Cobalt blue T unusual behavior

[lordvaine]

Hello,

I have a Cobalt Blue Tarantula and over the past few days I noticed that its behavior has changed. I have had it (dont know the gender) for almost a year now, molted the day after purchase. But up until a few days ago, it began to dig its way into the enclosure where primarily it stayed dormant at except for feeding. Last night I witnessed that it was climbing all over the enclosure, the ceiling and the trees (it is a live terrarium) and this morning when I woke up, it is out of the hole and in a corner surrounded by webbing. It has never done that before. Is this pre-molt behavior? It has been eating and drinking normally.

 

[lordvaine]

Enclosure pics and T pics at my other thread

https://tarantulaforum.com/threads/gender-identification.39625/

 

[Tarantula Trooper]

First off, what a beautiful spider! ️ Don't think there's much to be concerned with. Could be just exploring and may decide to dig again! When I re-housed my Cyriopagopous Minax it took a while for it to settle in. Finally dug and made a huge turret inside the enclosure almost to the top of the 8*8! As long as it is exploring and moving about and not in stress curl I would just keep an eye out and monitor things! My P. Arboricola didn't seem to be doing good even after 2 weeks in it's new enclosure! Always seen it out at night and then the re-house and started showing signs of stress. I believe it was a humidity drop from the previous enclosure so I dampend things down a little more and caught her back out and about again and seems to finally be home making( webbing up) her enclosure so that maybe should be something to check. Happy Spoodering!!

 

[lordvaine]

I have attached an image. When its in the corners of the enclosure it does that. I am not sure if that is what a stress curl is, or if its just comfortable. There are some days where it it wont come out of the burrow. The only thing I could think of that may be stressing it out is the temperature. I do keep the room pretty cool at night and its warm during the day (AC not on) I could put a heating pad under the enclosure. It has no source of heat as the lighting system is an LED grow light since the plants are real. He has been eating normally. I feed him usually every 3-5 days with medium to large crickets. It gobbles it up. Fun to feed and watch it attack the cricket. I can tell when it drinks water since dirt gets in it. I change the water out daily and clean the bowl. Also, it this the final size of the tarantula or should I expect him/her to get bigger than this?

 

[Tarantula Trooper]

Wow, you change the water daily! That is a lucky spider..lol. Your Cobalt Blue is a fossorial T and a heat mat should never be place under their enclosure. For T's, if think that is necessary, a heat mat should be placed on one side of the enclosure and never underneath. When your T gets about digging the heat underneath could be too much. In the wild they stay down to escape heat. Your spider will also put substrate, bollus, and molts or anything in the enclosure in it's water dish up too and including completely burying it! I have a wild caught Cyriopagopous Schimdti female that hasn't dug but ate and would set basically just like your spider during the day. At night though she always out and about! With her being wild caught I attribute that posture during the day as semi- stress curl as in she is fossorial but out in the light. They don't seem quite comfy! My girl got re-housed into a bigger enclosure bit back and took to her hide and molted! So now waiting to see! And so is her male counter part. If your spider is eating and active at night I wouldn't stress that much. See if she starts digging and you are probably good