Big Problem help

crash769 · Mar 5, 2004

Over the past 5 months I have lost 6 tarantulas. I do not have a clue as to what is going on. All exhibit the same pattern each time. They all seem fine then they stop eating as if they are about to molt. I offer them food and they will not take it. Within about 1-2 weeks they get very sluggish. They do not respond fast or aggressively to aggravation. I can pick them up and move them, even very aggressive ones and they have such slow reaction time if they react at all. I tried putting them in ICU type thing warm and dark and it does not help. When i find that they are getting sluggish and not eating I try to put them close to the water dish so they can drink or if they are not moving much at all i put them on the rim of the dish. Sometimes they drink and sometimes they start the death curl off to the side. When they start getting sluggish they start to curl there feet under them as if they are going to soon die. I don't know what to do. I have lost a red knee, greebottleblue :-( , my baby pink toe. I am so close to giving up. I am not buying anymore critters until i figure out what is going on. Meanwhile I am cleaning out all the cages with bleach to kill anything living in there. Everyone is getting new dirt, logs, and plants.

TheWidowsPeak · Mar 5, 2004

can only give a few ideas...
perhaps they are getting too cold?
I don't think they are dehydrated.
how much and how often do you feed them.

I think the best idea would be to tell us how you had them setup and if you did anything differently to the ones that died before they started acting this way.

crash769 · Mar 5, 2004

Each tank has a heat pad on one side so they can move to it if they need heat or away if its to hot. The room is usually warm overall. There have been some colder nights. They are fed about everyother week.

TheWidowsPeak · Mar 5, 2004

how hot are the tanks? heat pads are generally not needed. it may have raised the temps to too hot inside the tank. I may be wrong but I would get rid of the heat pads or at least make sure there is plenty of substrate to insulate the heat.

BigBadConrad · Mar 5, 2004

substrate?

What are you using for substrate? Without knowing what you're using, maybe that is the problem, like sand or bark. Or maybe there is fertilizer in the potting soil or something.

As far as the heat pad, I'm not an expert but I don't think most T's would "move to it" if they needed to warm up. Some of mine set up shop under their hide and/or web up a spot and don't often venture far from it, not like a lizard, for instance. Just a thought.

-John

xanderTluv · Mar 5, 2004

Also just a thought. Becareful what you use to clean your home. Certain cleaners can be poisinous!

Gail · Mar 5, 2004

Do you live in an apartment building? Do your neighbors or the owner of the building use insecticides on a regular basis? You could be getting some sort of residual from that. T's are very sensitive to poisons. Also, as mentioned, watch what you yourself are using to clean with. What about your water supply? Could the water you are giving them have high concentrations of bleach or other agents. Often, in the winter, the water companys around here put so much bleach in the water during their annually "inspections" (to make sure everything is dead and they pass) that the water from the tap smells just like chlorine. And last, and one which I simply throw in because of knowing about it happening to someone else - do you live with someone who hates your T's or have a close friend who does (or is jealous) and could be purposely poisoning them when you aren't around?

Gail

MrT · Mar 5, 2004

How many T's do you own? Has you entire collection died?
What substrate are they on? When you bleach your tanks do you rinse them thoroughly?
If you expect us to be able to help you, your going to have to give us some information to work with.
It sounds environmental, but unless we know the environment their in, we can't help you.

E

cricket54 · Mar 5, 2004

My questions would be mostly on what substrate you are using, what brands and such. It could be possible that there is somthing in that that could be causing this. Potting soil or peat moss could have something in them that you missed in looing the labels all over. This is so scarey and I am so sorry for you. I'd be afraid using the bleach to clean everything. You are going to have to rinse and rinse and rinse everything over and over. Maybe he water could be contributing to this, but I wouldn't think it would be the cause. What is the temperature setting on the your thermostat? Having the heat on the sides of the tanks shouldn't hurt them unless it has gotten too hot like folks have said..

Sharon

heyjeyniceid · Mar 5, 2004

could also be bad feeders as in ill diseased crickets or something. Thats my best guess.

Im haveing the same problem that your haveing rihgt now with one of my H. gigas. Stopped eating weaks ago, now is in its legs-curling-under pose and is very very sluggish right now.

mines WC thought, so I think it got somethign from the wild.

MizM · Mar 5, 2004

Another very important question... were they all purchased from the same dealer? And are they all WC (wild caught) adults? Seems every WC I've purchased in the last few months have come in with nematodes!

metzgerzoo · Mar 5, 2004

Well, I think everyone has preety much covered it. The only thing that I can think of to add is:
Bleach can be a dangerous cleaner for your tanks, especially if they are plastic. Bleach adhears to plastic and no matter how much you rinse it, it never completly rinses out. I too thought of substrate first. Check your bag and make sure there are not pesticides or fertizliers in it. With so many dying like that and with the way you have decribed it, it sounds to me like some kind of poisioning, as I've seen Ts and other types of spiders expire in simular ways due to toxins.
Off the cuff here....make sure they aren't in an area that gets a lot of ciggerette smoke (provided that's even an issue) The toxins in the smoke can be fatal in large doses.

crash769 · Mar 5, 2004

I haven’t bleached the tanks yet. The same peat moss mix i have been using for the past 4 years. I live out in the country and we have our own well, so it cant be anything that would be in city water. One of the T's I just got about 5 months ago over the summer from a pet shop that I had never bought any T's from before. She never ate or drank. She passed away last week. I am worried that maybe she brought something that contaminated the room. That is why i was thinking about cleaning with bleach to kill it if its something she had and is now spreading. I had 20 T and i am down to 14. No one smokes in my house. It is winter her so no pesticides are being sprayed. My red knees tank is a little over half full, she liked to dig a lot and hid burrows and seemed good then all of the sudden she just got ill and acted odd and passed away.

manville · Mar 5, 2004

Maybe it is just your luck right now..

Sheri · Mar 6, 2004

This might sounds crazy, but maybe you should have your house checked for mold spores. I know they can make people really sick, and aren't T's sort of an enviromental indicator? Did you have a flood in the basement or anything like that recently? Could mold effect T's like that? Because you addressed almost every possible issue raised, with exception of a contaminated food source such as crix, but I don't know how common that is, and if you have some that never ate then that doesn't add up either.
I would have a mold person come out, and have your well water tested as well if you haven't already.
It soudns really strange for them all to be dying like that and not showing symptoms of the white goo disease, whatever that is.
There has got to be a reason, right?

metzgerzoo · Mar 6, 2004

Man, that's weird....hell, that's just plain creepy....the unknown T disease!

You've pretty much covered all the bases with substrate, water, chemicals, etc. Could you send them off for "testing"....are there people who even do that? There's no one around there who would "sabotage" your Ts are there?

MizM · Mar 6, 2004

Hmmmm, mold WOULD play havoc with their book lungs, wouldn't it?

crash769 · Mar 8, 2004

What is this white goo thing??

Gail · Mar 8, 2004

White Goo - also, to quote CodeMonkey "The butt plug of death" is basically a parasitic infection - nematodes - which almost always kills the spider. You would know it if yours had it - usually a white gooy paste at the anus but can also be at the mouth and coming from the book lungs.
Some have tried various treatments with various amounts of failure for the most part, though there have been a few successes as well. If this is what your T's have I suggest doing a forum search for more info as I know that the subject has been discussed many times.
Barring that, perhaps some who have had success in treating the condition can share their experiences here.
Say, is there a sticky about this anywhere yet? I haven't been here a lot lately so I'm not sure...

Gail

crash769 · Mar 8, 2004

Can nematodes go from cage to cage killing?? I preserve the T's after they die and there is some white goo, chalky stuff only on my red knee it was on her fangs and mouth. How can I stop this? I have all glass cages, dose anyone think it would be ok to use bleach and really wash them out and let them sit outside for a while to air out and dry to get all the bleach out? Should I just buy new tanks and get rid of all the old T stuff and start new? This is bad and its freaking me out.

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