Scarab wrote: Some brave freaken crickets you have there mate...

I guess I should stop feeding my crickets chuck norris pellets

I'm planning on moving them to a bigger enclosure soon, then I'll know for sure.

Edit: Visser, from all my talks with scarab and my (limited) personal experience, I think its safe to say that cannibalism is an impossibility. You would have to really be unlucky and not look after them properly before they would ever turn on each other.

Unfortunately with Tarantulas, EVERYTHING is possible, BUT, I have never witnessed any aggression towards fellow M balfouri. I am at a point where I firmly believe they can co habitate and live communally as slings and juveniles. I have to still prove that adults are as tolerant towards each other. I had males living with females for weeks, but I am not sure how tolerant females will be towards other adult females as I also believe that some territorial behavior might manifest. Because they willingly confine themselves to a burrow, other burrows (nests) in close proximity might not be a problem, BUT, they also wonder out at night. Contact between females might turn into some bitch slapping, but that has never been witnessed...

You have me convinced. Now all that is left, is to put my money where my mouth is As mentioned earlier, I really can't wait now.

I think I'm going to opt for fake plants, instead of live ones in the enclosure. I have no experience with live plants, and I'd like to minimise the possibility of anything going wrong. Is there any obvious reasons why I shouldn't do this?

You can use plastic, but why shower with a rain coat? Socotra is classified as a Tropical Desert. This implies that the animals (spiders) get their fluids from mist floating over the highlands. Condensation on the rocks and sparse vegetation is all they get regularly. It does rain there, but less frequently. If you keep your M balfouri bone dry, then a plant of natural origin might just do the trick. The reason being that if you water the plant once every two weeks, you also introduce some moisture. (I use Hen-and-Chicks).

I am not harping on about these conditions for nothing, I kid you not if I say they want it dry. And not "dry, but you can drink it"... Just dry. The other softies from some rain forest in Venezuelatia might need a sip daily, M balfouri will die from to much humidity, and I have friends who killed some of my babies by treating them like Gold Fish...

Dry... this is very true for this species. If I add more than a sprinkle of moisture to my M.balfouri sling's enclosure, you can actually see how the behaviour of the sling becomes withdrawn.

Any beginner buying these slings and thinking that they should mist the enclosure once a day is going to find balfouri fondoo goo before long.

Ok, so if I use plants from the region that require very little in the way of watering it makes my concern about mould, and whatever else flourishes in moist conditions, null and void. This was my main concern using live plants.

I will do some googling on hen-and-chicks, and the kind of plants found on Socrota.