Can Tarantulas Drown?

ispectechular

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Ok, I have always heard that slings can't have water dishes because they can drown. Never once have I heard they can't drown, but I just saw on a different tarantula group that slings can't drown? Is this true or are they just being stupid? Haha
 

Veitchiiman13

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In a water bowl: No

I'm sure some may drown in nature if they become trapped in their burrow during monsoon rains. I think you'd have to purposely attempt to drown a T in captivity for it to happen.
 

ispectechular

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Then why are so many reputable people in the community saying slings shouldn’t have a water bowl or don’t get to big of a water bowl?
 

cold blood

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Then why are so many reputable people in the community saying slings shouldn’t have a water bowl or don’t get to big of a water bowl?
Ok, people do say this, but not reputable people IMO. Reputable people know they float.

Now you do see reputable people not use, or suggest not using bowls for slings...but this has nothing to do with drowning....it has to do more with...

1. Typically sling enclosures dont have the space for a dish....and also...

2. A properly kept sling will almost always be kept on damp sub...and as a result, have available water in that damp sub.

Many do suggest dishes for beginners because #2 is sometimes easier said than done when starting out, and a dish will act as a safety precaution.
 
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ccTroi

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@cold blood sums it up.

Tarantulas - adults and slings - are heavily covered with setae. The setae visible to the naked eye have tiny structures along them that sticks out. To add, tarantulas naturally spread their legs apart on water. The increased surface area from the spreading and setae helps to stay afloat by not breaking the surface tension.
 

Paul1126

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You only have to look at the people that have raised thousands of slings and kept them with waterdishes with no problem, to know that they will not drown.
 

JoshDM020

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Yeah, anyone saying spiders drown in water dishes probably shouldnt be called "reputable". Even true spiders take ridiculously long to drown. Theres a video somewhere of a guy forcing a black widow completely under water for an hour (at least), and it took a minute but it did wake up and walk away when he took it out.
 

boina

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Tarantulas not only float, they even may actively swim or some may even dive. One of my N. chromatus had the idiotic habit of trying to hide inside her water dish when spooked, staying totally submerged for up to half an hour. The first time I scooped her out with a spoon after a few minutes but then I just let her. She'd climb out when she was done being spooked. I think she's upset with me because when I rehoused her she got a larger, but shallower water dish and she can't completely submerge herself anymore.
 

cold blood

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One of my N. chromatus had the idiotic habit of trying to hide inside her water dish when spooked, staying totally submerged for up to half an hour
I have a female T. ockerti that used to do this...the first time t was submerged for nearly 2 hours.
Wasn't totally submerged this time I took the pic...but it wasn't drinking.
 

LurkingUnderground

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Water tension and their hair. Also if silly answer. They can cheat bobbing for apples.

I have a female T. ockerti that used to do this...the first time t was submerged for nearly 2 hours.
Wasn't totally submerged this time I took the pic...but it wasn't drinking.
I would say because of their hair even if they are submerged the hairs act like an air bubble. it is how fire acts can work together and make a death raft.
 
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SpooderLady008

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If a tarantula drowns in a water dish there is something wrong with that spider. Any T that finds itself in a water dish will try to climb out emediately.

But to answer your question, yes, if it breaths it can drown. However, given the incredibly slow respiratory rate of a taranulta, the drowning process would take quite a while.
 

Campi95

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Some spiders can build “diving bells” out of silk that keep an air bubble around their abdomen, allowing them to hunt underwater. Even then, they can only do so while grabbing submerged plants, because if they let go they will float up to the surface like a cork.

But yes. In theory, they CAN drown. But unless they are thrown into a lake or pinned down by something while on the water, they will not.
 

LurkingUnderground

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Some spiders can build “diving bells” out of silk that keep an air bubble around their abdomen, allowing them to hunt underwater. Even then, they can only do so while grabbing submerged plants, because if they let go they will float up to the surface like a cork.

But yes. In theory, they CAN drown. But unless they are thrown into a lake or pinned down by something while on the water, they will not.
Well fire ants take turns being ones on the bottom to help.
 

darkness975

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Ok, I have always heard that slings can't have water dishes because they can drown. Never once have I heard they can't drown, but I just saw on a different tarantula group that slings can't drown? Is this true or are they just being stupid? Haha
They will only drown if you hold them under the water and unable to surface. They float on water.
 

viper69

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Then why are so many reputable people in the community saying slings shouldn’t have a water bowl or don’t get to big of a water bowl?

Because they aren't reputable.... Specifically, how are you determining if one is reputable or not? I was on another T forum a year or so ago, the guy had thousands of posts, he knew virtually nothing when it came to certain common husbandry facts.

I have a female T. ockerti that used to do this...the first time t was submerged for nearly 2 hours.
Wasn't totally submerged this time I took the pic...but it wasn't drinking.

Seen the same thing w/a few terrestrials on my end.
 
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beaker41

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Might be ruining my reputability here, but I did have a sling drown, well more of a juvie around 2”dls. I had a bowl in there around 4” and one day came home to see her floating lifeless. I was too heart broken to flush her, so I lifted her out with a popsicle stick and put her on half a toilet paper tube under her light. (I know stupid cardboard hide, too deep a dish and a light, this was about 1990, I just didn’t know.) I came back a couple hours later and she was magically back to life!!! I doubt she would have survived if I left her floating.
 

ispectechular

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Yeah, anyone saying spiders drown in water dishes probably shouldnt be called "reputable". Even true spiders take ridiculously long to drown. Theres a video somewhere of a guy forcing a black widow completely under water for an hour (at least), and it took a minute but it did wake up and walk away when he took it out.
That cruel.
 
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