Escaping Spiderling

[benmaffin]

My Curly Hair keeps trying to get out the tank. It climbs the sides and then tries to push the lid up.

Sometimes it falls off as it tries to climb upside down.

Why is it doing this? Is it because the envirmonment for it it wrong (someone mentioned something about Peat maybe - what sort should I use)?

I've uploaded a video of it here:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IF2DfC4i_M"]YouTube - Spider[/ame]


B

[Dave Gunter]

He's trying to tell you that he's not happy about something in there, the substrate looks like, like, errmm gawd, can't think of the name of it now, an artificial substance - grrr. but anyway, i've heard several reports of spiders being unhappy on it, all of mine are kept on coir or coir / sand mix.

Coir is IMO better than the peat as it's much easier to store/keep and less destructive to the enviroment as it comes from renewable sources unlike peat.

[Warren Beattie]

Vermiculite. Yup. Used to be all the rage for it's sterility and water-retentive properties, but it's popularity's gone downhill.

I still use it, but only as an additive to coir (which I swear by) for certain spiders, like slings, arboreals, so on.

P.S. That's a spiderling?

[benmaffin]

Substrate...

It's vermiculite...!

I'm getting the impression that you're probably right about the substrate and he's fed up of it...

I'll look into changing it this weekend!

[benmaffin]

What is coir...?

What is coir...? and where do I get it? ie can I get it in B&Q?

[James Box]

i just got a curly hair, and she's FAR less active then that haha! hard to get her to move off my hand when it's time to put her back!
good luck sorting out your enclosure...maybe it's a bit small?

[mike halewood]

What is coir...? and where do I get it? ie can I get it in B&Q?

Its made from coconu and It comes in a dry block that you then ad water to. If you go to yourlocal pet shop it normally costs around £4 a block which will make 9ltrs. BUT, if you have a Wilkinsons store near you, tey're selling them at 30p each!!! I recently went in an bought 12 blocks for just over £4.

[James Box]

that's a bargain for you! i need to get to a Wilkinsons

[Dave Gunter]

Thanks peoples, vermiculite was the word i was after earlier

Coir blocks in B&Q, pack of 4 for just under 3 quid, must check my local wilkies out

[Warren Beattie]

I had a look at B&Q coco bricks once upon a time, long long ago. I was put off by the extra ingredients - fertiliser? Wetting agent? Can't remember. Has anyone had any problems with it? If not, I might go back.

[Colin D Wilson]

P.S. That's a spiderling?

it'll be about two foot across when mature if it is

I still mainly use a mixture of peat and vermiculite for humidity control (trying to rehydrate peat is near to impossible)
Have just bought some coir and i'm not quite sure about it yet, if one of my T's piles the substrate over the water bowl the whole lot dampens and humidity goes sky high, with the peat it was only a little area around the bowl that went damp as the vermiculite absorbed most.

Dave, with regards to the environment, i agree with you and found an acceptable source which i mentioned in another thread. (i've cut and pasted what i wrote below)

"I use a brand called Moorland Gold (which used to be stocked up till recently by my local wilkos, now i have to get it from a local garden centre at £2.50 (45ltrs) when they have it !)
You can also order it online from Tamar Organics, but the delivery charge is a killer, working out to over a tenner for 45 litres

This is actually obtained from the filtering of water in west Yorkshire before it enters the drinking system. Also due to natural erosion from the peat moors large quantities of peat, silt and leaf mould also build up in reservoirs, this has been found to be detramental to the aquatic life so the reserviors are dredged out and the compost packaged up.

I know it's still technically peat, and i appreciate your valid point, but at the end of the day, it's not directly harvested. i also noted somewhere that a certain amount from the sale of this product, and others like it, is donated to the environmental fund that preserves the original habitat."

Makes me feel a bit better about using it.

[Robert Farmer]

My B Smithi does similair things to what your Albopilosum's upto and she's been on top soil, coir/vermic mix, mix of all 3, a slab of cork bark, huge terracotta plant pot etc, she just seems to enjoy testing her confines...

The lid I had on originally had a bit of give which the T could move slightly so I summised that maybe she thought if she could move it slightly then she'd keep trying to push thinking that "If i can move it a small bit then surely I'll be able to move it all eventually"...

I've since secured the lid totally with no give in it and the frequency of her "perimiter checks" seems to have lessened.

[Helen Roberts]

My daughter has a B smithi and it spends some of the time on the sides of its tank. Like Colin I use a mixture of vermiculite and peat and my Ts and scorpions seem ok on it.

[benmaffin]

A Trip to B&Q

I think a trip to B&Q is in order (Superdrug bought out our local Wilkinsons) and I'll change the substrate over the weekend and see if the Spiderling still trys his desperate escape tactics.

He's never tried it before - it's only started to happen in the last coulple of weeks since I changed his tank.

Oh and another question - does the little hooks on his legs mean that it's a "he"?

Thanks,
B.

[Phil Rea]

He looks suspiciously like a mature male to me (which could explain the wandering behaviour, as in the wild they roam around to find females to mate with).

If he has hooks (tibial apophyses) on his front legs, and he certainly appeared to from your video, then he is most definitely a mature male. He will also have 'bulbs' on his pedipalps (used as sperm storage and mating apparatus).

Depending on when he matured, you need to find him a female