Sponge for water?

I was reading a few threads on here and I saw that tarantulas should not have sponges for water.
Is that true and why is that?

I just brought mine home last week. She was severely dehydrated as she had no water in her tank at all. I have a medium sized water dish with a natural sponge in it. I change that every morning and she always goes right up to it and drinks off the sponge.
Should I try her with just the dish?

I also have a question about her molting, she has two "houses". A half log, which she prefers, and a coconut. I'm a little worried that she won't have enough room when she molts. Should I remove the coconut? She's been using it a little more often, but she's only decorated the half log.

Sponges tend to harbor bacteria which is why they're not recommended. I offer water bowls to all of my tarantulas from the time they are about 1.0 inch diagonal leg span. Rule of thumb is: diameter of bowl no wider than diagonal leg span of spider.

They will typically rearrange substrate and create enough room to molt.

I never recommend sponges in water dishes for any animal. Try just the water dish. I wouldn't worry about the size of the coconut hide. It will make the space or molt where it has space. I know I'm saying the same thing as formerphobe but I thought a little reassurance might help


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Sponges are bad water supplies for basically anything. They'll get moldy and mildewy, etc. It's just an unsanitary method.

That's what I ended up thinking, because of all the nasty bacteria. I just pulled the sponge out and put in more water.
Thank you so much everyone

There's an unbelievable wealth of knowledge in these forums if us nooblets utilize it. Some of the people here are biologists that specialize in arachnids, others have been breeding T's and scorps for decades. If there is something we don't know... someone on these boards does!

We, as nooblets, are also encouraged to purchase a copy of "The Tarantula Keepers Guide" 3rd edition. It's available on amazon for a pretty reasonable price. I'll be ordering my own copy as soon as we are caught up on a couple of bills. (my husband has been laid off of work for about 6 weeks but started back to work this past Tuesday)

Nice to meet you.

The search function is your friend. Use if frequently and often - most of the questions posed here, hourly, daily, etc, have been asked and answered ad nauseum. A quick search will likely return dozens of threads related to the same topic. Plus, rather than wait for answers to trickle in, you have a world of information at your fingertips.