# Tarantula enclosure size?



## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

Was reading an old thread on an old U.S forum yesterday, regards correct enclosure size. Was interested to see what keepers views were on here?


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

Tank size depends on the species. 
Some species are pet holes and very rarely, if ever, will leave their burrow. Some will not move about much whereas others will use all of the available space. The same applies to arboreal species, some will use all the available space and others will rarely move more than a few inches from their webtube or corkbark tube


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

Ok thanks Peter, thought it was species dependent.
Would/could moving a two year old, adult female Lasiodora parahybana to a bigger enclosure cause a change of behaviour & make a once placid, on display T, into a skittish one that retreats to its hide everytime the lid is open?
I have had the spider for five, possibly six weeks now.
It is housed in an 18 litre really useful box & was previously housed in a large flat exo terra faunarium I believe.


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## EffyDaydream (Jan 29, 2012)

johne.ev said:


> Ok thanks Peter, thought it was species dependent.
> Would/could moving a two year old, adult female Lasiodora parahybana to a bigger enclosure cause a change of behaviour & make a once placid, on display T, into a skittish one that retreats to its hide everytime the lid is open?
> I have had the spider for five, possibly six weeks now.
> It is housed in an 18 litre really useful box & was previously housed in a large flat exo terra faunarium I believe.


Maybe it's just getting used to it's new environment? (Having a strop about moving home :Na_Na_Na_Na 

But seriously, leave it to settle. Try not to disturb it too much. Hopefully it'll calm down a bit.


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

johne.ev said:


> Would/could moving a two year old, adult female Lasiodora parahybana to a bigger enclosure cause a change of behaviour & make a once placid, on display T, into a skittish one that retreats to its hide everytime the lid is open?



First . . there is NO way a 2 yrs old LP could be an adult 

Moving any spider (or almost any animal) from one enclosure to another will cause its behaviour to change. 
Some will settle down in a few weeks or months (most ?) and others will never behave in the same way again (rarely)
I would take a guess that if you left it alone for a few weeks/months it would gradually settle in and the skittishness should slowly disappear after time. 
This is the main reason why tarantula tanks should not be cleaned out (apart from spot cleaning) as every time that the substrate is changed and/or decor/hide, it is like a new tank again and the spider has to rediscover everything in its world again and again 





johne.ev said:


> It is housed in an 18 litre really useful box


Thats double the size that i use for AF Theraphosa blondi and apophysis :gasp:


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

PeterUK said:


> First . . there is NO way a 2 yrs old LP could be an adult
> 
> Moving any spider (or almost any animal) from one enclosure to another will cause its behaviour to change.
> Some will settle down in a few weeks or months (most ?) and others will never behave in the same way again (rarely)
> ...


You only house your AF T.Blondi in a 9 litre RUB????


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

PeterUK said:


> First . . there is NO way a 2 yrs old LP could be an adult
> 
> Moving any spider (or almost any animal) from one enclosure to another will cause its behaviour to change.
> Some will settle down in a few weeks or months (most ?) and others will never behave in the same way again (rarely)
> ...


Tbh Peter I was told she was two years old & an adult female & at 5 & a half inches & being new to keeping T's didn't know otherwise. Hadn't read anything to think it wasn't an adult tbh. At what age is this species considered an adult?
The enclosure size I kinda decided on due to what I had read on other forums, size of the spider & what the lady I bought her from had told me, i.e how active she was. Also its not too much bigger than what she was kept in originally. I actually thought it seemed a bit on the small size at first? :blush: She has a nice piece of cork bark which she has made a burrow under & blocked off one end with the loose substrate, some live plants (pohos) & a shallow water bowl.


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

Basin79 said:


> You only house your AF T.Blondi in a 9 litre RUB????


Yep and just recently had an eggsac from female #2 :2thumb: unfortunately only one egg was viable  but ive learned a few lessons and have a few ideas that may work for next time


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

johne.ev said:


> I was told she was two years old & an adult female & at 5 & a half inches & being new to keeping T's didn't know otherwise. Hadn't read anything to think it wasn't an adult tbh. At what age is this species considered an adult?


The age hasnt really got much to do with it. . its the size that counts and that will depend on how many moults they had had. 
Many people would class a 5" LP to be a large juvi and only slightly over half grown  
Having grown several dozen LP's from slings of 0.5cm to adulthood, I know how long to takes for them to get to 5"-6", and its much more like 3 yrs especially if they havent been power fed. 

For a female tarantula to be sexually mature the spermatheca will be a dark brown colour, this will have changed from clear, colourless and jellylike to a tough and dark brown slowly over several moults. 

Every species that i have sexed via microscope (100+ species) have been sexually mature (going by the colour of the spermatheca) at approx 1/3 to 1/2 to of the generally accepted adult size. 
Does this make them an adult ? Personally I dont think so. 

A crude and rough comparison would be that many human girls have periods starting in their early teens (and some younger) and therefore are sexually mature and can reproduce. 
Does this make them adult ? (and i'll leave it there as this can get tricky)

Personally I wouldnt call a female L parahybana an adult if it was under 7" even though it was almost certainly sexually mature at 5"


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

PeterUK said:


> Yep and just recently had an eggsac from female #2 :2thumb: unfortunately only one egg was viable  but ive learned a few lessons and have a few ideas that may work for next time
> 
> 
> [URL=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/peterUK/spiders/30_zps56fbs7wz.jpg]image[/URL]
> ...


I know you're vastly more experienced and knowledgeable than me but I personally think that's just too small. Miles too small for an adult Theraphosa sp. It's like the whole royals kept in tiny drawers debate. 

Congratulations on the sack though. Always fantastic to see CB slings of these.


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

Thanks for the info Peter, very interesting & informative. The teenage girl comparison was spot on btw.
Do you think it would be better to house her in a smaller rub until she out grows it & if so what size would you recommend? Or should I leave her alone & see if she settles? She is feeding good & does venture out for a wander in the evening as it gets dark, but would hide if I tried to remove lid of rub.
Very impressive looking collection you have there. Just out of interest, what's your husbandry/feeding routine & how often do you check on each individual?


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

johne.ev said:


> Do you think it would be better to house her in a smaller rub until she out grows it & if so what size would you recommend? Or should I leave her alone & see if she settles?


I would just leave her as there is no such thing as a too large a container 




johne.ev said:


> She is feeding good & does venture out for a wander in the evening as it gets dark, but would hide if I tried to remove lid of rub.


That sounds like most of mine 




johne.ev said:


> what's your husbandry/feeding routine & how often do you check on each individual?



In general, i feed small slings once a week, larger slings and small juvies every few weeks and most of the adults once every few months unless im conditioning them for breeding.

Im going to check on them all tomorrow (feed and water), first time that ive looked at them in about 2 weeks, before that it was about 3 weeks between checking.

Maybe this is why I have good success breeding . . because i leave them alone for weeks and sometimes months at a time. 
By leaving them alone i mean that i dont even enter the room for weeks. The lights are on timers, the fans are connected to thermostats and the heater is set to come on if the temps falls below 20C. 
Other than that, they are left on their own to do whatever it is that spiders do


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

Ok thanks for info/advice Peter, much appreciated.

Btw, do you still keep cichlids?


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

johne.ev said:


> Btw, do you still keep cichlids?


Nope. I was spending one day preparing/filtering 100 gallons and the next day doing water changes and then preparing water again for water changes for the day after that. 

Basically, i was doing water changes to 21 tanks, totaling 100 gallons every other day so I had no time to do anything else. 
If i wasnt preparing water, i was changing it 

I was having great success breeding locale specific Gymnogeophagus sp but it was getting too much. I now have more spare time with the spiders 

If you want to breed certain animals then you have to do what is best for them not what is best for you. 

The cichlids needed pristine water conditions to breed so that is what they got, tarantulas need peace and quite to breed and that is what they get (21 egg sacs last year).
I had and still have now, a very good record of breeding whatever animal that I keep so i must be doing something right  (The Mrs says that i have an 'All or nothing mentality')


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