Worried about A. geniculata...

[Storm76]

Sorry for the loss

So sorry for the loss of your beautiful girl. I know it's not much comfort right now, but have no doubt that she had a great life under your care.

That's rough. I'm very sorry.

Jan,
sorry to hear you lost the big girl ;(

My deepest condolences.

Thanks, I appreciate it people. Really miss that one...

 

[Chris LXXIX]

It's not the best moment eh, man? First Moriko, now your 'genic'. This sucks 1000%

 

[Sana]

Hey folks. Since this thread already existed I thought I would ask my question. I have lost 3 tarantulas in the last 2 weeks that acted the same as yours. I thought that the first one was dehydrated but after rehydrating and eating a couple of crickets, hanging on for most of a week, I found her dead next to a full water dish. I lost a C. marshalli that I thought was unable to break out of it's exo during molt but now I'm starting to wonder. And just a couple days ago I lost one of my N. chromatus. She was post molt and looking great. I was waiting for her fangs to harden to feed her. She too died sitting next to a completely full water dish. This morning I discovered my G. porteri with her back legs a little curled under, again about a week post molt, sitting next to her full water dish. This is getting ridiculous. Nothing in their enclosures or care has changed at all in the last year and they had all been fine up to now. We recently moved and I'm starting to wonder if something is going on with this house. We're a little suspicious of the water at the moment. It's an old house with ancient pipes and the water tastes just slightly off. Is there any chance that this could be this issue, not only with mine but with yours? Could something have changed about your plumbing, water source, etc? I'm really at a loss and completely heartbroken. I saw this thread this morning and thought I would ask.

Oh, I forgot. None of my tarantulas are showing any typical symptoms of pesticide/chemical poisoning. That should have been included in the information. Also, no signs of foreign invaders (mites, etc.) and different batches of crickets have been used with the effected tarantulas.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

@Sana

I'm sorry to hear that. Being you, of course, I would been concerned about the water as well (among other dozens of questions including the bizarre ones that I'm sure you thought about no matter
but not, uh, because the water could be necessarily the cause but because, in all honesty ah ah, I tend to be a bit 'paranoid' on those issues.

 

[Andrea82]

Sorry to read she didn't make it, and losing an Avic as well...that is rough. Some seriously bad times...i hope it'll turn up for you. Best of luck in these difficult times.

 

[Trenor]

Hey folks. Since this thread already existed I thought I would ask my question. I have lost 3 tarantulas in the last 2 weeks that acted the same as yours. I thought that the first one was dehydrated but after rehydrating and eating a couple of crickets, hanging on for most of a week, I found her dead next to a full water dish. I lost a C. marshalli that I thought was unable to break out of it's exo during molt but now I'm starting to wonder. And just a couple days ago I lost one of my N. chromatus. She was post molt and looking great. I was waiting for her fangs to harden to feed her. She too died sitting next to a completely full water dish. This morning I discovered my G. porteri with her back legs a little curled under, again about a week post molt, sitting next to her full water dish. This is getting ridiculous. Nothing in their enclosures or care has changed at all in the last year and they had all been fine up to now. We recently moved and I'm starting to wonder if something is going on with this house. We're a little suspicious of the water at the moment. It's an old house with ancient pipes and the water tastes just slightly off. Is there any chance that this could be this issue, not only with mine but with yours? Could something have changed about your plumbing, water source, etc? I'm really at a loss and completely heartbroken. I saw this thread this morning and thought I would ask.

Oh, I forgot. None of my tarantulas are showing any typical symptoms of pesticide/chemical poisoning. That should have been included in the information. Also, no signs of foreign invaders (mites, etc.) and different batches of crickets have been used with the effected tarantulas.

It could be worth it to switch to bottle water that is purified and see if you notice any difference. It should not have any of the issues with tap water due to how it is made. I have been thinking of switching to this myself though I haven't seen any signs of problems.

• Purified water – this type of water has been produced by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis, or other suitable processes. Purified water may also be referred to as "demineralized water".

 

[Garth Vader]

So sorry to the OP and to @Sana. So sad to lose these amazing pets and to not know why. Very heartbreaking. Using distilled water sounds like a good idea, as @Trenor suggested.

 

[Sana]

It could be worth it to switch to bottle water that is purified and see if you notice any difference. It should not have any of the issues with tap water due to how it is made. I have been thinking of switching to this myself though I haven't seen any signs of problems.

• Purified water – this type of water has been produced by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis, or other suitable processes. Purified water may also be referred to as "demineralized water".

I'm not thinking that it's necessarily the water itself but that there might be something up with the pipes. We recently moved into a house that's significantly older then the one we were in before so we're wondering what the pipes in the house are made out of. It's the same city water source that we had at the other house as well but it tastes a little different. Nothing super obvious or overwhelming, just not quite right. Fortunately we're looking at moving again so if the issues are being caused by something about the piping we won't have them much longer. I am planning to switch to some type of purified water especially for the time being.

 

[Trenor]

I'm not thinking that it's necessarily the water itself but that there might be something up with the pipes. We recently moved into a house that's significantly older then the one we were in before so we're wondering what the pipes in the house are made out of. It's the same city water source that we had at the other house as well but it tastes a little different. Nothing super obvious or overwhelming, just not quite right. Fortunately we're looking at moving again so if the issues are being caused by something about the piping we won't have them much longer. I am planning to switch to some type of purified water especially for the time being.

Pipes in older houses can defiantly cause issues with the water. Good luck with the water.

These days I hate moving, good luck with that too.

 

[Arachnomaniac19]

Pipes in older houses tend to have a lot of heavy metals such as copper in them. The metal being a huge toxin to invertebrates in general, especially when you take into account bioaccumulation.

 

[Storm76]

It's not the best moment eh, man? First Moriko, now your 'genic'. This sucks 1000%

Sorry to read she didn't make it, and losing an Avic as well...that is rough. Some seriously bad times...i hope it'll turn up for you. Best of luck in these difficult times.

Yeah, it's seriously a bad year for me in the hobby. And I can't even buy new ones, since I lack the financials currently and likely for a while longer. Put simple: It sucks!

(...)We recently moved and I'm starting to wonder if something is going on with this house. We're a little suspicious of the water at the moment. It's an old house with ancient pipes and the water tastes just slightly off. Is there any chance that this could be this issue, not only with mine but with yours? Could something have changed about your plumbing, water source, etc? I'm really at a loss and completely heartbroken. I saw this thread this morning and thought I would ask.
Oh, I forgot. None of my tarantulas are showing any typical symptoms of pesticide/chemical poisoning. That should have been included in the information. Also, no signs of foreign invaders (mites, etc.) and different batches of crickets have been used with the effected tarantulas.

First of: Sorry for your losses there, Sana.

As for the question raised: I can exclude water as a possible source. I decided to do an authopsy on my geniculata and the reason her abdomen wasn't shrunken, was that she was literally full with water! Somehow, that water didn't find a way out however which I contribute to the hardened poop on the exit. Certain it was water, since I put her into the freezer over night and while opening up, just an iceball(!) of water rolled out. Never seen anything like that and should have documented it actually, but I just wanted to know and get it over with. She's now resting in tarantula heaven...

As for the A. geroldi, that girl ripped her own leg apart during molting and bled to death because I found out too late she molted. No feeders, mites or any of the sort with that one either.

And quite honestly? You know what annoys me at this point quite some? Those species that are so easy to keep, suddenly die on me because of above mentioned reasons that can't be helped, but T's like my E. murinus that requires way more attention is just peachy and doing fine lurking at the mound of her burrow happy as can be. Starting to wonder if all the inbreeding over the years is partly to blame for these problems - at least to some degree...

 

[Sana]

Starting to wonder if all the inbreeding over the years is partly to blame for these problems - at least to some degree...

I have heard folks say many times that it shouldn't effect them but it is something that I have wonder about in the past. I hope for the sake of the hobby that isn't what's happening since there are definitely species that aren't coming in WC anymore so we don't have the opportunity for a new genetic line.

 

[Storm76]

I have heard folks say many times that it shouldn't effect them but it is something that I have wonder about in the past. I hope for the sake of the hobby that isn't what's happening since there are definitely species that aren't coming in WC anymore so we don't have the opportunity for a new genetic line.

Well, unless there's going to be some scientific research done into the subject, I guess we'll never know. Still...wondering about it.

 

[Sana]

Well, unless there's going to be some scientific research done into the subject, I guess we'll never know. Still...wondering about it.

There are so many questions that I wish someone was researching the answers to.