This afternoon I pick up the Pennell family at O'Hare International Airport. Coincidentally, it is flag day. I am sure they will enjoy the patriotic displays including my two cheap little flags. In the UK you aren't allowed to fly your own flag. Can you fucking believe that shit? It is unlawful to offend the immigrants with your national pride. For fuck's sake.
It's also Chad Campbell's birthday. Cheers mate! We raise our glasses on Friday!
Last Sunday I asked for some questions. I was allowing an opening for you to coerce me into stirring up some shit, but I guess I'm ranty enough. Nobody has provoked me.
One type of question I do get often is related to products I use, especially my substrate choice and other husbandry related kit. Not to be a NASCAR racer or Bassmaster pro and fly the colors of product endorsements, but I'll tell you what things I buy to keep, breed, and sell tarantulas and where I get them with the best price and best service. I receive no compensation. Consider it a public service announcement, not an advertisement or endorsement for anything or anyone. I also get asked about my camera rig all the time so I'll give the basics at the end for you photog phreaks.
#1 - I use coconut coir. Specifically, Zoo Med EcoEarth. I expand the bricks with exactly three 32 oz. cups (i.e. 3 quarts) of very warm tap water. I first set the brick standing on its long end in a bus tub (or wash tub or 5 gallon bucket), not lying flat. An hour later I chop and stir up the expanded moist substrate with a $5 Fiskars plastic trowel from Target, and then usually let it air dry a bit overnight before I stir again and use.
There are many reasons I prefer coco and one is that it is a "green" product made from the waste of the coconut industry. Other choices may be less environmentally responsible, such as peat moss, which is mined from bogs and has an impact on nature. Used substrate can be composted.
While EcoEarth covers most of my coco needs I do use one other type. I also use Coco Soft (Blue Iguana). It is a coarse, fibrous coco product that is sold loose. For drier climate spiders such as my M. balfouri, Idiothele mira and my Harpactira collection, I like to add an inch of this on the top of the fine, moistened EcoEarth. I usually also add dry moss (favorite is Zilla Beaked Moss) and some live oak leaves (from terrarium supply places like Josh's Frogs or Pangaea Reptile, etc.). At other times I will mix equal parts expanded EcoEarth with the Coco Soft and then remoisten the mix. The fibers of the CocoSoft contribute to structural integrity for burrow and retreat formation.
Last Sunday I asked for some questions. I was allowing an opening for you to coerce me into stirring up some shit, but I guess I'm ranty enough. Nobody has provoked me.
One type of question I do get often is related to products I use, especially my substrate choice and other husbandry related kit. Not to be a NASCAR racer or Bassmaster pro and fly the colors of product endorsements, but I'll tell you what things I buy to keep, breed, and sell tarantulas and where I get them with the best price and best service. I receive no compensation. Consider it a public service announcement, not an advertisement or endorsement for anything or anyone. I also get asked about my camera rig all the time so I'll give the basics at the end for you photog phreaks.
#1 - I use coconut coir. Specifically, Zoo Med EcoEarth. I expand the bricks with exactly three 32 oz. cups (i.e. 3 quarts) of very warm tap water. I first set the brick standing on its long end in a bus tub (or wash tub or 5 gallon bucket), not lying flat. An hour later I chop and stir up the expanded moist substrate with a $5 Fiskars plastic trowel from Target, and then usually let it air dry a bit overnight before I stir again and use.
There are many reasons I prefer coco and one is that it is a "green" product made from the waste of the coconut industry. Other choices may be less environmentally responsible, such as peat moss, which is mined from bogs and has an impact on nature. Used substrate can be composted.
While EcoEarth covers most of my coco needs I do use one other type. I also use Coco Soft (Blue Iguana). It is a coarse, fibrous coco product that is sold loose. For drier climate spiders such as my M. balfouri, Idiothele mira and my Harpactira collection, I like to add an inch of this on the top of the fine, moistened EcoEarth. I usually also add dry moss (favorite is Zilla Beaked Moss) and some live oak leaves (from terrarium supply places like Josh's Frogs or Pangaea Reptile, etc.). At other times I will mix equal parts expanded EcoEarth with the Coco Soft and then remoisten the mix. The fibers of the CocoSoft contribute to structural integrity for burrow and retreat formation.
Speaking of burrows, I use cork bark or Fluker's Critter Cavern set into the substrate at an 30° angle to give a retreat and burrow start for my Africans. When I used to keep Asian terrestrials they were in deeper tubs and the vertical burrow was started with a piece of broomstick or pipe in the corner before filling with substrate.
#2 - I use ExoTerra Terrariums. The Nano Tall size is perfect for Pachistopelma and small Avics like A. rickwesti and A. hirschii and even A. diversipes. The Mini Tall are great for any arboreal and mine hold Poecilotheria. I also use 10 gallon aquariums stood on end that have had hinged door fronts with two 2" vents at top made out of polycarbonate to my specifications by Eric's Plastic Shop. But I also use a variety of plastic storage containers, cereal containers and the like. Most are customized with substantial ventilation covered by aluminum mesh insect screening (affixed with hot glue from outside). I use a variety of deli cup sizes. I love the 6" diameter and 4" high pre-punched clear cups for raising juvenile terrestrials, but also use plastic shoeboxes with a 1" hole at each end covered by screen. I use 32 oz. deli cups extensively and often choose well ventilated "fruit fly" style cups for many species. I keep many spiderlings in 50 dram vials (ThorntonPlastics.com). For short term (spiders for sale) I punch numerous air holes, but my keeper spiders have a one inch hole drilled in the lid that is, again, covered from the outside by aluminum insect screen affixed by hot glue. VENTILATE! VENTILATE! VENTILATE!
#3 - I've preached against crickets. I've spent years using mostly roaches. But I am back to the convenience that crickets afford me. The reasons will be covered in their own blog #14. How about tomorrow? I feed the crickets Fluker's High-Calcium Cricket Food. For water I make my own cricket quencher with polyacrylamide crystals I buy in bulk from watersorb.com. One 2 oz. condiment cup of crystals to one gallon of water and PRESTO! Cheap and easy cricket hydration. I do not offer the crickets any other food or water. I use fruit flies for baby true spiders like Cupiennius and Heteropoda and I dust those with Repashy Supervite Micro-fine Vitamin Supplement. I don't know that it helps nutritionally, but it does make it harder for the little buggers to move and that is helpful when you're trying to quickly put a few fruit flies in a vial with a spider that can teleport. I make my own fruit fly (D. melanogaster only) cultures using Josh's Frog's Melanogaster Formula or Repashy SuperFly. These are both nutritious media that makes the flies a healthy meal. Fruit flies that are cultured on the old school potato flakes and powdered sugar aren't exactly health food. As soon as possible I switch to pinhead crickets that I hatch myself.
#2 - I use ExoTerra Terrariums. The Nano Tall size is perfect for Pachistopelma and small Avics like A. rickwesti and A. hirschii and even A. diversipes. The Mini Tall are great for any arboreal and mine hold Poecilotheria. I also use 10 gallon aquariums stood on end that have had hinged door fronts with two 2" vents at top made out of polycarbonate to my specifications by Eric's Plastic Shop. But I also use a variety of plastic storage containers, cereal containers and the like. Most are customized with substantial ventilation covered by aluminum mesh insect screening (affixed with hot glue from outside). I use a variety of deli cup sizes. I love the 6" diameter and 4" high pre-punched clear cups for raising juvenile terrestrials, but also use plastic shoeboxes with a 1" hole at each end covered by screen. I use 32 oz. deli cups extensively and often choose well ventilated "fruit fly" style cups for many species. I keep many spiderlings in 50 dram vials (ThorntonPlastics.com). For short term (spiders for sale) I punch numerous air holes, but my keeper spiders have a one inch hole drilled in the lid that is, again, covered from the outside by aluminum insect screen affixed by hot glue. VENTILATE! VENTILATE! VENTILATE!
#3 - I've preached against crickets. I've spent years using mostly roaches. But I am back to the convenience that crickets afford me. The reasons will be covered in their own blog #14. How about tomorrow? I feed the crickets Fluker's High-Calcium Cricket Food. For water I make my own cricket quencher with polyacrylamide crystals I buy in bulk from watersorb.com. One 2 oz. condiment cup of crystals to one gallon of water and PRESTO! Cheap and easy cricket hydration. I do not offer the crickets any other food or water. I use fruit flies for baby true spiders like Cupiennius and Heteropoda and I dust those with Repashy Supervite Micro-fine Vitamin Supplement. I don't know that it helps nutritionally, but it does make it harder for the little buggers to move and that is helpful when you're trying to quickly put a few fruit flies in a vial with a spider that can teleport. I make my own fruit fly (D. melanogaster only) cultures using Josh's Frog's Melanogaster Formula or Repashy SuperFly. These are both nutritious media that makes the flies a healthy meal. Fruit flies that are cultured on the old school potato flakes and powdered sugar aren't exactly health food. As soon as possible I switch to pinhead crickets that I hatch myself.
#4. What else? I hate water spots so I mist with distilled water. I used to use R.O. and that's cool too. I just got sick of remembering to bring my empty 5 gallon carboy to store to refill and then having to lug it around full. I just get 87 cent gallons of distilled at the dreaded Wal-Mart.
#5 - Essential Tools - 1.5 or 2 quart pump up garden spray bottle (manually squeezing is tiresome), water bottle to pour from, oil funnel with long tip for moistening lower levels of substrate in large enclosures, 3ml pipettes for moistening substrate in vials, an assortment of artist brushes from tiny to 1" wide for gently directing spiders where I want them to go, rubber tipped forceps of assorted lengths, fine tip forceps of varying lengths, wood chopstick for poking starter burrows in vials or poking around a cup or enclosure, wooden spoon and spatula for manipulating and shielding larger spiders, razor blade window scraper for getting dry arboreal tarantula shit off the glass, catch cups, one liter and two liter soda bottles with large end cut off for catching and moving larger spiders, LED flashlight, headlamp, etc. etc. I also highly recommend Post-It Label Roll with removable adhesive and a Sharpie Retractable Ultra-fine marker for labelling and keeping notes and records on enclosures. If you keep itchy New Worlds keep Benadryl spray nearby for immediate topical use on contacted area and keep antihistamine pills in stock in the medicine cabinet. Some use masks and gloves as well. My prevention is easier. I just ban itchy spiders from my house ;)
SOURCES: I love PetSolutions.com. Any order over $49 ships free. They are in Ohio (I think?) and I get my orders in two days with the free economy shipping. They have ExoTerra terrariums cheap, I pay $5 for a 3-pack of EcoEarth, and they also sell Beaked Moss, Fluker's Cricket Diet and Critter Caverns, Coco Soft, etc. I also love their $1.49 small Ampallo ExoTerra terrarium plants (and the other ExoTerra faux greenery as well). Helluva deal. Plus they've got everything you need for your other pets at great prices. I get an order every two weeks. All the plastic containers I use come from Wal-Mart. I used to boycott the place (if you want to know why watch "High Cost of Low Prices" on Netflix). But it is the best place for gallon jars (I love the squarish Mainstays gallon jars and have loads! I use a 2.5" hole saw to remove most of the lid and then hot glue some screening over the opening). I also like the large, handle-less cereal container for Poecs and the Homz tubs that my African tarantulas are housed in. I already mentioned Thornton for cases of vials. If you can't use a case quantity you can get smaller amounts from SuperiorShippingSupplies.com. That is where I get all my deli cups and shipping boxes. I also use their approved FedEx shipping service to save money and ship under the banner of an approved shipper. You should have read all about this a few posts ago. I used to buy cork bark in bulk from Maryland Cork, but now pick it up at a local show from Pangaea Reptile who has great deals and it allows me to hand pick my pieces. I also buy my Repashy products from them and sometimes ExoTerra Terrariums at an even better price than Pet Solutions.
SOURCES: I love PetSolutions.com. Any order over $49 ships free. They are in Ohio (I think?) and I get my orders in two days with the free economy shipping. They have ExoTerra terrariums cheap, I pay $5 for a 3-pack of EcoEarth, and they also sell Beaked Moss, Fluker's Cricket Diet and Critter Caverns, Coco Soft, etc. I also love their $1.49 small Ampallo ExoTerra terrarium plants (and the other ExoTerra faux greenery as well). Helluva deal. Plus they've got everything you need for your other pets at great prices. I get an order every two weeks. All the plastic containers I use come from Wal-Mart. I used to boycott the place (if you want to know why watch "High Cost of Low Prices" on Netflix). But it is the best place for gallon jars (I love the squarish Mainstays gallon jars and have loads! I use a 2.5" hole saw to remove most of the lid and then hot glue some screening over the opening). I also like the large, handle-less cereal container for Poecs and the Homz tubs that my African tarantulas are housed in. I already mentioned Thornton for cases of vials. If you can't use a case quantity you can get smaller amounts from SuperiorShippingSupplies.com. That is where I get all my deli cups and shipping boxes. I also use their approved FedEx shipping service to save money and ship under the banner of an approved shipper. You should have read all about this a few posts ago. I used to buy cork bark in bulk from Maryland Cork, but now pick it up at a local show from Pangaea Reptile who has great deals and it allows me to hand pick my pieces. I also buy my Repashy products from them and sometimes ExoTerra Terrariums at an even better price than Pet Solutions.
Camera Rig: The majority of the photos you see me post are taken with a Nikon D7100 body and a Tokina 100mm 1:1 2.8 macro lens. 90% of the images are shot in aperture priority mode at f18 and ISO100 and usually 1/60 sec. Sometimes I go fully manual if I want to select shutter speed a bit, say to 1/125 sec or maybe adjust ISO to 200 or 400. Smaller subjects are usually lit with a Sigma EM-140 ring flash, while larger spiders are lit with a PocketBox Mini Softbox on a SB900 speedlight in the hot shoe. I often use TTL, but may set ring flash to TTL BL or manually reduce output on SB900 or use only one side of the ring flash in certain situations. I never, ever, ever use the camera's built-in mini speedlight. They are taped down! For photography other than spider and herp portraits I use Nikkor's 17-55mm 2.8, 35mm 1.8 and 18-200 VR 5.6. For human portraits I light subject with a Gary Fong Lightsphere mounted on the SB-900 or a SB-600. When in the field if I need to have two set-ups at the ready I use my old Nikon D90 body with the macro lens and flash and use the D7100 with the 17-55 or 18-200.
I shoot both RAW and Fine JPEG, but normally use the RAW file imported into Adobe Lightroom 6/CC on a MacBook Pro for processing. Photoshop CC is used for background removal or to remove unwanted dirt or something from the image. I export my finished images as TIF to an external hard drive and Fine JPEG (6000 x 4000 pixels) to my internal hard drive (these go to SmugMug) and make a 1280 pixel wide watermarked and branded version using both Lightroom and Adobe Fireworks for posting on social media. My full resolution photo galleries are at exoticfauna.smugmug.com where you can order prints.
Cheers, Salud, Skål, Prost, Santé, L'Chaim, MJ
4 comments:
Eco earth dries out very quickly it seems and I don't even keep my spiders that warm. I used to use it exclusively, but now I just used plain old top soil from home depot or lowes. I like the fact that it holds the humidity better and I can compact it down more. I don't like giving my spiders a home full of loose substrate. When I used to use coco coir I'd notice as it dried out over time it became super crumbly and burrows would collapse. A lot of time a separation would form between the wall of the tub and the substrate. I'm not even sure why this happened but it did and that annoyed me too.
How often do you mist everything down to keep the coco from getting like that? Have you ever noticed any of the difficulties with it that I did?
Thanks for the comments and questions. I knew my answer would be lengthy so I posted it as a separate Blog #12B.
I've enjoyed reading your blog posts here for the past week and look forward to new posts every day. This post especially caught my eye because it carries a very different attitude from your rant in issue 2 of your Arachnoculture e-zine titled "The Back Page: Dirt is Dirt, except when it's Mud" concerning preferred substrate. I inferred from the acknowledgement of being "a tad hypocritical" in the Arachnoculture article that it appears your primary substrate of choice is natural dirt with the coconut fibre being used for specific purposes. In this blog post, it seems your primary choice of substrate is coconut fibre since it doesn't mention plain old dirt at all. Did you change your mind over the past several years? If so, why the change?
Hi Lonnie, Thanks for reading and thanks for reading my Arachnoculture as well. My "dirt is dirt" referred to the fact that the obsession over substrate choice is unnecessary and that natural dirt is just as good as something you can buy packaged in the pet trade. I wouldn't say my mind has changed over years (that was originally published in print in 2005 so it's ben ten years), but I definitely have come to love coco coir. Nothing is perfect. It will mold sometimes. Some people have preferred peat specifically because it is acidic and that may make it more "mold-retardant", but it is known for spores and growing yellow mushrooms and I've had cases of even coco growing some mushrooms, although typically not the same bright yellow ones. People with access to good clean soil, without potential pests or predators already living in it, will enjoy free substrate. Rick West famously has said he's used nothing but backyard dirt for decades. But coco is clean, inexpensive, "green" and very handy in it's expandable brick form. It certainly is my substrate of choice today.
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