my red knee sling i only had for 4 weeks. . bout the size of my little fingernail. . .when i had it delivered it had an injured front leg n palp but it dropped the palp on its own. . .it was eatin micro crix n seemed to still b ok. . .it stopped eating for week n half but its abdomen continued to swell at an alarming rate. . . its abdomen darkened n it displayed signs of being in premolt. . .checked on it yesterday morn n all was fine. . it was moving. . .came home yesterday evenin n it wasnt moving. . .was on its belly. . .thought it might b molting. . .this morn still hadnt moved n is defo dead. . .why did this happen? it DIDNT even go into death curl. . .died in upright position n looked normal. . i'm completely baffled:wall:
Why Did It Stop Eating, Swell Up And Die????
- Thread starter WelshTan
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I had this exact thing happen to three A. Seemanni slings. Proper conditions and ate well. They all looked like they were going into premolt and then just died. One of them even popped it's carapace as if it was starting to molt but then died like that. Still not sure what happened to those little guys.
Very unnerving when you don't know what's causing it....
Very unnerving when you don't know what's causing it....
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died during a forced molt maybe? just guessing by trying to put myself in your situation...
Sathane its extremely unerving. . .as u said.. . proper conditions etc. . .did any of yours have their abdomen swell to an alarming size even when they refused food? my poor lil guy's abdomen swelled up to a ridiculous size which also baffled me considering as it was refusing food. . .none of my other T's have had their abdomen swell without food. . .poor lil guy .....
it was due for a molt anyway. . .i had it 14th feb n it had molted 2weeks before i had it. . .it was a tiny sling. . .LS the size of my little fingernail, was still pink all over. . it hadnt made a web bed, carapace hadnt popped. . .just died in a normal position. . no death curl. . .looked like it was about to walk round its vial if u know what i mean. .. its very confusing, particularly seein as the abdomen swelled up to a size too big for it really even tho it hadnt eaten. . . strange
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possibly the little guy got some sort of parasite do you breed your own crix. if not maybe some of the crickets had nematodes. don't know for sure but maybe that is what happened.
Thanks. .. i was really quite upset, dont think i will be getting tiny slings again. . will make sure i get T's that r bigger next timeDude really sorry for your loss
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I've had that happen with two Ts, one was an adult C fasciatum I had for over two years, the other was an A seemani sling I had for about 3 months.
The incidents happened about 4 months apart and I had several other Ts at the time which showed no evidence of the same problem.
IIRC both happened shortly after a molt so I thought that perhaps they hadn't shed their internals correctly and had gotten "stopped up" effectively. If you look in my gallery there's a postmortem shot of the fasciatum and you can see how utterly huge she got.
The incidents happened about 4 months apart and I had several other Ts at the time which showed no evidence of the same problem.
IIRC both happened shortly after a molt so I thought that perhaps they hadn't shed their internals correctly and had gotten "stopped up" effectively. If you look in my gallery there's a postmortem shot of the fasciatum and you can see how utterly huge she got.
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It's shorthand for If I Remember (or Recall) Correctly.
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Not an alarming size but my good eaters always has big bullies until just after a molt.
sathane well my sling's abdomen really did swell up to a really big size even without food. . . its carapace was bout size of half grain of dry/uncooked rice n its abdo swelled up to just under size of a small sweetcorn. . .its abdo was HUGE compared to its carapace.. . the comparison of its abdo to carapace was alarming to be honest
Sterlingspider i looked at ya gallery an am sorry for your loss. . .the abdo on my sling was much larger in comparison to carapace compared to the abdo vs carapace on your fasciatum.. . i wud post a pic of my dead sling but prob is i havnt got a decent camera n cant get a gud enuff close up. . .i must invest in decent camera instead of using the one on my phone lol
It might be a bit touchy for me to say this, but did you perhaps try to perform some sort of autopsy to figure out what happened? I know it might be considered disrepectful if ur against human autopsy, but it might offer some insight into how to prevent such event from reoccurring.
When I was a kid, I captured a garden spider and put it in a water bottle. It eventually died and there was water droplets left in the bottle so it was humid. After it died, I studied each stage of the spider's decomposition. On day 1 after death, the abdomen started getting bigger and bigger until it just ruptured and everything came out.
Maybe your sling was dead.
Maybe your sling was dead.
erm. . .as i said in beginning of thread my sling yesterday morning was fine. .. walkin round its vial. . .the swelling of abdomen started AFTER it has STOPPED eating n daily it was swelling even tho it refused food. . . by yesterday evening when i came home it wasnt moving, , ,by this morn i cud see that it was dead. . .. the abnormal swelling was occuring whilst the sling was ALIVE n whilst it WASNT eating
the abnormal swellin in my sling had been occuring over last week to 2 weeks. . . it had stopped eating but was still swelling. . .in fact i stopped offerin it crix cos it wasnt eating them n appeared to b in premolt but the abnormally large swelling of abdomen started to raise concern in me