What went wrong?

[rknralf]

Yesterday morning, I was taking care of my tarantulas and I decided to feed my small B. smithi. She was about .3 inches. Well anyway, I killed one small cricket and placed that in her pill bottle, and I also put a .125 inch live cricket in as well. She seemed okay and was very active, although she didn't seem interested in the food items.
I checked back in the evening, and found her curled up in the middle of the pill bottle. The tiny live cricket was still alive and active and the dead one hadn't been touched.
I have no idea what happened as the B. smithi wasn't damaged/hurt at all. I looked at her under a magnafying glass to make sure. She also didn't appear to be molting either. The only thing different was that I had the window open in the room I keep her in as it was raining. The temperature outside was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Any ideas on what caused her demise? Have any of you had spiderlings die on you unexpectently?
I am really stumped on this one.

 

[Code Monkey]

Sometimes they will die with no warning and no sign of what happened, particularly at that size. I had a Flagstaff Orange sling about the size of yours that up and died for no apparent reason even though it had been active and feeding just a few days earlier.

I doubt very much the open windo what anything to do with. This is one of the reasons you generally pay a lot more for slings over 1", much better chance of survival.

 

[savian]

I had one like that but I think mine was because it got to dry. I really don't like to try to take care of them at that young of a stage. I don't have that much time, I try to look in on everybody but when you have over a certian no. it just gets to hard to due.

 

[rknralf]

I feel a little better knowing I am not the only one to lose a spiderling unexpectently, although I am getting neurotic about checking on my .5" B. emilia.
By the way, how do you know when the little ones are getting ready for a molt? They are translucent and do not have the dark hairs to look for under their abdomen. My .5" B. emilia is really plump and has not been interested in food for a few days. How long would ones that size go without eating before molting?

 

[MrDeranged]

Oh boy. With a B. emilia sling, if your experience is anything like mine, you're in for alot of sleepless nights. Hang on, let me check my records......

Bought 11-10-2001 Size 5/8 Inch
Molted 12-15-2001 Size 5/8 Inch
Molted 03-04-2002 Size 3/4 Inch
Molted 05-15-2002 Size 1 1/8 Inches
Molted 07-06-2002 Size 1 1/4 Inches
Molted 08-19-2002 Size 1 5/8 Inches

The molt sizes are what the size of the exuvia was when I removed it, not the size of the emilia. So at this point, I just know that the is over 1 5/8 Inches. As you can also tell from the dates, this T does not follow any kind of pattern when molting. It went anywhere from 1 1/2 months to 3 1/2 months before molting. This t is also glacial in growth speed. As you can see, I've had this t for almost a year already and it's barely grown an inch since I've gotten it. Just to let you know, that during those long molt periods, there were many times when it would just not eat no matter what I would give it.

Hope that helps you some.

Scott

 

[rknralf]

Scott,
I had no idea they grew that slowly. I'd heard the Grammastola grew slow, but I figured the B. emilia would grow more like my B. smithi. I got my B. smithi at 2.25" in May and he has already had 2 molts and is pushing 4" right now. (He's got a terrible attitude, but thats a whole other story).
I was kinda expecting similiar growth for the emilia, guess I will have sleepless nights ahead.
Ralph