Tarantulas for Christmas!

[scooter1685]

Alright, here we go. She ordered a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, an Ephebopus cyanognathus, a Grammostola quirogai, a Cyriocosmus elegans, and two of the New World mystery spiders from Fear Not. One is Lindsey's Sea Glass Spider, and the other is Michelle's Blue Diamond. Emily says nobody is talking much about the mystery spiders right now, so I don't think I'm supposed to talk too much about what they are, but I know one for sure and have my suspicions about the other.

Super excited! They're beautiful and I still can't believe she bought me Ts for Christmas. Pretty sure I've unwrapped my favorite gift of the year a little early

When she mentioned slings, I prepared the same 5.5 oz deli cups I used for the rest of my little guys. Obviously that's not appropriate for some of them, as you'll see (C. elegans anyone ). Pics coming in just a moment.

Please let me know what changes you recommend for these little guys.

 

[scooter1685]

The Grammostola quirogai is listed as about 1.5 inches. He looks bigger than that to me, but he's definitely the biggest I have now in any case. In the first cup, he's sort of sitting at an angle. He was a little more than half the width of the cup when he was standing on the cork bark, so I put him in one of the enclosures that came with one of the mystery spiders. It was absolutely dwarfed by the enclosure. Still looks a little bit big for this guy maybe? On the tall side he can reach the top with his legs, and on the short side it's about 1.5x I think. The picture was taken at an odd angle.


The Cyriocosmus elegans went into one of the little shipping vials. I put ventillation in the sides and lid. I wanted to pull the little lego water dish out, but Emily insists it must stay. I put a tiny drop of water on the substrate near where the little guy hid.

 

[scooter1685]

I've heard several times that Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens likes to be kept on bone-dry substrate, with a water dish and some anchor points for webbing. That's exactly what I did here for this little guy. I'd say an inch, maybe a little bigger. He has about 1.5x legspan of space, maybe closer to 2x.


And I'm pretty clueless about Ephebopus cyanognathus. I've seen some people on YouTube that keep E. murinus, and I sort of figured he'd like to burrow mostly. Set him up with slightly moist substrate on the bottom, topped with dry substrate. The moss is totally dry. I made the substrate pretty deep on one side; he only has about an inch of space, the same as his leg span or close to it. On the shorter end, he has about 1.5x. At least, that's what I was going for.

 

[scooter1685]

So after watching the Tarantula Collective's video on husbandry for Cyriocosmus elegans, I think I did alright. The holes were made with a sewing needle, and the little guy looks just a bit too big to fit through them. Fortunately for me. It might be a little bit dry in there for him, as I only added literally one drop of water to his substrate. The enclosure is so tiny I was afraid of making it too wet. He seems alright though. He was moving little pieces of substrate this morning when I checked on him.

Still out of my depth a little with the Ephebopus cyanognathus. I found a couple videos about them on YouTube, one by Eerie Arachnids who I believe I remember hearing good things about. Going to watch that and look around for a bit. Little guy is hanging out on the lid of his enclosure. Probably could use a bit more space there, but I figured it would burrow and made the substrate a little deeper than the other enclosures I made.

My GBB has already done a bit of webbing, and is camped out under the web right now. Stuck a small amount of substrate in the water dish. Guess it wasn't thirsty, lol.

The quirogai is just sitting by the side of his enclosure. When I initially housed him in a deli cup, he began excavating immediately. Literally within 60 seconds of going into the enclosure. When I put him into the bigger one though, he hasn't done any excavating at all. Granted, it's only been one day. Thought it might be the substrate though, as the substrate that came from FNT was somewhat wetter than what I've been using.

I'll probably make a post today in the Questions section to get a bit of input about improvements I can make to take better care of these little guys. In the meantime, please share any advice you might have. I'll do some more research of my own as well, and by tomorrow hopefully I'll have a decent idea of what to change.