So at the last reptile show, I picked up a new T: a P. Formosa sling. A day or two later, tarantulacanada released their Rufilatas slings and since I've been waiting forever for this species, I couldn't help but order some : P
I ended up ordering 3 P. Rufilata and 2 more P. Formosa and the package is arriving tomorrow.
The idea is to start a commune with each species. It's my first time setting up communes so I have a question for each set up.
I'm going to house the 3 Rufies in a tall Michaels 2x2x4" rectangular prism. It has about 0.5 - 1 inch of eco-earth substrate and 1 piece of cork bark w fake leaves glued to it. For ventilation, I used a 1" circular saw to cut a hole in the lid and one in the side. Metal screening was hot glued over the holes. I'm pretty sure the amount of space is somewhat limited so I'm hoping there wouldn't be a chance for any of the slings to set up territories. My biggest worry however is that the ventilation holes are too large and there will be too much loss of humidity. In my house, it is ~40% humidity. Do you guys think the size of the ventilation holes will be an issue?
At the moment, the single Formosa I have is in a large pill bottle with a piece of bark and 1mm holes drilled into the sides and lid. It has similar dimensions to the Rufie cage but is circular instead of squarish. My biggest concern with this set up is whether or not this singleton has already established a 'territory,' and whether it will be an issue if I introduce 2 new slings into the pill bottle. Do you guys think I should just take the sling out and set up an entirely new environment so that when all three slings are introduced, it will be 'new' for all of them?
Thanks in advance! I'll post pictures of the cages tomorrow.
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As promised, here are images of the enclosures I plan to use. There are other 'backup' enclosures (pill bottles) in case things go wrong and I need to separate the slings but I didn't take pics of those They aren't as elaborate and just consists of substrate + small piece of cork + drilled holes.
The Rufies will go in here:
The temperature in my room is 73F, which should be okay for Rufilata.
The humidity, however, is only ~52%.
Do you guys think there might be too much ventilation? I can always seal 1 hole up.
Here's my Formosa.. I plan to house all 3 slings in here:
This one is kept in my reptile/spider room. Temp ~80F, Humidity ~40%.
When they older, they will go into either of these:
Just started building this one. I've glued in the background wall and will add 1 more piece of cork bark.
This one is complete. Just debating whether or not to drill 1" holes + screening.
