new substrate & humidity

today i changed the substrate in one of my tanks, from soil to some sort of coconut mix (it's a fine bark, comes in a block, you have to wet it for it to expand out).

so i wet the bark brick, waited 20 minutes, and it was expanded. after i packed it back into the tank i noticed that there was high humidity and dew on the sides of the glass in the area of the bark. i made sure the bark was dry before i packed it in the enclosure.

now i'm worried. should i be? i'm told that too much humidity is harmful. im keeping it on a heating pad and hoping for the best.

Usually the best thing to do is to have dry substrate but an area that is moist. I think the best thing to do is have the substrate dry but have the area around the water dish wet by letting the water dish overflow when you fill it. That way the pede can decide where he would like to go, dryer or wetter.

yeah eco soil as i know it does keep LOADS of water, don't worry just wipe down the sides of the tank until they stop misting up.

you can keep a pede on dry soil etc BUT you must keep a full water dish their because they dry out incredably fast, main cause of death. see they can't close their spiracles to keep water in like other bugs can.

i keep my substraite slightly damp (plenty of ventalation prevents mould) and my pede is very happy

though u should only wipe down the sides of the tank when its far away and they can move incredably fast, so ideally when its underground OR when its eating.

(i know the post covers stuff you probably know but i'm assuming that your new to pedes to be safe)

what pede you got and how long you been keeping them?

thanks for the advice peeps.

the moist build up is only on the glass areas where the substrate is, it doesn't run up the walls so i can't really wipe it down.

right now i have 2 pedes, planning to get one more.

s. subspinipes (vietnamese)
s. polymorpha

i'll try to get pictures one of these days

One thing you want to watch out for with that coconut stuff is that in can sometimes grow some funky, wierd mold.

Wade