THE ULTIMATE ARBOREAL SPIDER TERRARIUM 

 

 

Build Time - >2 Hours (+ 12 hours to ensure environmental controls are settled and stable)

 

Everything on the list below is either readily available from your local invert shop, or can be found in any hardware store. The only exception is magnetic tape, which can be ordered online from a variety of sources. Lastly, Peat Moss may require you to head to a garden center or similar.

 

 

As of today (Sat 03-05-08), I have gathered the following, ready for tank construction...

Photos of the main parts below...

 

If you are viewing on a smaller screen, click any pics to enlarge them, and then click AGAIN on the photo to see it at full quality with no jaggy edges. Close the tab (decent browsers), or close the window (Internet Exploder) to return here. 

 

 

 

In the photos above, we can see the various bits and bobs that will make up the main tank. Please note that the bamboo tube illustrated is not the one we will be using in this tank - it is far too small for our growing spider - we will be using the largest and deepest 2 from his current tank, which will also have the additional advantage of instantly giving him things he is already familiar with in a strange new environment. It may also be that we actually use one of these tubes to transfer him safely.

 

Reasons I have chosen this tank include: 

Below is the heat pad, and digital hygrometer we'll be using to make sure that he is nice and warm, and so that we can see how much. Please note the absence of those crappy little exo-terra dial thermometers, which I can only describe as 'utterly useless', and you should avoid them at all costs - they truly are rubbish, and a complete waste of your time and money.

 

 

So, thats the basics sorted out - these now have to be arranged in the tank (which will need to be cleaned first) with the following considerations in mind...

This, I shall go and do now. Photos to follow...

 

Ok - done that, and I now have a finihed tank. If you are following along, then it will be easier if I do this as a series of instructions, which I will endeavour to make as clear as possible, and I shall intersperse photos and tips as I go... ready ?

 

 

 

1. Thoroughly clean the inside of the tank with hot, soapy water. If you do use a bleach-based cleaner (and you safely can), be careful to rinse lots, and makes sure all trace of it has gone. It should not smell of cleaner. Ideally, allow this to air-dry, but if in a hurry, a thorough wipe-round with a clean cloth should be fine. The outside of the glass can be cleaned with anything you like - I went for standard glass cleaner, and again, allowed this to air dry for a sparklingly clean terrarium.

 

 

2. Now is the time to get your heat pad in place, so remove the foam backboard, and begin lining up where you think you should place the pad upon it. Try and position this so that it will heat an area in which you will be placing the spiders hide AND over an open area so that the spider is encouraged to bask where you can see it and take photos / film etc... 
When you are happy with your chosen position, tape the heat pad to the backboard with your black electrician's tape, making sure that you point the cable upwards so that it flows through the helpfully provided channels in the tank lid. Tape the cable in position if you need to.

 

 

 
3. Now - whilst you are dealing with the backboard, notice those 2 channels / spaces at the top ? Naughty crickets will find those, and escape from your spider through them, where they will become trapped in the narrow space behind the board, die, and begin to smell really very nasty, especially as they will be in a humid environment, and right next to a heat mat. It will be next to impossible to remove them without doing a completely unnecessary tank change, so you need to address this now. I cut 2 small blocks of wood, sanded them down, and inserted them into the channels, taping them in place, effectively cutting off these escape routes, although you may have a different way of achieving the same effect. As you will see, I also diligently carved little 'no exit' signs into mine, so that crickets would know the score. (OR I may have added them later in photoshop :) See pics below...

 

   

 

SUBSTRATE 

 

4.  Now is the time to bring your substrate to the fore, so grab a mixing bowl, and prepare TWO mixes of peat moss, or whatever you are using instead. Make the first sopping wet by adding lots of water - make it REALLY saturated, and then line the bottom of the tank with this mix - perhaps an inch or so will be fine. Next, prepare your second mix, which will be the same thing, this time only very slightly damp (if it's fresh no need to add water at all), and do another layer on top of the wet stuff, up to about an inch below the level of the doors. Take care not to obscure the humidity control system that will keep your front glass mist-free. Doing this will provide a surface on which your spider doesn't mind walking, and yet maintains its high humidity for far longer than if you had just used the drier stuff. Firmly tamp all that down with your hands until you have a nice, even, coherant base for your terrarium. Add more of the drier mix if you need to at this point.

 

 

5. First, grab your cork bark, and a stiff brush, and get all the gunk out of the inside of the cork bark - you have no idea what that is, or where it came from. Perhaps sterilize the pieces you are going to use by blasting them for 5 minutes in a microwave. Next, place your cork bark or whatever else you are using for hides / climbing frames, and texture variation. I've used a large cork bark tube-form, which I split to make 2 large hides, one by the heat mat, one not. Place one hide so that it backs on to the glass at one side of the tank, for a plan we'll be following later, which will allow us to see inside the hide, so that we can check the spider is OK, and yet give it almost total darkness, which it will appreciate. Once you have placed your hides, and pressed them firmly down into the substrate, you may wish to add a little more of the dry mix you prepared earlier, just to make more natural transitions between floor, and bark. Maybe scatter some loose peat moss or wood chips, or even dry leaves around if you feel like it.

 

6. Arrange your foliage so that it trails top down, and partially covers the open top of this hide to further exclude light. I've used plastic leaves (for no maintenance). In my version, the heat pad is positioned so that half of it heats this hide area, and the other half is heating open space, hopefully encouraging the animal to bask where we can see her. Pics below...

 

    

 

7. Next up, we're going to create some additional darkness for our light-despising 8-legged friend, and make sure that it is comfortable in the hide we have just placed. Grab your black card (use 2 or more layers if you can see light through it), and cut it to a size so that it will entirely cover the hide area you have just made against the glass. When done, edge this on all 4 sides with electrical tape, which will increase durability, and also hold together the arrangement if you are using multiple bits of card.

 

Having finihed that, the next trick is to make it removable, and in such a way so that your animal will barely notice you removing or attaching it. So abandon any thoughts you might have about using sticky velcro, or any other hook / loop arrangement (using this will scare the living daylights out of your spider everytime you remove it, and may possibly result in its refusal to use that hide at all), but instead consider getting out the magnetic tape. This is truly marvellous stuff (can be ordered online if you can't find it at hardware shops), is self-adhesive to boot, and can easily be lined up, and attached to the black card, and its opposite to the tank itself, shutting out nearly all light, and hopefully providing the darkest of places in which to hide, and letting you remove it with a very low vibration count that your spider may not even notice (note - do this in the day, and it WILL notice the light, of course!)...

 

 

 

 

 

8. Lastly, add the water bowl right at the front, into a little dent in the substrate you can make with your hand, so that it will be very easy to refill almost regardless of the position of the spider (which should want to be towards the back most of the time), move the whole tank to it's final postion, and then fill the bowl to close to the top. Now is the time get your hygrometer and thermometer in there, shut the doors, and monitor the situation BEFORE the spider arrives, so that you may check temps and humidity are correct before you add the animal.

 

Here's what mine looked like, complete... (this pic in opens in this window, so click 'back' to return here).

 

 

Well done - you have just finihed what I very much hope to be the ULTIMATE arboreal spider terrarium. If all has gone well, it should conform to ALL the aims I listed at the beginning of this article, and should make your spider very content to be thise, which of course is not only good for its well-being, but also should mean that it does not even try to escape. Water can be added from the front, or if the spider should be on the front doors, dribbled through the mesh lid at the top.

 

 

1. How to vary the humidity, should you find it is too low...

 

A nice easy answer to that one - grab another bit of card, and lay it in the helpful recess provided in one half of the mesh lid, effectively halving the airflow and increasing the relative humidty by around 25%. I do not recommend cutting off more airflow than this, as most spiders appreciate a fair amount. If you are housing avicularia do not cover any of these airways.

 

2. How to vary the humidity, should you find it is too high...

 

The humidity probably ISN'T too high, but might appear so whilst the wet layer of substrate you prepared is still very wet. As this dries, as will happen in around a week, humidity will drop by up to 30%, and if it starts to do this drastically, then begin misting periodically to restore it. Possibly consider misting loads, and then selectively adding or removing the card section as detailed above to your exact requirements.

 

Thank you for reading, and please do drop me a line if you build one of these, and find it is working perfectly for you, or indeed if you find problems that I have not addressed, or you think of ways to improve the plan even further. 

 

Now all that remains is to transfer your little (or large) spider in thise, something I shall be tackling in another article. 

 

I shall be back with an ultimate terrestrial build in the next couple of months or so, when young 'Boots' looks a bit more like he is short on space.