Hamorii found dead 😕

[Phobic1]

Strange behavior. My female subadult Hamorii. She molted about 10 days ago. After 2 days she was standing up on her toes, very still in the same place for 4 or 5 days. She then moved and sunk down on her belly. She backed herself up slowly and looked like she was trying to bury herself. Like a doge diggin a hole to lay in. She stayed ther for another 4 or 5 days. I would check on her each day to see if she was moving until the day came that she wasnt. A couple of days ago. Whats to learn?

 

[Almadabes]

May have been digging to find moisture? Was there a waterdish/watersource? Did you take the molt out?

 

[thatdadlife619]

Can you possibly post pictures of her enclosure?

 

[Phobic1]

Took the molt out a while back. She had a big full dish of fresh water.

 

[Phobic1]

She was ready to be rehoused as of this molt. The male was in an identical enclosure and just molted a few days ago.

 

[joossa]

Enclosure is on the small side. Did you keep the sub dry at all times? Was there ever a hide?

Abdomen looks good. I've seen terrestrial Ts that have a proportionally smaller abdomen after having molted.

Dumb question... but are you 100% sure she's dead? She's not really curling (I know not all Ts curl when they die). Did you ever try moving the water dish right up to her mouth around the time she was acting strange?

 

[Phobic1]

Oh shes dead. She has been on her back on a plastic lid for days.

 

[joossa]

I hope someone else can shed some light on what may have happened.

 

[xXTristinaXx]

Maybe some sort of parasite like parasitic fungus or something? A little far fetched I know but at this point just laying out options. Could possibly be microsporidia but symptoms CAN be DKS. Here are the dangerous fungus part if you don't wanna go through the thing -

"The symptoms of a systemic infection with parasitic fungus in a tarantula are hard to see. It will most certainly NOT get fuzzy growth on the outside of its body – real entomoparasites grow on the inside. When they break through the exoskeleton to release the spores from the fruiting bodies the tarantula is already dead. All you will see is the tarantula getting weaker and weaker – and remember, we are talking about WC tarantulas here.

The last group to be concerned with are the Microsporidia, the obligatory intracellular parasites. Their ability to infect arachnids is not well documented, but I know of at least one case of a proven infection in a group of tarantulas. The tarantulas in question actually showed DKS like symptoms and the keeper in question lost a large part of his collection. A pathological analysis of the dead spiders demonstrated Microsporidia in the gut cells. Again, this is a fungus that doesn’t look like a fungus at all and presents with unexpected symptoms...

2. True entomoparasites kill quickly and without much notice – and without any fuzzy growth on the outside - but they need to come from somewhere. You can only reasonably expect them in WC spiders.

3. Microsporidia are the silent, invisible killers. If your tarantula shows signs of DKS, consider these."

All you need to know about mold

Well, I made a similar post about mites and it seemed quite popular, and since questions about mold pop up again and again I thought maybe I can shed some light on this topic, too. The thing is: with mites it was easy. They are harmless, period. With mold it’s not that easy, because there are...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Phobic1]

Maybe some sort of parasite like parasitic fungus or something? A little far fetched I know but at this point just laying out options. Could possibly be microsporidia but symptoms CAN be DKS. Here are the dangerous fungus part if you don't wanna go through the thing -

"The symptoms of a systemic infection with parasitic fungus in a tarantula are hard to see. It will most certainly NOT get fuzzy growth on the outside of its body – real entomoparasites grow on the inside. When they break through the exoskeleton to release the spores from the fruiting bodies the tarantula is already dead. All you will see is the tarantula getting weaker and weaker – and remember, we are talking about WC tarantulas here.

The last group to be concerned with are the Microsporidia, the obligatory intracellular parasites. Their ability to infect arachnids is not well documented, but I know of at least one case of a proven infection in a group of tarantulas. The tarantulas in question actually showed DKS like symptoms and the keeper in question lost a large part of his collection. A pathological analysis of the dead spiders demonstrated Microsporidia in the gut cells. Again, this is a fungus that doesn’t look like a fungus at all and presents with unexpected symptoms...

2. True entomoparasites kill quickly and without much notice – and without any fuzzy growth on the outside - but they need to come from somewhere. You can only reasonably expect them in WC spiders.

3. Microsporidia are the silent, invisible killers. If your tarantula shows signs of DKS, consider these."

All you need to know about mold

Well, I made a similar post about mites and it seemed quite popular, and since questions about mold pop up again and again I thought maybe I can shed some light on this topic, too. The thing is: with mites it was easy. They are harmless, period. With mold it’s not that easy, because there are...

arachnoboards.com

Thanks for the insight. I can say it was a captive bred T that came in a group about 6 months ago. None of the others are having problems. She was one of my best and ferocious eaters. It can only be a parasite of some kind, or bacteria. I sifted through her substrate and didnt find any mold or anything unusual.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Maybe some sort of parasite like parasitic fungus or something?

Seriously doubt it it's any form of parasite unless the OP is constantly buying WC specimens.

Could possibly be microsporidia but symptoms CAN be DKS.

Dyskinesia is usually pretty obvious.

*Obligatory thread link because the term "DKS" needs to get in the bin*

Dyskinesia in tarantulas

I've kinda toyed with the idea of making this thread for a while as I've gotten sick of typing the same things out every time someone has a tarantula that shows the slightest hint of jerky movements so I thought I'd try to consolidate everything into a single thread that I/others can just...

arachnoboards.com

 

[Phobic1]

Seriously doubt it it's any form of parasite unless the OP is constantly buying WC specimens.



Dyskinesia is usually pretty obvious.

*Obligatory thread link because the term "DKS" needs to get in the bin*

Dyskinesia in tarantulas

I've kinda toyed with the idea of making this thread for a while as I've gotten sick of typing the same things out every time someone has a tarantula that shows the slightest hint of jerky movements so I thought I'd try to consolidate everything into a single thread that I/others can just...

arachnoboards.com

Excellent link. I know when i found her, when I turned her over on her back she had some substrate around her fangs. I havnt opened her abdomen to see about impaction. Wouldnt know what to look for.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Excellent link. I know when i found her, when I turned her over on her back she had some substrate around her fangs. I havnt opened her abdomen to see about impaction. Wouldnt know what to look for.

You wouldn't even need to open up the spider, it's usually visible externally (faeces caked around the anus and a visible plug/blockage in the anus itself).

As for what actually caused your tarantula to die? Can't really say for sure but I'd guess it was some sort of moulting complication, the moulting process is extremely hard on them and many things can go wrong.

 

[xXTristinaXx]

Seriously doubt it it's any form of parasite unless the OP is constantly buying WC specimens.



Dyskinesia is usually pretty obvious.

*Obligatory thread link because the term "DKS" needs to get in the bin*

Dyskinesia in tarantulas

I've kinda toyed with the idea of making this thread for a while as I've gotten sick of typing the same things out every time someone has a tarantula that shows the slightest hint of jerky movements so I thought I'd try to consolidate everything into a single thread that I/others can just...

arachnoboards.com

I said it may be a symptom, at least reading the thread I posted makes it look like it doesn't always have that symptom. Also, yeah I highly doubt to but again, just ideas :/

 

[Phobic1]

I said it may be a symptom, at least reading the thread I posted makes it look like it doesn't always have that symptom. Also, yeah I highly doubt to but again, just ideas :/

No worries. We are all just tryin to help each other. Thanx for your input.

 

[Phobic1]

You wouldn't even need to open up the spider, it's usually visible externally (faeces caked around the anus and a visible plug/blockage in the anus itself).

As for what actually caused your tarantula to die? Can't really say for sure but I'd guess it was some sort of moulting complication, the moulting process is extremely hard on them and many things can go wrong.

Yeah. I use straight coco fibre on all my Ts and soak a corner, keep a water dish most of the time. So you think even10 days after molting it could have been the molt process that did it? She did eat once.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Yeah. I use straight coco fibre on all my Ts and soak a corner, keep a water dish most of the time. So you think even10 days after molting it could have been the molt process that did it? She did eat once.

It's possible, I've had the odd sling/juvie that seemingly moulted without issue and then died within a couple of weeks.

 

[LucN]

Very strange indeed. We can only guess. As some have mentioned, possibly something internal that went wrong during the molt. Despite our best efforts, not all of our little ones live a full and healthy life. Definitely something each and everyone of us dreads to experience. How long did you have her ?

 

[Table]

Are you going to preserve her? If your uncomftable with that ik @Smotzer has offered to help me preserve one of my Ts.

 

[Spoodfood]

It is actually quite easy to dry preserve a T. It is slightly time consuming, but straight forward. I have only lost 1 T, and I decided to dry preserve her and put her in a shadow box. You can preserve them wet too, but you’ll need to change the fluids as they yellow. I thought preserving a T would be gross but it really wasn’t that bad.

Edit: if you’re interested in doing this, I learned simply from YouTube videos. It will make it easier to deal with the “grossness” of it since you’ve already seen it done to. I can send a few of the videos I learned from over if you’d like to do it. I also have a video of myself doing it, but I’m sure there’s more detailed and informative versions out there