DanDwarfTs
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2022
- Messages
- 0
Hi there! My name's Dan and I'm new to the hobby and the forum.
A couple of days ago the first tarantula I've ever owned, a Cyriocosmus Elegans, died after several weeks of behaving very oddly. I'm asking for your opinion on this matter in order to understand if there’s anything I might have done wrong that could be improved in the future or if the T just died of old age. The problem is that I don't really know if my T was male or female, but it died after more or less 1 year and 8 months since I got it and I know that a male C. Elegans only gets to about that age. What I'm wondering is if the way the T died is typical of Tarantulas dying of old age or if it might be indicative of other causes. I might just describe it to you: several weeks before actually dying, he (I'm just assuming/hoping it was a male) started spending a lot of time out of his burrow, after basically a year or even more of never coming out on the open. After that, I started seeing him from time to time completely curled up in a corner of the enclosure; he basically looked dead already, but every time I opened up the enclosure to check on him, he got himself together and escaped to his burrow. This went on for two weeks. I should add that the T was refusing food for a very long time before this behaviour started, but his abdomen did not look thin at all and I continued to offer him food from time to time. I know Ts can live a long time without feeding, but how long is a long time (we're talking months here)? Also, he didn’t have an overall healthy appearance, since it's abdomen looked completely bold, almost like that of normal spiders (you know what I mean). Another thing I wonder is whether at that age I should have been able to determine the sex of the T by eye. I have seen pictures of male C. Elegans and they all seem to share a sort of disproportionate body, with a small, thin abdomen and long legs. Mine seemed relatively well-proportioned, although in general he seemed to have remained quite small in size. Do you think that after 1.8 years it should be quite obvious whether it is a male or a female? Just to get one last thing out of the way: the spider did have a bowl of water available and I actually saw him drinking several times while he was in this condition. In fact he spent most of his time curled up next to the bowl. I used to give him distilled water, since it's the same I use to spray the enclosure: could this have been the fatale mistake?
Thanks for your help
A couple of days ago the first tarantula I've ever owned, a Cyriocosmus Elegans, died after several weeks of behaving very oddly. I'm asking for your opinion on this matter in order to understand if there’s anything I might have done wrong that could be improved in the future or if the T just died of old age. The problem is that I don't really know if my T was male or female, but it died after more or less 1 year and 8 months since I got it and I know that a male C. Elegans only gets to about that age. What I'm wondering is if the way the T died is typical of Tarantulas dying of old age or if it might be indicative of other causes. I might just describe it to you: several weeks before actually dying, he (I'm just assuming/hoping it was a male) started spending a lot of time out of his burrow, after basically a year or even more of never coming out on the open. After that, I started seeing him from time to time completely curled up in a corner of the enclosure; he basically looked dead already, but every time I opened up the enclosure to check on him, he got himself together and escaped to his burrow. This went on for two weeks. I should add that the T was refusing food for a very long time before this behaviour started, but his abdomen did not look thin at all and I continued to offer him food from time to time. I know Ts can live a long time without feeding, but how long is a long time (we're talking months here)? Also, he didn’t have an overall healthy appearance, since it's abdomen looked completely bold, almost like that of normal spiders (you know what I mean). Another thing I wonder is whether at that age I should have been able to determine the sex of the T by eye. I have seen pictures of male C. Elegans and they all seem to share a sort of disproportionate body, with a small, thin abdomen and long legs. Mine seemed relatively well-proportioned, although in general he seemed to have remained quite small in size. Do you think that after 1.8 years it should be quite obvious whether it is a male or a female? Just to get one last thing out of the way: the spider did have a bowl of water available and I actually saw him drinking several times while he was in this condition. In fact he spent most of his time curled up next to the bowl. I used to give him distilled water, since it's the same I use to spray the enclosure: could this have been the fatale mistake?
Thanks for your help
, I'll see if I find earlier ones, here's the enclosure.
