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It's definitely a possibility, but I don't buy it. Incidentally, the guy actually exposed his scorpions to less UV than previous experiments. It's a POSSIBILITY, yes. Which would be obviated in my experiment above (which, apparently, won't work). Another option would be the same...

Oh, they are? See - I've never looked into scorpion exoskeletal structure. Do you happen to have a PDF of something discussing this, for the lazy bugger who could probably google it? What is the chemical responsible, do you have that off hand? I'm curious now.

That strikes me as a neat experiment, with what I can think of as a really neat set of controls. Another option would be to do the exact same thing, but creating a 'knockout' scorpion... where one of the genes responsible for creating the fluorescent pigment is gone (are there scorpions which...

I ain't an expert, but I do have a few clues on these matters... Milky water + foam would SCREAM bacteria/yeast to me. Something microbial is growing in your tank. Why? Who knows... chances are something is rotting, and a REALLY good clean is needed. Your turtle may have been infected...

This has been discussed before, with some considerable data. I believe it was TalkenLate who gave some of the most detailed information on the subject. I'm not personally convinced that barometric pressure is responsible. After all, barometric pressure shouldn't affect the inner works of a...

Scrape it a little. If it a) falls apart like a dried powder then it's poop, or b) leaves white stringy threads then it's a fungus.

You could also have localized swelling, affecting the nerves which run through the wrist, giving pins and needles...

Those are all just... wow. Sometimes, I wish I could do these things. Then I realize that sometimes, it's just best to let people like Tarcan who know what they're doing do them.

I don't think the word sheeps exists at all. Fishes does. Even Word agrees. There's a red line underneath it.

I know this is nit-picking, but for some reason this really grates my nerves. It's a funny joke, but the word for a lot of sheep is 'sheep'. One sheep, two sheep, a dozen sheep, a flock of sheep. It's an irregular plural. Sorry, I really am. But that just pulls some deep visceral response...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4207895/Key-has-close-encounter-with-tarantula Maybe not... but he was spotted holding a tarantula during the opening of the new Biological Sciences building at my old Uni. Not many heads of government do that! Actually, the University of Canterbury has...

It's true, white rats in general are susceptible to tumours, but this is as much a natural thing as anything else. Rodents are susceptible to tumours - it's a consequence of their fast metabolism in part. If the vet checked it out, then I guess it was a malignancy, but it really did sound, to...

I'm late to the thread, but I have a question/comment. Was the lump examined by a vet? Did the vet who put her down examine it? Because it sounds, to me, like it could well have been a nasty abscess. A lump which grows considerably over a day or two? That's not normally a cancer. They...

She could have worms. They'd take the nutrients out before she had a chance to get them. Has she been wormed?

Right, As a scientist, albeit the wrong type, I think it's important to step in a little and just set a little of what we know down, versus what we really can't be sure of. Tarantulas are not robots. They make decisions based on a number of variables. Their level of hunger, or thirst...

What we've seen is that during the moult, there is generally a massive rupture, causing eventual death.

I think that this is consistent with my hypothesis, which is that this is, essentially, a herniation. We wouldn't necessarily expect organs to move through whatever space is present to that 'bubble' we can see... don't forget that the exoskeleton of these organisms is multi-layered... and we...

Well, mine ain't a solution. It's a diagnosis... not a prognosis.

I'd like to see those sections! Joe, My hunch (and I just reported this on RobC's thread) is that this is a herniation around the exoskeleton. Once formed, either through a weakness, or a fall, the spider starts to form scar tissue around the area. Scar tissue will continue to weaken...

My personal thoughts are that these are herniations - little spots where the exoskeleton is weak, and which haven't formed correctly. This then allows a bulging of internal organs through, and which eventually just starts getting worse and worse, particularly at moult. One of the attempts to...