- Joined
- Mar 25, 2015
- Messages
- 2,217
Honestly, she's just, well... gone. The enclosure is empty - and closed! I certainly have made mistakes in not closing an enclosure properly a few times over the years and had a few escapes that way, but in each and every case I found the enclosure open and I knew the spider had gotten out and how it had gotten out.
In this case I have a fully and safely closed enclosure - and no spider. The enclosure was never left open, I'm absolutely sure of that. If I had found it even a little bit open I would have gone looking for the spider, making sure it was still there, but there never was a breach in security. I took the cage apart yesterday because nothing in there had changed for months - no new web, no excavation, and I wanted to make sure... well, I made sure the spider was gone. The enclosure was absolutely secure - it was actually the first European glass enclosure I ever set up for an Asian arboreal and I was a bit paranoid and not even a sling could have gotten out of that, let alone a subadult O. schioetei.
Now, my O. schioedtei was very, very reclusive, maybe the most reclusive of all. The last time I've seen her was several months ago. I remember her abdomen looked weird - asymmetrical, and I remember I wasn't sure about her health. She also was in premolt, moving very slow for that species. I found a very old molt in there, broken and in pieces, so she must have molted at some point. I also found a live Dubia in there... and the last time I've fed her is quite a while back (months ago). Can that Dubia have eaten the spider, like completely and without a trace??? Maybe with some help from the usual cleaner crew? Usually I don't worry about live prey with arboreals because they make thick cocoons to molt in that no Dubia can get in - or, more often, they just kill the prey they don't want and dump it in the water dish. Maybe in this case the O. schioedtei was sick and didn't kill the Dubia or make a perfect cocoon and got killed and completely consumed by the Dubia? Do you think that's possible?
Does anyone have any better ideas what happened to my spider? I'm sure she has been missing or dead for weeks or even months already and I just never noticed.
In this case I have a fully and safely closed enclosure - and no spider. The enclosure was never left open, I'm absolutely sure of that. If I had found it even a little bit open I would have gone looking for the spider, making sure it was still there, but there never was a breach in security. I took the cage apart yesterday because nothing in there had changed for months - no new web, no excavation, and I wanted to make sure... well, I made sure the spider was gone. The enclosure was absolutely secure - it was actually the first European glass enclosure I ever set up for an Asian arboreal and I was a bit paranoid and not even a sling could have gotten out of that, let alone a subadult O. schioetei.
Now, my O. schioedtei was very, very reclusive, maybe the most reclusive of all. The last time I've seen her was several months ago. I remember her abdomen looked weird - asymmetrical, and I remember I wasn't sure about her health. She also was in premolt, moving very slow for that species. I found a very old molt in there, broken and in pieces, so she must have molted at some point. I also found a live Dubia in there... and the last time I've fed her is quite a while back (months ago). Can that Dubia have eaten the spider, like completely and without a trace??? Maybe with some help from the usual cleaner crew? Usually I don't worry about live prey with arboreals because they make thick cocoons to molt in that no Dubia can get in - or, more often, they just kill the prey they don't want and dump it in the water dish. Maybe in this case the O. schioedtei was sick and didn't kill the Dubia or make a perfect cocoon and got killed and completely consumed by the Dubia? Do you think that's possible?
Does anyone have any better ideas what happened to my spider? I'm sure she has been missing or dead for weeks or even months already and I just never noticed.