An update (11 March 2012)

I have noticed that the slings decided to make to very distinct burrows in the enclosure. There is no signs of them living anywhere else.



There has been some interaction between some of the slings, especially these using the same burrow. Then there was also 2 slings that didnt look to happy with each other and when disturbed they ran to the two separate burrows. Wonder how much I should read into that...

I cant manage to see more than 3 at a time. That to me is a bit stressful but I do have faith that all will be ok.

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UC that substrate still looks very wet, BEWARE these Ts will die from too much moisture! Once the peat is dry you can add a colddrink bottle cap filled with some fish tank gravel and water. The "water dish" cascade showed looks more like a swimming pool than a water dish.
You will probably find that the 2 burrows are connected underground.
I have seen that mine come out at nite, so you might get lucky if you check late at night with a torch ( try using a red light ).
Good luck. :thumbsup:

fanieterblanche wrote: UC that substrate still looks very wet, BEWARE these Ts will die from too much moisture! Once the peat is dry you can add a colddrink bottle cap filled with some fish tank gravel and water. The "water dish" cascade showed looks more like a swimming pool than a water dish.
You will probably find that the 2 burrows are connected underground.
I have seen that mine come out at nite, so you might get lucky if you check late at night with a torch ( try using a red light ).
Good luck. :thumbsup:

No moisture was added to the subtrate, so its not wet at all. It is exactly like any subtrate you would get out of a bag. Still struggling to get it even more dry. Ive even started to give the enclosure more ventilation to dry the subtrate out more.

I will dry out some subtrate and then do a new enclosure.

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Uncle Charlie wrote: An update (11 March 2012)

I have noticed that the slings decided to make to very distinct burrows in the enclosure. There is no signs of them living anywhere else.

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There has been some interaction between some of the slings, especially these using the same burrow. Then there was also 2 slings that didnt look to happy with each other and when disturbed they ran to the two separate burrows. Wonder how much I should read into that...

I cant manage to see more than 3 at a time. That to me is a bit stressful but I do have faith that all will be ok.

Sent with Uncle Charlie's Pokie machine

If the stress becomes too much to bear I would be more than willing to take one or two of the slings off your hands.
For your own peace of mind obviously.......

In all seriousness, it's great what you are doing, we need more of these types of projects with Scarab leaving.
I recently read of an interspecies communal between I think it was an A avicularia and a T gigas. These are the type of stories that keep the hobby alive and kicking!!! Best of luck and looking forward to more updates.

Ok... after lots of thought and struggling to sleep because of this I have decided to remove the slings, dry out new peat and redo the little enclosure.

It was interesting to find that as Fanie suggested, the two burrows were connected and the 5 slings sat all cozy together. I have tried a communal before with H gigas and there I found that they all chose different corners of the enclosure. Witnessing the bond definitely puts me more at ease from now on when I see only one or two (max three) at a time.

@sk27. This is all thanks to Scarab, after seeing his M balfouri enclosure in person you cant help but want to start your own communal. May more and more people start communals like this.

Tick tock tick tock... can the peat dry out now (using an oven cause I have no patience) :blush:

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fanieterblanche wrote: UC that substrate still looks very wet, BEWARE these Ts will die from too much moisture! Once the peat is dry you can add a colddrink bottle cap filled with some fish tank gravel and water. The "water dish" cascade showed looks more like a swimming pool than a water dish.
You will probably find that the 2 burrows are connected underground.
I have seen that mine come out at nite, so you might get lucky if you check late at night with a torch ( try using a red light ).
Good luck. :thumbsup:

Fanie I'm very curious as to the 'these T's will die from too much moisture' statement..... before scarab had told us all that they seem to breed better in totally dry conditions, I used to keep my balfouri (which I've had from 2cm sling to adulthood, she's about 5 years old now), in moist conditions with seemingly no ill effects.

Are you basing that statement on personal experience? I'd love to hear from anyone else that might have kept their balfouri's in moist conditions....

p.s. just as a side note, mine has had a reasonably large delicup waterbowl in her enclosure all her life.