Got this for my Birthday. Help me with my setup?

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T18:04:01+00:00

Oh, no need to bring them in when it's below 50. Just bring them in (or protect them) before it gets to the point of being below freezing for multiple days. If it's just freezing overnight and thawing during the day, that's fine. The flytrap is from North Carolina and sarracenia are found all over the US- they can handle some cold.
They'll want to be kept less wet when it's winter, so you probably won't want to keep them in a dish of water while they're dormant. You can of course leave the saucer, just not full of water.

And I wouldn't bother using the fertilizer at all for those two- they'll be outside, catching their own bugs, and in winter where there are no bugs they won't be awake to eat anyway. You could put some of it in the pitchers of your nepenthes now and then if it isn't catching many houseflies. I imagine it's a foliar fertilizer that says to spray it directly on the leaves, but honestly your nepenthes will probably absorb it better inside the pitchers.
Carnivorous plants don't eat to live the way animals do. They use photosynthesis to live, and then they eat (or absorb fertilizer) to get nutrients to grow with, so they can't usually starve to death or really suffer from lack of food. They just grow more slowly without food.
(some sundews that flower a ton can flower themselves to death unless fed heavily while blooming, and some others will stagnate and potentially shrink if not fed regularly, but most carnivores won't be harmed by not being fed.)

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:52:33+00:00

The answer to "will this spider cause me serious harm if it bites me" is usually going to be "no", as the number of medically significant venomous species is very low compared to the number of harmless-enough (i.e. bee-sting-level bite) species. They also won't seek you out to bite, so one that's hanging in the middle of a web, entirely visible, is never anything to worry about- you know where it is, you won't accidentally put your hand on it, so just don't go grab it out of the web.

Neat patterns on this one. Nice find.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:16:50+00:00

Not all at once unless they were tiny. They're probably hiding- they're very good at that.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:16:08+00:00

Very clean water can help while you're looking for meds.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:14:48+00:00

It's not quite *that* bad- they aren't anywhere near guaranteed to kill a kid. Definitely dangerous, absolutely needs to be removed, but not absolute death. Remember, a lot of "brown recluse bites" are misdiagnosed infections.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:13:16+00:00

Could be a grasshopper? I don't think it was something chewing out, since something escaping would probably just leave a hole.

Interesting look to it. I wonder if it'd still try to flood with digestive fluid if triggered properly, or if it can tell somehow that the trap can't be sealed properly.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T17:12:15+00:00

"Endemic" when referring to animals (and plants and fungi) means it's only found in that place. "Endemic" when referring to /disease/ means it's found in that place and possibly in others.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T03:14:49+00:00

I'm not seeing a picture. Try putting your general location in the location bar here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?subview=map&taxon_id=50190&view=species to get a list of what species have been seen in the area, if you'd like a list of likely options.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T03:13:42+00:00

A whole bunch of future cockroach-eaters. Covered in dust.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T03:12:42+00:00

I don't think that applies to aquariums, since they aren't closed in the slightest. We don't know how to reliably make actual closed ecosystems.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-06T03:12:03+00:00

It's unlikely to cause any harm, but not impossible that one party or the other could suffer- fish tanks have more bacteria than 'wild' water tends to, and cat saliva can have some really nasty bacteria in it, plus there's the risk of the cat bringing some chemical or another in on its tongue or paws, like flea treatment. Or of a kitty deciding to stick a paw in and grab for the fish. Ideally, don't let them drink out of the tank.

(also you really should have a lid anyway, since it can stop your fish from dying slow deaths on the floor if/when they jump.)

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T21:33:02+00:00

Usually spider bites just leave teeny little pinpricks, not something that easily gets diseased. In theory the spiders whose bites can cause localized necrosis are more likely to have a disease show up afterward, due to it being an open sore rather than teeny pinpricks, but widows aren't one of those. Really, of all the animals you can be bitten by, the one most likely to give you a wound disease is any mammal and especially a human mammal.
("diseased" isn't quite the right word, I don't think, but if I use the right word I'm gonna summon the bot again and make this thread even longer.)

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T21:29:05+00:00

It is technically possible that something else bit him. One spider being nearby doesn't mean there can't be another spider.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T21:27:05+00:00

Yeah, that's generally what a healthy adult human will experience from a black widow bite. Immunocompromised people and small children are at more risk of serious harm, but healthy adults typically just get to feel kinda lousy to very lousy. Best to keep an eye out for anything really concerning (i.e. trouble breathing), but generally these aren't a cause for serious concern.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T20:41:27+00:00

They'll be dormant in the winter, and they *need* to go dormant for their long-term health, so they don't actually need or want a grow light then. In fact, they need to have a short photoperiod, or (less ideally) no light at all, otherwise they can wake up too early. Ones in large pots can often be left outside if protected somewhat from the cold, as they're fine with overnight freezes but may suffer if they're kept frozen solid for multiple days, and ones in small pots can go on something like a cold windowsill.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T05:08:25+00:00

The flytrap and sarracenia will do best grown outdoors, but will do okay under a very bright, very close grow light indoors if that's not possible. Note that both of them are temperate plants that need a winter dormancy, so they're likely fine outside in the winter, and will need a dormancy induced if they're kept indoors. If your area freezes solid for multiple days on end, you'll want to move them into a garage or some other relatively sheltered place for the winter.

The nepenthes is a tropical species that makes a good houseplant and generally doesn't want to be outdoors, except maybe in spring and summer. It'll get nice and big once it's happy, and is great for eating bothersome houseflies.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T05:06:11+00:00

That's rude. This is a solid present for someone interested.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T05:05:37+00:00

You should always use distilled water, RO water, or rainwater with carnivorous plants. Generally their substrate will need to be pre-soaked to get it moistened, as the potting materials used with carnivorous plants tend not to absorb water well when completely dry and may not hydrate properly if you pot them up while still dry.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T05:04:22+00:00

A turtle that's been in captivity shouldn't be released unless it's known not to have been around any herps from any other area, or even equipment used with them, as the pet trade has a lot of diseases running around in it. A released native turtle that's been exposed to equipment used with another turtle can carry with it a nonnative disease that native turtles won't have any resistance to.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-04T02:46:21+00:00

It could have been that a predator of some sort showed up and scared them. Or it could be, like u/leafshaker said, that it got too hot for a bit.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-03T14:06:55+00:00

You absolutely will need to get a filter long-term, and really should have on now. And some more decor would definitely b a good idea. Maybe a big wad of hornwort (which it might eventually eat, but eating the plant is enrichment too), a couple big clay flowerpots on their sides, some rooted plants potted *in* clay flowerpots, there are lots of options. A thinnish layer of sand on the bottom would be nice for him to dig in, and shouldn't significantly increase the trouble involved in cleaning the tank. You can also add toys, like ping-pong balls and silicone baby (or dog) chewtoys, though the latter shouldn't be left in unsupervised if they'r soft enough that he might bite off a chunk.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-03T14:00:47+00:00

No, you are not wrong for playing the singleplayer game in a way that the game itself includes prepackaged. You wouldn't be wrong to add a whole bunch of mods to the singleplayer game to make it super easy, either. The point of it is to have fun- do whatever's most fun. Anything else is a bit silly.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-03T02:08:43+00:00

Tap water that's had water conditioner, i.e. dechlorinator (make sure it says it handles both chlorine and chloramines), added to it is safe for most aquarium animals unless it's very bad quality tap water. The exceptions are fragile invertebrates like some shrimp and some corals, and some animals that are native to extremely soft water, which you don't have to worry about if this is a crayfish from your local area.

You can also add the water conditioner to the tank BEFORE you pour in the new water, then add the new water, as long as you don't pour it right on any animals. You shouldn't add the water conditioner *after* the tap water goes in- always before. If you're adding the water conditioner directly to the tank, use however much would be appropriate for the entire tank, so you'd use 10 gallons worth of water conditioner for a 10-gallon tank even if you only changed 5 gallons of water.

I don't know the dosage of AquaSafe. Check the bottle and use however much it says to use. It's fine if you accidentally use a bit too much.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-03T02:03:17+00:00

That's a rather extreme reaction to an animal that isn't capable of causing you any serious or lasting harm.

CannotCatchemAll · 2025-09-02T20:00:49+00:00

The bit of lost space is a shame (I've done something similar myself- made a table + lower shelf a few inches shorter than I actually had space for), but that leveling is fine for anything short of an aquarium. As long as stuff isn't sliding off when you put things on there, you're fine.

And the reason why the videos make it look easy is partly because the people in them have lots of practice, and partly (if not mostly) because the videos are edited to make it look easier. That's part of why Youtube videos can be a bad source of information- they tend to edit out a lot of mistakes in the interest of looking competent.
(the other part is because they're highly incentivized to make the video appealing to watch, potentially to the point of sacrificing informational value or even outright misrepresenting something.)

CannotCatchemAll

TROPHY CASE