Gbb possible Molt or fungal infection?

[spideygonzales]

Hi everybody.


I got a GBB Sling about 3 weeks ago and put her in a new enclosure with life plant, cork retreat and regular potting soil.
During all this time she never started webbing, but would occasionally take prekilled crickets. I was a bit concerned about this, but figured she is just getting used to her new enclosure and that her behaviour isnt a huge alarm bell or anything.

Well today I could look underneath her as she was hanging sideways on the wall and I noticed tiny white dots all over her. Especially on her abdomen. Ill attach a picture. I immediately put her in a a new enclousure with just a water dish and some paper tissues, before I learn more about what exactly is wrong with her.

I hope you guys can see enough on the picture its just taken on a cellphone. Zooming in hopefully helps.


Thanks for your time and help guys.

 

[spideygonzales]

Heres a picture of her enclosure. I ripped out the plant to check for molt/fungal, but didnt really see anything other than tiny "spore"like looking things in the soil.

 

[sdsnybny]

GBB's are from dry scrub land and like DRY substrate. They are sometimes semi arboreal.
If its not comfortable in its new enclosure after 3 weeks and not webbing you might want to change the substrate.
Regular potting soil sometimes has extra unwanted guest/pests you could use it But you might microwave it to kill the pests first,
then for the GBB dry it out in the sun or oven. Keep a full water dish so it can drink if it needs to prior/post molt.
The pics of the invader are to small out of focus to tell what it is.

 

[spideygonzales]

GBB's are from dry scrub land and like DRY substrate. They are sometimes semi arboreal.
If its not comfortable in its new enclosure after 3 weeks and not webbing you might want to change the substrate.
Regular potting soil sometimes has extra unwanted guest/pests you could use it But you might microwave it to kill the pests first,
then for the GBB dry it out in the sun or oven. Keep a full water dish so it can drink if it needs to prior/post molt.
The pics of the invader are to small out of focus to tell what it is.

Ya I understand that. Soil was a bit moist out of the bag, but it did dry out since I didnt mist the enclosure or anything. Can you see the white dots on the abdomen on the pictures? That is what im talking about.
As for the potting soil... Ive never had an issue with it, but I suppose youre right you never know whats in there.

 

[EDED]

how about putting the sling in a small vial and using a q-tip to gently remove the white dots off of the abdomen?

It might make you feel better. I can barely see the white dots on the photo but that is what I would do to clean it up.

If you havent seen any outgrowth of mold/fungus in the enclosure maybe its just nothing on the abdomen.

its a sling so I wouldnt use athlete's foot anti fungal medicine on it (which is one way to treat mold on adult spider) plus its by the lungs, so maybe just brushing it off might be best?

 

[cold blood]

Live plants with a GBB aren't a good idea. First, they add humidity, which GBB's aren't fond of, preferring bone dry, which isn't hospitable for living plants. Secondly, once it starts webbing up a storm, the plant will surely suffer...when it dies, or starts to, its gonna break down, attracting potential invaders.

I will say that sterilizing the soil isn't the best of ideas. This is a bit on the subject by arachnologist Sam Marshall:

"You have little reason to sterilize the soil because the second the soil is exposed to the air, it begins to get colonized by all the things that you were trying to kill, such as mold spores and mites. Gardeners want their potting soil sterilized to kill weed seeds, and this is not a worry for tarantula keepers. However, fungi and mites can be a problem. Surprisingly, I have found that I have had fewer problems with pests by using natural soil. This may seem counterintuitive. However, by having a natural array of soil organisms in the tank, they may keep each other in check. If you have freshly sterilized soil, the first things to colonize will take over as they have it all to themselves. For instance, the worst fungal growth that I have ever had has been in cages with sterilized [substrate]. In these cages, I had white, wooley looking mats of fungus growing all over the substrate. Other cages that had the same, but unsterilized substrate, had no such fungal growth."

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Why live plants, like cold blood said?

All the GBB i had in the past (and the one i have now, a female) started to web just after not even 2 hours from unpacking. I don't want to start a "war" about substrate now, but why seems that here only few use and appreciate coco fiber?
Bone dry, totally bone dry, coco fiber, and GBB'S are happy. Water dish for humidity is enough. Fake plants are a must. Fake plants. A piece of cork bark. Nothing more.
They love bone dry (with water dish).. GBB, Ceratogyrus sp. Pterinochilus sp. "Grammos".. all "bone dry" substrate.

Potting soil can work fine, ok.. but you have to know well what you are using inside the enclosure. Not worth for me.. i use only ready to use (so not bricks), 1 KG bags coco fiber i can found at very great prices here. And all of my T's (African and NW Tropical obligate burrowers included) are happy.
The only time i was out of that coco fiber i use i housed a "Chaco" a guy gave me for free on Irish peat moss and she was climbing all the time, helping her climb with fangs, outside the air holes!
Re-housed with the coco i use a month after, and she stop climb.

I suggest coco fiber as the better substrate for T's.

Btw, that GBB is a sling, maybe a more little enclosure will work better. And, why pre killed crickets/prey? In almost 25 years (this January) with T's i never offered a pre killed prey to my spiders.
There's micro crickets (really annoying to catch btw) for slings. Just fed 10 minutes ago a not even 1 cm Grammostola rosea sling i care for my cousin (a T noob) a micro cricket and he/she destroyed it.

 

[spideygonzales]

Meh I really dislike coco fiber.

On the pre killed cricket thing. I hear I only recently started doing it when Slings wouldnt take pinheads and for the most part it worked for example with that gbb sling. Def not all slings will take life prey but thats just my experience. Got some tiny Avis here that ignore prey in the enclosure but happily take it from tonks (while still alive) I dont know. Slings just seem picky.

Btw. Since I put her in the quarantine enclosure shes done nothing but stay in the water dish... so maybe that was an issue as well. She def has some moldy looking points on the bottom of her abdomen and Im still worried about that.

 

[cold blood]

Yeah, I prefer soil as well, and I have had the same experiences with slings not eating live...or at least not as consistently well, but its only been a few Brachy species and some of the ezendami slings I've raised.

Best of luck with the little dude.

 

[EDED]

t's can rub their belly, they can reach there

but if its not too troublesome, you could try to gently remove whatever the white thing is on the abdomen I mean looks like its not going to go away on its own. My concern is that its not on legs or top of carapace or anything like that, its under belly and hopefully not near lungs.

 

[GG80]

I had similar looking white spots on my Lp sling about 6 months ago which went away after about a week or so. The consensus here was that it was most likely dried poo which the T may have rubbed up against. I'm not saying that this is what's happened here but it could be the case.

On the live vs pre-killed prey, I've had occations where the slings wouldn't eat live, also I had a few escapes(crickets) so now I just give all my <1.5" pre-killed with absolutely no issues at all. Everyone eats and it saves me the hassle of trying to catch and prevent the inevitable escape of a bunch of tiny crickets.

 

[lalberts9310]

Also remember that good cross-ventilation can combat fungal growth. If you keep the T dry with good ventilation (like it's supposed to be kept) then you won't have mold issues... ditch the live plant, like already stated, GBBs are heavy webbers and will destroy the plant with all the webbing, plus plants needs moist sub, where GBBs needs dry sub. Add fake plants in there for anchor points and you'll sure be in for a treat when it starts webbing. Add a waterbowl with water, you can mist on the webbing for drinking purposes (not humidity) as these tend to web up waterbowls over a period of time. I also offer pre-killed for my tiney slings, no hassles and they eat so no worries, when they pass the 1.5" mark I start offering live occasionally and when they hit around 2" they get live all the time. Some slings aren't just confident enough to take on live prey and some gets startled easily. I also offer only pre-killed to my slings and juvies when I suspect an upcoming molt. Pre-killed is good when the T has an upcoming molt, as some feeders has the potential to harm and kill molting tarantulas. I really can't make out anything in the pictures as far as white dots goes, but keep it dry and well ventilated and the problem will hopefully resolve with the Ts next molt. A while back one of my P. Cams juvies had white spots on its abdomen, I noticed the water wicking from the dish as the T is quite a heavy webber, so it was waaaay to moist in there and provided good enough conditions for fungal growth. I removed the sub and replaced it with sub that's a bit drier and increased ventilation, it did improve a bit but didn't completely disappear, so I started powerfeeding it to speed up a molt and when it molted, problem solved.

 

[spideygonzales]

Hey guys,


Thanks for all the replies so far. Good news is (s)hes still alive, but not looking or acting particularly healthy. I kept her separate over the weekend away from my other T's and gonna put her in a new enclosure now. Completely dry ditched the plant etc.

When I put her in the deli cup I had another chance to take a picture. I think I managed to do it well enough this time around that you guys can actually see what Im talking about. Note the Abdomen area and all these white dots, its not dirt in the deli cup or anything this is actually on the spider.

Once again thanks for the help.

 

[spideygonzales]

No one has any idea? Shes barely moving at all anymore. Doesnt look good

 

[Thistles]

Looks like mites to me, but it's hard to see.

 

[cold blood]

I'd personally put it in a well ventilated deli cup with dry sub and just a water dish....whether its mites or fungus, less moisture and more ventilation will be of help.

 

[spideygonzales]

Ok, thats what I did. I just hope she pulls through

 

[spideygonzales]

Unfortuanetly the sling died tonight. Im still not sure why. I did what I could I think, but it sucks nonetheless

 

[Prle]

Condolences.

 

[lalberts9310]

Sorry for your loss, but at least you learned something from this experience, and you won't make the same mistake again the next time. The best thing you can do now is get yourself another T.