A New Home for Fred

I have been thinking for a while that I would like to rehouse my jumping spiders, and there are several reasons for this.

Firstly - The tanks need cleaning, and badly. I have to remove the spiders from their enclosures, as the plastic sides are getting very difficult to see through. Firstly, they are covered with water marks from my spritzing the spiders regularly to hydrate them and keep the humidity up. I live in a very hard water area, and up until recently I have been using tap water in my spritzer. The end result is a collection of enclosures which have very misty, dusty walls due to limescale marks. I have recently made the switch from tap water to distilled water - which I buy online - so this should be less of a problem going forward.
To further add to the grime on the sides - and this does seem to be specifically a jumping spider trait - they are also covered in poop. My jumping spiders seem to enjoy nothing more than turning around and sending a high velocity projectile splat in the general vicinity of their walls. My partner often jokes that they must be wiping their little spider asses on the walls. At this point I could believe it.
So I have to pull the spiders out anyway, so that I can scrub their tanks with a cloth and some warm water (Never use detergent on a spider enclosure - it can kill them!)

Since I need to remove the spiders anyway, I was thinking that I would like to update their enclosure with some fancy decorations. If you look on social media, there are some absolutely fantastic creations out there - especially if you're looking for a spooky/Halloween theme (which is my generally preferred aesthetic). I generally don't have the time to get very creative with my enclosures, despite wanting to. As a result, I spend a lot of time browsing Etsy for inspiration or great buys.

(Image found on Tiktok)
Finally, I genuinely believe that my jumping spiders have too much space. I realise that this sounds counter-intuitive, but spiders don't actually need that much space. The theory is that on the whole, they prefer a smaller enclosure because they feel safer. For example, a tarantula enclosure should be about 2.5 times the length of the spiders leg span - A tarantula that has a legspan of 10cm should be in an enclusre that is about 25cm long. Obviously, this varies between species and with different requirements - an arboreal species would prefer that 25 cm in height rather than width or depth - but this is still all spiders really need. Enough space to come out of their hide, wander for food or water, and then go back. Now, a jumping spider obviously has different requirements to even an arboreal tarantula - they need space to jump, hunt their prey, and build webs/hammocks for moulting - but currently my spiders have far more space than they are using, and I often find that I have to pull them out of their enclosure and put them in a separate feeding tub, as they often lose their prey in the large enclusures that they have. Additionally, a mature jumping spider like Fred will eventually lose their ability to climb. As they age, their feet lose the ability to grip - especially on smooth surfaces such as plastic or glass. They also lose the ability to make as much webbing as they used to, so they may not be able to produce safety lines if they drop. By moving them to a smaller enclosure, it reduces the risk that they could slip and fall, and thus injure themselves.

So, with that in mind I browsed Etsy, and I found this:

I found this on an Etsy store called Bugz N Pieces for a pretty reasonable price. It did come with substrate and a spare light, and it also has a feeding hatch to slip his food into the tank without disturbing him too much. One thing that I didn't like about it was that - while it had a lovely mesh ventilation hatch on the top - it had no cross ventilation which is very important when keeping invertebrates. Since taking these photos, my partner has used some masking tape and a small drill to add the appropriate cross ventilation on opposing sides of the tank.
I am hoping that Fred enjoys his new enclosure, though right now... he seems a bit bewildered at having been moved.

Give it time.