Interesting. Do you know if the tunnels were pre-made for them in some fashion or if they connected them themselves?
Good question, I am unsure of the answer. That specific Instance was at a reptile show, So its entirely possible they were premade somehow. Though I wouldn't know how to do that.
This is one of the best communual T's there is in my opinion, I raised around 80 together....from 2nd instar to about 4"+. I notice a lot of strange behavior.....1/4 of them had burrows the other were constructing webbing and when fed (the outsiders would take the food to the ones that were burrowed) and they would eat and the leftovers were consumed by the outsiders. I am thinking maybe the females were in the burrows and the males were the outsiders LOL. When I paired my gigas up I witnessed the MM eating off the same prey item as the female, and also sharing the same burrow. The reason I think the males were the outsiders is because the MM that I had would do all the webbing outside of the burrow and the female constructed the burrower.
Those are the ones above, they were all purchased from 1 dealer so I am sure they are around somewhere LOL
But you can't be sure if your H. gigas sling came from you as opposed to someone else?
robc - How large a cage did you use for this? I'm about to have a 55 gallon aquarium become vacant (reorganizing my reptiles) and I'm considering setting up a H. gigas tank out of it. (An alternative use would be for vinegaroons.)
I used a 75 gal and it was more than enough room, a 55 gal would work!!
I vote yay to the gigas, nay to the vinegaroons.
That's pretty much the way I am leaning, but domestic bliss may require compromise. My wife works with vinegaroons. In defense of the vinegaroon set-up - we've seen in smaller tanks (10 gallon) some incredible maternal behavior. Even after the babies leave the mother's burrow and have dug their own burrows, at least one mother will carry food to the baby's burrow, reach down it with her "feelers" until the baby comes out, and then she shares the food with the baby. In one case the baby clamped onto the cricket that mom held, and the mother carried both food and baby back to her own burrow. The next morning, when the cricket had been eaten, the baby returned to its own burrow. Part of the value of setting up a larger container for vinegaroons would be the ability to see if the mother still does this with more babies at greater distances.