How long do H. gigas typically live?

jenniferinny

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
174
We bought ours from a pet store near us that works through a dealer. He was already an adult size when we bought him. Never got to sex him as he never molted in the year we had him. Always looked nice and ate well though. We haven't seen him in the last month, which is kind of unusual as we normally see him at night about every other week. We were hoping that he'd finally molted, but, saw one of his legs in his tunnel and he didn't respond to a cricket we dropped down there. Dug him up to find him dead. Just sitting right below the entrance to his tunnel, very alive looking. Not a bald patch on him, still in good body condition. What would've caused him to die?
He ate about a week ago, polished off his 8 crickets or so like he always does.
Is there anyway he would've died of old age? What does an old tarantula look like?
 

jenniferinny

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
174
He was in a 10 gallon glass aquarium with a mesh lid. About 3/4's of the cage was filled right up with a mixture of bed a beast and coconut fiber stuff. He had a half coconut shell that was the starting point for his tunnel system. He seemed to rearrange his tunnels from time to time.
He had a small water dish in there, and the humidity was kept right around 80, though we'd let it dip into the 70's. We fed him primarily crickets, about 8 a week like another site recommended. We tried superworms, but he didn't seem to find those interesting. He wasn't very skittish, if he was out he wouldn't run right back in his burrow just because you came into the room.
That's pretty much all I can think of. He always looked fine and ate fine till this last week.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
unless you paid a fairly pretty penny you most likely bought a wild caught (WC) individual

there are many problems associated with WCs that are completely outside the hobbyist's ability to deal with. with out any more info, i would say you more or less lost at WC Russian Roulette

aside from probably feeding it more than i would have, your care seems quite nice and appropriate. and lots of ppl would probably say i don't feed enough, so... i'm guessing it is not anything you did to make it dead
 

jenniferinny

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
174
We paid about $70 for him which seemed a pretty good price as the same store sells a 3/4" Brazilian Salmon Pink for the same price.
We definitely won't be buying from pet stores anymore. We just figured with how much shipping can be for overnighting that we'd be better off buying locally. But, the same little spiderling we just paid $70 for is $6 online. Not to mention that's from someone who actually knows what they're doing instead of some importer/dealer. Ah well, live and learn I guess. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't probably something we did. I'll miss seeing the little dude out and about at night. We just ordered some spiderlings from someone on here, so I think I'll post up what I have setup for them and make sure I have it right.
I just hope it was a male and that it just lived out it's lifespan.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
We paid about $70 for him which seemed a pretty good price as the same store sells a 3/4" Brazilian Salmon Pink for the same price.
We definitely won't be buying from pet stores anymore. We just figured with how much shipping can be for overnighting that we'd be better off buying locally. But, the same little spiderling we just paid $70 for is $6 online. Not to mention that's from someone who actually knows what they're doing instead of some importer/dealer. Ah well, live and learn I guess. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't probably something we did. I'll miss seeing the little dude out and about at night. We just ordered some spiderlings from someone on here, so I think I'll post up what I have setup for them and make sure I have it right.
I just hope it was a male and that it just lived out it's lifespan.
holy bugods! $70 for a 3/4 Lasiodora parahybana!? those are produced by the THOUSANDS from each eggsac. ah, i should read your whole post before replying. heh. don't feel bad though. i have gotten hosed pretty good a few times.

it probably wasn't a male, incidentily. they stop burrowing and start wandering when they are mature.
 
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