Pink Toe Colonies?

Grael

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Originally posted by Code Monkey
All tarantulas. Do a search for "nematodes" and you'll learn more than you want to know.

The short version is in recent years a disease has begun hitting collections which is a combination of parasitic nematode and toxic bacteria carried by that nematode. Eventually, the midgut is so filled with these nematodes in their bacterial goo that they begin to come out of mouth (and sometimes the anus as well if they are well established in the abdomen). Most often, by the time the goo is visible, the spider only has a short while to live.

There is a second white goo which still hasn't been characterised fully. It may be a yeast, it may be something preliminary to the nematodes. I had an A. avicularia and a B. emilia with this "yeast" infection, both appeared to recover fully, but both also did die this winter of unknown causes which makes me suspicious.
my spider had what i thought it was, a good few months ago, she would wipe the goo all over the cage from her month, and there was quite a lot on the sides, yet shes fit and healthy now and no signs of the white stuff anymore.

did she fight it off or was it something else? i did see the stuff in her fangs, and i remember posting a thread about her too...
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Grael
did she fight it off or was it something else? i did see the stuff in her fangs, and i remember posting a thread about her too...
If your spiders had had the nematode/bacteria infection, they didn't fight that off - the fact that you ever see the external symptoms is clear proof the spider is losing the battle badly. As for the mystery non-nematode white goo that I and a few others have seen (including you), it does appear to go away.

At least that's what I thought. This winter, though, both of the specimens that had it and "recovered" died several months after the last sign so maybe it's something completely different but still deadly, or maybe it's just coincidence. I've lost four adult/subadult spiders this winter, two were mature males, two were "recovered" specimens. Things to make you go, "hmmm..."
 

Longbord1

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everytime my avic eats she gets it so im thinking it could be digested oarts of a cricket that have dried on her mouth. or maybe pet stores put vitamins on their crickets which get on ur Ts mouts.

anyway my avic seems to be fine now.
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Longbord1
everytime my avic eats she gets it so im thinking it could be digested oarts of a cricket that have dried on her mouth. or maybe pet stores put vitamins on their crickets which get on ur Ts mouts.
Well, this was a B. emilia and an A. avicularia that I'm describting, it was my home raised roaches they were eating and, no, it wasn't anything "dried" on their mouths. I've also done microscopic examination of this "goo" and it appeared to be made up of a yeast like organism.

We may be talking about two different things here, what I and presumably Grael are talking about is definitely abnormal. I had to flush my emilia's mouth with a gentle spray because the goo had dried and completely filled her mouth to the point she could neither eat or drink.
 

Longbord1

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well mine wasn't goo it was almost a powdery thing. and it did rub some stuff on its cage but i could be poop
mines an avic avic to
 

da_illest

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damn... you guys made me not want to do a communal setup.... i was hoping on having like 6-7 avic slings in the same enclosure....
payce
 

SkyeSpider

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Originally posted by da_illest
damn... you guys made me not want to do a communal setup.... i was hoping on having like 6-7 avic slings in the same enclosure....
payce
If you ever tried it, I can almost promise you that you'll only have 2-3 fat ones within three months :p

-Bryan
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by da_illest
damn... you guys made me not want to do a communal setup.... i was hoping on having like 6-7 avic slings in the same enclosure...
There's no reason not to do it unless you think there's something wrong with cannibal spiders ;) It's simply a matter of knowing what will likely happen going in and whether you're prepared for that eventuality.

The problem is that "you can keep pinktoes communally" is a very widespread belief, so much so that it manages to filter its way down to ignorant petstore employees who repeat it as fact to the customers :rolleyes:
 

SkyeSpider

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Originally posted by Code Monkey
The problem is that "you can keep pinktoes communally" is a very widespread belief, so much so that it manages to filter its way down to ignorant petstore employees who repeat it as fact to the customers :rolleyes:
Ha! You had to get me started.

A pet store near me keeps all their pinktoes in a single 10 gallon tank. That said, they move them so quickly, they rarely have time to get on each other's nerves :rolleyes:

They'll listen to everything I say about spiders in their store, but not that. It's in every book they carry, so it must be true.

If you tell a lie big enough, and often enough, people will start to believe it.

-Bryan
 

Sheri

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My local pet store also houses their pink toes together, and I was also told they can live together... in fact, that is one of the reasons why I wanted a pink toe...
 

xgrafcorex

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avic not hiding

Gary O said:
I have the fake plants in his cage now(which is a 10 gallon) and 3 hidding places for him. He never uses them though lol.

i have had my a avic for about 3 weeks now and it took it a little while to adjust(moved it from its original tank because it(tank) was too large) and it has finally made a tube web with the fake leaves.
 
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AfterTheAsylum

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Don't keep spiders in colonies. People and books say that you can do it with success, however, if only 3 are killed out of ten... it is still considered success. Don't bother. You may not have problems... however; you might. Why would you even bother? Also, don't use live plants in cages. You have no idea what chemicals and fertilizers have been on these live plants that might just kill the spider. Also, if you keep live plants, you will have to keep it alive by feeding it water. Water will raise the humidity which may cause molting problems in the spider such as loss and/or disfigurement of limbs. Also, it will take your spiders longer to harden after a molt. My advice? Separate all spiders and use fake plants.
 

Rabid Flea

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I am currently keeping 2 pinktoes together in this setup. Mature male and female. I am noticing that the female hides all the time in her "burrow" and the male is very active. So far no problems since breeding 2 weeks ago. Here is the cage.

 

pwilfort

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I have 2 in a 10 gallon tank now, and they get along great,
A friend is like a tarantula, with lots of arms to hug you.

{D
 

cocopuff

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Oct 4, 2004
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Hi,

I have a communal tank: A.Avic living together for a long time now. about 20 gals for 4 of them (adults).

When they are babies / juvi there is no problems (I think the A.Avic are the most gentle T's around, and seeing them living together reinforced my opinion). But when they become adults, thats when the fun kicks in...

You will have mature males and females. The males will only want to reproduce and find females. They will chase the females around without a break :) You will have hurt males (or dead males), gravid females. Thats what happened in my case. I removed one of the male after one got hurted and died :(

Only females or males would be nice. Now I have 2 female left in the tank, and it works fine.
 

Jekka25

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Dec 9, 2003
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I had 2 a. avics together in one average size cage. They will always appear to be "friends" to the keeper's eyes, as long as they aren't killing each other. :wall:
Mine appeared to be pleasant as could be (still I don't know how they could have appeared to have any emotion about it regardless), until one day I came home to see the younger one chillin' on his little landing, and the other one hanging by one foot off his sideways coconut shell-thing that i glued to the wall of the cage: dead.
I assumed initially it was old age.
The next day i saw that the surviving Avic had 2 less appendages. His palps had been taken off, ripped out, yanked, or perhaps he thought he was him and during the fight managed to take his agression out backwards.
Whatever the case, I am sure they had it out and one died. I will never do that again. :wall:
they are pets, you know, at least to me.
The woodland park zoo in seattle has supposedly got a communal regalis set up with 30 together. that must have a quick turnover rate!
 
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