RIP Strawberry the Uloborus

[Theraphosphor]

I accidentally killed my poor Uloborus, and I'm not sure exactly what happened.

Strawberry was being housed in a sauce cup, just like a spiderling. When I went to open it to feed the spider, it dropped off the web. Didn't make a new one after that. I decided to invert the lid to avoid the startling "snap" in the future.

It seemed to be having trouble moving around on the tulle fabric I placed in there, so I decided to remove the tulle with Strawberry still on it.

I made a jungle gym out of ribbon, which should have been easier to climb.

Because of just how tiny Strawberry was, I cut a hair off my arm to coax it off the mesh. Strawberry retreated into a corner (the mesh was tied at one end.

When I tried to coax Strawberry out, it went into a death curl and didn't come out of it the next morning. It may be because I tried to pull the fabric apart, or maybe I poked it with the hair.

I just wished I had been more patient, and let my poor little baby come out on its own. I haven't even had Strawberry for two days...

This spider was probably a spiderling, as it was smaller than even my P. audax sling Harley.

I have no other experience with web-building spiders. Any recommendations for how to keep them, especially tiny ones, so that this doesn't happen again?

How common is Uloborus in Connecticut? Was this a once in a lifetime opportunity?

 

[mikeandbugs]

I've never kept a T before so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but after a bit of googling my best guess would be that Strawberry was ill from the beginning, and that it was not the coaxing. I've seen a lot of people use soft paint brushes to coax Ts, so I cant imagine a hair would be of any difference. It could've been dehydration, which if it's abdomen was shrunken and wrinkled is probably the case. It could also have had parasites or disease, as several diseases are recognized in captive Ts. Overall I think it was just bad luck, and I'm sorry to hear about Strawberry

 

[aaarg]

How common is Uloborus in Connecticut? Was this a once in a lifetime opportunity?

i can't speak for connecticut specifically, but inat has plenty of observations. in my experience in other parts of the eastern US, uloborus is quite common - but only active at night, and even as adults are quite small.

 

[Theraphosphor]

I've never kept a T before so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but after a bit of googling my best guess would be that Strawberry was ill from the beginning, and that it was not the coaxing. I've seen a lot of people use soft paint brushes to coax Ts, so I cant imagine a hair would be of any difference. It could've been dehydration, which if it's abdomen was shrunken and wrinkled is probably the case. It could also have had parasites or disease, as several diseases are recognized in captive Ts. Overall I think it was just bad luck, and I'm sorry to hear about Strawberry

This was a tiny web-building spider smaller than a grain of rice. That's why I used just a tiny hair to attempt to coax it, and why I thought that might've been what ultimately killed it. Thank you, though.