My Aphonopelma chalcodes is dying. please help me

Tarantulas Golden

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 14, 2020
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22
she was fine 6 hours ago, and now she is in a death curl. I don't know how to help her. She isn't dehydrated, (because it happened so sudden.) she isn't bleeding and she appeared to be having trouble walk 2 days before. She has appeared to be in heavy premolt. She might be stuck in her molt? if so, how can I help her?
 
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Tarantulas Golden

Arachnopeon
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Feb 14, 2020
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22
I afraid it's to late. she is completely gone. I think i'm going to go to bed. I've had a long night trying to save her. I might get some pics of her and find out what was wrong tomorrow. but I'm to tired to do anything right now and she is already dead. thanks for trying to help though. (also I flipped her over after she died and I think that it might have been nemtodes.) she had white surrounding her mouth parts. I will update in the morning, night. :( One other thing. If she did die of nemtodes, what should I do to prevent my other tarantulas from getting it. I have a Grammostola Pulchripes, and a Theraphosi Stirmi kept right next to her.
 

Poonjab

Arachnoking
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Nov 4, 2019
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I afraid it's to late. she is completely gone. I think i'm going to go to bed. I've had a long night trying to save her. I might get some pics of her and find out what was wrong tomorrow. but I'm to tired to do anything right now and she is already dead. thanks for trying to help though. (also I flipped her over after she died and I think that it might have been nemtodes.) she had white surrounding her mouth parts. I will update in the morning, night. :( One other thing. If she did die of nemtodes, what should I do to prevent my other tarantulas from getting it. I have a Grammostola Pulchripes, and a Theraphosi Stirmi kept right next to her.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve never had to deal with nematodes, so I can’t be of any help there. But it would be beneficial to do a follow up thread with pics of your enclosure, etc. this would help determine if there was anything that lead to the cause of death and could help in the future with other T’s. Sorry once again.
 

spideyspinneret78

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Jul 19, 2019
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I'm sorry :( . Even though they're tarantulas, it's still always really hard when you lose one, just as it would be any other pet. It might be a good idea to thoroughly disinfect all of your feeding tongs and other tools that you use for multiple spiders just to be on the safe side. Also thoroughly clean the enclosure, water dish, etc. of the tarantula that died. Hopefully all of your other spiders will be OK.
 

The Grym Reaper

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Also, I flipped her over after she died and I think that it might have been nematodes. She had white surrounding her mouth parts.
Tarantulas often eat their own poop so white crap around the mouth doesn't necessarily equal nematodes. You would need to examine this white stuff under a magnifying glass or microscope to determine whether or not nematodes were actually the culprit. Also, nematodes have to come from somewhere, usually via an already infected WC specimen, this is a possibility seeing as a lot of larger chalcodes specimens in the hobby are wild caught (although I'm not sure how much of a problem parasitic nematodes typically are for desert species in the wild, I'd have thought they'd be more of a problem for species from wetter climates).
Another thing that puts me off of blaming nematodes is that by the time they start pouring out of the mouthparts you would have noticed symptoms like the chelicerae seizing up or dyskinesia, it wouldn't have just suddenly dropped dead.

Without photos and based on the description alone I would hazard a guess at impaction, tarantulas suffering from impaction can deteriorate and die very quickly and some of what you describe matches the symptoms of this particular condition. Is there any faeces crusted around the anus or any visable blockage in it?
 
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Tarantulas Golden

Arachnopeon
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Feb 14, 2020
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Just woke up, sorry there was no pics earlier, but I was kinda stressed and sleep deprived. no use staying up if she was dead. I am going to go take pictures. just so you know: I Know it wasn't dehydration because she was fine 7 hours earlier before she died. when I checked on her after I came home from school at 3:00, then at 5:30 she was curling a view of her legs under her body, I figured that she was just resting in a weird position, but just to make sure, I blew on her and she spread out and looked completely fine. than after 2 minutes she curled the same 2 legs under her carapace. I didn't think much of it. then at about 7:00 she still hadn't moved. (which is a little unusual for my specimen but that usually isn't and issue.) than at 8:00 I checked on her and she was in a full death curl. I flipped her over and she wasn't feisty (she was too weak to move) and I applied water drops from a syringe onto her mouth parts. after doing this for a half and hour she seemed to be getting worse. at this point I was panicked and put her into a ICU, sort of (I took and shower with her enclosure open in the bathroom.) after this she only seemed to be getting worse. I figured that if it was getting worse the problem wasn't dehydration. I had been doing this for 2 hours straight now. I also read that sometimes these spices need arid environments, and humid environment make it worse. so I put her In a dry container where she died 30 minutes later.

Also how do you send pictures. (I'm totally new here as of 12 hours ago.)
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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Dec 8, 2006
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Looks healthy, but clearly it wasn't. This is shame. Unfortunately, these animals are pretty much black boxes with 8 legs.
 

PidderPeets

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After seeing the pictures, my best guesses would be either impaction like Grym said, or a fall. Though those aren't necessarily the only possibilities.

Sorry for your loss
 

Asgiliath

Arachnobaron
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May 4, 2019
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404
Enclosure doesn't look 100% ideal but I don't see anything that could cause a fatality.

So sorry for your loss.
 

Dorifto

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Aug 10, 2017
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Could be possible to someone used a pesticide in your house?
 

Jesse607

Arachnodemon
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Dec 29, 2002
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If not a fall, it may have been inadvertently exposed to insecticide, either from any of the enclosure decor, or from handling (if you did so) after unknowingly touching a treated surface (you may not have known) or a pet cat or dog (or even reptile?) that was treated for fleas, ticks, etc.
 

Morzilla

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 16, 2019
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7
I really sorry for your loss:(. Could you explain more what you mean by flipping her over? Was she upside down?

For the enclosure in the future I may not use such big pointy rocks expesualy since these guys do like to burrow. I would just use a light hide like cork or a plastic pot and bury it half way.
 
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