construction of our P. murinus enclosure

Mr. Gone

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It is time for us to rehouse our P. murinus, as it will have outgrown the present enclosure next molt. We are setting it up in what will be its adult tank, as it is named Pikachu for a reason and teleportation is its specialty. We are using a cracked 15 gallon fish tank we already had. It will be a semi-arboreal enclosure so it will have plenty of things to anchor web on and build the crazy structures like it has in its current enclosure.



We used the dark brown caulk from Home Depot and spread it on the back/cracked wall thickly and used a putty knife to even it out. Next, we laid it down and mounded up peat moss on top of the caulk and pressed down with our hands as hard as we could. We then let it dry for a few days. After turning it upright, we had a finished background, with a few pebbles embedded in it as well. We're trying to go for an eroded bank look, with roots and dead wood being exposed. The peat on the back, and the peat on the substrate we will add, should help accomplish this by blurring the line between substrate and background. That way the ground is underneath, but also behind.



 

jallen

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Looks great. Im sure the caulk would help hold the cracked parts together and add some strength so it doesnt fail in the future. Good luck
 

curiousme

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got wood?

Next we cut the wood. All wood is from our own property, no pesticides and have been sufficiently sterilized.

This is what we are working with for our centerpiece:





We had a few other pieces that we added in, they all seemed to just go together. We hot glued all of them in place.



We have to get some more peat in order to fill the tank up, so we will update then.
 

jbm150

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Looks very cool indeed! Cage maintenance might be a chore though with such high walls. Hopefully, your obt is a run-and-hide rather than destroy-all-life kinda p. murinus
 
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ranchulas

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Nice! I love my P. murinus. The attitude and constant re-building of its enclosure is very entertaining. Keep us updated with the pictures.
 

blix

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Nice beginning, just remember to disinfect the wood before using it. Boiling hot water can be used, if the pieces are too big.
 

curiousme

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Nice beginning, just remember to disinfect the wood before using it. Boiling hot water can be used, if the pieces are too big.
All wood has been sterilized appropriately!:D
 

Bill S

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How big is your OBT? The reason I ask is that the first one I kept was arboreal only while it was small. As it grew, it became strictly terrestrial. I've heard from others that they can be highly variable in this - but it would be a bummer to go to all the work you are putting into this only to have the spider totally ignore the wood you're putting in. If it does - pull it out and get a cool arboreal species. (One of the difficulties you might encounter in your design is that you could have quite a time catching the OBT in there if you decide it needs to be removed.)
 

Dyon

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If you got a big microwave you can also use that, the microwave will kill most of the bacteria.
Looks nice cant wait to see the results, good luck!
 

Mr. Gone

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If you got a big microwave you can also use that, the microwave will kill most of the bacteria.
Looks nice cant wait to see the results, good luck!
yes, yes, we know how to sterilize, thanks!

If you start from the beginning, you'll see that this is now the 3rd time we've said that everything is sufficiently sterilized!:eek:
 

Mr. Gone

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How big is your OBT? The reason I ask is that the first one I kept was arboreal only while it was small. As it grew, it became strictly terrestrial. I've heard from others that they can be highly variable in this - but it would be a bummer to go to all the work you are putting into this only to have the spider totally ignore the wood you're putting in. If it does - pull it out and get a cool arboreal species. (One of the difficulties you might encounter in your design is that you could have quite a time catching the OBT in there if you decide it needs to be removed.)
ours started out as a strict pet hole until it got about 2 inches or so. now it displays less of that behavior, so we're hoping. Its about 3 inches now, and not in pre-molt yet, but its coming soon, we're going to move it after its molt.
If he totally ignores the wood, its not a waste, as it still looks good. To be honest, while we hope he/she likes it, the decor is more for our benefit as we like our tanks to make good displays.

jbm150 said:
Looks very cool indeed! Cage maintenance might be a chore though with such high walls. Hopefully, your obt is a run-and-hide rather than destroy-all-life kinda p. murinus
Our thinking is that the higher walls will help with cage maintenance because it gives it farther to go before it's out. We've read a lot about people's OBTs running up the sides of the tank during maintenance, and as fast as they are, they'd be over the top in a blink. So the higher wall are a small safety buffer.
 

Bill S

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One of the thoughts that I have on looking at your set-up is that it could be a great stage for an experiment in keeping more than one P. murinus in a cage. They are not truly communal, but there are reports that they can be tolerant of others of their species if given enough room. In your cage they would have ample room and plenty of surface area. With a set-up like that, I'd be tempted to place a pair in it and see if they would produce offspring and watch what sort of behavior developed from there.

Hmmm... As it happens, I have a large terrarium, and several very small OBTs. I'll have to think about this.

Keep us posted on how your set-up works out.
 

Mr. Gone

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Good idea, but we're not really interested in a communal, as I don't think we'll ever have any expendable Ts.
 

curiousme

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Alrighty, we have finished the enclosure and moved Pikachu into it. It has taken us longer than we would have liked, but there were unexpected events in our real life that caused spare time to be scarcer.

Here is the the finished product. We went with a small snake plant for vegetation:




We took Pikachu on a field trip to our daughter's 2nd grade class and so had already moved it to a different enclosure once. It was perfectly calm for that move, but this move it was a little put out with us. :D We were lucky because it didn't decide to bolt/ show its speed, but it instead gave us some of its first threat poses and hissing. We put the old enclosure inside of the new one and teased it out with an 'instrument'.

Position before we began the move:





progression out of the old and into the new:









It went to the base of the main root to begin with:



Then overnight built a little web hammock in the front top right corner:



After another night, it has returned to its initial hiding place:



It did start a burrow, but we cannot see down it very much. It is not in the burrow though:



We are happy with the way it turned out and hope you guys enjoy the pictures/ thread!:D
 

jbm150

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Very cool, thanks for the updates on that. I'm sure she'll have all kinds of fun retreats in there :)
 

curiousme

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Thank you very much guys. We think/ hope 'it' is a she, but are not great at sexing, so for now it is an 'it'!:D
 
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