Well this stinks

[Protectyaaaneck]

Over the last few days I had been watching my female C. sp. "Sumatra Tiger" female gear up for what seemed to be a molt. Her brother had just molted 2 weeks before so I knew she would be molting shortly thereafter. Well, yesterday I came to her enclosure and found her sitting in a wierd position up against the enclousure with half of her body on the substrate and half on the deli. I picked up the deli and she didn't even move. This action would normally spook most tarantulas but she didn't even flinch. I grabbed the water bottle and sprayed her enclousure to see if she would move. The only thing that happened when I did this was that she flailed a few legs. It didn't seem like normal spider movement to me so I freaked out and managed to get her into an ICU. When I put her in, there were still some signs of life, now this morning, there are none at all. I have no idea what happened. She was a seemingly healthy tarantula. It really stinks because I had 2 females for 4 males. Now I only have 1 female for 4 males and the two slings I have are too far behind these guys to be considered for breeding any time soon.

Her mouth parts are wet b/c I tried giving her a little water.

So yeah, I'm pretty bummed out about this.

 

[grayhound]

sorry

Sorry to see / hear about your T. This looks and sounds EXACTLY like what happened to me and my P. Irminia about a month ago. I would love to hear some input on this issue too.

 

[Rue]

Sorry about your T.

 

[Spidershane1]

An Avic of mine did the same thing recently.
She tubed herself in for a molt, and about 2 weeks after the molt she had not yet come out, so I went in to check on her. She barely budged when poked, and was twitching slightly. Her legs also looked super wobbley and were curled under a bit.
I set her on the carpet and she could sort of walk, but she was so twitchy and unsteady that her legs would buckle & she would fall over to one side every few steps. I attempted to pinch grab her and she flailed around spastically. She appeared on the brink of death and I thought it might be DKS or that the molt had deformed her new body beyond usage.
So I gave her water with a syringe, then put her in the deli cup ICU with very moist paper towels and a soda cap with water. I put it on the floor of my closet I kept a space heater on low pointed it. I kept it at around 90-92F.
Within 48 hours, her legs had untucked and she was standing normal, but was still lethargic. I syringe watered her again & ground a lobster roach into paste, added a couple drops of water and left the concoction for her overnight.
24 hours later she looked as healthy as ever, so I put her back into her home & shes been active and eating for a week or two now. I hope your T has something similar & maybe you will be able to pull her through as well.

 

[jbm150]

Dude, that absolutely sucks. I'm sorry for your loss, especially considering the species. It's frustrating that nearly nothing is known about these T deaths. They eat, molt, grow, and live for months or years and then bam, they just die. Just too many variables. Again, I'm sorry you lost this lady

 

[dianedfisher]

Hugs to you Jason. What a terrible loss. **(crying)** Lost a P.metallica male last month the same way. No apparent cause, fully hydrated, no sign of 'todes-just stretched out on the floor of his cage. At least he was a MALE. Life sucks sometimes and not knowing why it happened is the worst. You can't prevent something from happening when you don't know what happened. Chin up, J and best of luck with that last girl and her studs.
Diane

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

Thanks for the kind words everybody. I still wish I could figure out why this happened to her. I didn't have her in my possession for long but upon getting here she seemed healthy as a button. Her brother molted just fine and is currently just hanging out in his deli. The real bummer was that this was my larger female. All of these males I have are gonna have to be slowed down a bit more now because of this.

@Jeff & Diane- I hate these unexplained deaths. At least when one of my olivacea slings passed it was because of some weird cyst on the abdomen.

Oh well, maybe I'll find another female to replace her.

 

[Anastasia]

yes, I hate them unexplained deaths too, but they just seems happens
worst one I got last year, I found beautiful young adult female clutching a sac, dead as a door knob, I didnt know how long she been gone
very sad indeed.........

 

[syndicate]

Ahh that sucks Jason!Sorry to here man :/
I've had a couple of Cyriopagopus and Lampropelma die for no apparent reason before to.Was her deli cup super moist?
-Chris

 

[patrick86]

Condolences Jason. It's hard to lose any spider but losing the not so common ones and a female with potential future breeding plans really hit hard. I wish you the best with the rest of them and I hope there are more females out there that need the services of your males.

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

yes, I hate them unexplained deaths too, but they just seems happens
worst one I got last year, I found beautiful young adult female clutching a sac, dead as a door knob, I didnt know how long she been gone
very sad indeed.........

Wow, sorry to hear about that. That would stink. Did you at least get babies or was it no good? What sp. was it?

Ahh that sucks Jason!Sorry to here man :/
I've had a couple of Cyriopagopus and Lampropelma die for no apparent reason before to.Was her deli cup super moist?
-Chris

Actually Chris, it was pretty moist but not any worse than any of my other recently setup enclosures. Do you think that was the problem? All of my other Cyrios and Lampros seem to be doing fine and I set them up the same way as her.

I know the cork was moved so it doesn't look like she had much going on in there but she did have a webbed up chamber underneath the cork. She didn't burrow like some of my other tigers did but it's not like she wasn't active when I got her. She was full of attitude. She'll be missed.

---------- Post added at 03:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:48 PM ----------

Condolences Jason. It's hard to lose any spider but losing the not so common ones and a female with potential future breeding plans really hit hard. I wish you the best with the rest of them and I hope there are more females out there that need the services of your males.

Thanks Patrick. It definitely sucks, I was so anxious for her to molt too. I had a feeling she was going to look awesome after this molt. I'm sure there are other people who'll have females when my males are ready. I know of one person right now who has some and and I'm sure there are others, so if I don't have success I'm sure someone else will. I would just like to see them established in the hobby. They're such a beautiful sp.

 

[Anastasia]

Wow, sorry to hear about that. That would stink. Did you at least get babies or was it no good? What sp. was it?

ornata, she took sac with her.. just cant save them all

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

ornata, she took sac with her.. just cant save them all

Wow, way to get me freaked out right before my ornatas are gearing up for sacs. lol jk That would really stink though, I feel your pain.

 

[malevolentrobot]

sorry to hear she ended up passing

its the deaths we never really know the cause of that seem to suck the most (at least for me), because you are just kind of left there scratching your head and wondering what you could have done.

 

[ZergFront]

Sorry about the loss. Especially considering the species.

Makes me wonder sometimes how anyone could be afraid of such fragile creatures..