please help, mold problem

[ttula]

I have 3 cyriopagopus sp. blue slings, when I got them, all 3 were in one container, and the container had very bad mold in it. 2 of the slings have been fine, but one has had a recurring mold problem that has just gotten much worse. I had rehoused them all immediately when I received them, and this one I've had to rehouse a number of time because the mold keeps coming back in his enclosure. I sterilized the enclosure each time with alcohol to kill the mold, then rinsed the enclosure before putting him back in. None of my other Ts have any mold at all in their enclosures, and I use the same substrate for all of them, and all 3 of the cyrios are in the same type of enclosure, which is a clear plastic container with many holes drilled in the top and sides for ventilation.
I had recently rehoused the one with the mold that keeps coming back, and the container was completely free of mold, until yesterday morning - i got up to find that apparently overnight a ton of it had grown just in his enclosure and was on him, as well, and one of his legs is missing! I had checked on him before I'd gone to bed, it seems to have grown completely overnight, and I feel absolutely terrible about it. I immediately took him out of the enclosure, removed the enclosure from being near the other Ts, and put him in an empty delicup away from the other Ts. It was suggested to me to apply some antifungal stuff like is used for athletes foot, so I did this with a q tip yesterday. My concern is that the mold is actually coming from him, and thats why it keeps coming back in only his enclosure and on him. He doesnt seem to be able to move his legs well, but is not in a death curl. Is there anything else I can do? I feel so terrible and wish I could do something to get him better.
I took a couple of pictures of this yesterday but my camera is terrible so apologies for the blurriness...I will try to get a couple better ones today...

 

[Brian S]

Sounds like you need to increase the ventilation alot. What type of substrate are you using?

 

[ttula]

I use sphagnum peat moss, but I use that for all of my Ts, and have had no problem. I have the other 2 cyrios in the same kind of containers as the one with the mold, they are those amac boxes you get from the container store, with a ton of holes drilled in on the sides and top. I've also been very careful about not overmisting them. It just doesn't make sense why one would have this and none of the others do.

 

[Moltar]

If the mold is really established on the t itself it is possible that it's starting the mold culture in each vial. The specimen doesn't look moldy in your pic though. Can you see any mold living on the underside? Look closely at the book lungs. I've heard accounts of mold establishing itself inside the book lungs which obviously can be pretty bad news.

I would keep him in a dry setup for the time being, if there's mold on him it may die out in a couple days then you can move him back to a properly set up (but a tad dryer than previous) vial.

This is all theory on my part rather than from experience so i'm curious to see what other advice is offered here.

 

[Zoltan]

Hi Sarah,
Fortunately I don't have any first-hand experience with mold on the spider itself, but this page may help you ("mould and fungal problems"). Hope things turn out well.

 

[ttula]

I just checked out his underside with a magnifying glass (he is only about 2.5"), and I cant see any mold near his lungs or on his underside at all, it seems to be only on the legs, which is strange - but I'm hoping that also means there is a chance he might be okay. I had applied some antifungal stuff to the spots of mold on his legs last night and none of it has come back, but he cant seem to move his legs well.

 

[Scott C.]

I'm with E.

I've experience with the problem though.... Don't know if mold was actually growing on the T, but you can't sanitize a T, and I decided that the T itself was the contaminent.

I kept it in an undecorated deli with no substrate, away from the others until it molted. I immediately removed the freshly molted spider, and rehoused it.... Seemed to solve the problem.

Good luck.

 

[ttula]

Okay, so I had him in a small kk for ventilation, with no substrate but some paper towels (unmoistened) and a small water bottle cap with some water in it to keep him from getting dehydrated, and this morning he tried to molt. I had been noticing some of his legs were not moving correctly, like he'd try to bend them and they'd stick straight up in the air...when he tried to molt, the legs I had noticed doing this got stuck in the molt. When I saw him this morning he had the whole exuvia stuck to him by those legs, and was even walking around with it this way.

I trimmed as much of it off as I could, but a lot of it was fused together with the new legs, and I put a little bit of water on the exuvia and pulled (extremely gently) the end of the leg that was causing most of the problem, it moved a little but was attached to the other legs in a bunch of different spots, so I let him be for a few hours and came in the room to check on him and found that he'd separated himself the rest of the way from the exuvia. I think that pulling the exuvia off that tiny bit gave him enough mobility to get it the rest of the way off, because it had been stuck so close in to his carapace.

He's only got 4 legs and one pedipalp, but his fangs, lungs, abdomen and carapace are all fine, so I'm really hoping he will make it.

Thanks everyone for the help, this is the first time I've ever had a bad molt or a mold problem, and I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing for this poor little guy.

 

[mwh9]

I'm with E.

I've experience with the problem though.... Don't know if mold was actually growing on the T, but you can't sanitize a T, and I decided that the T itself was the contaminent.

I kept it in an undecorated deli with no substrate, away from the others until it molted. I immediately removed the freshly molted spider, and rehoused it.... Seemed to solve the problem.

Good luck.

sounds like the best way to remove the mold.

 

[Zoltan]

So is he completely mold-less now? Sounds good. I'd leave him in the kk he is in now for a few more days, to see if any mold will develop on him (hopefully not).

 

[ttula]

He is totally mold-less now, and I'll be leaving him in that container for a few days just to make sure. It seems like all the legs he lost were the ones that had the worst mold spots on them. He's hanging out on the wall of his kk with his 4 legs like nothing ever happened now, so it seems like he'll be fine