Odd dark dots inside exoskeleton of P. Met sling

[klawfran3]

I have a P. metallica sling about 1.5" DLS that's been in premolt about a month and a half now. It's refused food and darkened, and the opisthosoma has gotten more swollen, so I've been expecting it to molt relatively soon. Because of that I've not disturbed it very much, only checking on it every few days max. Yesterday I noticed that it seemed to have some black/brown speckles on the underside of it's opisthosoma, and upon closer inspection they seem to be inside the exoskeleton. I'm not sure when they appeared since I don't mess with it often and it usually sits on the cork bark so the belly isn't exposed. In the years I've kept Ts, I've never seen something like this before. Has anyone experienced something like it? And if so, what is it?

These are the best photos I can get due to the webbing and milkiness of the plastic.

 

[Isaax Critterz]

Probably old book shedding

 

[klawfran3]

Probably old book shedding

Book shedding?

The spider hasn't molted in about five months or more, this was not on it a few weeks ago.

 

[cold blood]

poop

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Looks similar to sorthing I had something like this in my N. coloratovillosus. Except it was basically his entire abdomen. When he moulted the inside of the moult's abdomen was covered in this hard, dark red stuff. He's fine now and it didn't seem to bother him before that moult but I still don't know what it was.

Weird inside of coloratovillosus moult

When I got this spider there was some odd maroon darkening on the abdomen. Everyone here told me it was an uritcating hairs issue, but I didn’t really buy into that. Now that I have the moult I have this weird stuff inside of it. It’s hard, if I...

arachnoboards.com

 

[klawfran3]

Looks similar to sorthing I had something like this in my N. coloratovillosus. Except it was basically his entire abdomen. When he moulted the inside of the moult's abdomen was covered in this hard, dark red stuff. He's fine now and it didn't seem to bother him before that moult but I still don't know what it was.

Weird inside of coloratovillosus moult

When I got this spider there was some odd maroon darkening on the abdomen. Everyone here told me it was an uritcating hairs issue, but I didn’t really buy into that. Now that I have the moult I have this weird stuff inside of it. It’s hard, if I...

arachnoboards.com

That looks EXACTLY like what I'm seeing!!! It's almost like a dried blood color (I know spider blood is clearish, just using the color as a reference) I wonder if it's a bacterial or viral infection that's cysting up inside?

Has your Nhandu molted again since? Did it form these before the molt again, if it did?

I didn't think it was poop, spider poop is white. I'm glad someone else has seen something similar.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

I've actually seen something similar before, but to a much lesser extent. I almost wonder if something during the molt didn't quite go correctly...particularly when a layer of fluid is supposed to form between the old and new exoskeleton. Just speculating here, but could be pieces of old exoskeleton adhering to the new one, or conversely, that superficial layers of the new exoskeleton may have gotten stuck and been torn off during the molting process. It's hard to say, and does look rather strange. If your tarantula is doing OK, then maybe the possible defect will be fixed after its next molt.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

That looks EXACTLY like what I'm seeing!!! It's almost like a dried blood color (I know spider blood is clearish, just using the color as a reference) I wonder if it's a bacterial or viral infection that's cysting up inside?

Has your Nhandu molted again since? Did it form these before the molt again, if it did?

I didn't think it was poop, spider poop is white. I'm glad someone else has seen something similar.

He had his ultimate moult after this and everything went fine with that one. No traces of the red stuff inside that one that I found.

And it never seemed to bother him in the first place before he moulted out, he acted totally normal for his species. What I did notice was the red patch got bigger as he got closer to a moult, similar to regular abdomen darkening but obviously this was red instead of black. So if this is the same thing on your T, I wouldn't worry too much!

 

[viper69]

Without circles can’t tell what I should see

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Without circles can’t tell what I should see

Skin dots or coloration?? if it’s not a cyst. It’s probably fine. Although a clearer pic would be nice .

 

[viper69]

Skin dots or coloration?? if it’s not a cyst. It’s probably fine. Although a clearer pic would be nice .

Just meant when people put up pics they should draw circles so we aren’t hunting.