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Arboreal Sling Tank Project 1
This tank was designed to house a baby Avicularia versicolor, which requires high humidty AND good ventilation, but should equally work for pretty much any arboreal sling. You may have to adjust the amount of air holes to suit your particular species of spider, but most other elements can stay the same.
For this project, you will require: - 1 x Mini doughnuts container, or similar, with snap on lid, or screw top.
- 1 x clear plastic sauce container (to make inner ring)
- A Coke bottle top
- Silcone sealant, or superglue
- Selected bits of artificial foliage
- Substrate (peat moss & vermiculite used here)
- 3 x small size bulldog clips
- Bag-ties
- Mini-heat mat
- Small hobby drill, soldering iron, or some other means of poking / melting holes
- Hand reamer
- Humidity / temperature test gear (not exo-terra)
Sling tanks are usually quite quick and easy to make, but don't forget to allow some time to get the humidity right - you will be very lucky if you get the amount of air holes right first time. Ok - let's get started. - First, take your plastic container, remove the lid, and drill or melt a series of holes around the perimeter. Make several rows about 2 inches from the top, and and another row or 2 about an inch or so from the bottom. If using the melting technique, I recommend doing this outside - burning plastic smells delightful.
- If you have melted holes, they will be smooth enough so proceed to the next stage. If you drilled them, you will now need to ream out the holes so that they lose any rough edges, and plastic shards.
- Wash the container thoroughly in hot water, rinse and dry.
- Take a suitably sized bit of artificial foliage, and curl it round the inside of the container, providing multiple webbing points for your sling. Glue it in place, with either with superglue, or aquarium sealant. Hot-glue guns, as sometimes recommended, are not here because over time the glue cracks in a way that sealant, and superglue don't.
- Aquarium sealant the coke bottle top, or whatever you are using for a water bowl, high up to the side of the container. use the leaves as a guide so that the spider can walk from a leaf to the dish. Leave the container outside to dry for around 48 hours, or until you can't smell sealant anymore.
- Add an inch or so of damp peat moss, or suitable alternative substrate, and pack it down firmly into the base of the container. You may want to add a small amount of moss to retain a bit more humidity for spiders that need it.
- Measure the diameter at the top of the tank, and cut out a section of the lid of the sauce container that is just smaller than that measurement, allowing your inner lid to sit just inside the rim at the top of the container. Now cut out a hole around 3 cm in diameter in the middle of the inner lid. You will use this to drop crickets in, and to allow access to refill the water bowl.
- Also drill 2 small holes, and thread a wire bag-tie through, forming a small handle with which to easily lift the inner lid when you have to.
- Now go back to your outer lid, and drill or melt many small air holes across the whole surface of it. Good airflow, or humidity control is determined mostly by how many holes you put here.
- Depending on your outer lid arrangement, you want to arrange it so that the way you enter the tank disturbs the spider as little as possible. Screw on plastic lids are ideal. If you have a snap-on lid, consider cutting off the snapping 'rim', and instead using mini bulldog clips to hold it in place. Obviously, your container will need to have a suitable rim for this approach to work.
Nearly there ! - Arrange the leaves so that they form hiding places that your spider might choose to use in its burrow.
- Spray the container lightly with water, fill the water bowl, and then leave it, lid(s) closed for a day or so, to dry out and stabilise. Then, place a humidity gauage in the tank, place the tank by the heat mat, and monitor for several hours. Drill more holes if humidity is too high, or you don't think you have enough airflow. Block holes up, using tape form the inside, if the humidity is too low.
Depending on the species of arboreal sling, you are aiming for between 65 and 80% humidity. For Avicularia spiders, good airflow and ventilation is essential. Lastly, when you have the perfect conditions, introduce your spider, and quickly pop the inner lid in place. Now, if your spider chooses to web there, you still have access to the tank without destroying the web. Now all you have to do is place your sling tank somewhere warm and dark, preferably next to wall with a heatmat attached to it. Don't put the heatmat under the tank - it can melt, and spiders do not expect heat to arrive from below ! Monitor the situation in your spider's new home often for the first few days, mainly to ensure that it can't escape through any airholes that are slightly too big, but also to check that it has settled in and started webbing. Feed a few days or so AFTER the spider moves in - the last thing it needs when adjusting to its new space is other things running around it immediately. And thats it - sling tank complete !
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