How To Build a Tarantula Bioactive Enclosure

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

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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