Bought my first two spiders, need lots off advice

[sagar jason nigam]

Hi, I bought my first two spiders yesterday, Mexican flameleg (maybe sub adult) and a spiderling pinktoe golieth birdeater.
I havent as such got anything set up, they are still in their small food containers slightly propped up on a Luck Reptile heat mat, which is of the smallest size.
Over the past day I have been spraying the spiderling quite alot, i guess in all about five times, and the flame leg whenever she needs it, i guess once in morning afternoon and evening.

Ive set the viv up as it says in the book with 12-15 parts of a deep layer of Vermiculite and one part water, which i plan to house the flameleg in. The spiderling golieth Ive just bought a small £1.99 pet box for, with which i might base with a thin layer of Vermiculite or maybe paper - if i use paper how often do i mist the box and how do i set it up?

I havent yet got a thermometer or hydrometer, some people in posts say that spiders love the side of the wall the heat mat is stuck on and spend most of their time their - so i guess its ok to have the heatmat right next to them for now where they are; ive just got them sitting in their box slightly propped up on the mat so the box isnt in direct contact.

I havent yet tried feeding, but both are pretty active and quite responsive, so I guess thats a good sign that the heat mats doing itself ok. I cant find a temp that the mat gives off on the net and their was no indication in the manual - maybe someone can give me a read out off what their thermoometer says about these mats?
I cant tell at the moment if what the mat does would be to hot for them and i should prop them up more, or wether these mats give off the correct temp.
The size is the smallest 13 x 27 centimeter and 7 watts, do i need any other kind of heater once ive stuck it on the side of the glass viv?
It takes up the lenth of a wall of the viv and would go across it a bit more than twice for one side.
In the book it says to stick the thermo mat on feet at the bottom of a glass tank - but in another book ive got it says not to do this as it is 'contrary to nature' and that spiders naturally burrow to escape the heat. The guy in the pet shop told me to stick it on the side of the wall as well, i also would have thought that if on the bottom it would dry out the substrate, i dont really understand why the book says it ought be on the bottom, what do you all do?
perhaps because its thermo or infra-red and need to hit an object to properly function

All in all any info anyone can give or advice for my new start will be much appriciated.

Thanks alot

[Mark Harrison]

Hi jason and welcome to the hobby, your Brachypelma Bohemi (Mexican Fireleg) looks more like a adult than S.A. and needs suitable accomodation pretty quick. I would suggest either a plastic exo terra tank or even a plastic fish tank from wilkinson's (RRP £5) would do. The heat mat should never be placed on the bottom, as you said yourself spiders burrow to escape the heat and not being able to escape will only cause stress and lead to the death of the tarantula. The Bohemi prefer drier conditions than the Goliath, there are several choices for substrate all with differing opinions..as long as the Bohemi is kept on the dry side with a decent sized water bowl it should be fine. Personally im not familiar with the care of Goliaths but i would assume it should be kept similar to other variants of the Theraphosa sp.

The amount you are spraying the sling at the moment i would say is just a little excessive, twice a week should be acceptable with a water dish, maybe you could use a small portion of sphagnum moss to keep humidity higher. For the bohemi i would just keep the water dish topped up.

As for feeding i would get both spiders rehoused and in suitable surroundings and give a few days to "settle in" before you commence feeding. On another note i would suggest trying to come along to the annual BTS show in wolverhampton in may, details of the show should be on the site/forum..it would be a good chance for you to talk to like minded people, ask questions and the bonus part, pick up more tarantula's lol.

[sagar jason nigam]

Thankyou for the response, this seems like a great forum. You mentioned that it looks more like an adult than a sub, how is it that you tell? I only thought it was sub-adult since i thought she looked as though she could get a little bigger. Ive already got the glass viv set up and am just waiting to introduce her once ive sorted everything out.
It is weird that the book sugested that you must place reptile heat mats underneath the vivarium as for all other intents it was an excellent book, and i dont really understand why it suggested it, but if all you guys have no problem with them and it says to place it on the side in the other smaller book i got then thats what i'll do.


I also wanted to get some advice on sharpish objects being kept in the viv. I bought this clay dragon for aquariums with a hole in its coils thats big enough for the T and a hollow base. I thought I could use it to encourage the T to biuld a burrow, but the clay around the edges off the hole is a little bit sharp, so i wanted to find out how easy a tarantula can cut himself or rupture his abdomen? Do you only worry about sharp objects in cases where the T could be climbing and then fall upon them? I guess they encounter sharp things in their natural habitat

And then do you think that i should move the big Flameleg as soon as possible then? In the book theyve got tarantula's that look about the same size in glass containers that arent much bigger than the plastic container of mine in the pic, but i guess the glass jars are bigger than the leg span off the spider and so I should

[sagar jason nigam]

I got to experience holding a tarantula for the first time today. I opened up the box to take out an uneaten locust and she crawled out. I was surprised out how musculer her grip feels and how docile she was. It says in the book that the fireleg can be one of the most skittish of the Brackypelma, and I thought since shes got a slight bald patch on her back she might get fustrated or kick hairs
When she came to a stand still holding her, i cant tell wether what she did was a defecation, or wether it was (if you get this with spiders) a discharge from her spinnerets. If it is a discharge from the spinnerets then maybe she is looking to build a web to molt upon and i should move her into the viv. There were a couple of threads she left as walking about. It just dropped out of her and hit the seat in a small dirty milky white puddle

[Lars Bertelsen]

Hey Jason

Just wanted to let you know that your "Brachypelma boehmei" is actually and Brachypelma emilia and yes it does look adult. Another thing is that I will encourage you to use the scientific names instead of common names. This is because the common names is one big mess and many dealers/importers/hobbyists call the same spider many different common names.

Best regards,
Lars Bertelsen

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Hi, I bought my first two spiders yesterday, Mexican flameleg (maybe sub adult) and a spiderling pinktoe golieth birdeater. ...

Welcome to the hobby! Welcome to this forum!

First, read: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html

Follow the instructions.

Then, perform a search on this forum (and any others you know about) by clicking the <Search> link at the top and typing in your search terms in the "Keywords:" box. Click <Search Now> at the bottom.

Put on another pot of coffee and clear your schedule. You've got a lot of reading to do!

[sagar jason nigam]

Thanks Lars for clearing that up, im sure that it said fireleg in the pet shop but maybe it was redleg.

I tried to introduce the spider to its cage last night, my cage has got a cork naturalistic backing to it that came with it and i stuck on a branch of plastic leaves to the cage on the back, and the spider climbed straight up the leaves and onto the wire mesh on the roof. I had to coax him all way across it so as i could pick him up again. These burrowing T's cant climbed up the glass walls can they? It seemed to have a try and was unsucessful.

Thankyou for the search advice, i will do that

[Aaron Annal]

Hi
yes most T's i have can climb up glass if they wish and i have a couple that seem to enjoy a walk all round every so often.
I would also say that you have a B.emilia and not a B.boehmei going by its marking's on the carapace (I'm no expert but have a B.boehmei here to compare with)
Welcome to the forum and enjoy your new T's

[sagar jason nigam]

Hi
yes most T's i have can climb up glass if they wish and i have a couple that seem to enjoy a walk all round every so often.
I would also say that you have a B.emilia and not a B.boehmei going by its marking's on the carapace (I'm no expert but have a B.boehmei here to compare with)
Welcome to the forum and enjoy your new T's

It says flamaeleg boehmei on the box it cam with aswell, but it has the triangle of the emilia on the carapace.
They say you get alot of fatalities with burrowers climbing about the habitats so I will just remove all climbing materials

Thanks for the help

[Colin D Wilson]

My advice would be to fill whatever tank you chose with substrate to a level where the spider won't sustain any damage if it falls, most spiders will feel the need to climb (even burrowers) and the less height they have to fall.. the safer.

Remove all the decor with sharp or pointed bits, this is just asking for trouble in my opinion.

Heat mats (if needed) should be placed on the side of the tank so the spider can have a warm and cool area to maintain it's own body temp where it feels comfortable. Spiders will burrow expecting to get away from the heat source so under floor heating is not advisable.

The B. emelia will require a dryish habitat, you can use a water bowl (overflowed occasionally) or pour water on the substrate at the cool end to maintain enough humidity for moulting etc, enough substrate to burrow and possibly a corkbark hide (or half flowerpot) slightly sunk into the substrate would be advantageous to the spider.
The Theraphosa sling (not sure which one it is) could be kept the same but with a slightly higher humidity to assist the more frequent moults due to its younger age.

[sagar jason nigam]

B. emelia will require a dryish habitat, you can use a water bowl (overflowed occasionally) or pour water on the substrate at the cool end to maintain enough humidity for moulting etc, enough substrate to burrow and possibly a corkbark hide (or half flowerpot) slightly sunk into the substrate would be advantageous to the spider.
The Theraphosa sling (not sure which one it is) could be kept the same but with a slightly higher humidity to assist the more frequent moults due to its younger age.

Thanks, the sling is a pinkfoot goliath T.apophysis - what kind of temp do you recomend for it?
Im plannig to replace the roof with something, maybe a piece of wood that got drilled hole in it or plexiglass or something. I was planning to fill the vivarum with vermiculite aswell.

Ive got the sling housed in a plastic pet box with news paper

[Colin D Wilson]

i would keep a Theraphosa sling anywhere in the mid to high 70's myself.

you can cover a tank with anything that's escape proof so the choice is yours, ventilation is paramount though

Vermiculite isn't a viable substrate in my opinion, although many people use it. Mixed with top soil/peat/coir fibre it becomes a little better.
What you need to do is provide as natural a habitat for your spider as you can, therefore soil (of any kind) would be your best bet.

[sagar jason nigam]

Ive got the sling properly housed now in deep vermiculite, it just had its first molt, this morning i checked and she was as normal so it must have been in a period of about 6 hours. How long would it take for a small sling like that to moult? I had a slightly damaged locust in there that i left from last night, but he was well fed so I doubt he caused any damage. I know its a silly question but i suppose theres no why for me to tell the sex of it yet, can someone tell me why the difference would be between a male and female T.apophysis?

[Joanna Pendleton]

I was about to ask you if you meant a pinkfoot goliath (T.Apophysis) or a goliath bordeater (T.Blondi) then from your OP but I see thats been answered now!
Well, I think you're bloody brave getting any Theraphosa sp for your first one! I'd never have the guts for them, defo want to work my way up to it, but I guess there can be something to be said for jumping off the deep end.
I'm a newbie myself, and found the links from Stanly very useful, and have just ordered another his book to read, to add to the quick and easy Tarantula care one I have.
I (obviously) can't give you any advise myself, other than read the books, and learn more from other people on this board. So far everyone Ive spoke to has been nothing but helpful!
And most importantly enjoy the Ts and let us know how you get on!
x