The ground for a b.smithi

[Matt Brett]

Hello,

My new b.smithi came with the set up and has got wood chips as the substrate, is this okay or not? I know pete is the best thing to have, but is the wood chips okay or not?

Thank you

[KJ Vezino]

Not really. Depending on the type of wood, it could be toxic. Best to switch it as soon as you can.

[Matt Brett]

Right going to get it sorted ! Thank you.

What type of pete is suitable may I ask?

[Mark Daffin]

I use the coconut fiber substrate, its great stuff and environmentally friendly. It comes in small bricks that you soak in water and you get around 8 - 10L of substrate. Zoo Med have it labeled as EcoEarth, but you can get it cheaper unbranded. Just be sure that its not treated with insecticides if you go for a version from a garden center etc.

[Colin D Wilson]

I've used reclaimed peat and vermiculite mixed for the last god knows how many years. have tried the coir fibre (coconut) and this seems to be slowly finding it's way into many of my enclosures as a replacement. (i mainly keep Grammostola so if it dries out too much its not that much of a problem)
If you wish to use peat i reccommend "moreland gold" as a product as it's gathered from reservoirs in the north of britain after ending up in there from natural erosion, they clear out reservoirs so as the water doesn't clog up and kill the aquatic life.

[Mark Lynes]

I keep all my 60+ Brachys on coir, peat is a definite no no as it is HUGELY environmentally unsound (moreland gold being the exception).

Mark

[Colin D Wilson]

I'll agree there Mark, even though Moreland Gold is reclaimed there's still a mentionable environmental issue though in that we're still taking away natural enzymes, bacteria and the like from the land site.
Thus i'm sure that after my next main general housekeeping / maintenance i'll be on coir entirely.

I can see one really unhappy H lividium rearing it's ugly head though !!

[Matt Brett]

Hello again,

I went out and bought some terrariumhumus, is this suitable for my b.smithi? I got it from the same store I got my b.smithi from.

Thank you and again sorry for all the questions

[Mark Daffin]

I'm pretty sure thats a coir type substrate and should be fine for your smithi.
After you have soaked it, give it a good squeeze to get out any excess water. The stuff acts like a sponge and holds a lot, if its to wet it will upset the spider and can cause mold issues if there are any food leftovers etc etc. Just squeeze it out till no water drips from it, or spread it out on kitchen roll or similar to dry out for a few hours. Hope this helps! And don't be worried to ask questions, we all love to talk about Tarantulas!! Thats what everyone is here for! Hope your new Smithi loves its new 'carpet'!

Mark

[Matt Brett]

Well, at about 1am last night we finally changed it all around....with him still in the tank. He likes to sit on the glass sometimes so we worked around him hehe.
He wasn't/isn't really standing on the substrate. Also he has fallen twice of the glass, are there many tarantula's that fall of glass? He seems to be okay, just sat halfway on the glass and halfway in the water dish now

[James Box]

well i think sometimes ground-loving T's get a bit confused and hang on the glass. some of mine do that even now. as for falling off, my B. albopilosum has managed to do that, as has one of my G. rosea's, both without hurt.
also, considering the intricate webbing of my C. chromatopuscens, i assume its been walking on the sides as well.

[Matt Brett]

Heheh, it's so hard lol cos I seem to have everything right and perfect as I red up on these forums and other sites too. Yet he refuses to walk on the substrate! So far he's conceded that he might sometimes have to touch it a bit to get places. I think it's just that it's cos he isnt used to it. in the shop I think they had kept in on some kind of woodchips, but the guy had said it was a setup for a snake before they put him in there and the guy also didnt know what kind of wood it was anyway.
My girlfriend got the falling part on video camera. She just happened to be filming him cos he was actually moving. It's kinda funny to look back on, scary at the time but I can see why he fell. He was moving back down the glass and decided to leave one leg behind. So he was going downwards and his back most left leg was steadily getting stretched further and further until he lost balance.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

I keep all my 60+ Brachys on coir, peat is a definite no no as it is HUGELY environmentally unsound ...

This is a common misconception, largely due to only a few individuals who stand to gain by talking you into switching to shredded coconut husks.

Here are the facts:

Peat is the rotted remains of mosses and leaves left after a swamp or "peat bog" eventually fills in. Basically, it's naturally composted vegetable matter.

The myth is that peat is a non-renewable resource. If you are to believe this you must then believe that every swamp and bog in the world is going to dry up tomorrow. I don't think so.

As well, the unstated hypothesis is that the arachnoculture hobby is consuming vast amounts of peat. The fact is that if the arachnoculture hobby completely stopped using peat tomorrow morning neither the peat industry nor Green Peace would notice. Our peat consumption is far less than negligible compared to the horticulture and landscaping industries. In short - we are vastly overestimating our own importance in this matter.

Shredded coconut husk, by whatever name, is not as pure and virgin as its proponents would have you believe either, however. That shredded coconut husk has to come from coconuts not collected on some idyllic beach by beautiful, well tanned natives in some exotic, south sea paradise. It comes from hot, sweaty coconut plantations that replaced rainforest in places like the Philippines, Brazil and lots of other hot, sweaty, tropical countries. Many hundreds of thousands of acres of precious, tarantula bearing rainforest were destroyed for those plantations. That rainforest and the tarantulas it once harbored are now gone, perhaps forever. And, by using shredded coconut husk you are, in some small way, promoting that loss.

On the other hand, we must also point out that shredded coconut husk is also a trivial byproduct of a much larger industry. As with peat, if the arachnoculture hobby were to stop using coconut husk entirely tomorrow morning, a minuscule number of people who process it and sell it might lose their jobs, but the coconut plantations wouldn't notice or care. Neither would Green Peace. Again, arachnid enthusiasts vastly overestimate their own importance on a world scale.

Now, let the flame war begin!

[Peter Roach]

Flame War ???

Well said that man

Totally agree with you.

My wife uses more peat in two hanging baskets than I use in six months

[James Box]

i think that sounds logical. after all, 90 odd % of the world seems to be terrified of spiders...and not everyone who isn't scared owns a T. so that would make our contribution to any kind of ecological crisis fairly minor...
especially compared to gardeners, farmers, etc.