Putting rocks in the water dish question

[sugarsandz]

I bought new water dishes that are a bit larger than my old ones they are round ceramic maybe 3" diameter and 1 1/2"-2" high and I was thinking of adding a rock in each of them in case of a t falling in. My question is can I go take a rock from outside and sanitize it thoroughly enough to put in a water dish? Or should I just fill the bowl with water and call it good? My two ts that I want to use these bowls for are 5ish" and 4"-4 1/2". I have a bunch of aquarium gravel but it weighs the bowl down to much for safe retrieval with tongs where as a rock can be removed then the dish.

Also if it can be done how should I go about it, boiling, bleaching, baking or all three and for how long? I wouldn't want to have something leech out of the rock and into the water dish that could be harmful. I did look through old posts but the rocks in those posts weren't going into a water bowl so I thought I'd give this a go. Thanks very much in advance!

 

[MarkmD]

I use a rock in my LP enclosure (not in the water dish though), used as poop stone lol, usually I boil the kettle then scrub with a tooth brush lol (but works fine, no problems so far), so if you do something like that then sure putting a stone in or around the water dish should be fine, but be aware just cause I haven't had problems doesn't mean you won't.

 

[NGLepine]

I work In a rock quarry so i find petrified wood 60+ feet down. I clean that up and use it

 

[spiderengineer]

could just use fish stone at pet store as well

 

[sugarsandz]

Well it turned out that the bowls were only a bit over an inch deep and I filled them half way.

 

[MB623]

If the t's are 4 1/2-5in. and the water dish is only 3in. then I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have the same kind of water dishes your describing, although I don't use them right now I have used them with no rock with similar sized t's and they easily drank from and crawled over their water dish with no ill effects. If I were to put a rock in the dishes your referring to, I would use appropriately sized smooth river rock and I would just use dish soap and hot water to sanatize it. If the river rock is porous I would let it sit in a bowl of hot water for about 15min. to rinse, assuring all the soap was rinsed out of the rock.

 

[iPippin]

Don't bleach. Some of thr bleach might stay inside the pores of the rock then eventually mix with the water in the water dish. Boiling and baking would be enough, I guess.

 

[sugarsandz]

I left the rocks out after I realized the bowls weren't that deep so no worry about bleaching them.

 

[Stan Schultz]

I bought new water dishes that are a bit larger than my old ones they are round ceramic maybe 3" diameter and 1 1/2"-2" high and I was thinking of adding a rock in each of them in case of a t falling in. My question is can I go take a rock from outside and sanitize it thoroughly enough to put in a water dish? ...

We answered this question decades ago. Yes, include a rock. It should be large enough that it protrudes above the water, but small enough that the tarantula can still easily drink from around it.

Tarantulas are covered with a layer of a waxy substance that prevents them from getting wet. If they get into water this waxy layer holds a bubble of air within the matrix of their bristles. They come from the factory with their own personal flotation devices! Were you to do a search on these forums using the keywords drown or drowning you would pretty much draw a blank. Tarantulas almost never drown in their water dishes under any circumstances.

You're using a rock to give your tarantula's food (nominally crickets) a way to drag themselves out of the water instead of drowning. Drowned crickets cost you money. Drowned crickets rot and cause a bad smelling mess. Drowned, rotting crickets pose a serious health hazard to your tarantula.

... Also if it can be done how should I go about it, boiling, bleaching, baking or all three and for how long? I wouldn't want to have something leech out of the rock and into the water dish that could be harmful. I did look through old posts but the rocks in those posts weren't going into a water bowl so I thought I'd give this a go. Thanks very much in advance!

Come on now. You're not that dumb. Tarantulas live in dirt among all sorts of rocks in nature. They evolved in dirt among the rocks. They do just fine. The only thing you might worry about is pesticide contamination, and you deal with that in two ways:

1) Pick a rock from someplace where pesticide use is unlikely.

2) Wash the rock under warm soapy water before using it the first time. Be sure to rinse it extremely well in clear water.

Additional comments:

1) Choose a rock that doesn't appear to be porous. No sandstone. Use shale, slate, granite, quartz, etc.

2) Whenever you clean the water dish either replace the rock (If you have an unlimited supply. Don't laugh. Some people in Manhattan, for instance, have never seen a natural rock except in photos!), or wash it well again. I used to pack them loosely in a wire basket and ran them through our dishwasher.)


So now you're going to learn to be a geologist because of your little 8-legged buddies!

 

[sugarsandz]

Thanks Pikaia, I had actually completely forgotten about the crickets not being able to escape the dish. My last bowls had smaller rocks in them and the crickets had no problems getting out. There are mountains behind my house that I can trek out to and I can gather some rocks and clean them thoroughly. Usually the cricket is snatched up within a few seconds but I will place a rock for the rare occasions where it gets to roam. Thanks for the refresher