Costa Rican Zebra Hydration Issue

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
I have a Costa Rican Zebra Legged Tarantula (Aphonopelma seemanni) female between ages 3-4 I believe. She is at full maturity.
I have had her about 7-8 months now.
I did research and looked up her care and everything I could. (Leaves and plants to hide, about 3-4 inches of cocunt fiber/dirt to burrow, a water dish in corner and wooden shelter) My boyfriend was even willing to feed her some of his Madagasar hissing Cockroaches for food. Yet she refused. In 7-8 months of owning, she ate once for us. We had offered her mouse pinkies, small crickets, large crickets, small, medium and even adult cockroaches. We had even wondered if it was because she couldn't catch them so we put her in a tote by herself and food and left her for 24 hours with a wa get fish to see if she would eat. Nothing.
Then she lost weight and me and my boyfriend figured it was dehydration so we put her in 4 ICU (over period of 3 months) and 2 of those lasted about 48hrs. They seemed to help for a bit.
I took her to the vet a few days ago (Friday Morning). She was 10grams, extremely under weight and serverly dehydrated. They are keeping her for two or three days and it's the second day (Sunday Morning. Vet is calling me every morning with updates) and she's received lots of fluids. Apparently she ate and pooped this morning (sunday morning) and is doing much better and I can take her home soon.
Though, the reason I'm here is because I am very worried she will dehydrated more when she comes back. I don't know if it's the cage, or a deiease that is causing this and I don't want her to suffer. The only vet I could find that would see her is 2 hrs. away and he said he has seen and cared for taranutulas before but he is not I guess an expert.
Does anyone know what I can do?
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Pinkies aren't necessary.

You put her in an ICU for 3 months? What temps is the T subjected to in your room? No need to put her in a new container to eat, they don't care to be moved at all, don't do that.

Post up some pics of your Ts home.

Loss of mass can be attributed to many things, not just dehydration.

How do you know it's a female?? Did you molt confirm this? How do you know its age? What its diagonal leg span.

IF you read care sheets, forget everything you read, care sheets KILL tarantulas.
 
Last edited:

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
Pinkies aren't necessary.

You put her in an ICU for 3 months? What temps is the T subjected to in your room? No need to put her in a new container to eat, they don't care to be moved at all, don't do that.

Post up some pics of your Ts home.

Loss of mass can be attributed to many things, not just dehydration.

How do you know it's a female?? Did you molt confirm this? How do you know its age? What it's diagonal leg span.

IF you read care sheets, forget everything you read, care sheets KILL tarantulas.
I put her in one every other week over a span of 3 months. And I'll get pictures of her hide up but She is 2hrs. Away at a hospital with a vet. I sadly don't have any pictures of her but I can post some up when I get her back.
I do not completely know her age but she about 4 inches side to side. I do not know diagonal leg spa. I learned to sex using molt and apperance and both show female.

The tempature she was in was around 70 with around 70-75 humitidy. I also know it wasn't nessicary for a feeding tote but I was getting desperate with her not eating so I thought I would try it. It didn't work but I kinda didn't expect it too.
 

Marijan2

Arachnobaron
Joined
Oct 21, 2012
Messages
505
IS she WC or CB? There is always option she have parasites if she was wild caught. Are you sure about her age? It is very weird for aphonopelma to be at full maturity and size at 4 years old
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
IS she WC or CB? There is always option she have parasites if she was wild caught. Are you sure about her age? It is very weird for aphonopelma to be at full maturity and size at 4 years old
She was captive bred and this is what the pet store own told me. He gets most of his T s from breeders but he only had her a few weeks. Maybe she is younger. I'll try to call him and ask if he can find out her age somehow. She looks kinda small but had yet to molt in 7-8 months I've had her.
 

johnny quango

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
260
If your tarantula is a female and mature then I honestly can't see it being only 3-4 years old. From personal experience with an Aphonopelma it took my male 3-3.5 years to mature and as you probably know most slow growing tarantula don't reach full maturity untill double figures years wise.
As other members have stated without seeing the enclosure and tarantula it's hard to even hazard a guess at what's going on. Keep us posted with how things turn out and as soon as you can post some pictures
 

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
Staff member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
3,292
Sorry, but whatever care sheets you read online are garbage. Only 3 inches of substrate? This spider is a burrowing species - a specimen that size should have at least 6 inches, preferably 10 inches. It could be refusing food because it's stressed.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you've got a mature male. Rarely eating, not attempting to burrow, lethargic... sounds mature to me.
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
Sorry, but whatever care sheets you read online are garbage. Only 3 inches of substrate? This spider is a burrowing species - a specimen that size should have at least 6 inches, preferably 10 inches. It could be refusing food because it's stressed.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you've got a mature male. Rarely eating, not attempting to burrow, lethargic... sounds mature to me.
I can check again and add pictures of the underside. And yea it's shown no sign of ever borrowing, lays very little web, doesn't move much. And i will make sure to add more dirt. I put 4.5 in the new cage but ill make sure to add more
 

Haksilence

Bad At Titles
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Messages
405
I can check again and add pictures of the underside. And yea it's shown no sign of ever borrowing, lays very little web, doesn't move much. And i will make sure to add more dirt. I put 4.5 in the new cage but ill make sure to add more

If you taught yourself how to determine the sex of the tarantula than you should know how worthless looking at the underside is. Look at the pedipalps and first set of legs. Bulbs and hooks.

Given your aparent lacking experience (please don't get offended by this or take this the wrong way) in the fact that you keep a relatively dry species at 70+% humidity and that you took it to a vet tells me that you probably dont have the experince to accurately sex an invertebrates.

That also being said, any vet that "treats tarantulas" is just stealing your money. There isn't a veterinarian on the planet who can do anything more than give a tarantula water.

As others have said, to move forward in this we need to see photos.
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
I just got home from vet. First picture is her when I got her. Second is when I got home two hours later. She than started half walking and half bumping her knees into the side of the cage....I don't think she is going to survive unless someone else can explain what is going on.
 

Attachments

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
Staff member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
3,292
Can you get a picture of the tips of the pedipalps?

Honestly, I doubt that there is any hope for that spider. It's in a full on death curl, not many spiders come back from something like that. The only reason I want to see the palps is because I'm still convinced you've got a mature male. If you do, I'd demand my money back from that vet. There is no saving a mature male, period.
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
Can you get a picture of the tips of the pedipalps?

Honestly, I doubt that there is any hope for that spider. It's in a full on death curl, not many spiders come back from something like that. The only reason I want to see the palps is because I'm still convinced you've got a mature male. If you do, I'd demand my money back from that vet. There is no saving a mature male, period.
I did my best buy she refused to let me get a better picture. I even took one of underside because it didn't look right for some reason. I didn't want to force them away when she was trying so hard to keep them close.
 

Attachments

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
Staff member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
3,292
So I stand corrected, that is not a mature male. We could speculate for days on what killed your spider, but that will do no good. In the future, don't waste your money taking your spiders to a vet. Also, stop going to that particular vet all together, they essentially just stole from you.

I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad that you found your way here. Next time when doing research on a new spider, just ask us. Plenty of people with decades of experience on here.
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
So I stand corrected, that is not a mature male. We could speculate for days on what killed your spider, but that will do no good. In the future, don't waste your money taking your spiders to a vet. Also, stop going to that particular vet all together, they essentially just stole from you.

I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad that you found your way here. Next time when doing research on a new spider, just ask us. Plenty of people with decades of experience on here.
Thank you. I will.
 

BobBarley

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
1,486
I did my best buy she refused to let me get a better picture. I even took one of underside because it didn't look right for some reason. I didn't want to force them away when she was trying so hard to keep them close.
That is not a mature male... I highly doubt that she was CB. Looks bleak. Try, gently, flipping her on her back and putting just a drop of water between her fangs.
 

Gillian Pajor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
66
That is not a mature male... I highly doubt that she was CB. Looks bleak. Try, gently, flipping her on her back and putting just a drop of water between her fangs.

I did and it just say there. Like it wasn't absorbed into anything
 

Haksilence

Bad At Titles
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Messages
405
at this stage, if there is any life left in your pet i would suggest placing them in the freezer, it looks to be in VERY bad health. (any female with an abdomen size that small is very unhealthy) There is essentially zero chance it will recover and freezing her will let her pass peacfully
 
Top