lifespan for B. vagans and P. cancerides? Mine are dying!

DaveEmory

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Hello, all. I've got 30-some different tarantulas at this point, but only two of mine were raised from tiny slings, a B. vagans and a P. cancerides. Both are adult females.

Each was born early 2009... and my vagans just died. Molted just fine, but never or rarely ate after the molt, and got weaker and less responsive until finally giving up the ghost. And now I am watching the repeat scenario happen with my P. cancerides, who has always been happy (and nasty) and healthy, but she won't eat since last molt and is clearly dying.

So: has anyone had experience with females of these species where they've actually known their ages? Is five years actually their potential average lifespan?? I was expecting quite a few more years from both of them and am a little saddened.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Maybe your care is off, or there molts were bad ...My B vagans female is like 8 yrs old and doing fine.
15-20 years is prob the lifespan of these. What food are you using?? are your temps too cold.
 

DaveEmory

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Turkistan roaches nowadays, but mealworms, crickets, etc. in the past. Heated cabinet. Good moisture/water dish amounts. Everyone else I have seems happy and normal.
 

vespers

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Is five years actually their potential average lifespan??
No. Just because your vagans died at age 5, doesn't mean that its representative of the average lifespan. Many are going to live shorter lives than what is considered average; if the average lifespan of a B. vagans is believed to be 15 to 20 years, around half of them will die younger than that.
 

awiec

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No. Just because your vagans died at age 5, doesn't mean that its representative of the average lifespan. Many are going to live shorter lives than what is considered average; if the average lifespan of a B. vagans is believed to be 15 to 20 years, around half of them will die younger than that.
I second this, the average life span of a human in the us is around 79 but there are many people who die before that or after. Same goes for tarantulas, its possible that your b.vegans might have had some issues with her stomach being formed improperly and thus couldn't eat well. It sucks that you expect these spiders to live over 10 years but don't get that out of them. All you can do is get some more and try again
 

problemchildx

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Was it at all possible they were males?

5 years is quite low for any female Brachypelma. They are mostly from central america so I doubt it's a water dish problem.

Sorry for your loss :(
 

DaveEmory

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Most definitely females. It is POSSIBLE that the Haitian Brown (P. cancerides) didn't get enough water. I got a little lazy with her, and know she bolted for the water dish sometimes when I filled it. The vagans, no. She's been raised just like all my other Brachypelmas.

It's mysterious. The vagans started exhibiting this "pulsing" of some her legs in her final week. You could see one slightly elevated, and undulating back and forth.
 

problemchildx

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Most definitely females. It is POSSIBLE that the Haitian Brown (P. cancerides) didn't get enough water. I got a little lazy with her, and know she bolted for the water dish sometimes when I filled it. The vagans, no. She's been raised just like all my other Brachypelmas.

It's mysterious. The vagans started exhibiting this "pulsing" of some her legs in her final week. You could see one slightly elevated, and undulating back and forth.
I agree with what others said about certain individuals dying sooner than others, but they didn't really mention that it's always obvious why. Bad molt, bad fall, eaten by predators, etc. Yours kind of died for no reason. Which leads me to believe during her last molt something happened possibly inside the spider.

If you are really worried about the P cancerides you should consider an ICU if she gets worse.
Good luck
 

telepatella

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I have had adult tarantulas die for no apparent reason, especially after molting, no telling why though... Just make sure they have their water dishes.
That pulsating thing is a concern. Any more info on that?
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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I agree with what others said about certain individuals dying sooner than others, but they didn't really mention that it's always obvious why. Bad molt, bad fall, eaten by predators, etc. Yours kind of died for no reason. Which leads me to believe during her last molt something happened possibly inside the spider.

If you are really worried about the P cancerides you should consider an ICU if she gets worse.
Good luck
+1 this killed my P regalis this week, refused food since molt, another regalis got stuck in molt died soon after losing pedipulps.,
 

problemchildx

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+1 this killed my P regalis this week, refused food since molt, another regalis got stuck in molt died soon after losing pedipulps.,
Sorry to hear about your regalis. But yes I have a growing suspicion that the spiders who die for "no apparent reason" are most likely injured internally. This is even more confusing because the ones damaged in this way often take 'a while' to die, and in a good number of cases the injured Ts will often bleed or something similar.

It's too bad there is so much we do not know about these creatures.

Edit: Disclosure: This is pure conjecture and is not based on any scientific fact or evidence.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Sorry to hear about your regalis. But yes I have a growing suspicion that the spiders who die for "no apparent reason" are most likely injured internally. This is even more confusing because the ones damaged in this way often take 'a while' to die, and in a good number of cases the injured Ts will often bleed or something similar.

It's too bad there is so much we do not know about these creatures.

Edit: Disclosure: This is pure conjecture and is not based on any scientific fact or evidence.
Well maybe Any juvie pokies I have will have to live in 10 gallon(arboreal) , Id really like to figure out why these Ts had bad molts. Issue IS i NEED like 10 more tanks, budget wont allow right now that's $250
 
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DaveEmory

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She is still alive and she has uncharacteristically gone into her burrow area under a carved out log. I've made sure the substrate all around her is sufficiently damp, and there's a heating strip behind the area.

I seem to remember some years ago reading about something people were calling "dyskenetic syndrome", or similar, which seemed to cause tarantulas to pulse repeatedly.
 

problemchildx

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She is still alive and she has uncharacteristically gone into her burrow area under a carved out log. I've made sure the substrate all around her is sufficiently damp, and there's a heating strip behind the area.

I seem to remember some years ago reading about something people were calling "dyskenetic syndrome", or similar, which seemed to cause tarantulas to pulse repeatedly.
DKS is more like twitchy rapid movement, slowly pulsating I think would be different.
 

DaveEmory

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Well, it's over, as the P. cancerides has finally checked out. She never showed any signs of improvement. And now I'm thinking she must have had a bad molt, because I kept _thinking_ she was eating, as she was one of the most voracious eaters I've had, but I found uneaten roaches in there from quite a while ago (still alive). Sad!
 

awiec

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Well, it's over, as the P. cancerides has finally checked out. She never showed any signs of improvement. And now I'm thinking she must have had a bad molt, because I kept _thinking_ she was eating, as she was one of the most voracious eaters I've had, but I found uneaten roaches in there from quite a while ago (still alive). Sad!
Very possible that her stomach didn't shed properly, quite a few don't ever make it to maturity for some reason or another. It's possible that there was some sort of poisoning involved but if the rest of your collection is fine then you just unfortunately had a few all die at the same time.
 
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