New substrate

[Rich.Harrington]

Well since so far the tropical forest mix I made up for the A.chacoana enclosure is being recieved so well by said spider, I thought that i'd have another go at floating my ego and attempt another mix.
This time it's heading a little off the beaten track to have a crack at a semi natural desert substrate.

So before any further, I know some may cast me to hades for even thinking this, but yes I used sand. Personally I can't see any reasons why not for spiders, they do all their eating outside of the body so there is no chance of compaction or such. Along with it being resistant to mould, bugs and other manner of nasties when compared with natural soils/coir etc.

Though I haven't used 100% sand, as obviously not many theraphosids live happily on florida beach, so i've gone for a mix of dried sand, grit, coir, and corse orchid bark. These are in a rough mix of 4-1-1-1.

Whilst coir and orchid may seem an odd thing to put into sand for a desert, I chose to do so on the basis that even the desert species tend to dwell on the boarders of desert and scrub forest, and so would have some organic material nearby.

So here's a couple of pics of the G.rosea moved into her tempory accomodation with the new substrate mix, so far things seem quite well though the test will be to see the results by morning.

[James Box]

sounds good...i've used sand mixed with soil before, i was advised that it helped hold shape and thus was good for burrows, and so far it seems true!

[jason holland]

nice idea actually, id do it for my smithi, but dont really want to annoy her/him. def be interesting see how it goes tho

[Peter Roach]

Your mix is very similar to what I use. The only thing i would add is is some chopped spagnum moss to help hold the substate together for the spiders burrows.

[Tom Forman]

I use sand too.

I gave one of my slings an enclosure filled half with sand , the other half with soil to see the reaction/preference to sand and soil and I wouldn't say there is a preference either way. The said spider did however move alot of sand from the sandy area over to the soily area and mixed it all together before tunneling through the lot.

PS: I really don't think it is needed however, I use it cause I have some lying about. On the other hand, coco coir is very loose indeed and does not hold its shape too well...

My preferred substrate is organic soil... (good moisture holder, retains shape well and imo looks best compared to vermiculite, coco, sand and bark)


Ps2: Peter, I would be a bit worried about adding chopped spaghnum moss, worried about it rotting away like any organic matter does when buried... How long have you been burying moss and well is it ok lol?

[James Box]

funny i've been using coconut husk (eco earth type stuff), and find it's perfect for humidity (actually maybe TOO good) and also great for burrows!

have to say Tom, that's pretty amazing, the spider mixing the substrate itself before burrowing. they must know instinctually what works best...