- Joined
- Dec 29, 2007
- Messages
- 317
I've lost tarantulas due to a number of reasons, but I thought I would post this because very seldom is it heard about. I lost my big 5-6" Mombasa P. murinus girl yesterday and I'm quite upset. I had bred her back on 06/05, and at the time, I saw the insertion and right afterwards when the male pulled out, she collapsed. At the time she didn't move for 5 minutes and she laid at an awkward angle. I thought she was dead, so I picked up the container and she suddenly revived herself; however, she was never the same after that. She refused to eat, and I watched her go downhill, despite all of my efforts to put her into ICU etc. A friend of mine came over and also helped, but to no avail. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. Upon postmortem, my friend and I checked her out and we discovered a small hole above the epigastric furrow. Apparently, the male had stabbed her in the wrong place. She must have been leaking small amounts of hemolymph which we did not see. My friend mentioned to me how he had lost a female from mating once because the male's embolus had broken off into the female. So, mating is not only hazardous to the male, but it can be to the female as well. I was wondering how many other people have lost their females due to mating problems?
