Pink Toe - Laying in waterdish not moving

[johnthecage]

Hey everyone I have had my first tarantula, a Pink Toe for only about 3 months. Today I found a clear liquid on the top side of the tank, and the T still was moving around and walking fine. However for the past few hours has been sitting in the water dish stiff as a board... Help please

 

[Tomoran]

What position is he in? Face up or face down? And is the bowl empty?

 

[johnthecage]

Normal position, and the water in the bowl is VERY shallow, he was moving around in it yesterday, yet today nothing.

 

[Tomoran]

Could you get a photo?

I've had species huddle around the water bowl when the humidity gets too low for them (usually in the winter). I would just be concerned about his book lungs getting submerged and possibly drowning. Is he holding himself upright okay?

 

[johnthecage]

I'm pretty concerned /:, still no movement at all. From when I read online could this possibly be a "death curl" ?

http://i62.tinypic.com/2n6vthd.jpg

 

[HungryGhost]

If that T isn't dead it will be soon if you don't get it out of that water dish!

 

[Tomoran]

Oh man...it sure looks like its legs are curled underneath it, which would be a death curl. And, even though there isn't much water in the bowl, it looks as if the book lungs are probably submerged in the water. I suspect that it is probably dead.

You'll want to get something like a long paintbrush and try to gently coax it out of the bowl just in case it is still alive, although it may be too late.

 

[johnthecage]

I took the T out of the water dish carefully, i'm just confused because he was talking around and playing in it the other day and now nothing. Does this have anything to do with the clear liquid I found all over the tank?

 

[Tomoran]

Is he alive?

Can you get a clear picture of the abdomen? It looks VERY small from that shot you posted earlier. If he was injured, that clear liquid could have very well been his "blood". Any sign of injury? It is possible that he bled out, leading to the death curl as his body lost circulatory pressure (causing the limbs to "curl").

 

[johnthecage]

No.

There was no sign of injury other than the clear liquid I saw which was on the tank. He was moving around and active after I found the liquid. It would be hard for me to get a clear shot of the abdomen, if it would help you help me figure out what happened I can try to do it though.

This was the first T I had and I listened to pretty much the advice of the guy I bought it from at a reptile show, and the local pet store (they sell a lot of different T's). Anything I can do to prevent something like this from happening again would be great... My first T and I lost it already .

 

[Tomoran]

Awwww...I'm very sorry.

If you could get pictures of your setup, that would be a great start. Folks might be able to see something that might have caused this. How large was the specimen? Had it been eating?

I would advise always researching a species in the future, and be very careful with advise given by pet stores. That's not to say that there aren't some good, knowledgeable pet store folks out there, but many have NO idea what they are talking about, and some will try to sell you extra stuff that isn't appropriate for the animal (heat lamps, heat mats, wrong substrate, etc). Try to find information from folks who successfully keep the species, and shy away from basic care sheets, as many are generic or wrong. Boards like this are a great place to interact with folks and to learn from them. Just for future reference.

If the abdomen is small and shriveled, it could have sustained an injury and bled out. Or, it could have been dehydrated (the clear fluid around the cage would lead one to suspect an injury), hence why it went to the water bowl. Also, and I hope this isn't the case, but unsuspecting people have been sold mature males on their last legs. Mature males basically wither away and die after their ultimate molt. I had it happen to me many years ago with an A. seemanni.

These are all just theories. If you can post some pics of the enclosure and set up, folks can probably help you out.

 

[johnthecage]

Posting some pictures here of my setup. Yeah I had eco-earth as the bedding, and as you will see in the pictures a little bit of moss, and stuff to climb on. Your opinion would be great, anything helps.

 

[HungryGhost]

Sorry you lost your T. Avics can be a little tricky as they need high humidity. Don't give up on this wonderful hobby. I would suggest getting a hardier beginners T. Some good choices would be Grammastola pulchripes, something from the Bracypelma genus, a Grammastola rosea (I personally find them boring), or even a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (beautiful, fast growing, good eaters, and they like a dry enclosure). Just stay away from chain pet store tarantulas.

 

[Tomoran]

Your setup actually doesn't look bad at all. I tried to brighten up the picture of the tarantula up, and it looks as if the abdomen is very small compared to the carapace. Am I seeing that correctly? If so, has it always been that thin? If not, then it is possible it injured itself and bled out.

Had it been eating?

Were you using anything to heat the enclosure artificially? Sorry for all of the questions.

 

[johnthecage]

The more questions the better. Yeah that would be correct. I have another picture on my phone from 2 weeks or so ago and the abdomen looks only a little bigger, but the picture is of the underside, and is a little blurry. I never saw it eat, but the crickets were always gone within 24 hours, except for 2 weeks ago so I took them out. I am not using anything to heat the enclosure, my room sits around 75 or so degrees during the day.

 

[MatthewM1]

Being an A. avic, its could have very likely been WC and had some sort of parasite/disease. I had a WC pet shop avic that I went through almost the same exact thing with. Was doing really well at first then just one day stopped eating, abdomen never really grew even when it was eating. And one day I woke up to find it in a death curl. It passed away after 3 days in ICU.

 

[Tomoran]

Your temps sound great; I was just curious if he could have been dehydrated by some type of heat source.

MatthewM1 brings up an excellent point. Unfortunately, many of the Ts sold through pet stores are wild caught, and you never know what you're getting. They can be old, sick, with parasites, or mature males. There is a good possibility that your husbandry was fine and the little guy wasn't going to make it either way. If that's the case, then at least you gave it a good home in the end. I wouldn't beat yourself up.

As HungryGhost said, don't let this drive you from the hobby. He lists some wonderful species for the first time T keeper, and all of these can be procured from reliable breeders and vendors via the mail. If you need some place to check out, I'd be happy to share the ones I have experience with. I'm sure others will share as well.

 

[johnthecage]

Thank you guys for all of the help. I definitely wont let it drive me from this hobby, I really enjoyed keeping my first T. Just don't want something like this to happen again! I guess you shouldn't trust everyone at reptile shows . I am definitely going to look into some of those beginner T's you listed. Thank you!

 

[Josh]

Very sorry to hear about your first T
Hopefully knowing all you've learned here will encourage you to try again with another one. Sounds like you did all you could do and that's all anyone could expect.

 

[bestco]

Hi everyone great advice for johnthecage I had a pink toe recently passed away one day fine next day was in a death curl happens with Avic's, I have 23 t's and the only t that passed away was my pink toe