Sketchy Chacos

For some reason, all the chaco slings I've had seem jittery, for lack of a better word. Almost like they show symptoms of the various "DKS" related syndromes. I've had dozens of brachy slings of all kinds and geniculatas, and only the chacos seem to always hit a point where they just behave like they are unhealthy. I don't have a large enough sample size to judge if they are dying off, but some continue to show signs of jerky movement, huddling and twitching, etc. They are still eating.

Is this just a behavior response in this species? I think I have had 30+ chacos and 90% behave in this way as slings, whereas I see it in maybe 5% of other slings. And those slings do it before dying.

Weird. Were all of those from the same sack?

Nope. I have had lots from several sacs. It just seems like their temperament is to huddle, shake, twitch. Now, maybe I do have some fallout in the area related to flea control but NONE of my other spiders are impacted - I haven't had a "DKS"-like death in months. That's why i was wondering if it was a trait of the species. Either that, or they ARE afflicted with something and are sadly dying - but they seem to be eating and growing. Just when I go through and feed my 100+ slings of various types, they are all displaying the same odd behavior. I know for a fact the big batch I have now is from two separate vendors.

Well if it was insecticide poisoning the rest of the collection would suffer as well. I only have one chaco which I raised from a 1" sling. I've not seen this behavior from her.

I have a skittish chaco but it always moves very smoothly, it sounds like they got poisoned, some spiders may be more suspectable than others so perhaps your chacos are sensitive to something in the area

Sharno said:

I haven't had a "DKS"-like death in months. That's why i was wondering if it was a trait of the species.

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Months??? That's not very long at all, not long enough to say its a new issue and not a continuation of the previous issue. I suspect there's something going on, how long has this "flea control" thing been present? Has there been other spraying in the area, house, neighborhood since this has been going down?

Its certainly not a trait of the species...digging, burrowing and eating are. Also, just because you received them from different vendors, doesn't mean they for sure came from different sacs, people sell chunks to several or many different dealers/sellers very frequently.