How humid should my tank be?

[Daniel Richardson]

hey everyone
whats the perfect humidity to house my red knee? its 98% at the mo.
i'm using peat,maybe next time i clean it out i will warm it through in the oven[i dont own a microwave-would rather eat road kill off the M1!!!!] would this dry it out?

[Lisa Grose]

Hi Dan again, I agree with you about microwave food only I couldn't discribe how food was when it came out of it. You hit the nail on the head. Gosh you are a worrier. Calm down (its only a commercial) and stop it. I think the little T's are a bit stronger than they look you know. I seen a spider today outside and it only had five legs and four of them was all on the one side of its body but boy did it get about. It was a trooper. I've looked in my book by Ronald N Baxter (whom I received a letter off today because I write to him too asking him for advise and he is really helpfull too and his book has a good section dedicated to the descriptions and how the setups should be to lots of different types of T's) and I quote what he has in his book for Brachypelma smithi :- Description. Female length 75mm lag span 125-150mm. Habitat. Occurs in deep burrows along the pacific coast of mexico. Housing. A medium sized tank with moist peat substrate will suffice. Preferred temperature 24-27, with approximately 75% humidity.
This is a good book and should be owned by all Tarantula keepers. It is the best book to describe the tempreture and humidity and set up and it gives you alot of detail about what the spider preferes which I haven't found any other book to tell you this so direct. I hope this helps.

[lynn mawdesley]

Ive yet to buy this book and have heard bloomin good reviews about it!

Agreed with Lisa...another good idea for future reference is to check out the climatic data of the Tarantulas habitat which is easily obtainable via good old google
Although us hobbiests can never mimic 100% their climate all we can do is our best to get somewhere near.

my B smithi sling (which was a present ) moulted out yesterday and the yellow is just starting to come through ...lovely they are!

Lynn

[Daniel Richardson]

Ta very much

Thanks guys n gals again for all your help.i'm gonna moniter it for a few days,hopefully the humidity will calm down a wee bit-i only put it in on thursday and got t friday-if it dont get any better i'll change it and nuke it in the oven!!!!!

[lynn mawdesley]

Thanks guys n gals again for all your help.i'm gonna moniter it for a few days,hopefully the humidity will calm down a wee bit-i only put it in on thursday and got t friday-if it dont get any better i'll change it and nuke it in the oven!!!!!

Thats what we are here for
Im guessin the peat must be pretty moist for the humidity to be so high yes? is your B smithi climbing the enclosure walls mine probs would be screaming out for help lol just messing mate lol

On a serious note though ...easy solution just change the substrate so its not that moist to create the high humidity you have going on there one good tip is to grab some of the substrate and if you can squeeze water out of it then its too moist ( or so ive heard ) lol

How big is your B smithi ?

Lynn

[Daniel Richardson]

red knee

cheers there lynn,it was climbing the walls first night it was in there but i think it was just exploring its new home,its been quite lazy this evening and just stayed in its burrow.ta ta 4 now-Dan-oh yeah its only about 4cm big-i got it off virginia cheeseman,have u heard of her,she's ace!!!check her out

[lynn mawdesley]

cheers there lynn,it was climbing the walls first night it was in there but i think it was just exploring its new home,its been quite lazy this evening and just stayed in its burrow.ta ta 4 now-Dan-oh yeah its only about 4cm big-i got it off virginia cheeseman,have u heard of her,she's ace!!!check her out

Good good just keep an eye on it tho 98% humidity is way high

The Virginia Cheeseman im not even going to go there after a bad experience when i first entered the hobby!

Best of luck with ur cutie

Lynn

[stuart longhorn]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, 98% is far too high, but i'm sure that's partly as you put fresh wet peat in there, which will start to dry out as the heat gets into it.

I would recommend adding some sand and some coir/coconut husk, or a bit of both to dry it out a bit and add some texture variety. I say that because peat alone can stay too wet to easily, plus its rather acidic, else it goes bone dry. Whatever substrate you end up with, it would be best for the spider to have a range of temperature and humidity, going from a relatively dry area of the tank nearer the heat (at about 75F/=25C), then have the burrow away from that, so slightly cooler and more humid. I would recommend a burrow humidity of about 70% max inside, and less humidity outside. These species rarely build burrow themselves, so you need to provide a shelter for them to hide themselves under. One of the reasons for the burrow though it to give the spider shelter in a cooler, more humid shelter than at the natural surface/ground temperature

Here's a link to a good website for looking up climate data (and setup for the rough location of B.smithi). It does help to know where the spiders come from though, which isn't always easy to find out, but worth it.

http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/grid.pl?gr=N19W103

There's an excellent DVD available on the Brachypelma in the wild, but if i plug that here, people are bound to comment... anyway..look up the DVD!

The spider will explore the tank before settling down, but continuing to climb the sides suggests its not comfortable for it there yet.
Best of luck.
s

[Colin D Wilson]

There's an excellent DVD available on the Brachypelma in the wild, but if i plug that here, people are bound to comment... anyway..look up the DVD!

Plug away Stuart

[Daniel Richardson]

ta very much

Thanks 4 that stuart i'll check that website out later,the humidity has dropped quite a bit now to 88% so i'm feeling lot better now.t's just being lazy staying in its burrow which its made it self under a log thing i got-i did put 2 hides in there one on cool side and one where the heat mat is but it choose's 2 make own,i can just see it and looks fine.no climbing the sides last night was just hiding all night and i went to bed pretty late! thanks again for everyones help it means alot-cheers-Dan