Wet Molt

[BoyFromLA]

Wet molt, I’ve heard, read about it, but I was, am still not so familiar with the term: wet molt.

I had to look it up. Since Arachnoboards search function is limited / required to use more than four letter words, I had to use other search option.



I went through every Arachnoboards posts about ‘wet molt’ from year 2007 to present to somewhat understand:

1. What wet molt exactly is?
2. What causes it?
3. How to prevent it?
4. How to recover from it?

From my understanding, wet molt is:

1. It rarely happens
2. When it happens, an affected tarantula highly likely will not survive
3. An affected tarantula looks soaking wet, and looks even more fragile, lethargic
4. Not all wet molts are severe
5. What causes it is still unknown
6. Best solution so far is to provide an affected tarantula readily available fresh water at all time
7. Only time can tell

Upon close inspection / observation, my just (molted on 9/23/2023) molted Pamphobeteus solaris is affected by wet molt.




So far it is hard to tell whether it is going to recover from it or not. It is too soon to tell as of this moment, but as far as I can tell, it does not look so good.

I will keep update this post as days go by. I am also very interested to know how this will turn out to be, for this is my first time experiencing this ‘wet molt’ issue. I am just crossing my fingers now.

 

[SpookySpooder]

Good luck

 

[viper69]

I’ve only had one once. T survived.

 

[Wolfram1]

yep nothing really concrete out there, i always assumed it was ether a premature ecdysis or some kind of enzyme misshap.

when the outer exuviae is supposed to be partially degraded and the new exosceleton is somehow not properly protected from those very same enzymes.

but honestly i still have no idea, sad to see it happened to one of yours

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Wet molt, I’ve heard, read about it, but I was, am still not so familiar with the term: wet molt.

I had to look it up. Since Arachnoboards search function is limited / required to use more than four letter words, I had to use other search option.

View attachment 456433

I went through every Arachnoboards posts about ‘wet molt’ from year 2007 to present to somewhat understand:

1. What wet molt exactly is?
2. What causes it?
3. How to prevent it?
4. How to recover from it?

From my understanding, wet molt is:

1. It rarely happens
2. When it happens, an affected tarantula highly likely will not survive
3. An affected tarantula looks soaking wet, and looks even more fragile, lethargic
4. Not all wet molts are severe
5. What causes it is still unknown
6. Best solution so far is to provide an affected tarantula readily available fresh water at all time
7. Only time can tell

Upon close inspection / observation, my just (molted on 9/23/2023) molted Pamphobeteus solaris is affected by wet molt.

View attachment 456436
View attachment 456437

So far it is hard to tell whether it is going to recover from it or not. It is too soon to tell as of this moment, but as far as I can tell, it does not look so good.

I will keep update this post as days go by. I am also very interested to know how this will turn out to be, for this is my first time experiencing this ‘wet molt’ issue. I am just crossing my fingers now.

I'm hoping your solaris pulls through, I'm sure everyone else does too.

It's also a pricey T, one that has been on my list for years.

Best wishes here

 

[mack1855]

I always assumed it was basically like a scab from a cut or torn skin on humans.And it’s accidentally torn off by ripping the scab off.

The wound hasn’t hardened yet,so a moist,wet
part of the skin will need to rescab over and heal completely.The T doesn’t have that option to wait.

IDK just a theory/guess on my part.
And probably so rare,it is not often looked into.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I lost my a genic to one , so I have had a zero success rate. Best of luck to the op!!

 

[BoyFromLA]

Just like that, it’s gone, only few hours after it’s post molt.




I am now really curious what’s the real cause, and if it is even preventable.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Just like that, it’s gone, only few hours after it’s post molt.

View attachment 456476
View attachment 456477

I am now really curious what’s the real cause, and if it is even preventable.

I'm so sorry. It sucks when something like this happens and you feel so helpless. She was a beautiful specimen.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Just like that, it’s gone, only few hours after it’s post molt.

View attachment 456476
View attachment 456477

I am now really curious what’s the real cause, and if it is even preventable.

Damn.....so sorry, that is horrible

 

[winter]

Sorry for your loss. I've only personally seen this once in one of my Theraphosa apophysis; it survived for 10 days after the molt. My log entries...


From what I can gather, it's some sort of derangement in separation of the old from the new exoskeleton, but the exact mechanism is unclear. As @Wolfram1 mentioned above, probably some sort of enzymatic anomaly. However, what I don't understand is what environmental factors would trigger this? The same tarantula has successfully undergone many ecdysis in the past without issues, why a wet molt all of a sudden?

 

[MariaLewisia]

I'm so so sorry for your loss. Wet moults are horrible.

My first ever loss was a juvenile Psalmopoeus cambridgei male that suffered a wet moult. I know he survived for long enough to crawl away from the moult as it was recovered some ways away from the spider, but I - luckily - never saw the poor thing alive in that state. In comparison to yours, mine was unbearable to look at. Horribly disfigured, all legs twisted and mangled looking. Best way I can describe his exoskeleton is like that of a wet, chewed up paper straw. All buckled up and just awful. I'm glad I didn't see him struggle.

Something I discovered during my own research of wet moults is that the spider and/or the inside of the exuvia is sometimes partially covered in a white liquid after a wet moult. This was the case with mine. Both exuvia and the spider was partially white. As far as I'm aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong!) no one knows what this liquid is. It might be excrement but in my case it was found nowhere near the anus, in fact it was smeared on the inside of the carapace and down one or two legs on the inside of the exuvia as well. It dissolved easily in water. Very, very odd.

 

[fcat]

I have no business chiming in except to share my experience. I lost a juvenile B smithi to what I believe was a wet molt. It was my first loss and it hit me hard.

It molted without a hitch and made it's way to the water dish about 48 hours after molting. I didn't observe it actually in the water dish, so I moistened the moss surrounding the water dish (it wicks a lot of moisture from the dish itself but I am always concerned about hydration), which the tarantula was resting on. In the morning, it was in the same spot, but appeared to be sinking into the moss as if it were sucking moisture from it. I dribbled a few more drops as I was watering everyone else before leaving for a 24 hour shift.

When I returned from work, the tarantula had moved approximately 3" away from the water dish, but it didn't look right. Not your typical post molt yoga that causes panic, it was closer to a "sploot" but I could tell by looking at it that something was very wrong. I dribbled a few drops of water near it with a blunt fill, no response. So I tried a paintbrush on leg setae, nothing, and nothing after I nudged the leg. So I lifted the leg to see if there would be any recoil, and it felt limp. There was no lifting this poor thing with a paintbrush because it was like his entire body was jelly. I had to scoop the substrate under it. I tried to flip it as gently as I could and applied water drops. There was no response, and the drops never dwindled. I then gently returned it to an upright position, which proved nearly impossible because there was no resistance anywhere. I had to "drape" this poor thing over a water dish.

Over the next 4 days I repeated this process, the tarantula never started to smell or mold. But there was never any sort of response. It broke my heart but I put it in the freezer. I am embarrassed to admit this but I still can't talk or write or think about it without crying. I don't know how it managed to move those few inches but I know I ended it's life by putting it in the freezer. His name was Lloyd. He may have been a girl I don't know or care.

I am new around these parts so I will admit I have not mastered the search function here. I had the same struggle you did. The only mention I ever came across that made my stomach sink was calcium. I believe I found two separate suspicions here, and one on the old SA boards, and I might be confused but I *think* I read or watched (or read a comment while watching) Tom Moran question calcium as well.

It made my stomach sink because I keep my tarantulas at my boyfriend's house, and he has two leopard geckos that he gutloads his feeders for. Lloyd's last meal may have been a small cricket that accidentally made it's way into the "shaker bin" and may have had the slightest trace of powder on it. I have very good eyesight but there's no way I would tell you there was not a trace of residue. I know that cricket got fed to someone that night but I'm not sure it was that specific tarantula. I didn't suffer any further losses.

I am at work and about to get a patient but I will dig up what I can if possible and see if it helps.

I am heartbroken for you. I can't imagine losing my white whale but I can empathize.

 

[TLSizzle]

Thank you for sharing your experience. So sorry you had to go through that.

 

[Smotzer]

I have never had this happen to be yet, and sorry for your loss it was a beautiful tarantula indeed!

 

[campj]

What a drag for it to happen to a female solaris. Of all species....

I've had it happen at least once (maybe more, but can't remember). D. diamantinensis sling had a wet molt and actually lost two legs as well. I waited it out, provided water, and it molted again within a few weeks and is fine now. Not sure that would have been the case if it were older though, slings are pretty resilient.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Calcium for the feeder crickets is bad? Local entomologist told me to give the gut loading calcium food to my feeder crickets for my T’s…

 

[fcat]

Calcium for the feeder crickets is bad? Local entomologist told me to give the gut loading calcium food to my feeder crickets for my T’s…

I am not saying that...I've seen way too many mentions of it being a myth from several years ago. I just happened upon a few posts that left me wondering if maybe it was the gutload dust contaminated cricket. It would've been the only variable I could measure/document.

I suppose it would be prudent of me to find those posts, it was the same night I went down the RO water tangent (not a factor in this particular case, I was just curious and looking for something to resonate).