today i'm going to be setting up a
bioactive terrestrial enclosure for my
tarantula
so let's get started
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welcome to tarantula collective my name
is richard and i got some rehousing to
do
my theraposa apophysis uh also known as
the pinkfoot goliath bird eater
has outgrown its enclosure and it's uh
it's time to upgrade
now currently it's in a small enclosure
but it is bioactive it's it's outgrown
it
it's time to get it set up in something
new but i've had a lot of people ask how
i set up my bioactive enclosures and
i got three or four different ways i do
it so today i'm just going to show you
one of the ways
it doesn't mean it's the best way it's
just how i'm doing this one and
you can check my past videos or future
videos and see other methods that i use
now not all tarantulas need bioactive
enclosures it's mainly just your more
moisture dependent species
therafosa is one genus that is moisture
dependent and it seems the larger they
get like the older they get
the more important it is to have that
moisture so that genus in particular i
really prefer to keep it in bioactive
enclosures so let's get to work get this
set up and get this tarantula re-homed
now for the most part i have
everything that i need right here i'm
gonna be using this
uh tarantula cribs enclosure that they
sent to me for christmas i'm
pretty excited about that it's uh it's a
terrestrial enclosure
has this nice locking lid it's like a
magnetic i don't know there's one two
three four magnets
strong magnets that will lock that into
place so we're gonna be using this
as the enclosure well almost dropped it
and for the false bottom of the
enclosure i'll be using this zoom med
laboratories waterfall kit it's what i
didn't use they sent me a whole bunch of
stuff when i set up the bioactive
paludarium for my carabiner versacolor
i used the waterfall feature in the
enclosure but it's a paludarium so the
bottom of the enclosure is just a water
feature that fish are swimming in so i
didn't need a false bottom but
i'm gonna use that for this enclosure so
the first step is gonna be cutting this
screen to
fit the enclosure and how i'm gonna do
that is i'm just going to set the
enclosure on top of the screen kind of
trace it out and cut out the rectangle
pretty easy
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all right so we got that done we're just
going to make sure that it fits nicely
yeah i think that'll work that'll work
nice now the first layer in a bioactive
enclosure kind of needs to be the false
bottom
and in this case i'll be using hydro
balls but i've seen people use like
plastic crating there's there's all kind
of different things you can use but
i have these hydra balls so that's what
we're going to use today and it doesn't
need to be
really deep i'm probably just going to
do like a half an inch to an inch of
hydra balls in this enclosure because
this tarantula really likes to burrow so
i'll make sure i give it plenty of depth
and substrate
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substrate
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i put a little too much in there first
so i cut it back a little bit but
i think this is gonna look nice so next
step is we will uh throw in this screen
what this does is keep the substrate
separate from the hydro ball so the
water can
drain through the substrate get down
there and then kind of like evaporate
and go back up
it just keeps the substrate damp or you
know plenty of moisture in it without
just sitting in water where it would
start to rot and just get nasty
now i just need to add some substrate
i'm going to be using jungle mix today
it's one of my favorite substrates but
you know you can use pretty much any
substrate really except for cocoa fiber
i wouldn't suggest that but creature
soil
or jungle mix there's what's the other
one rectus soil something like that
there's all kinds of substrates out
there that's kind of a mixture of a
bunch of stuff that
would be beneficial justice frogs has
some great bioactive substrates you can
get some from the bio dude and some
bioactive substrates don't require a
false bottom if i was using the biodudes
tara arena or whatever it's called their
tarantula substrate i would not be using
a false bottom but
because i'm not using that i i'm going
to be using some of this
jungle mix i went ahead and opted for
that false bottom but what i will do is
mix a bunch of sphagnum moss in with the
jungle mix and
i'll just kind of help it maintain some
of its moisture
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now that i've got the sphagnum moss
mixed in there i'm going to wet it down
some and
i didn't fill the enclosure up as high
as i normally would with substrate
because i'm going to take some of the
substrate from its uh
current enclosure and mix it in there as
well since it's been living in this
bioactive enclosure there's a whole lot
of microorganisms and you know
this the soil itself the substrate
itself has really kind of developed its
own little ecosystem so i want to make
sure
all those little microorganisms i can
transplant into this enclosure as well
of course there's also springtails and
small little dwarf isopods and stuff
like that that i probably want to carry
over to this enclosure too and now we're
going to transfer these plants over in
here so i'm just going to set up exactly
where i want to hide
and things like that and move the plants
over and i mean it wouldn't be a
tarantula collective enclosure without a
skull
this one's for you petco so now i need
to get into the old enclosure pull out
the plants
and move some of that substitute into
the new enclosure now this
is a theraposa species like i said it's
a goliath pink foot bird eater which has
some pretty serious
urticating hairs now it's not necessary
that you always wear gloves or long
sleeves or glasses whenever you're
interacting with a theraposa but it's
not a bad
idea what i'm going to be using are
these massive
rubber gloves it's a little bit of an
overkill especially for just the
juvenile species but
i got to do what i got to do but these
are nice because they cover my entire
arm so
even if it kicks some hair at me or i
mix them up and throw them up in the air
i don't have to worry about it like
getting on my forearms which i enjoy
because i've been haired by this species
before and it is not fun
very itchy drives me crazy
all right got the gloves on now just for
safety's sake
put on some glasses but these glasses
are really dirty
and the only reason to wear glasses i
actually got an email from someone not
long ago that
uh la ciadora perry abana had kicked
some hairs up gotten her boyfriend's
face
and they were afraid some of them got in
the eyes so you know it's it's always
better to be
safe than sorry i you know i don't think
that this trash is gonna be kicking
hairs at my face so i'm i'm not gonna
wear them but i just wanted to show you
that sometimes you may want to consider
doing it especially with the theraphosa
species
all right that plant was pretty well
rooted but
i really like it so i'm gonna move it
over here
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all right so we got the plants out of
there now it's time to move the
tarantula so hopefully this goes
smoothly because i
just destroyed its old enclosure and i'm
sure it's not very happy
it's always amazing how big these
tarantulas get i think they're one size
and they end up being almost twice as
big as i anticipated and i moved some of
the substrate from its old enclosure
into its new enclosure uh
not a whole lot maybe just like a
handful or so but i can see that a lot
of springtails have transferred from
that enclosure into this one but
just to be safe i'm going to add a
little bit more
something i like to put in my bioactive
enclosures any time that i'm putting
springtails in there
is it's the uh kook cuisine it's this
cleanup crew cuisine
who's incusing from the josh's frogs
essentially it gets damp and kind of
grows some mold plenty of food
for your isopods or mainly your
springtails i'm just going to throw one
of those down in there
and now we're going to water the plants
a little bit
[Music]
yeah baby wonder if all my
bad decisions get accounted in the
algorithms no statistician could
dissuade me from my bigger vision
i know my occupation's quite an unlikely
place in this world to occupy
and talk about upon a daily basis our
information is predetermined by some
biased business
we island sermon the silicon that push
our lovely neighbors i'm done with paper
chasing think i'm on the bigger banquets
miss that full circle new wave energy on
a tuesday turn a blue day to a bright
you yellow with a smoothie in here extra
fruit hey the brand you can't move me
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if i know one thing the truth is home
even if it's a tough thing to swallow an
even harder thing to hold and truly know
without a doubt while on the globe
even though all right and that's pretty
much it i want to say thanks to
tarantula cribs for sending me out this
awesome enclosure and the skull and hide
pretty much everything else i used
awesome christmas present if you want to
see more videos on my bioactive
enclosures just check out this playlist
right here and if you want to catch up
on all my other enclosure builds or
do-it-yourself projects check out this
playlist right here as always i
appreciate
you watching subscribe if you want to
see more thanks for buying tarantula
collective merchandise and i will
see you next tuesday