a. genic moults--escapes death?

[krystal]

this morning i found my a. geniculata had moulted, and was also on the brink of death. he was curled up in the all-too-familiar "clenched-fist-of-death" throe pathetically waiting to die. much to his objection (the poor t tried running away from me and flicking hairs, but the first two segments on each of his legs were "dead"), i transfered him to an "intensive care" container, placed it in a warm area and immediately got online and sought out help and found scott. scott suggested i place a shallow water dish in the container since water = hemolymph.

my a. genic continues to be feisty, but the first segments of this legs continue to be "dead." last time i looked in on him, he was huddled up in the normal post-moult resting position, with his 2nd and 3rd legs facing backward (which will no doubt harden that way unless anyone has any ideas about what i can do without being totally invasive. mind you, he's still got a lot of spunk left and can move quickly, in spite of the non-functional and deformed legs). and more recently, i picked up the container to look in and i startled him, causing him to react rather quickly.

i'm thinking he'll pull through, but i won't be surprised if i'm only prolonging the inevitable. this sucks.

what do you guys do with your dead tarantulas if you plan on keeping them? i'd like to mount him, but placing him in polyetheline resin is an option, too, assuming i can get my hands on some.

if you mount dead t's, how would one do it? or how would one ship to to someone else to do it, or even find someone else to do it for me (my preferred method)?

 

[Vys]

I do hope he pulls through :/
..Em..that last bit had me thinking a bit..interesting choice of words

Sorry I can't be of any help though

 

[Wade]

Other than the bad legs, is there anything else oviously wrong? It may not be that bad. You said "him", is it a mature male? If not, it may be OK following the next molt. It may chose to autonomize those legs itself. If it's really bad, you may want to force autonomy yourself. This would definately be the thing to do if the legs were bleeding.

If you decide to do it, use forcepts and grasp the femur and pull steady. The T should eventually let the leg go. Don't just rip the leg off, you want the T to do it. Basically, you're immitating a predator! Generally, the bleeding from the stump stops quickly, but many keepers like to coat the stum with super glue or nail hardener just to be safe. If you think the T may be dehdrated from blood loss, you may want to wait awhile before trying it, but if there's any bleeding, it's definately an emegency.

To dry mount a dead T, you probably will want to cut the abdomen open from the bottom and scoop out the, er, guts. Otherwise, it will be hard to dry out. Spread the spider out into the desired position and let dry. It can then be mounted in a shadowbox, but you may want to include a fumigant to keep pest bugs away, like dermestid beetles etc.

Wade

 

[krystal]

hey wade--

i don't suppose i could pay YOU to scoop out the guts for me? i'd mess the whole thing up, in more ways than one!

 

[Lucifer]

I mounted a blondi in a shadow box but I had to let it dry for a long time (over a year). and keep it outside or in the garage, cause otherwise it'll smell.

 

[Wade]

Originally posted by krystal
hey wade--

i don't suppose i could pay YOU to scoop out the guts for me? i'd mess the whole thing up, in more ways than one!

No, but I have a friend who makes a living mounting insects in display boxes who does really nice work. He mounted alot of my deadstock over the years. If you want, I can ask him if he'd be willing to do it and how much he'd charge. Just give me a couple days to dig up his e-mail...

Wade

 

[krystal]

lucifer--thanks for the suggestion. i kind of figured the stench would be an unfortunate side effect of drying out a tarantula. ewww...

wade--i'm definately interested in having your bug-mounting pal do it for me. whenever you find his email, please email me and let me know what the charge would be and how he would like me to ship it to him (in an alcohol solution, frozen with dried ice, etc...). or you can give him my email directly (krystalnuhn@aol.com).

thanks, wade!