Xenesthis immanis — Fact Sheet

Xenesthis immanis · Xenesthis immanis

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Large, secure, low terrestrial enclosure; house singly and never handle
• Adult minimum: about 45 x 35 x 30 cm; larger for an exceptional female
• 12-18 cm compact soil/coco/clay mix; locking lid and short fall distance
• Keep open floor for turning and safe prey removal
• Quarantine at least 8 weeks with separate long tools and records

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Broad cork half-round as a starter retreat
• Leaf litter and light, firmly secured cover
• Large heavy shallow water dish; no rocks, hard fall hazards, or mesh lids

💡 Lighting

• No UVB or basking lamp; indirect room light is enough
• Photoperiod: 10-12 h; fully dark night
• Keep the dark enclosure away from direct sun

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 24-27 °C

• Warm zone: 23-27 °C

• Cool zone: 20-23 °C

• Night: 20-23 °C

• Warm the room or one side through a thermostat; use digital probes

• Never heat under the substrate; avoid sustained 28°C+

💧 Humidity & water

• Working range: 70-85%; keep lower layers damp and surface partly dry
• Maintain cross-ventilation near substrate level
• Keep a broad heavy water dish full; water slowly along one edge
• Avoid spraying the spider, flooding the burrow, condensation, and sour odour

🪳 Feeding

Feed regularly:

• Captive-reared roaches, locusts, or crickets
• Adults: one large invertebrate meal every 10-21 days

In moderation:

• Slings twice weekly; fast-growing juveniles every 5-7 days

Avoid:

• Vertebrate prey, wild insects, extreme overfeeding, and prey left in premolt
• Remove uneaten prey within 24 h; expect a powerful feeding response

Supplements:

• No calcium or vitamin powder

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Wrinkled abdomen or tucked posture → dehydration
• Persistent wall climbing → saturated substrate, poor refuge, or insufficient usable floor
• Mold, mites, or phorid flies → waste, overfeeding, stale air, or flooding
• Excessively swollen abdomen → high rupture risk in a fall
• Sealed retreat and fasting → usually premolt; do not excavate
• Fall, hemolymph leak, failed molt, or poor coordination → urgent specialist help

This large fast species has venom, large fangs, and abundant urticating hairs. Never handle; wear eye protection during major cleaning and seek care for serious bite symptoms or eye exposure.