GBB problem

[MassExodus]

Agreed. My Avic won't touch a worm and roaches are hard to come by where I live so crickets are really the only thing available to me. There is no keeping roaches with the women in my life, they only tolerate my spiders so a thousand roaches is kinda out of the question. Nasty crickets it must be.

I have a few picky Avics as well. I just keep offering what I want them to eat. When they get hungry enough, they'll eat it Funny thing, I always felt about roaches the way most people feel about spiders, creeped out. Now I have a colony, all raised by me in my controlled environment, and I'm starting to see crickets as dirty...weird..lmao. And yeah, a few of my female friends refuse to come in my bedroom now...where I keep my spiders, and my colony..that part is not so funny..
So be it.

 

[Brauratum]

Not much to update on today other than that she's been moving around a little bit more than the last few days, not getting my hopes up yet.
Fairly certain it's not nematodes though.

Just a heads up, not all tarantulas will accept roaches. There's a reason why crickets are still the most popular and reliable feeder still.

All my Ts has been offered roaches before and happily accepted, mine are not very choosy fortunately

Been researching on GBBs and stumbled on this thread. This is so heart-breaking, makes us helpless in a way. Hoping for the best for your T @Brauratum !

Thanks mate, appreciate it. It's heartbreaking indeed

 

[MassExodus]

Bumping to the top. Fingers crossed man, let us know.. I'm still looking for more info on this, I'll post if I find anything.

 

[Brauratum]

Nothing new yet. I'll do a mouth check when I get home and let you guys know how the white stuff looks. Been searching the net but can't find anything related, most results are either nematodes or mites which is very unprobable.
I've lowered the humidity from 60% to just above 40%. I know GBBs do fine at 60 generally but they are after all individuals so I'll see if this gets her going.

 

[Brauratum]

So I just checked her mouth again. Nothing has changed since the pictures I posted; still dry and the same amount. She's pretty feisty though and attacked the paintbrush. I'll try feeding her a mealworm or zophobas this week and se if she'll eat.

 

[MassExodus]

Ok, well I've searched some more, I need to ask you some questions : Do you have live plants in your tank? What substrate do you use? And have you observed the GBB rubbing it's mouth on the side of the enclosure or the bottom? Or discharging liquid that hardens up into what looks like poop, from her mouth? I'm reading about "yeast" infections, believe it or not..yeast infections in spiders..and it looks like if it was bacterial, it would be oily looking, or wet looking. The closest thing I've found so far is " yeast " infections..they sound very much like what you're describing..also could you check the water dish and see if she discharged anything into it? Does she stay at the water dish? So far, a few cases I've read about resulted in the spiders death, but a few survived it as well ...but we're not certain of anything here, so don't be discouraged. Here's one link, and another is contained in the Ops post..you have a front row seat so you be the judge..
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?59650-White-crust-around-my-C.-fasciatum-s-mouth&highlight=white mouth crust
This little research mission has brought up some interesting facts and a lot more questions. Have you heard of RIESM? They seem to be looking into this sort of thing. Here's a post by one of the members of RIESM on AB (It looks like AB is still good for something)
Ian,
We at RIESM want to emphasize something about the nematode in that they posess bacteria symbionts. The
primary infection is bacterial, it is the bacteria that kills the insect or
spider. The nematode is the vector that delivers the bacteria and makes a meal
of the bacteriological digested tissue and the bacteria too. Without the
bacteria the nematode probably can't do too much damage in a spider and
defiantly can not mature or reproduce. The relationship between the two in
amazingly complex and innovative and very often deadly!
Larry has isolated some very nasty bugs, fungus, yeast, bacterial etc...from mouth swabs of sick and healthy T's. The problem is we do not know what is normal and what is not normal. There have been no consistant studies in this area.
RIESM will be posting another update here shortly. We have had to purchase some expensive equipment to ID these "bugs" quicker. We have also redefined what we need in terms of donations or providing assistance with sick tarantulas and I have re-vamped my autopsy lab. Its not finished but its close.
As far as what you can do to help ward off problems is to always practice good husbandry techniques, keep your eyes open to changes and keep decent records. We depend on hobbyists a great deal. Heck, we (RIESM) are all hobbyists! No one person knows everything especially when talking about inverts. All observations are valid and need to be documented regardless of education or experience.
Kerry
Research Institute for Exotic Species Microbiology

 

[Brauratum]

Ok, well I've searched some more, I need to ask you some questions : Do you have live plants in your tank? What substrate do you use? And have you observed the GBB rubbing it's mouth on the side of the enclosure or the bottom? Or discharging liquid that hardens up into what looks like poop, from her mouth? I'm reading about "yeast" infections, believe it or not..yeast infections in spiders..and it looks like if it was bacterial, it would be oily looking, or wet looking. The closest thing I've found so far is " yeast " infections..they sound very much like what you're describing.. also could you check the water dish and see if she discharged anything into it? Does she stay at the water dish? So far, a few cases I've read about resulted in the spiders death, but a few survived it as well ...but we're not certain of anything here, so don't be discouraged. Here's one link, and another is contained in the Ops post..you have a front row seat so you be the judge..
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?59650-White-crust-around-my-C.-fasciatum-s-mouth&highlight=white mouth crust
This little research mission has brought up some interesting facts and a lot more questions. Have you heard of RIESM? They seem to be looking into this sort of thing. Here's a post by one of the members of RIESM on AB (It looks like AB is still good for something)
Ian,
We at RIESM want to emphasize something about the nematode in that they posess bacteria symbionts. The
primary infection is bacterial, it is the bacteria that kills the insect or
spider. The nematode is the vector that delivers the bacteria and makes a meal
of the bacteriological digested tissue and the bacteria too. Without the
bacteria the nematode probably can't do too much damage in a spider and
defiantly can not mature or reproduce. The relationship between the two in
amazingly complex and innovative and very often deadly!
Larry has isolated some very nasty bugs, fungus, yeast, bacterial etc...from mouth swabs of sick and healthy T's. The problem is we do not know what is normal and what is not normal. There have been no consistant studies in this area.
RIESM will be posting another update here shortly. We have had to purchase some expensive equipment to ID these "bugs" quicker. We have also redefined what we need in terms of donations or providing assistance with sick tarantulas and I have re-vamped my autopsy lab. Its not finished but its close.
As far as what you can do to help ward off problems is to always practice good husbandry techniques, keep your eyes open to changes and keep decent records. We depend on hobbyists a great deal. Heck, we (RIESM) are all hobbyists! No one person knows everything especially when talking about inverts. All observations are valid and need to be documented regardless of education or experience.
Kerry
Research Institute for Exotic Species Microbiology

Wow thanks for all the effort you're putting in!
I've had cuttings from a potted common ivy in all my terrarium for about one and a half years. It's always been from the same plant. None of the others show any sign of the GBB though and they are kept with higher humidity, which should favour yeast (might depend on yeast species).
The substrate is coco fibre from bricks, and I haven't seen her rubbing her mouth against the tank, she's not been very active since she started acting weird and not eating.
I haven't seen her excrete poo-like stuff from her mouth, but then again I haven't seen any of my Ts excrete anything so that might have happened. Nothing wierd in her water dish.
She's not really hanging around the water bowl in particular, after I've put her back after examining her she's been in the same spot I've put her down, maybye moved a couple of centimiters around the are, and I've put her down in different places to see if she moves to a specific location.
I'll check the arachnoboards link today and I'll read up on yeast infections, I'm revising for exams almost all my waking hours so have been limited in my research time, so I really appreciate the info you've dug up!

 

[MassExodus]

Wow thanks for all the effort you're putting in!
I've had cuttings from a potted common ivy in all my terrarium for about one and a half years. It's always been from the same plant. None of the others show any sign of the GBB though and they are kept with higher humidity, which should favour yeast (might depend on yeast species).
The substrate is coco fibre from bricks, and I haven't seen her rubbing her mouth against the tank, she's not been very active since she started acting weird and not eating.
I haven't seen her excrete poo-like stuff from her mouth, but then again I haven't seen any of my Ts excrete anything so that might have happened. Nothing wierd in her water dish.
She's not really hanging around the water bowl in particular, after I've put her back after examining her she's been in the same spot I've put her down, maybye moved a couple of centimiters around the are, and I've put her down in different places to see if she moves to a specific location.
I'll check the arachnoboards link today and I'll read up on yeast infections, I'm revising for exams almost all my waking hours so have been limited in my research time, so I really appreciate the info you've dug up!

No problem at all. Let me know what you think after you read up on it. I'm curious what this is and if it's in fact the same issue that's being discussed in the posts on AB. After reading some more RIESM stuff, I don't believe we'll actually get any solid answers, that's why these guys are doing what they are doing, in part because so little is known about our spiders. But we may be able to figure a few things out, or at least form a few educated guesses, you never know. The bottom line is, hobbyists should be taking notice of things like this, and working together to pool as much data as possible. I know you're very busy with exams, and there's no rush, I just want to hear your thoughts on this. Good luck on your exams!