Temperature, Substrate and Humidity

[Simon Cull]

Hello fellow arachnophiles!

I currently have a terrestrial species (A.Seemani) who is acting like an arborial species. i.e. she is spending most of the time at the top of her tank. I have deduced that this is due to her substrate being a bit too cold for her (she hasn't made a burrow since the last clean out). Now this could be down of a number of reasons.

The heat mats I have are long-wave IR, thus don't heat the air as much as short-wave IR, but I would have thought these would still heat the substrate. (Also, should these be on the outside of the tank? she seems to enjoy sitting on them, and they do not get warm, but someone suggested they should be on the outside of the tank. My only concern is that they are the only think keeping the temperature at a reasonable level near the top, by taking these outside am I going to risk her getting too cold over night?)

The spray i have for keeping the humidity up doesn't mist very well so I have to spray inside the tank, which then drips into the substrate, cooling it as it evaporates.

There was a 3rd possibility but I have forgotten it for now, but if anyone has any suggestions/answers, I'd live to hear them!

Thanks, Simon

[EDIT] I should mention although the substrate is "cold" it is around 22.5-23.5 degrees centigrade, but the top where she is sitting most at the minute is about 27 degrees so it is all within "safe" temperatures. This brings up another of my worries, heating the floor level of the viv will also raise the top temperature above "safe" levels. Humidity is at a stable 70%.

[matthew spooner]

hi simon. i would put the heat mats on the outside of tanks at all times, not only can it cause harm to the T, the humidity may get in the circuitry and cause a fault. the heat mat should always be placed on the back or side of the tank, never underneath. i find it works better giving the T the option of going to the front of the tank or back of the tank to heat up/cool down then it does to make them climb for it.
as for the water sprayer, replace it. i find that it works best with a mist, what i tend to do to aide humidity is over flow the water dish once a week, the average size water dish provides 30% humidity on its own. usually a terrestrial T will climb if it is unhappy with its tank, which could be explained by the apparent coldness of the substrate but that temp seems fine to me, try placing the heat mat on the side and see how she reacts to dat

[Simon Cull]

well in my current setup there is little gradient, and i think this may be the underlying problem, I was having troubles keeping her warm as my central heating was down long term so I had to get another heat mat, one on thermostat, the other not and this could be when the problem began, it seems to correlate. I will have a play tomorrow and see if i can make her a bit happier. As for humidity, I will look for another spray, but I was finding them quite hard to find, any suggestions?

It's a bit late now, so I have disconnected one of the mats and I will remove it tomorrow when I have a bit more time to get her out and refurbish the tank properly. The central heating is sorted now, so she should be alright

The substrate isnt as bad as I thought, it's at most 1 degree below the air temp as it should be really. Also I had a feeling she wasn't happy because she hadn't been burrowing and had been climbing and sitting at the top.

On a completely seperate note I held her for the first time a few minutes ago, completely accidentally, I was adjusting the top of her tank and she managed to stick her foot out the top, so i tried to persuade her back in and she climbed on Its a weird feeling, almost electric where her feet touch you.

[matthew spooner]

well hopefully you get the tank to her liking, hopefully she isnt too fussy lol. although handling isnt recommended, sometimes it might be necessary. my seemani is a right evil little cow though lol, hats off to anyone who can tame that wild beast lol

[Søren Rafn]

Terrestrial spiders only tend to be climbing if they do not like the substrate. Either because it is too wet, or because the composition of the substrate is not right. Try shifting the substrate and make sure it is good deep as A. seemannii are obligate burrowers in nature. Loamy garden soil is in my experience excellent for burrowers.

Regards
Søren

[Simon Cull]

Hey, I have got her happy!!it took some moving around and slight carving of polystyrene, but she is happy she now has a warm corner at the back and a cooler corner at the front She hasn't burrowed yet, but she isnt climbing anymore. I have coconut hair as a substrate, is this ok? She burrowed in it once before and i think once i get this new spray it shouldn't get too wet, things are on the up

yeah I wouldn't normally have handled her, but as i said, she climbed onto me and i wasn't going to argue, she's a cutie! Thankfully she doesn't seem to be too grumpy.