i was going to ask if my pede was in premolt...but it's dead

edesign

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barely had this thing a week and a half and it's dead...not sure what I did wrong unless these things are really sensitive. It's a S. subspinipes (Vietnamese) that was about 7" long minus terminal legs and antennae. I was going to ask if it was in premolt as it had not moved in a few days and wasn't very active, but when i went to take pics of it today the tank smelled bad. I think there's a tiny bit of mold (white, fuzzy, not very thick though) by the water dish but the pede hides under the cork bark. http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=45342

put it on 2" of peat moss substrate that I kept damp, but not swampy. When I got the pede it was sitting on top of the paper towels in the deli cup and was extremely inactive (like most of the inverts i've received, I figure it's normal after a stressful trip). barely twitched an antenna while I cut the tape holding the lid on the container. When I was 3/4 done as I cut one swath of tape it whipped it's head around to it's tail and slowly became "alive" while I finished opening the cup. By the time I put it in it's new home (10g tank) it was quite active...racing around the tank looking for someone or something to punish lol. It promptly ate two crickets and another a couple days later. It always had a water dish with water in it.

Here's where I think I may have started to encounter a problem...I was good about keeping the substrate damp for the first 6 or 7 days, i forget which exactly. I am usually a bit sleep deprived by the end of the week, I work 7-6 mon-fri, and get 5 hours of sleep a nite or less...getting better, used to be less:D I didn't water the tank one day last weekend and my A/C is running alot since daily temps are now in the low 90's for the most part, sometimes high 80's and high humidity. The next day I noticed the pede had not moved from the day before so I removed it's hide after checking the substrate dampness with my hand (in the far corner of course). It was almost bone dry which shocked me as it was fine the day before. I moistened the substrate immediately. The pede barely moved when i took the hide out, i touched it's terminal legs with my tongs and they flipped up in the usual defensive posture. I took this as a good sign but soon noticed that even when I touched it's legs in the midsection or even it's head that it barely wanted to move. Finally it slowly started walking off, around it's water dish to the far side of the tank and back to where it started and stopped.

I put the lid back on and decided that there wasn't much else I could do other than wait and check on it the next day. After work Monday I peeped in on it and it had changed position at some point so i took that as a good sign. It didn't move the next couple days but my A. seemani will do that sometimes and I've had it for over a year, I also know that pedes aren't the most active creatures out there so I didn't worry too much.

Thursday it still hadn't moved nor had the cricket (aside from turning around or waving antennas), still hiding where it had been since monday. I know, I know i should've removed the cricket long ago...bad habit I have but I did remove the crix when I noticed my two T slings were close to molting. They molted the two days, one each day :) Anyway...The pede's rear 1/4 legs were curled underneath it grasping whatever substrate happened to be there. It did not respond to any stimuli at all...still wanting to believe an impending molt, even though I figured in the back of my head it was dead, I left it alone for another day and a half til I woke up today. Nothing had changed except a bad smell had started to develop at which point I accepted the fact it was dead.

I'm thinking it may have died from dehydration, maybe old age as it was relatively large. It always had at least 1/8" of water in it's water dish and I kept the lid 70% covered, still more open space than the plexi lids I see people using here so I'm sure air ventilation was fine.

Another concern I have is when I received it the pede was on top of the paper towels in the deli cup. The second or third day I had it I noticed it was missing a leg. Thinking back I recalled there was a brown fluid stain on the paper towels about the size of a 50 cent piece. my neighbor can verify this, I told him to watch me unpack it in case I got bit or needed help...he doesn't like them lol, even had a nightmare about it that night. Since I didn't notice the missing leg til after I had thrown out the packing I could not check the container to see if it was in there. I emailed the person I got it from letting them know that it was missing a leg, wasn't bleeding as far as I could tell, and appeared to be ok.

It was shipped on a Friday which caused me some concern when I found out Saturday afternoon, but figured i'd stay calm until it arrived. I don't know what time it was shipped Friday but that's still almost three days shipping. I received the package at noon Monday and opened it immediately after work (6:30).

So...any thoughts? I know it's long but I wanted to be detailed.
 

moricollins

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Josh, this was certainly not you fault, your care was exemplary, mirroring that of many of the more expert members of the forums here. (from what i can tell at least).

Dehydration does seem to be the root cause of the death (from my limited experience and knowledge base at least), but it was not the result of any lack of care from you.


The brown fluid and missing leg could potentially have caused the death as well, i'm not sure how much hemolymph a pede of this side could lose without seriously jeopardizing its life.

Don't let this discourage you from keeping pedes in the future.
Mori
 

edesign

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I was offered a free replacement for my pede just now :) here's my choices that he offered, which would you pick?

Florida Keys 3" or so
Blue leg Tanzanian 4"
Yellow leg Tanzanian 3"
S. polymorpha (Arizona) 3"

and at these sizes how often could I expect a molt?
 

moricollins

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The blue leg tanzanian's (Ethmostigmus trigonopodus?) ought to be very nice, i don't know much about the other species though.

Here's one of my Ethmostigmus trigonopodus:





Mori
 

BugToxin

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I'm sure that your care is not what killed your pede. I suspect that it may have gotten banged around really bad in shipping, although it may have had something else wrong with it. As I'm sure you already know, most pedes that are for sale are wild caught and can have all kinds of nasty issues that are unseen untill somebody gets them home.

On the bright side, it sounds like your dealer is a straight-up guy/gal who takes care of the customer really well. I would chosse the yellow leg if it were me because I don't have one yet, they are supposed to get fairly large (6-8 inches), and I seem to recall that they don't burrow as much as the blue leg but I could be wrong on that. My second choice would be the Florida Keys, which don't get as big but are very, very cool looking.

Whatever you get, take some pics so that we all can see!!! :D
 
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