My plan was to get hold of eight spiderling pots and place them in an Exo Terra faunarium, which would be heated by a heat mat. Luckily, my Dad had a spare heat mat which fitted the the faunarium perfectly. I decided to place the heatmat on the side of the faunarium, and NOT underneath. Whilst this topic is still hotly debated, it is a popular belief that under tank heating can actually kill a tarantula through dehydration.
After checking the heat mat was working, I then attached it to the side of the faunarium with a mix of duct tape and sticky back plastic, and attached it to a thermostat which would help keep the temperature in the nursery constant. After checking the temperature requirements of all the slings I would be getting, I decided on setting the thermostat to between 76F and 78F.
With the heating sorted, humidity was my next concern. All my slings would need humidity of above 60% so I put in a small layer of vermiculite on the bottom of the faunarium, which I will keep moist to help with humidity. If I find that the pots are still too dry, I will be dropping in small droplets of water using a pipette to avoid drowning the slings. However, warm and humid conditions are perfect for mold growth, which can actually kill a spider.
I've only managed to acquire two pots, the others are coming with the slings, so I have filled them ready with Coco-Fibre, a popular substrate choice amongst tarantula keepers.
I've included some pictures, so you can see what I mean:
The whole setup
The sling pots
The base of the faunarium
No comments:
Post a Comment