  4. Alright.
  5. Alright, I'll turn it off.
  6. Will do as soon as hardware stores open again. What about safety? I won't be able to lock it in place.
  7. Alright.
  8. I feed mine as well.
Regarding a new top, what size should the holes be? I would go with 1cm or ist that too big?
 
Last edited:

Neonblizzard

Arachnomoron
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
611
If you would like to use the bug gel for the crickets just to use it that's fine, but water in a bottle cap is what you want for the T.

With one of the hides out it will be easier to keep track of where the live prey is / if it's been eaten. Make sure you take any uneaten prey out after 24 hours, this is really important.

Honestly i would take that skull out and use the bark, it'll be easier to do now rather than later when she's settled in.
The problem with the skull is the entrances are a fixed size, so once she gets so big she won't fit / might get stuck. With cork bark she can always dig more out as she grows to still fit

I've seen lots of videos of people doing conversations on those enclosures to acrylic, so id check those out
 

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
If you would like to use the bug gel for the crickets just to use it that's fine, but water in a bottle cap is what you want for the T.

With one of the hides out it will be easier to keep track of where the live prey is / if it's been eaten. Make sure you take any uneaten prey out after 24 hours, this is really important.

Honestly i would take that skull out and use the bark, it'll be easier to do now rather than later when she's settled in.
The problem with the skull is the entrances are a fixed size, so once she gets so big she won't fit / might get stuck. With cork bark she can always dig more out as she grows to still fit

I've seen lots of videos of people doing conversations on those enclosures to acrylic, so id check those out
Thanks much for the info.

Is tap water fine for the T? There's quite some chalk in it here but it's very potable.

Next priority is to get an acrylic lid. I've taken the measurements.

I tried to replace the skull but she stuck to the inside. I was super scared of hurting her with the tweezers or have the skull roll on top of her so I left it in for now.
 

Scorpiobsession

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
301
You might be okay with tap water but I would strongly recommend using distilled water, I buy a gallon at the store for $1 (0.83€). If she's not coming out you might be able to lure her out with food or make the hide unpleasant (shining light on it, flipping it upside down, etc.).
 

8 legged

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,069
Hi everyone! I've read up a bit and am posting to make sure everything is going in the right direction. She is about 3.5cm in size (body). I'm feeding her small live crickets. One every week. I put her in a Exo Terra PT2600 30x30x30cm terrarium with 2 bags of this substrate (10 liters) plus a plastic plant, a piece of cork, an Exo Terra skull and a shallow water dish. Temps in the room are 24C, humidity is at 37%. She has a Exo Terra 4W (smallest) warming pad underneath the enclosure which is plugged in. It's about 25C in the enclosure, humidity is at about 80% which is purely from the humidity of the substrate. She likes the skull and has burrowed underneath. I haven't seen her since. I make sure she has water gel in the dish.

Questions so far:

  • Is the setup right?
  • I heard misting isn't necessary, should I do it when the substrate has dried out or no? Do I need to mist or just let a little distilled water flow down the side?
  • Should I always feed her live food or is there an alternative to live crickets?
  • Dude from the store wanted to sell me a vitamin mix for the crickets, is that necessary?
  • Can she drink tap water or should I stick with the gel?
  • I heard the mesh top of the terrarium can hurt the spider, does it need to be replaced with a vented acrylic top cover down the line?
Thank you!
I am really not yet registered here, but what is very noticeable: Jefer claims to have read in and to have collected information - why always with the typical effect of making all standard errors. What on earth do you read and where do you get information. After a short research it should be clear that it is usually unnecessary to attach the heating mat and below the enclosure is a major mistake. You also know about the height of the terrarium after 2 minutes "internet".
 
Last edited:

Neonblizzard

Arachnomoron
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
611
Thanks much for the info.

Is tap water fine for the T? There's quite some chalk in it here but it's very potable.

Next priority is to get an acrylic lid. I've taken the measurements.

I tried to replace the skull but she stuck to the inside. I was super scared of hurting her with the tweezers or have the skull roll on top of her so I left it in for now.
That's fair enough friend, you'll catch her outside of her burrow eventually and that will give you a chance to swap it out.

The water discussion often comes up, i personally just use tap water, but i understand that people like to use bottled or that tap water is different in other regions and you might not be comfortable using it and that's fine too
 

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
Well the tone here is "interesting". I'm completely new to the hobby and I treat my pet with the utmost care. Everything I bought was either recommended or green-lit by the dude from the store who keeps Ts himself. There's a lot of conflicting info online which I understand. I do own a book which I have perused and I registered here just to be sure. I feel like this is way more than what your average 10 year old who wants daddy to buy him a "dangerous" pet does. Go easy please.

@Neonblizzard thank you for the patience.
 

8 legged

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,069
Well the tone here is "interesting". I'm completely new to the hobby and I treat my pet with the utmost care. Everything I bought was either recommended or green-lit by the dude from the store who keeps Ts himself. There's a lot of conflicting info online which I understand. I do own a book which I have perused and I registered here just to be sure. I feel like this is way more than what your average 10 year old who wants daddy to buy him a "dangerous" pet does. Go easy please.

@Neonblizzard thank you for the patience.
Sorry and please do not take my post personally, but you will quickly find out that it always works the same way. Most of the people already have the animal at home and get information afterwards. Regarding the "specialist dealer" you are of course right, as a newcomer you cannot know that they usually have no idea.
 

H3R3T1K

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 4, 2021
Messages
7
@viper69 gotcha!

Be cool to find a wizard that could machine a piece of acrylic that actually fits snug und locks in place but I would have to find a terrarium builder I guess.
 
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Neonblizzard

Arachnomoron
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
611
Well the tone here is "interesting". I'm completely new to the hobby and I treat my pet with the utmost care. Everything I bought was either recommended or green-lit by the dude from the store who keeps Ts himself. There's a lot of conflicting info online which I understand. I do own a book which I have perused and I registered here just to be sure. I feel like this is way more than what your average 10 year old who wants daddy to buy him a "dangerous" pet does. Go easy please.

@Neonblizzard thank you for the patience.
You're absolutely right, there is so much conflicting information it's frightening, when i started about 6 months ago i was petrified i was doing stuff wrong, and its OK to make mistakes with husbandry as long as you learn from it and be open to change.
people's view in hobbys change over time, one person who keeps Ts might have different opinions and that's where it can get a bit nasty in discussions. I'm a terribly over protective spider mother and if any of mine move 3 inches instead of 2 one day I'm furiously googling.

I think the most important thing to remember is that they have survived millions of years exactly as they are without our help, and as long as you are interested and excited too keep learning then that's what's most important. We grow along side our pets as we develop our own preferred methods and that's a big part of the fun 😊 so don't beat yourself up that you aren't an omniscient spider keeper straight out of the gate
 

8 legged

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,069
@viper69 gotcha!

Be cool to find a wizard that could machine a piece of acrylic that actually fits snug und locks in place but I would have to find a terrarium builder I guess.
Definitly not, watch your PNs
 
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Matt Man

Arachnoprince
Joined
Jul 4, 2017
Messages
1,685
Exoterra enclosures are great for arboreal Ts (with the lids addressed) but the doors are so low you can't put enough substrate in them to reduce the fall risk for large bodied terrestrials.
No heat under the enclosure, your T will burrow awards it and roast.

as for the lid replacements. I will have them at some point but Covid restrictions @ my shop have cut out my ability to prototype.

By a small critter keeper for the crickets, have the gel there.
How big is the T? If it is smallish, a large enclosure works against it
 

Neonblizzard

Arachnomoron
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
611
I found it quite surprising how small an enclosure they need; once they are settled in they rarely move much further than a few inches away from their burrow. They really are pet rocks the majority of the time
 

8 legged

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,069
I found it quite surprising how small an enclosure they need; once they are settled in they rarely move much further than a few inches away from their burrow. They really are pet rocks the majority of the time
Not always if you watch them at night! Sometimes they also use their hole space.
 
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