Can a tarantula drown?

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SLINGwingMAN

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I have a tarantula that is soaking wet...I went to remove a bolus and the sling accidently landed in the tiolet too...my sling is moving and alive but is struggling. What can I do to help ensure its survival? I know I am stupid but I need help for my T's sake. Don't need any smart ass veteran responses...just any suggestions on how to help my T.
 
kitkatie

kitkatie

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Ts can absolutely drown, I unfortunately don't have any advice for you, but I am super curious as to how it ended up in the toilet... would you mind explaining the step by step on that one? (I'm not being mean, just honestly curious...)
 
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SLINGwingMAN

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It looks to be doing better. As far landing in the toilet I tried removing the bolus and she was attached with a web. This was a very scary experience and I am glad it looks like its gonna be ok. I need to be more careful when cleaning. This has been a valueable learning experience for me and I promise I won't do it again :)
 
Ivymike1973

Ivymike1973

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The only thing I could suggest is to put the sling in a container with a dry paper towel to help absorb any excess water. As long as the book lungs aren't covered with water I would expect it to be fine. Just make sure to put it back in a moist environment once the excess water is gone.
What kind of sling is it ?
 
malevolentrobot

malevolentrobot

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iirc talking to caco and others more versed in tarantula anatomy its considered suffocating, not drowning. i only have very limited knowledge about the whole surface tension of water and book lungs thing so i cannot say for sure if its in trouble. however, the link may have some information to ease you mind.

(my memory is very fuzzy about the particulars of the convo, but i believe we were discussing H. gigas and their proclivity for "swimming" as a response to the whole "drowning/suffocating" thing and it being pretty hard to do without some type of agent like soap as mentioned above.)
 
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SLINGwingMAN

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It is a 1 inch C. fasciatum. it is doing well and I think it will recover, I just feel like an ass for making it stress like i did.

---------- Post added 06-23-2012 at 02:22 PM ----------
 
Last edited:
Storm76

Storm76

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kitkatie said:
Ts can absolutely drown, I unfortunately don't have any advice for you, but I am super curious as to how it ended up in the toilet... would you mind explaining the step by step on that one? (I'm not being mean, just honestly curious...)
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Alright, so where does that info come from? Ever seen it happen?

This is one single thing that I found different between german / US T scene - as far as I'm aware - T's can NOT drown unless you actually try to drown them while pushing them underwater to do so.

Tarantula legs have an extremely little effect on the surface of the water, hence why their legs don't sink INTO the water. I've read this stuff here so often by now, I don't know what's right or wrong anymore, so if anyone of you that can give the scientifically correct explanation, please do so!

From what I'm aware, it works like this:
The surface on the water has a certain "hardiness" for lack of a better term, now a T doesn't have enough weigth and hence doesn't put enough pressure on that surface to break through and sink in. You can actually SEE right that effect when your T has a leg in the waterdish - the water "bends" below that foot, it doesn't sink in...especially the smaller the T, the less weight I assume.

PLEASE! I know I've read the explanation somewhere in some thread on here, but I can't find it anymore for the life of it - I hope someone can dispell this myth...
 
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nfronk13

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Storm76 said:
Alright, so where does that info come from? Ever seen it happen?

From what I'm aware, it works like this:
The surface on the water has a certain "hardiness" for lack of a better term, now a T doesn't have enough weigth and hence doesn't put enough pressure on that surface to break through and sink in. You can actually SEE right that effect when your T has a leg in the waterdish - the water "bends" below that foot, it doesn't sink in...especially the smaller the T, the less weight I assume.

PLEASE! I know I've read the explanation somewhere in some thread on here, but I can't find it anymore for the life of it - I hope someone can dispell this myth...
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Spiders have microscopic hairs on the ends of their legs called setae which have even smaller hairs on it which is how they climb on glass due to Van Der Waals interactions (the polarity whether attracting or repelling, of the molecules create a weak bond) i would imagine this is the reason they dont sink, as well as being very light and having a lot of surface area which would make them even harder to sink due to surface tension on all their tiny hairs. Dont quote me on that though haha.
 
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SLINGwingMAN

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You are right it just floated there until I scooped it out. It looked as if it was going to die (not responding to stimuli, moving sluggish) when I put it back in its home but after a few minutes it was totally fine again chillin in it's burrow giving me the evil eye.
 
Tweak

Tweak

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I think at 1" you s. cal should be fine. This is what Stan Shultz said on slings drowning on a different thread:

Baby tarantulas, probably less than 4th or 5th instar, have not yet developed the wax layer in the epicuticle, and therefore their body surfaces may become wet on contact to water, and in theory they can drown. However, because they're so small and fragile we keep them in small containers like pill bottles and such:

However, by the time a tarantula has grown to a DLS of 1.5" (3.8 cm) it's well beyond that stage, getting ready to be acclimatized to its adult care regimen. They developed the wax layer a long time ago and now can be wet only with great difficulty. If they fall into a water dish they float like corks! Of all the not-so-clever ways that enthusiasts have discovered for killing their tarantulas (e.g., dropping them, flea powdering them, letting the cat eat them) the one technique that you never see reported on these forums is drowning in the water dish.
 
advan

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SLINGwingMAN said:
You are right it just floated there until I scooped it out. It looked as if it was going to die (not responding to stimuli, moving sluggish) when I put it back in its home but after a few minutes it was totally fine again chillin in it's burrow giving me the evil eye.
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It was moving sluggish because the last time it was moving normally you flung him in the toilet. I'd be giving you the evil eye too if you just gave me a swirly! :5:
 
Storm76

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nfronk13 said:
Spiders have microscopic hairs on the ends of their legs called setae which have even smaller hairs on it which is how they climb on glass due to Van Der Waals interactions (the polarity whether attracting or repelling, of the molecules create a weak bond) i would imagine this is the reason they dont sink, as well as being very light and having a lot of surface area which would make them even harder to sink due to surface tension on all their tiny hairs. Dont quote me on that though haha.
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Thanks! That's what I was talking about!


advan said:
Like this? :ninja:
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Awesome pic, Chad! Thanks for posting that, nice proof!


advan said:
It was moving sluggish because the last time it was moving normally you flung him in the toilet. I'd be giving you the evil eye too if you just gave me a swirly! :5:
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LOL - that made my evening!
 
Merfolk

Merfolk

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To answer the original question : yes they can drown, but it would take a bit. If they are allowed access to air and the book lung dry they will live on. They have little need for oxygen and a passive respiration, so air (or water) is not actually drawn inside a cavity in the body like us. Once the animal is on dry surface, water just falls down from the book lungs. On the other hand, warm blooded animals with a fast metabolism (birds and small mammals) will drown real quick, I remember picking up a baby sparrow fallen from the nest and dropping it into water while trying to clean it. I was very swift to pick it up but the thing was already dead after like a second in the water.


I once flooded the enclosure of my H mac and it simply lived like a diving bell spider for a week or so!
 
beaker41

beaker41

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Many moons ago I was raising a T. Blondi sling and at about 3" I made the mistake of puting too deep a water dish in after a tank change. I came home and to my horror my little buddy was floating lifeless. I didn't have the heart to flush him so I just fished him out of the dish and left him resting on a half toilet paper tube I had in there for a hide under a small heat lamp. To my surprise I came back later ad he has miraculously recovered. He died on the next molt some months later but it goes to prove how resiliant they can be.
 
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SamuraiSid

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Did a quick search and couldnt find the original post, but I recall reading Stan has a post disproving that T's can easily drown. Something about a waxy-waterproof layer, bouyancy, and air pockets around the book lungs as protection... if I remember correctly;) Only when the T becomes completely submerged (unless your name is gigas) will it "drown", and due to all the aforementioned, the likely hood of a T becoming submerged is highly unlikely, unless of course there is some other force at work.

Storm76 said:
Alright, so where does that info come from? Ever seen it happen?



This is one single thing that I found different between german / US T scene - as far as I'm aware - T's can NOT drown unless you actually try to drown them while pushing them underwater to do so.
QUOTE]

I recently got a T book from Germany, "Tarantulas in the Vivarium" {Klauss, 1988}, and am pleasantly surprised by the differences between Europe and N.A. enthusiasts. Seems the Europeans are far more accepting of intangibles, wheras Americans prefer everything to be cut-and-dry, paint by numbers sort of deal...
Click to expand...
 
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