my spiders

[scott wilson]

been a while since i last posted on here,last time was concerning my t blondi which has since i bought it last christmas been the most oddball T ive ever owned,it moulted yesterday very well even though it had eaten 3 large locust 2 days before!!!,its now stopped charging round the tank late at night aswell,this may have been due to being to hot ive put the heat mat on a timer now so its only on til midday,then cools off during the day and night,my other Ts taco the red knee is looking great moulted a month ago and my cobalt blue which managed to escape and was found completely webbed up behind the bedside cabinet has got a worse attitude than my goliath!!,its an evil little thing,anyways the moral is dont keep your Ts too hot,75/80c and all of mine are more than happy.

[stevebagnall]

I'm keeping my Tarantula's around that temperature too. Had to put another heat mat in the Large Vivarium that I keep them all in though. It's getting cold and the temperature dropped considerably with only the one in there. Where and how do you keep yours? I've read about Tarantula rooms, and would love this but don't have the space.

[scott wilson]

heating

hi steve,all of my Ts are kept in seperate tanks,the goliath is housed in a 24x12x12 fish tank with a sliding lid,a 25watt heat matt is taped to the back of it with1"polystyrene over that to insulate it,sendind the heat into the tank,this is how all my spiders are kept with only the tank size varying my red knee is in a 12"x10"x10" as its not yet adult and the cobalt in a 14"x10"x10",my chile rose is in a tank abit bigger,but all of the heat mats are on an extension lead into a program timer set at the mo to come on at 6am then off at 3pm,this mimics the natural warming up during the day then cooling off at night when the Ts become more active,they are all kept in my bedroom and it is quite warm in there,they all seem content with this all have moulted recently,even my goliath which you would think coming from the rain forest it would want a higher temp seems happier now the heater goes off to allow the tank to cool....hope this helps

[stevebagnall]

Cool, cheers. I've got 2 in seperate tanks, the rest are all housed in various sized plastic containers. Then housed in one large Vivarium. I'm currently using 2 heat mats to heat it up. They all seem happy enough, they are eating ok. But I've only had the majority of them this week. I've been looking at some larger glass cabinets that i could setup in the bedroom, as you say warmer in there. I want to expand my collection and don't have much more room in the viv.

How big's the Goliath?

[scott wilson]

my goliath

answer to your question steve my goliath is approx 7" leg span now,maybe abit more but hasnt come out of its burrow yet since moulting on saturday so i can really tell,i managed to get in there to remove the cast but cant find the abdomen skin i really wanted to find out the sex of it,all i can tell you is even now at 3/4 grown its a very formidable spider,fast and aggressive and will flick hairs at the slightest disturbance,but they do need alot of room when it decides to go on a ramble it will keep me awake at night as it marches round the tank!!!,i hope this one doesnt get out like my cobalt did a while ago id be ringing 999 if it did lol