no, unfortunately all the mygalomorph tanks were like this. Some had a bit of bark to hide under, but most were just bare hard-substrate tanks. Not pleasant at all.
Large spiders seem to consistently be displayed in small glass tanks with few or no opportunities for concealment.
Do spiders exhibit visabe signs of stress or suffering?
Is it reasonable to assume that these small glass tanks are totally unacceptable and it is only because we do not understand or that they do not show obvious signs of stress that spiders wil most likely continue to be delayed this way!
In this era of zoo enlightenment l do not agree with the argument that they are animal ambassadors and by displaying them this way will in some way encourage the public to care about there natural nviroment.
it depends on the species, but many tarantulas do show visible signs of stress, e.g. hairless patches on the abdomen, which are prone to -often lethal- infection (it should be noted that some specimens, even if kept well, can have bare patches). This is especially true for the hair-flicking tarantulas from the Americas, but can be seen in species from elsewhere too. They are also more skittish when kept in unstuitable containers and can easily damage themselves because they run around wildly when scared instead of retrating to their hide. In short, even specimens where obvious signs of stress are missing tend to live rather shorts lives when subjected to much stress. If kept well females of many tarantulas can easily live for 10 years and often much more.
Finally, it is worth remembering that there are huge variations in the behavior of various tarantulas. For many species, a pierce of bark it can hide under is sufficient (placed on the ground for the terrestrial species and upright for arboreals), but for burrowing species, like the king baboon, you need a deep soil layer it can contruct a burrow in.
