RezonantVoid
Hollow Knight
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2018
- Messages
- 1,354
For the last 3 and a bit years, I have the had the fortunate privilege of keeping over 200 various Mygalomorph species from around 25 different genus. With the enclosure supplies necessary for this many species, it can be very easy to fall back to basics and generalise the husbandry for the whole lot. I mean, cocofibre works for T's right? Why should traps and funnels need anything different?
For about my first 2 years, I did just this and housed basically every type of primitive spider I kept on damp cocopeat and sand and didn't think anything of it. But after a while, something about it really started bothering me. When you live in a country with many hundreds of Mygalomorph species, you inevitably see at least some in the wild sooner or later. The trend i started to notice no matter where I found them as that nearly every genus naturally lives nothing like how most of us keep them. Take note of the type of environment each of the following burrows are constructed in.
These are 4 different genus from 3 different families, found hundreds of kilometres apart, yet all of them go for a similar environment: clay slopes. Admittedly the first one is a sandy slope, but the typical habitat for that genus (Cataxia) is the same as the rest. With this overwhelming preference for pretty much the definitive opposite of the average fossorial cocopeat setup, I'm left dumbfounded at the amount of keepers that still house them like this. Here's some more arguments I have against pure cocofibre/peat moss:
-loses water quickly in most setups.
-terrible water absorption once dry.
-most species don't like the feeling of it.
-minimal structural integrity, making for terrible lid and burrow building material.
-in some cases, it entirely prevents species building their signature entrances. A good example is the group of palisade trapdoors in the genus Euoplos that build elaborate structures like this.
Don't just take it from me though. I did some research about the wild habitat of some of the most popular exotic trapdoors, such as the genus Liphistius, and most have the exact same habitat preferences as you'd expect. I invite anyone who may be interested in improving their husbandry to do the same thing for all species they keep.
So, what merit is there in searching for and digging up clay for hours, and then mixing it with peat moss and sand for more hours and getting it to the perfect consistency? Is it really that important? Regarding aesthetics alone, you will see way better, natural looking lids. Forget the days of likening trapdoor setups to a boring box of dirt, now you can actually see the lids and the differences between each species. Enclosure still looking too bland for you? Good news, now you can grow moss and most small ground cover plants on the clay, one of the most ideal moss growing substrates. Did you know that many trapdoors and Mygalomorphs actually incorporate moss onto their lids in the wild? Good for you, you now have an opportunity to witness this fascinating and rarely seen behaviour!
As for actual benefits to the spiders, I've observed amazing differences in how quickly spiders settle into a setup, no more frequent surface exploring, no more spiders constructing new burrows every 3 months, better feeding responses and far more visible specimens at their entrances each night. Below is what a whopping 4" Euoplos sp. burrow looks like on a sloped peat moss setup. Biggest trapdoor I've ever seen and you can't even see it's lid because of how horrible loose sub mixes are.
Now here's what you can with clay.
I see alot of people question the use of wild substrates, but honestly I have never had any mold or parasite issues using wild clay. As long as the area you get it from is free of chemical pollutants, it should work fine. If you live somewhere that clay is basically impossible to access in the wild, you can use clay clumping kitty litter and do the same thing (soak it with filtered water to soften it, and slowly add dry peat moss and sand to it to add volume and dry it out to the right consistency).
I hope this thread may help some people out. To the best of my ability, I feel I've tried to advertise this not as just my biased personal opinion, but as a logical, beneficial method of housing that could drastically enrich both mygalomorphs and their keepers. Thank you for reading
For about my first 2 years, I did just this and housed basically every type of primitive spider I kept on damp cocopeat and sand and didn't think anything of it. But after a while, something about it really started bothering me. When you live in a country with many hundreds of Mygalomorph species, you inevitably see at least some in the wild sooner or later. The trend i started to notice no matter where I found them as that nearly every genus naturally lives nothing like how most of us keep them. Take note of the type of environment each of the following burrows are constructed in.
These are 4 different genus from 3 different families, found hundreds of kilometres apart, yet all of them go for a similar environment: clay slopes. Admittedly the first one is a sandy slope, but the typical habitat for that genus (Cataxia) is the same as the rest. With this overwhelming preference for pretty much the definitive opposite of the average fossorial cocopeat setup, I'm left dumbfounded at the amount of keepers that still house them like this. Here's some more arguments I have against pure cocofibre/peat moss:
-loses water quickly in most setups.
-terrible water absorption once dry.
-most species don't like the feeling of it.
-minimal structural integrity, making for terrible lid and burrow building material.
-in some cases, it entirely prevents species building their signature entrances. A good example is the group of palisade trapdoors in the genus Euoplos that build elaborate structures like this.
Don't just take it from me though. I did some research about the wild habitat of some of the most popular exotic trapdoors, such as the genus Liphistius, and most have the exact same habitat preferences as you'd expect. I invite anyone who may be interested in improving their husbandry to do the same thing for all species they keep.
So, what merit is there in searching for and digging up clay for hours, and then mixing it with peat moss and sand for more hours and getting it to the perfect consistency? Is it really that important? Regarding aesthetics alone, you will see way better, natural looking lids. Forget the days of likening trapdoor setups to a boring box of dirt, now you can actually see the lids and the differences between each species. Enclosure still looking too bland for you? Good news, now you can grow moss and most small ground cover plants on the clay, one of the most ideal moss growing substrates. Did you know that many trapdoors and Mygalomorphs actually incorporate moss onto their lids in the wild? Good for you, you now have an opportunity to witness this fascinating and rarely seen behaviour!
As for actual benefits to the spiders, I've observed amazing differences in how quickly spiders settle into a setup, no more frequent surface exploring, no more spiders constructing new burrows every 3 months, better feeding responses and far more visible specimens at their entrances each night. Below is what a whopping 4" Euoplos sp. burrow looks like on a sloped peat moss setup. Biggest trapdoor I've ever seen and you can't even see it's lid because of how horrible loose sub mixes are.
Now here's what you can with clay.
I see alot of people question the use of wild substrates, but honestly I have never had any mold or parasite issues using wild clay. As long as the area you get it from is free of chemical pollutants, it should work fine. If you live somewhere that clay is basically impossible to access in the wild, you can use clay clumping kitty litter and do the same thing (soak it with filtered water to soften it, and slowly add dry peat moss and sand to it to add volume and dry it out to the right consistency).
I hope this thread may help some people out. To the best of my ability, I feel I've tried to advertise this not as just my biased personal opinion, but as a logical, beneficial method of housing that could drastically enrich both mygalomorphs and their keepers. Thank you for reading
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