Is my Cyriocosmus elegans sling dead?

[Emlynn]

Hi,
I got my CE sling about a month ago.
It has been very very active since then (it was allways walking around), but today I found it just lying on the ground and not moving when I touched it with a little brush.
It refused to eat at first, but after 1.5 weeks it would eat. Since then it hasn‘t eaten. When I put some prekilled crickets (that were still moving) into it‘s enclosure, it would ignore it. I think it hasn’t eaten, but I‘m not a 100% shure.
When I found it today it wasn‘t in a Death curl position, or at least you couldn‘t tell cause it is only 0.3 cm in legspan. As I said it wouldn‘t move.
Is it dead or is it molting/in premolt? Could it be that it was starving?
Emlynn

 

[sasker]

No idea without pictures. Could you post some? If it was lying on its back it was almost certainly molting, but sometimes spiders (IME slings) molt upright. Lack of food is usually not as dangerous as lack of moist. Slings should be kept on somewhat moist substrate, never bone-dry.

But again, pictures would be helpful

 

[Emlynn]

No idea without pictures. Could you post some? If it was lying on its back it was almost certainly molting, but sometimes spiders (IME slings) molt upright. Lack of food is usually not as dangerous as lack of moist. Slings should be kept on somewhat moist substrate, never bone-dry.

But again, pictures would be helpful

 

[Liquifin]

Does it move? If it doesn't move after a couple hours, its pretty much dead.

 

[sasker]

My goodness! That picture is just like Where's Waldo! Your tarantula does not seem too slim, nor does the substrate look too dry (although I can't say for certain that it is still alive). But these slings are like specs of dust and should not be housed in such a large container. It is much more difficult to monitor their progress/general well-being in such a large enclosure. It is more difficult for the tarantula to find food and it seems that slings that are housed in too large containers are growing much more slowly (stress?).

Tarantulas in general - and slings in particular - like to have an area 'to call their home'. The fact that your tarantula had been walking around much before it stopped moving altogether seems to me like an attempt to find a cozy little hole to retreat in. A pill jar would do nicely for that purpose and your tarantula would be much more at ease. Hopefully, your tarantula is just stressed. I hope this helps!

 

[Thekla]

I completely agree with @sasker. That enclosure is enormous! Could you post a picture of the whole thing? It kinda looks as if it was made out of glass (which is never a good idea).
And what's the stuff that is in there?

Edit:
What you need is something like this:


The left one I got from a sling delivery, but the one on the right I got from Tedi. I think it was 6 pieces for 1€.
Fill them half up with moist substrate, maybe add a tiny piece of sphagnum moss, make a tiny starter burrow with a pencil or such, and that's it.

But please, get your little one out of that huuuge enclosure.

 

[Vanisher]

View attachment 302859

I cant see any sling?

 

[EtienneN]

I cant see any sling?

@Vanisher look directly left from the white rock thing.

 

[EtienneN]

Light moisture with ventilation is key for slings. It may be acting odd because it's too stuffy in there. How many air holes do you have and how are they placed?

 

[Vanisher]

O Wow! Now i saw it! That enclosure is waaaaay to big for that tiny sling!

 

[Emlynn]

I tried to find the smallest container in my and the next closest city. It is not a glass container and I put holes into every side of the container (3 rows of holes on 2 sides and 1 row on the others). I even left the enclose open for a while every day.
I made her a hide, but she never used it and I put some fake plants in too. In the beginning it used those as a hide, but after two weeks it just stayed out.
To the overall size: I read online that you can use bigger enclosures too and I didn‘t worry cause in the wild they don‘t have constraints concerning space. Also the sling was smaller than written on the website and tbh I totally underestimated how tiny it would be.

Maybe I read a lot of misinformation on the Internet and did some very stupid mistakes in addition. :-/

 

[PidderPeets]

I tried to find the smallest container in my and the next closest city. It is not a glass container and I put holes into every side of the container (3 rows of holes on 2 sides and 1 row on the others). I even left the enclose open for a while every day.
I made her a hide, but she never used it and I put some fake plants in too. In the beginning it used those as a hide, but after two weeks it just stayed out.
To the overall size: I read online that you can use bigger enclosures too and I didn‘t worry cause in the wild they don‘t have constraints concerning space. Also the sling was smaller than written on the website and tbh I totally underestimated how tiny it would be.

Maybe I read a lot of misinformation on the Internet and did some very stupid mistakes in addition. :-/

It's not that you made some very stupid mistakes, it's just that most of the easiest to find info is wrong or outdated. It's not that slings can't be put in a larger enclosure, however, it can drastically reduce their growth rate for a slew of reasons (less prey interaction, they tend to hide more).

These are all enclosures I've bought to use for small slings, just to give you some more ideas.

The 2 ounce deli cup on the left can hopefully be found in many grocery stores where you would find food storage containers. I'm pretty sure I got the big container in the middle from a dollar store, with all the stationary stuff. And the super tiny container on the right (which I would only use for the tiniest of slings, but most dwarf slings fit that category) was bought at a craft store in either the jewelry-making section or the food decoration section. I don't know what your options are in Germany, but the biggest thing is to be creative where you look.

 

[BoyFromLA]

I find small cosmetic container very useful for Cyriocosmus elegans. It is almost too perfect for sling stage.

 

[sasker]

I didn‘t worry cause in the wild they don‘t have constraints concerning space.

What you want to accomplish is not a copy of the circumstances in the wild (i.e. unlimited space), but a copy of what their burrow would be like. It's like raising a baby rabbit. You won't do it any good by giving it an open field. Rather you would raise it in something that resembles a rabbit's burrow. On a side note, copying the wild is not necessarily the best for your tarantula. Many species lay hundreds of eggs for a good reason, namely the low chances of survival of slings

I even left the enclose open for a while every day.

That's not necessary either. Ventilation for slings can be kept minimal. Some keepers punch a single hole in the enclosure (those are very small enclosures, mind you). Also, keep in mind that slings this size are able to squeeze through the tiniest of holes so don't overdo it hole size-wise. If their carapace fits through it, their entire bodies will fit through it.

How is your sling doing, by the way? Any chance it is still alive?