suitable burrower for first T??????

[Andrew Young]

Hi all after looking out my fishtank to see if it could be used in a comunal paludarium i remembered how nice it is with its hood on sitting on its stand and thus the communal idea has been put on hold. I will attempt this in the future as the space is always there but instead of jumping in at the deep end I want to get some experiance looking after a single T first. The tank is 48"X12"X15"(lxbxh) I have filled it 6" deep with a 50/50mix of soil and perlite(vermiculite substitute). As a hide at one end of the tank i have put in an 11 litre square plantpot 10"x10"x10.5" and half filled it with the substrate and also covering the top with substrate having a ramp to top so T can go above if wanted. This makes a pretty good cave effect 10.5" to back wall and 10" side to side. currently temps have been between 23 degrees and 27 degrees with humidity of around 70 percent. ive put in a small water dish also. Looking for advice on which would be a suitable T for this setup I would rather have burrower than terrestrial i,m also thinking a juvenile would be more appropriate. I was thinking of the whistling spider (selenocosmia crassipes) has anyone any experiance with these? as it can grow to 18cm would my area be to small width wise when adult? Also when you purchase a T what are the chances of getting a male as opposed to a female? Sorry for the long post for just a couple of questions any help advice is appreciated.

cheers Andy.

[Adam Smith]

a tank that size is way too big for a juvenile. It would be great for a female T blondi. I would suggest a large adult either way. or place temporoary dividers to sperate them into quarters. that way can have 4 ts with loads of space to dig around and wont be too bad if they are juves. but a tank like that is too big for a juv. There are many good burrowers within the baboon and asian spiders however they are not really beginners

[Andrew Young]

hi adam thanks for ur reply but does a t blondi not grow to poss 12" when adult thus making it the same width as the tank and for it to burrow it prefers around 12" depth of substrate. This in my opinion would make it unsuitable I may be wrong as I have no hands on experiance although i have done a fair bit of reading. As for a tank being to large for 1 juvineille why is this as surely in the wild there area is not set with the T finding its own most suitable area, in the case of the tank it can surely find its prefered area itself but with more options than a smaller tank. I can see how it could make feeding more difficult but they are afterall wild animals and surely dont need to be hand fed just keep a various amount of prey available with the exception of black crickets. It's surely not going to get lost in the tank lol. and should have the natural ability to adapt. Thanks for ur advice and please respond as I said i,m new to this and willing to listen I realise the majority of T's are kept in smaller areas just havent found any real significance as to why.

cheers Andy.

[Simon Batten]

from what I know its rare to get one over 10" but still that would make the width too small, the reason they can be kept in small areas is because in the wide they may never venture more than 15" from there burrow or something like that

[Adam Smith]

it has a legngth of 4ft which is plenty of room for a blondi, I dont know about 12 inch deep 6 wouldbe adequate and with the floor space area there will be much scope for it to burrow. As far as them being in the wild, bear in mind that most tarantulas that are borrowers rarely venture more than couple metres away from the burrow very rarely going much further with exception of male searching for a female, many ts spend most of their lives in a burrow with the chambers bit bigger than a toilet roll tube. A juv will have plenty of space with a plastic storage tub of say 12x12x15. Also a large enclosure could cause stress.

[Andrew Young]

hi I think I may go for T blondi as pointed out before they seem to be most suitable burrowers for beginners. The tank is setup in the living room it has a yukka tree and other objects in front of it so it is only partially viewable like a deep background hence why i dont want to use a plastic container. I would rather get juv than an adult as you have no way of ageing an adult, which means when they grow to be adult i defo wouldnt have enough space for 4 taking ur advice on board could i split it into 2 for 2 juv,s as it would be easier to rehome 1 adult if they grow to large rather than 3. could do it if had to but rather not. Thanks again you's are helping me more than u know, appreciated.

[Adam Smith]

Although having said that a juv sized blondi is quite impressive and nice size anyway. Good luck with it, post pics i cant wait to see it