# dead versicolor sling, do they randomly die?



## AgeAye (Jul 22, 2012)

today versi sling passed away at second or third instar. it was not in a death curl, its abdomen was a healthy size, and the soil was moist. has anyone had a sling randomly pass away?


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## AgeAye (Jul 22, 2012)

heres how i found it :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
it was only about 60-75 days old


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## Michiel (Jul 22, 2012)

Why do you think it died randomly? 

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## Giygas (Jul 22, 2012)

Because avic slings are just that fragile. Dont throw it out just yet. 
My purpurea died for no reason, and its set up was fine, eating well and had a web all nicely done.


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## melijoc (Jul 22, 2012)

My theory is that right after it molts and you feed it without giving it enough time to fully harden. It could injure its fangs  causing it to bleed from the mouth. Sice it fangs are relatively moist to begin with, you would think it percectly normal. A sling doesnt have enough body fluids like theadults, explaining the sudden death


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## jwlp (Jul 22, 2012)

melijoc said:


> My theory is that right after it molts and you feed it without giving it enough time to fully harden. It could injure its fangs  causing it to bleed from the mouth. Sice it fangs are relatively moist to begin with, you would think it percectly normal. A sling doesnt have enough body fluids like theadults, explaining the sudden death


In most cases, they will refuse food if they aren't ready to eat yet post molt. I have witnessed this with a few of my Ts, 1 of which was my B. Smithi, even after a 2 week post molt. With tiny slings, I normally wait the recommended 5 days after molting to feed, but I will tell you that I have fed slings up to 3 days post molt with no problems. I do, however, check that the fangs are black just for safe measure. 

In regards to the Avic dying suddenly, sorry for your loss. You mention that the substrate was moist, but did you have adequate ventilation, or was the air stagnant? I have read that this could be a possible cause of Avic death, as some suggest that they are kind of fragile when it comes to air flow. Personally, I have never had an Avic death, even after keeping some of the said-to-be most fragile of Avic species (purpurea). Even if all conditions are perfect, it is possible that your sling just wasn't meant to live, as this also could happen. Some things just can't be explained, which could be the case with yours.

Don't be discouraged, pick yourself up another one of these little guys as they are a great species to raise.


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## AgeAye (Jul 22, 2012)

I had adequate ventilation and cross ventilation drilled into a urine cup with a bottom layer of sphagnum. Conditions felt right, it may have not eaten since I had bought it though, it was very fat and despite my efforts it may have only eaten once, if that. most the time the pinheads die in the cup and i remove them.


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## jwlp (Jul 22, 2012)

If all conditions were correct, then it was probably something else.

You mention that it may have not eaten, which raises the question whether it not it may have been injured at some point.


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## jayefbe (Jul 22, 2012)

I'm not sure if it's because this was a postmortem picture, but that sling looks like it was going to molt soon. That would explain why it wasn't eating. 

Slings will die randomly for seemingly no reason. I believe that there are some genetic incompatibilities that result in delayed development or other issues that eventually will lead to the death of a small percentage of ALL slings. Contrary to popular opinion, Avics are not any more fragile than any other genus. I've found them to be extremely hardy. Just try again, seemingly random sling deaths will occur if you stay in the hobby long enough.

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## grayzone (Jul 22, 2012)

i think that due to popularity, natural selection never gets to take place

for example... Lp produce a CRAP-TON of babies, so people usually let cannibalization happen.. thus almost SURELY weeding out the "runts" and bad ts that likely wouldnt have survived in the wild/ in an enclosure anyways.
A. verisicolor, for example lay way smaller sacks and are a crowd favorite. Im willing to bet little to no cannibalization gets allowed by the people breeding/selling this sp. There are BOUND to be a good amount that arent going to make it.. even in IDEAL housing

make of it what you will, this is all just MY theory


I got a bunch of avics a while back. I housed ALL of them identically, fed them all identically, and lost 1/3 of them. this is a FACT!

Hopefully my theory gets proven , or that somebody can provide me a link to something similarly though of. Id like to see if anybody has had success with letting the sp. cannibalize down. Survival of the fittest ensures happy customers

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## Formerphobe (Jul 22, 2012)

Any spider at any life stage can die suddenly without prior indication of illness or anything amiss.

Are you absolutely sure it was dead?

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## AgeAye (Jul 22, 2012)

yeah it was a picture of the way i found it this morning. I was hoping it would molt, I bought the sling about two months ago ten days after it was born in early may, it seemed over due for a molt but hey, I had a 3rd instar rose hair that went three months without eating, now its a fat fourth instar

---------- Post added 07-22-2012 at 02:33 PM ----------




Formerphobe said:


> Any spider at any life stage can die suddenly without prior indication of illness or anything amiss.
> 
> Are you absolutely sure it was dead?


it was always a very active sling, I opened the container and noticed it was on the sphagnum/substrate which is odd, I touched it with a paintbrush, no movement, picked it up with the bristles of a fat paintbrush, took the pic, and put it back in the container on top of a piece of cork bark and soaked the substrate in a slightly drunken hope of ECU-ing it back to life. opened the container this morning and it hasnt moved. its definitely dead.

---------- Post added 07-22-2012 at 02:58 PM ----------




grayzone said:


> i think that due to popularity, natural selection never gets to take place
> 
> for example... Lp produce a CRAP-TON of babies, so people usually let cannibalization happen.. thus almost SURELY weeding out the "runts" and bad ts that likely wouldnt have survived in the wild/ in an enclosure anyways.
> A. verisicolor, for example lay way smaller sacks and are a crowd favorite. Im willing to bet little to no cannibalization gets allowed by the people breeding/selling this sp. There are BOUND to be a good amount that arent going to make it.. even in IDEAL housing
> ...


Makes sense to me, I had searched similar things in the past and could not find any information... My TA's brother did some interesting research on communal housing of H.villosella, unfortunately I only have what she told me and the abstract http://aas.biology.pdx.edu/profile.php?user=bjm01031979 heres some other interesting links http://magazine.holycross.edu/issue_45_4/45_4_web_exclusive http://www.emich.edu/univcomm/releases/release.php?id=1332338681

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