C. fimbriatus MM life span?

[ZHESSWA]

I'm posting this because unfortunately, I had a death tonight. My C. fimbriatus has bit the dust sadly, one of my favorite tarantulas. I knew it was a male as last molt I believe it matured as the carapace darkened to near black, abdomen looked smaller, etc. He was 4 inches or so, and after that molt I noticed he became a pickier eater. Some weeks he would take the crickets down like normal and other weeks he'd refuse to eat. The last molt he had I transferred him to larger enclosure and instead of webbing up he simply used the starter burrow, cork bark den I had provided him. I fed him probably on Monday and Tuesday I noticed the cricket was killed but not eaten as it's body wasn't shriveled up like other Boluses. Last night I saw him start to curl and when i prodded him he moved very slowly (odd behavior because he was defensive beforehand, if I breathed on him the wrong way he would flee or occasionally throw up a threat posture). He had plenty of water, the substrate has always been moist and even then I made it rain just to make sure the humidity was good. I scooted 2 of his back legs into the water dish (he was sitting by it) just to make sure he knew it was there and full. I was going to put him in the ICU today, but when I got home from work I saw he hadn't moved at all and knew he was probably toast. My question to you guys is does this just sound like a MM passing away in old age? If so, is the life span of a MM C. fimbriatus really that short? I've had this guy for a little over two years I think, two and a half years at most. If not, what else could it have been I wonder?

 

[Arachnophoric]

It'd help for you to tell us when his last molt was, as well as providing pics of the setup and if possible a pic showing your Ts pedipalps. It'd let us know how long he was possibly mature, confirm if it was indeed a mature male, and see if there are any other possible factors that could have lead to his expiration.

Offhand it does indeed sound like a mature male coming to his natural end.

Not a fimbriatus, but one of my male Chilobrachys sp. Kaeng Krachan that I recieved as a sling in October of 2018 matured back in November of 2019 and just came to his end last week, making it 4 months post-maturity.

And for future reference, ICUs should not be used under almost any circumstances - they do more harm than good for an ailing T and any benefit they provide can be provided better in their enclosure.

 

[checkmate]

My MM fimbriatus lived a little under three years.