CABIV
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 95
Round 4, either I'm doing something very wrong, or my luck is just that bad.
My Avic (not sure on the sub species) was all nice and plump right ahead of Christmas. It was fairly active and the last time I fed it, it snapped up the cricket before it hit the enclosure. Later, I noticed that it had spent a few days hiding out at the top of it's log hide. Food was going uneaten for days.
During this time, another one of my tarantulas started getting a little more reclusive, and it was clearly going into Pre-molt (it has indeed molted and is stretching out now). I assumed the same was probably true of my Avic. However, I noticed it seemed to be in that same spot for the last few weeks.
Last night, I see it is out from its log, but instead of a molt, it looks like it dumped all of its weight, and its movements are strange. It takes weird hesitant steps, and sometimes it seems like it doesn't know where its going, almost moving like it caught something, spinning in weird circles and tapping its spinnerets on the ground, but with no visible silk. It seemed to wander restlessly around the cage for a while before settling in a less than healthy looking position.
I'm using one of the mini-exoterra tanks, which is fresh and brand new for this spider. It has a bottle cap and pebble for water, which it seemed to use, and a hollow log for a hide. I did let the parts of the enclosure remain damp to keep the humidity up, but only in a corner. The air seemed humid enough, but I have no measurements.
The Avic is on the small side, but it isn't nearly as small as my last one, so I figured it might be a little more resilient. This one was at the pet store with a missing leg when I bought my previous Avic. This one molted and survived just fine in a critter keeper with just a bottle cap and pebbles and a little bit of coconut choir (I saw it nearly every other week). It molted and was doing just fine when I picked it up following the death of my previous avic in August.
I wonder if perhaps, it was going to molt, but maybe that spot on top of the log was really dry, and when it didn't go down to get something to drink, it started to loose moisture too much? It is close to a year since it was known to have molted. If it has a new skin underneath, but is refusing to molt, that could explain why its moving so strangely. One odd details is that it almost seems like some of the opisthoma's bristles are matted down onto the surface, instead of being "fuzzy". It was like this for some time though (months), so I don't think those are bristles "under" the skin, but its hard to tell. It did seem to darken right before it went into hiding.
I need to take new pictures of it, but here are some older photos.
These are fairly recent photos from before it went hiding. The opisthoma is maybe 2/3 the size and not nearly as round.
My Avic (not sure on the sub species) was all nice and plump right ahead of Christmas. It was fairly active and the last time I fed it, it snapped up the cricket before it hit the enclosure. Later, I noticed that it had spent a few days hiding out at the top of it's log hide. Food was going uneaten for days.
During this time, another one of my tarantulas started getting a little more reclusive, and it was clearly going into Pre-molt (it has indeed molted and is stretching out now). I assumed the same was probably true of my Avic. However, I noticed it seemed to be in that same spot for the last few weeks.
Last night, I see it is out from its log, but instead of a molt, it looks like it dumped all of its weight, and its movements are strange. It takes weird hesitant steps, and sometimes it seems like it doesn't know where its going, almost moving like it caught something, spinning in weird circles and tapping its spinnerets on the ground, but with no visible silk. It seemed to wander restlessly around the cage for a while before settling in a less than healthy looking position.
I'm using one of the mini-exoterra tanks, which is fresh and brand new for this spider. It has a bottle cap and pebble for water, which it seemed to use, and a hollow log for a hide. I did let the parts of the enclosure remain damp to keep the humidity up, but only in a corner. The air seemed humid enough, but I have no measurements.
The Avic is on the small side, but it isn't nearly as small as my last one, so I figured it might be a little more resilient. This one was at the pet store with a missing leg when I bought my previous Avic. This one molted and survived just fine in a critter keeper with just a bottle cap and pebbles and a little bit of coconut choir (I saw it nearly every other week). It molted and was doing just fine when I picked it up following the death of my previous avic in August.
I wonder if perhaps, it was going to molt, but maybe that spot on top of the log was really dry, and when it didn't go down to get something to drink, it started to loose moisture too much? It is close to a year since it was known to have molted. If it has a new skin underneath, but is refusing to molt, that could explain why its moving so strangely. One odd details is that it almost seems like some of the opisthoma's bristles are matted down onto the surface, instead of being "fuzzy". It was like this for some time though (months), so I don't think those are bristles "under" the skin, but its hard to tell. It did seem to darken right before it went into hiding.
I need to take new pictures of it, but here are some older photos.
These are fairly recent photos from before it went hiding. The opisthoma is maybe 2/3 the size and not nearly as round.
