To clean or not to clean??

[Jane Mitchell]

My L. Para has been a happy little chap since his moult about 3 months ago. He has decorated his tank with lots of web mats over his cork bark and put 'streamers' up the sides of the tank. He stopped doing this a few of weeks ago and the last couple of days I've noticed him trying to pull up sections of web. The tank is clean and as far as we can tell, there are no nasties in there but it got me wondering when do you clean the tank?? We've had the same setup since September last year when we first bought him and as things have been going OK have been reluctant to change anything. Does anyone suggest a routine clean out, if so, how often??

As an aside - what substrate is recommended for an L. Para if we did need a clean out??

Cheers,
Jane

[matthew spooner]

disturb the set up as little as possible, if the tank is clean, dont clean it. i use a coir/vermiculite mix for all my Ts and find it very suitable, never had a problem using it for the l.parahybana

[Peter Lacey]

Its probably more a case of your T wanting to move things around. The webbing over the substrate is like laying a carpet, now you wouldn't want someone to come and rip your new carpet out, would you?
Spot cleaning is all thats necessary and I usually do this when feeding. Take a look over the substrate and remove any uneaten food, mould etc and that should maintain a clean enclosure.
I think I remember someone on BTS saying he hadn't changed the substrate of some of his Ts for over 6 years.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Jane, we've 4 L. Paras, and really like them, we've always found they do well in straight eco earth. Some females do tend to be heavy webbers, we've stayed away from using vermiculite as we notice if we give the bigger ones a pinky or large roach, they sometimes pick up quite a lot of bits of vermiculite on their prey when they put them down to reweb. As long as you pick up the left overs and bolas and it smells ok, should be fine.

[Jane Mitchell]

Thanks for the replies. In that case, I'll leave it. There's no mould, the tank doesn't smell and to be honest we VERY rarely find any bolas but always remove them when we do.

I guess this is one of the (many) advantages of keeping T's!! I've had a litter tray down for my cats this week because they don't like going out in the snow and it's been a nightmare!!!!!

[Phil Rea]

Hi Jane, it's 'bolus', not 'bolas'. A bolas is what South American gauchos throw to entangle the legs of running cattle and bring them to a halt, whereas bolus comes from the Latin for 'ball'

I would leave it too. I never clean mine until I absolutely have no option. I prefer to leave them as undisturbed as possible if I can.

[Jane Mitchell]

Hi Jane, it's 'bolus', not 'bolas'. A bolas is what South American gauchos throw to entangle the legs of running cattle and bring them to a halt, whereas bolus comes from the Latin for 'ball'

Whatever! I mean the crunchy bits of cricket left in the bottom of the tank!!

I would leave it too. I never clean mine until I absolutely have no option. I prefer to leave them as undisturbed as possible if I can.

Thanks, I shall.

[Ed Pope]

This is an interesting discussion, I found it using the search function before starting a thread - I'm glad I did.

I have had my first tarantula for about 9 months now (a Chilean Rose) and she seems very happy. The entire enclosure is carpeted in web from top to bottom, she feeds well and has molted.

Due to the webbing everywhere, I find it difficult to get the white balls of waste out and especially the left over peices of cricket corpse without disturbing her.

Due to a malfunction in her waterbowl, there has been a water leak into the substrate too, but I have now fixed this.

I've been on the cusp of a full tank cleanout for her for a while, but am trying to balance the stress of doing this to the tarantula against the perceived need to do it.

I guess my question is, if there are pieces of waste and and cricket stuck in the webbing/substrate - is it time to take everything out and clean it, especially in light of the dampening that has occured?

All comments gratefully recieved by a newbie!

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi Jane & Ed
I tend to leave my L para's tank pretty much alone since intruducing common woodlice to the tank I have had no left over bits to clean out
They will eat anything from odd leftover legs to a complete cricket if the spider doesnt get it first and it dies of old age (rare). I chucked in a handfull last year and they are happily multiplying and cleaning any leftovers, you just need to overfill the waterbowl to give them some damp substrata to live around.
They are all strange beasts my L para has started using her log hide after ignoring it for most of last year, and has rolled up all her old webbing along with the top layer of substrata and built a hill in the middle of her tank which she is garding ??
Strange but thats why we love em

[Ed Pope]

What a fascinating idea! I shall try to find some woodlice ASAP to stick in the enclosure.

My G.rosea has also created an earthwork in the middle of her home!

[Clinton Hogben]

What a fascinating idea! I shall try to find some woodlice ASAP to stick in the enclosure.

dont forget to quarentine them first just in case but they do a great job
good luck with the hunt

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... when do you clean the tank?? ...

Sorry for this late reply. I've been a bit distracted lately.

If you want a basic rule of thumb:

BABIES/SLINGS: You should be moving these to larger quarters periodically as they grow. This is your basic cleaning schedule. New caging = clean quarters.

Otherwise, move them to another container if you accidentally get too much water in their current container or if you notice mites or other vermin.

JUVENILES AND ADULTS:
Habitat cages (the natural and organic type): Perform a major cleaning whenever you detect a serious odor that can't be dealt with by cursory housekeeping. Note that this could easily mean no major cleaning for several years.

Normal maintenance cages: Clean at least once a year just in advance of the molting season for the species in question. Otherwise, perform a major cleaning when an odor is detected or if infection, vermin or some other infestation is detected.

"Major cleaning" means removing everything from the cage, discarding the substrate, washing everything thoroughly with a mild dish soap and water solution, thoroughly rinsing it, then setting it back up with similarly cleaned furnishings and all new substrate. If mites are the cause for the cleaning follow the suggestions in www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html.

"Cursory housekeeping" means merely removing excess silk, any used food boluses, wiping the inside walls with wet, paper toweling (no soap!), maybe removing any badly soiled substrate (a "surface cleaning"), scrubbing any badly soiled furnishing with mild dish soap and water. Be sure to rinse anything you wash well with tap water.

Unless you're trying to eradicate a mite infestation, any heroic attempts at sanitizing or sterilizing a cage (e.g., scalding hot water, baking the substrate, cyanide bombs, flame throwers, ethylene oxide fumigation, etc.) are useless and a potential danger to you and your tarantula.

If you are among those who use isopods as scavengers in your tarantula cages, you should follow the rule for Habitat Cages. Plan ahead for major cleanings and be certain to move any living isopods to other, suitable cages to keep them alive during the cleaning process. Do not return them to the original, cleaned cage for one or two weeks to allow a suitable replenishment of the food items that they scavenge on. They're likely to die in a perfectly clean cage.

Hope this helps. Enjoy!

[Peter Lacey]

Interesting Stan. Did you ever take a read of Nick L's reply about mites:

http://thebts.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=28891&postcount=6

For those interested in woodlice/pillbugs/isopods as cleaner insects you may wish to consider the following. I've been using these for over a year now in my Pokie, Psalmo and Avic tanks and have had no issues. They clean (moulds, bolus and uneaten food), they self regulate, they reduce the mites (rumoured to eat the eggs and compete for the same food) and they don't seem to cause nuisance to the Ts. They usually come with springtails which do the same job.

• These can be purchased from online stores, notably those catering for dart frogs. They are usually sold as the tropical variety - smaller than our native ones with a white body.
• The springtails, not sure about the woodlice, can be used as food for tiny slings.
• As woodlice/pillbugs are crustaceans they require moist areas to survive so you'll often find them near the water bowl.
• Communities can easily be created with a starter culture of tropical or native species. A cricket tub or larger should be filled with substrate, some reptile wood chips and thoroughly moistened. Add your culture and feed with rotten fruit 7 veg (I use what my roaches have failed to eat). Keep in a warm place and maintain the moist conditions. 2 weeks is the recommended time to flush native woodlice of anything worrying.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Interesting Stan. Did you ever take a read of Nick L's reply about mites:
http://thebts.co.uk/forums/showpost....91&postcount=6 ...

No. But I've just downloaded it so I can study it in detail. Thanks for the heads-up!