New Broad Banded Sand Swimmers (DUW)

[PhilK]

Picked these little tackers up from a bloke named Greg (not sure if he is on APS?).. either way, he was an absolute champ and a pleasure to deal with. He gave them to me for a decent price, and was very helpful with all my questions.. He was even nice enough to show me around his (very impressive) collection - I'm very jealous of him, and my 'I want to own that one day' list has grown considerably. Thanks Greg!

Anyway, I took heaps of photos that I hope are alright (not easy, seeing as they won't stop moving and keep diving in and out of the sand!). When I got them home they were going to go straight into their enclosure, but they're SO small I decided I'd put them in a smaller one for a while (so I actually get to see them). I've included pictures of the bigger enclosure too.

I just gave them two tiny roaches each which they gobbled up with relish.. one even stalked a roach from under the sand which was awesome to see. They already burst out of the sand when I take their lid off!

Anyway I'll shut up now, here are the photos! No idea why that 2nd last one is the wrong way around like that. It's not on like that on Photobucket.

These are of them in their current home:

These are of their home to come - you can see why I didn't put them in there straight away!:

These are some pictures of them! Hope they're OK

Sorry for all the photos, hope you like them!

 

[gecko-mad]

thats awsome! how long are they?

 

[nabu120]

nice ones mate, are the difficult to keep? do u need any special sort of sand or just something soft?

 

[PhilK]

Not real long. That black bowl is just the cap from a metho lid.

Not difficult to keep from what I've heard (I've only just started keeping them today so I dunno yet haha). They don't need UV, don't need heat depending upon where you live.. They eat live insects dusted with powder and don't need a hide. Just give them a small waterbowl, and overflow it every now and again. Sand has to be very fine.

 

[PhilK]

The feeding response is great on these things! They'll take just about anything big enough.. Just got rid of the little spiders in my bathroom thanks to these guys!
EDIT: come to think of it... looking on Google, their bands are much narrower than the broad banded swimmers I can find pictures of. Is it possible these are narrow banded swimmers?

 

[book]

I got my first Broad Banded Sand-swimmers last month and I just love them.
The stripe width on mine look about the same as yours, just darker. I keep mine in sand pit type sand mixed with a bit of some natural red stuff I got from around Mt Isa.

 

[cougars]

They look awesome.Are you able to handle them?

 

[PhilK]

Hmmm they sure do look different to mine...

No they aren't a handleable pet from what I have heard, but they will get used to your presence

 

[TURBO8]

Hmmm they sure do look different to mine...

No they aren't a handleable pet from what I have heard, but they will get used to your presence

The reason they look different is due to the locale they come from , the ones "book" has posted pics of look to be the WA Form , as they tend to have dark stripes running across them. Cheers. Pete

 

[PhilK]

Another awesome point about these guys: they do their business in one spot! Every second day there is a little pile of poops sitting in a group in the same corner every time. Makes cleaning a snap!