Aphonopelma seemanni Emergency

Ethan Luebke

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
9
So I have something very very upsetting as well as a shocking turn of events... so a few days after my last post my seemanii gf the only t I have ever held let alone my most calm t in my collection had finally past away. She took her final breathe with her petipalp in her mouth sucking the water off of it as I believe because it was in her mouth upon inspection of her corpse. I did not want to throw her away nor bury her to be some ant colony’s pray and someday move or something so I had her preserved in a jar of alcohol so I can always have her around as a reminder of my first t I had ever held this being my first larger 3 inch plus tarantula death I was very concerned with what could have lead to this what I figured was that maybe she didn’t have her sucking stomach and was just desperately trying to drink and because of her lack of eating before molting she went so long without food she just couldn’t pull through to her next molt. And passed away also she did act as if she was hitting old age and eventually passed away but wasn’t sure. But over her last couple days I figured out that my other seemani who was closing in on 5 inches and Almost 3/4th of the way through pre molt she started to walk funny like Garfield did at first and her home set up was basically the same but dry with a water dish which around the water dish was pretty moist but that was it. Anyways I went to work and came home to find that she had dislodged her pedipalp and her front left leg beside that palp. She had the blood clotted and was walking more smoothly after removing those 2 limbs. I wasn’t sure what was going on with my seemanis. This one I named Oreo and was a pet store rescue I got because she was starving last September she finally was getting close to molting her abdomen was mostly black but not all the way and I had assumed she recognized that she would not make it out of her molt so removed the limbs that couldof been dry when she tried getting out also I thought because her abdomen just wouldn’t go all black that maybe she recognized that she did not have enough moisture to make it through her molt so dislodged 2 limbs to assure the rest of her body had the moisture it needed to slip out of her old skeleton. Those were my 2 assumptions the 3rd assumption being that she was ill like Garfield or 4th she tried climbing upside down on her critter keeper lid while at work got nails caught and panicked thinking a predator had her and did her self defense move to remove the limbs. So a couple days pass she seemed to be doing ok then one day I get home from work to find that she was half way
Out of her hide lifeless so I moved water near by and gave her 3 days to see if she may have to molt or Be In her molt and she ended up passing away... now the only 2 seemanis in my collections both female are now gone: Oreo is spending the night In the freezer for any life she may have left and I will be preserving her also as she is my biggest specimen to go. And the only thing I can think of is both seemani came from the same pet store and both died of similar symptoms which makes me think they were possibly wild caught and adapt badly to captivity or the previous breeder was very poor and they had the similar thing caught at the same location. Possibly a mistake on my part but I must say I have 14 of my 38 others ts old and new world around those 2 seemani and their all doing perfect their walking good molting good eating good fasting normal drinking normal webbing normal I mean idk what it could be but over a week later and I bring to you 2 dead seemanis and a very confused t owner who is very reluctant of ever keeping this species again all though it provided me my most docile t maybe she was so kind cus she was to sick to care to fight I’m not sure please help with any ideas. Thank you.
 

Vanessa

Grammostola Groupie
Joined
Mar 12, 2016
Messages
2,423
I'm sorry that this has happened. It's tough to say what she died of. I was hoping that she would pull through.
 

Ethan Luebke

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
9
Yes me as well she is still with me but a jar of alcohol isn’t how I had in mind. Thank you for the kind words, Oreo just passed and will be being put Into her preservation jar for being my first pet store rescue in tarantula keeping.
 
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