Light?

Will keeping Ts in a darkened be any detriment to them, as opposed to a room with normal lighting?



Edit: clarified question

Originally posted by Malkavian
Will keeping Ts in a closet be any detriment to them, as opposed to a room with normal lighting?

Click to expand...

Don't know but probably not is the best answer anyone can give. It is possible they react to circadian or seasonal cycles triggered by getting some natural light but they also appear to do fine without it so far as we can tell. If you're not trying to breed I wouldn't worry about it.

My T's are "in the closet". I built several shelves and added lighting to simulate day, night and even dusk. They have been doing just fine. I haven't attempted to breed any in there yet so as far as breeding I can't say yet.

I had considered that option, setting up some flourescent lights on a timer. The closet in question HAS overhead lights, but in the interest of power savings it usually stays off most of the day.

Light only benefits us. Not the arachnid.

Originally posted by Malkavian
I had considered that option, setting up some flourescent lights on a timer. The closet in question HAS overhead lights, but in the interest of power savings it usually stays off most of the day.

Click to expand...

Actually, fluorescents are useless for invertebrates - they see at about 200Hz, fluorescents pulse at 60 Hz - turns the world into a giant strobing disco for them. They don't need light as a rule and any benefit they might get is going to be related to triggering seasonal cycles - you won't achieve that with any artificial setup.

just my opinion

My personal opinion is that since an arachnid does have access to light in nature, they should also have access to light in captivity. Saying that because they live in a burrow, they don't need light is shortsighted. That's like saying it's okay for a human to be locked in a windowless dungeon without light, and he'll be fine. After all, humans don't NEED light to SURVIVE, just warmth, food, water, etc. However, we KNOW that it most certainly WOULD have some effects on the human beings long term. While it is assumed that tarantulas don't have good sight, bottom line is we aren't really 100% certain how they see, or even if different species have different capabilities of sight. I have seen quite a number of tarantulas come out of their burrows and bask in the sunlight. Perhaps there are things going on there that we simply aren't aware of yet.

Short answer, "Probably."

Re: just my opinion

Originally posted by phoenixxavierre
I have seen quite a number of tarantulas come out of their burrows and bask in the sunlight.

Click to expand...

My B. Smithi does this everytime I turn on the overhead light (25w red light). I am not sure why. Since the red light is not suppose to be picked up by them, maybe it's the small amount of heat it releases?

maybe it's the small amount of heat it releases?

Click to expand...

I would agree - I have a 25 watt blacklight in my enclosure, and when I turn it on all of my T's are pressed up against the light-facing side of their respective enclosures; I would assume it's because of the heat released.