Mature male molting

[jcmbibb311]

My MM A. chalcodes is going into a post-ultimate molt. Not expecting him to make it, but he’s lived this far so fingers crossed.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

A "post-ultimate molt?" I just did a site-search (so Viper wouldn't get mad at me..), & only see it referenced, but not explained. I'm assuming from context that this is equivalent to senescence in cephs, but one of the results mentioned that his was "a year past post-ultimate molt," & still eating, so if you'd be gracious enough to explain what exactly that is further, I'd be grateful...

 

[CommanderBacon]

Ooh, watching.

 

[jcmbibb311]

A "post-ultimate molt?" I just did a site-search (so Viper wouldn't get mad at me..), & only see it referenced, but not explained. I'm assuming from context that this is equivalent to senescence in cephs, but one of the results mentioned that his was "a year past post-ultimate molt," & still eating, so if you'd be gracious enough to explain what exactly that is further, I'd be grateful...

He is already a mature male, which means that he has already gone through his ultimate molt. Most mature males don’t live for longer than about a year after this molt, depending on the individual spider. However, some make it to their next molt which would be the post ultimate molt. Most of the time, though, the male doesn’t survive because he gets stuck. There are some cases where they do survive but die shortly after, but it seems rare.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

He is already a mature male, which means that he has already gone through his ultimate molt. Most mature males don’t live for longer than about a year after this molt, depending on the individual spider. However, some make it to their next molt which would be the post ultimate molt. Most of the time, though, the male doesn’t survive because he gets stuck. There are some cases where they do survive but die shortly after, but it seems rare.

Thanks for the explanation, friend. I hope your spider is one of the lucky ones.

 

[mjzheng]

I hear a lot of times their larger palps get stuck . Hope he pulls through ! Watching this

 

[viper69]

Thanks for the explanation, friend. I hope your spider is one of the lucky ones.

I've had it happen once.

 

[CJJon]

Wonder how it’s doing.

 

[jcmbibb311]

He has most of his body out, but his pedipalps are stuck. I’ve been watching him and he’s still moving but really don’t know how it will end.

 

[CommanderBacon]

I hope he makes it but I don't know how. Good luck, little man.

 

[jcmbibb311]

Update: he is apparently SO determined to live that he managed to flip himself over with the whole molt attached at his pedipalps and is attempting to walk around with it stuck to him. I’m pretty sure he’s bleeding somewhere, but I can’t tell where and he doesn’t want me to know where either because when I tried to look he flicked as many hairs as he possibly could. Not sure what to do with him right now.

 

[Smotzer]

Will he not let you get any where close to him?

 

[jcmbibb311]

Will he not let you get any where close to him?

He wouldn’t earlier, but I managed to get a look again just now. He’s losing fluids where he lost a leg, and he also lost a pedipalp but the other one is stuck hence why the whole molt is still attached to him from that one spot. He’s really fighting me though anytime i try to get a look, but there isn’t much he can actually do to me.

 

[Thekla]

Could you try to soften the pedipalp where the rest of the moult is still attached with a wet q-tip? And then carefully try to strip it off?

This might help as well:

Tarantula Stuck in Its Molt? Look Here for Advice

Tarantulas sometimes get stuck during molting – it happens, nobody really knows why. Accordingly there are a lot of threads that go “Help, my tarantula is stuck, what should I do?” More often than not the advice is to do nothing because ‘the tarantula knows best how to be a tarantula’. I think...

arachnoboards.com

But whatever you do you should do it quickly. Good luck!

 

[BrittanyS]

I was going to suggest wetting the stuck area with warm water using a medicine dropper or something similar. I’ve only had to do this with slings, so I’m not sure how well it would work at this point, but it’s worth a shot!

 

[jcmbibb311]

I regret to say that I think this is the end for him. He definitely fought hard, but I saw this coming and didn’t expect him to live as it’s so uncommon for mature males to survive their post ultimate molt. Thank you to everyone that was rooting for him and gave advice!! He managed to get himself out of the molt the best that he could and really tried to make it work, but I believe he lost a bit too much fluid during the process.

 

[CommanderBacon]

RIP little man