Poec54
Arachnoemperor
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2013
- Messages
- 4,745
Question - As I've said, the onset of the only symptom (not eating, completely normal pre-molt or in general) was sudden and death was almost immediately following, after normal behavior. For months, the T was fine. There was no fall, because the T was too big to get off the ground and climb smooth glass.
I can see old age being a gradual winding down. I can see bad temperature, bad humidity, being a gradual winding down. What I can't see are these two factors resulting in almost instant death out of nowhere.
With the shortcomings of the cage, a combination of factors may have pushed it over the edge. Because of a quick decline, a fall can't be ruled out, as it may have managed to get up higher one time; no one watches their spiders 24/7. It could have landed on a bad spot on the abdomen, and it wouldn't have to have been very high at all for that to have had complications. From the dozens of stirmi/blondi I've owned over the last 20 years, with moist substrate and a more closed lid, a healthy, feeding Theraphosa has never gone downhill that fast.