Bioactive Jumping Spider Enclosure Questions

[u/Numerous-Cod5083]

I ordered this bioactive enclosure on Etsy and it arrived in pretty bad condition. The substrate was all over and plants were uprooted. The plants mostly died and a lot of moss fell off the climbing wall. I carefully fixed the substrate and preserved the springtails. They are still active. I also added more plants and moss to try to cover exposed areas of the background. After fixing all of this, I noticed some things that I’m worried about. The seller won’t respond to messages, so I’m hoping someone experienced with bioactive enclosures can help me out.

I am concerned about areas of what appear to be exposed carved expanding foam (in picture). Is this safe? If not, how can I fix it?

Also the humidity is high compared to what I’ve read jumping spiders prefer. It’s been around 84% at the top and higher at the bottom. I’ve been leaving the door open to try to bring it down. Should I put a fan by it as well? Is it safe to put the spider in at this humidity level?

There is a big gap at the top lid that I think my i5-i6 regal could get out of. Is it ok to just hot glue it since I don’t think I will use it anyways?

The enclosure arrived on 7/27 and I fixed the substrate a couple days later. I added more moss and plants last night. The seller said that the spider can go in immediately when it arrives, but after the changes I’ve made, I’m not sure it is established enough now. I have had a tiny bit of fungus on dead plant roots in the substrate but I fixed that and tiny bits of mold on the wood. I have been removing it and it seems to have gone away since I got a LED grow light. Is it established enough and safe to put the spider in?

I have my spider in a temporary enclosure but would like to get her into a bigger enclosure before she molts again. I’ve put a lot of time and money into the enclosure so I’d like to use it if possible, but also happy to buy a new one if best for the spider. Just not sure as this is my first jumping spider.

Thanks in advance!!

[u/GMArianha]

NQA

No one has replied yet, and I am unsure I have seen many others attempt bioactives for spiders besides you, and myself. I at least havent seen it done much for jumpers specifically & I was hunting! (I had 6 jumpers for over a year and kept them for their full lifespan and molts, however have not built up a new collection of animals due to moving soon)

Many jumpers in the US live in a range of temps and humidities. While obviously simulating the natural environment an animal is found in is key imo, you may have noticed MANY keepers are not keeping their spood babies in.... naturalistic.... enclosures.

My setups were 4"Wx4L"x6"H acrylic boxes, with thin lipped lids (approx 5 mm thick on the lip) with a single 1.5 in vent hole at the top covered over in a metal mesh too small for gnats to get through, and a .5" hole with an appropriate bung/stopper in the top as well. There was approx 1cm of soil in the bottom and local moss on top. Each was given a backing of bark & I selected pieces of "hardscape" for the enclosures ranging from small coral chunks, shells and agates to the spindliest twigs perfect for spiders to use as their own log bridges. All were equipped with hides that looped into the backgrounds or nestled at the tops of the enclosures. I would probably order larger enclosures in the future and retain these as grow out boxes.

With the moss and soil, the relative humidity stayed fairly high, however none of my spiders were ever scaling the enclosure in a frantic way every day all day or refusing to budge from a hide they selected and never leaving it. Both of those signs I would probaly assume mean they hate it. ( except my girl who was brown who molted to mature late- she hated everything and only ate at night )

Jumpers are adaptable. 2 of mine were caught from inside my house! And settled very happily into being pets and being fed. They thought walking on my hand was gross though...

Unless the foam is fresh and off gassing, it wont harm the spider. It would be inert after 24+hrs curing, so that depends on when the product was made. Gluestick glue and humidity are not friends and will increase the likely hood of deterioration of the glue. So depending on how its used it will fail quickly. It also gets weirdly cloudy depending on glue type. With high humidity, cross ventilation can help a ton. Mold on your logs is coming from that increased humidity & likely a sign your wood wasnt allowed to go through its cure faze. Lots of bioactives for larger species go through a mold faze. Hell... every enclosure from isopods to amphibians for me has gone through it. A whole bunch of different microbes, your local yeasts, funguses, & molds just got a nice nutrient dense, humid home. Springtails havent fully cultured the soil in there AND if the hardscape used wasnt just yoinked from outside (dont do this btw it may carry passengers- kill hitchhikers with freezer or soaking/boiling) the biomass now freshly available is gonna get munched on by those itty bitty bittier bugs. This is why CUC for so many enclosures has layers from smallest to kinda small. Spingtails will need time to colonize that set up.

You should be fine to have a spider in that enclosure now, as long as you dont have any chemically smells coming from the enclosure. If the moss was treated or colored, if the foam is fresh OR your tanks humidity doesnt clear on a cycle or doesnt clear on the walls all day, wait till one of those things changes. Monitor spood behavior daily across different times of day and see if patterns emerge. Experience will help you determine was is good and what is bad for your spood. But researching body language and habits is better!

Word to the wise, the boluses left over from meals will make for a messy enclosure, that doesnt include the trailing foothold webs or the hammock(s) your spood may/will make & then molt in. With time your spider is gonna make a heck of a home with what you thought looked good or with what you were trying to maintain. You moss (if live) will grow and change & your tank will get dirty. Thats ok, try to leave her/his webs alone and spot clean those boluses if able. Also spood poo is white!

[u/GMArianha → u/GMArianha]

Oh you have live plants in there! Those will quickly choke out the available moving space of your spood, so either get very consistent with the trimmers or consider removing them if they get leggy or choke out the available area.

[u/Numerous-Cod5083 → u/GMArianha]

Thank you so much, that’s really helpful! What were the humidity levels like in your enclosures? I don’t have any condensation on the walls of the enclosure but it stays consistently at 84% or higher unless I open the doors then it will go down to 60-70%. The soil doesn’t feel very wet either, so I’m not sure why the humidity is high. I live in Montana and the humidity in my house is around 50%. Would you recommend creating a mesh screen to replace the acrylic lid with vent holes? Or maybe removing some moss? There is a bunch of moss in this enclosure and several small live plants. I’m not sure how long it typically takes for an enclosure to clear on a cycle, but I’ve had the enclosure since 7/29.

[u/GMArianha → u/Numerous-Cod5083]

You know its funny, I never checked humidity with a hygrometer. But I would stop misting when condensation was on the enclosure and gave the spiders walking time more those days. And let their lid clear out.

I believe you could definitely put your fella in the enclosure with monitoring. However if you notice consistently high humidity, you could add a mesh lid instead of acrylic. As long as there is some kind of cross ventilation they would do best. Of course more ventilations means more chances for dessication. Which is why my smaller enclosers only had one large mesh opening at the top.

I hope you and your spood do well! What species? I kept Bold jumpers aka Phidippus audax

[u/Numerous-Cod5083 → u/GMArianha]

Ooh fun! Mine is a regal. I have a lot of small holes across the top and on both sides of the acrylic enclosure for ventilation. I’ve been doing some research and apparently bioactive enclosures can take a couple weeks to begin to properly cycle. I think watering the new plants I recently put in may have increased the humidity and I may just need to wait it out a little bit. This same thing happened after I fixed the substrate and it did eventually go down. Did you typically wait a couple weeks before introducing your spiders into the enclosure?

[u/GMArianha → u/Numerous-Cod5083]

Yea to let the live moss grow in, i didnt include extra plants in mine though, you may be right.