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Planted Viv for Tapinauchenius Arboreal T

3K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  DogFish 
#1 ·
Planted Viv for Tapinauchenius Arboreal T

I have a concept in mind for a planted viv to house a Tapinauchenius capreus tarantula.

Google: Tapinauchenius

Members of this genus are interesting spiders. Most are smaller than most other arboreal tarantulas at only around 3" long. This lesser size should scale well with a smaller enclosure size and I intend to use a 12 X 12 X 18 Exo Terra enclosure for this project. It will have the same basic setup as my current 12 X 12 setup (below) with a few important differences.



That is a high-humidity viv that I mist every day. I am selecting plants that will grow with lower humidity levels (~75%) for this new tarantula setup.

The T. capreus got here on Friday through the mail from Pennsylvania. Here are a couple of quick and crummy pictures. It sure is cool. It has a real distinctive appearance with short an velvety hairs on the abdomen and long front legs. It's super fast too.



 
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#3 ·
Here is a quick shot for an idea of how a manzanita feature might look planted with nothing but Tillandsia. These are just a few extra plants that I had on hand. I have an order with more Tillandsia that inlcude a couple of the real small miniature species on the way. This feature isn't mine either; I built it for a customer. I have a slightly different manzanita design in mind for my setup.

 
#4 ·
Hmm....what species of Tilly is that on the left side Devin? Looks wonderful!

Just curious if you ever thought doing this with a large tank....maybe for a 55gallon? I think that it would be awesome to see several of these types of Manzy set ups side by side by side!
 
#5 ·
I got it as a NOID, but I think that the hairy one on the left is T. mallemontii. The larger tidy rosette on the right is T. velutina.

One could make a real nice viv in a 55, but there are better sizes/shapes. I have a plan sketched out for a viv setup in a 47 Column fish tank and I think it will be cool.
 
#15 ·
Thanks!

This looks really cool. These setups of yours always turn out really nice.
Have you ever thought of keeping cockroaches in these manzanita setups? Panchlora nivea would look really cool in one of these in a group.
Thank you! Yes I have thought about using roaches. I acquired a few different species and I have them here. Roaches are perhaps less useful for planted viv displays. Most of them just hide all day long and most will also nibble on any live plant. Panchlora might however be a good one to try because I think that they are somewhat more diurnal in their habits.

I can't wait to see how this turns out. All of your projects turn out beautifully.
Thank you!

Ooh exciting! I just re-did my poor A. Metallica's tiny enclosure. It has been cold and dry for over a week (blackout and at dad's house) in there and she was death curling. The new cage has a live moss substrate and live moss for climbing. Only problem is getting the little fast thing back into the little cage...

Once she is bigger I want to design a cage like yours. They are really amazing!
Oh I hope that your spider can recover. They really are cool animals. Avics are well-suited for use in planted viv setups.

Where do you get your tillys and your identifying information on them? I picked up a few and would live to be able to identify them
There are many Tillandsia sellers online. I got this order from an etsy.com vendor who had low prices, a wide selection and lots of good reviews.
 
#12 ·
Ooh exciting! I just re-did my poor A. Metallica's tiny enclosure. It has been cold and dry for over a week (blackout and at dad's house) in there and she was death curling. The new cage has a live moss substrate and live moss for climbing. Only problem is getting the little fast thing back into the little cage...

Once she is bigger I want to design a cage like yours. They are really amazing!
 
#22 ·
Here's the cork round that I am using for the hide/trunk feature. I built up a bunchof Gorilla Glue around the top opening so that I would have something harder to drive the stainless steel screws into.



And here's the whole thing. I am considering sanding down the cork texture to make it more slender and with a texture more like the manzanita branches that I will also use. What do you think?

 
#23 ·
Thought about this build today. I was in the local PETCo bring to talk myself out of another tank. When I noticed a commotion by the Herp selection. The crowd of people & employees were watch a Tarantula molt!!!

While I don't see myself every own a Tarantula, I must say it was very cool to observe. When escaped it's old skin? It was upside down and you could clearly see it's fangs and two nails? on the bottom of each foot. I also learned they spin a web to hide in during the molt.
 
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