Work Experience

[Climperoonie]

Hey, all.
Today I got some work experience dealing with T's in a tropical zoo and am really happy! All I need to know is two things:

1. The owner is putting a light in the terrariums. He knows that they can stress the T's but it's so visitors can see in and the place is only open 10am-5pm so it's not long, is this okay?
2. He's also using aquarium stones instead of substrate to help viewing, what about this?

I'm also preparing a list of good interesting T's to go in the displays. The terrariums are 18"x18"x18" or the larger size of 38"x20"x20" so if anyone has any suggestions it'd be good. I'm looking to get a H. Lividum, a G. sp. North, a G. Rosea, an E. sp. "Red", an E. Truculentus, and a B. Smithi so far. Scorpion and other invert suggestions are also welcome, but there are only 12 small terrariums and 6 large ones.

[The T Lord]

Avics, Poecis and Brachypelma/Grammastolla are the main ones, GBB, and a few others, Psalmopeous are OK,
In regards to lighting, most T's will cope with it, but not be as active.
Red lighting would be better IMO, not as bright on the T's, and gives the rooms a more eery look, to go with the general consensus that Tarantulas and spiders want to attack everybody
John

[PSYCHOSIS]

Is your list for the zoo ,

use a red light for lighting but u dont need lighting , Id also use peat mixed with bark chipings dead leaves ect....


I can give you a good list . I prezoom the Zoo will have ovlessly got a D.W.A so i can sugest some species if u want via P.M or email .

[garlicpickle]

Hey, glad you had a good time

A few things that occurred to me when I read your post though......

why not persuade the owner to take the trouble to give the spiders naturalistic setups? Aquarium gravel isn't really suitable. Most T's enjoy a dig now and then and they wouldn't be able to dig in gravel.

The list of possibles you've mentioned includes species that are rather similar, for instance G. rosea and G. sp "north", and E. sp "red" and E. truculentus. So probably just one from each genus might provide a better mix.

A good display species is A. geniculata - they get big and are almost always out on display. Other possibles that would impress people would be something like L. parahybana (salmon pink) - easy to keep and get big.

Or for something a bit different, a small group of pokies, you might be able to construct their enclosure so that their hide was against the glass allowing people to see them, but they wouldn't enjoy supplementary lighting.


Regarding H. lividum, if you have one of these you must give it at least 6" of substrate so it has the opportunity to burrow - another reason why gravel isn't suitable. It also means that it's a species you won't see, unless you make a special narrow setup which will force it to make its burrow against the side of the glass. Even then it will be stressed if it's too lit up - most tarantulas don't like light but Haplopelmas hate it, and it will probably web the glass to cut down on light getting in.

Hopefully some others will come up with more possibles for you.

[Climperoonie]

Originally Posted by The T Lord

Avics, Poecis and Brachypelma/Grammastolla are the main ones, GBB, and a few others, Psalmopeous are OK,
In regards to lighting, most T's will cope with it, but not be as active.
Red lighting would be better IMO, not as bright on the T's, and gives the rooms a more eery look, to go with the general consensus that Tarantulas and spiders want to attack everybody
John

Yeah, I'm after ones they've got on the Spidershop as he buys from Gaia Biological. I think the problem is that people want to see T's in their full glory so he's using a low watt blueish white, like a snake one.

Originally Posted by PSYCHOSIS

Is your list for the zoo ,

use a red light for lighting but u dont need lighting , Id also use peat mixed with bark chipings dead leaves ect....


I can give you a good list . I prezoom the Zoo will have ovlessly got a D.W.A so i can sugest some species if u want via P.M or email .

It's not a zoo in the sense of lions and tigers, but like someone pinched a zoo's reptile room and put it on it's own. Here's the site:
Amazonia - World of Reptiles The all weather experience in a living jungle
If you click on New for '09 and where it says Tarantula tunnel, that's what I'm working on.

He is putting some dead plants and stuff in too.

He's not after dangerous animals like DWA ones, he's more after pretty but docile ones. He can make an exception for cobalt blue but I think pokeys are out of the question .

[Climperoonie]

Originally Posted by garlicpickle

Hey, glad you had a good time

A few things that occurred to me when I read your post though......

why not persuade the owner to take the trouble to give the spiders naturalistic setups? Aquarium gravel isn't really suitable. Most T's enjoy a dig now and then and they wouldn't be able to dig in gravel.

The list of possibles you've mentioned includes species that are rather similar, for instance G. rosea and G. sp "north", and E. sp "red" and E. truculentus. So probably just one from each genus might provide a better mix.

A good display species is A. geniculata - they get big and are almost always out on display. Other possibles that would impress people would be something like L. parahybana (salmon pink) - easy to keep and get big.

Or for something a bit different, a small group of pokies, you might be able to construct their enclosure so that their hide was against the glass allowing people to see them, but they wouldn't enjoy supplementary lighting.


Regarding H. lividum, if you have one of these you must give it at least 6" of substrate so it has the opportunity to burrow - another reason why gravel isn't suitable. It also means that it's a species you won't see, unless you make a special narrow setup which will force it to make its burrow against the side of the glass. Even then it will be stressed if it's too lit up - most tarantulas don't like light but Haplopelmas hate it, and it will probably web the glass to cut down on light getting in.

Hopefully some others will come up with more possibles for you.

Sorry, didn't see this post. I'll try and get him to make some natural looking ones if I tell him this.

The trouble with only one from each genus is that he's after a dozen docile and visible tarantulas. Another problem is he buys from Gaia biological, which only has the same stock as thespidershop.co.uk.

I probably won't get a Cobalt blue now, as I've talked to him since so he says he wants docile for when I'm not there so his staff can be okay with them. Remember this is a reptile zoo primarily so their trained in reptiles more than anything.

[garlicpickle]

Gaia biological is the wholesale arm of spidershop. Why not drop Gareth an e-mail on gareth@spidershop.co.uk - he is livestock manager for spidershop and might be able to give you some suggestions or source some that aren't listed on the site.

[The T Lord]

Originally Posted by garlicpickle;4115895[B

]Gaia biological is the wholesale arm of spidershop[/B]. Why not drop Gareth an e-mail on gareth@spidershop.co.uk - he is livestock manager for spidershop and might be able to give you some suggestions or source some that aren't listed on the site.

Thought they were, when paying via paypal there name is always there.
John

[Climperoonie]

Originally Posted by garlicpickle

Gaia biological is the wholesale arm of spidershop. Why not drop Gareth an e-mail on gareth@spidershop.co.uk - he is livestock manager for spidershop and might be able to give you some suggestions or source some that aren't listed on the site.

Yeah, that's why I said it needs to be stocked on the Spider Shop. I'll ring him after school tomorrow and give him all the new info I've gained. I also found out that he's got a Salmon Pink that's currently on holiday. He's already got a G. Rosea and a Curly Hair (Forgot Latin name) at home, too.

[The T Lord]

All three of those would be fab starters for a little show collection