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His father must have been a hermit crab, because he stays out of my sight for a month at a time. I believe he molts in his den, because he pushed out parts of another exo into his excavation tailings sometime last week. I figure he comes out at night. Well yesterday there he was at 3 PM, holding perfectly still on his substrate, all pretty and furry. His shallow water dish was dry, and I figured if I lifted the lid and put water in, he would duck out of sight. But no, he held his position until I had replenished his water and re-fitted his lid. Then he stepped into the water and drank. He is very deliberate and he knows he's getting what he wants, I imagine, by the way he held his ground, just a few inches from my hand. I added four or five crickets. He stayed on top for a couple of hours, and I used a flashlight to look at him a couple of times. He/She is absolutely beautiful. Then later, he was gone again. Now I feel like I can successfully keep an invert. I'm happy that I chose a T for my first run at it.

Roger

He's hanging out at the 85F zone in the tank. He can pick a higher or a lower temperature, and can burrow at will under the dinner-plates I put on the peat. He chose to excavate under the plate in the 80F zone. So, he has food, he has warmth, and he has humidity (I pour water on the peat that is directly under the CHE, and when needed I wet down the rest of the substrate just so it's barely slightly damp, not wet. I leave the area around his lair alone so he'll never again be forced out. Once I poured water too close to him and a little stream ran down into his home, and he popped right up. Bad Dad!! He can dig down about four inches under the plates if he wants to.

When I put crickets in there, I also put a wad of dripping wet paper towel so they can drink, and scatter some cricket food. So the crickets should survive very well in the tank, and not get so thirsty and hungry that they do life-threatening things to the T.

I still have to make a Pooter. Then I'll pluck individual crickets out of the tank after two days of making sure the T has had good conditions to eat. Maybe I'll sell Pooters. As far as I can tell, no one is selling them yet. Anyone know of pooters for sale?

Clffdvr

I went to the hardware store and got two one-foot pieces of clear tubing. One had an outside diameter of 5/8 inch. The other tube was smaller, just the right size to fit inside the larger tube. Then at home, I cut a 1" square piece of light cotton undershirt. I put the cloth over the end of the smaller tube, and pushed it into the larger tube. The cloth breathes well, and is tightly enough woven that small bits can't get past it. It actually works very well. Maybe this post will be useful to someone.

Clffdvr

Cool, can you post a pic of the finished product? How is it working for you?
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KJ Vezino
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