P. Metallica Query

[Richard Harper]

Hey Guys,

Just a quick one. There appear to be these white bumps of a sort on P. metallica, next to his Epigastric furrow. Anyone seen anything like this before?



NO they are not mites, I checked. The P. Metallica is healthy, and active, but there is no sand in his substrate so it is not sand.

Many thanks
Richard

[craig mcinnes]

Looks like Poop.

[Ron Hill]

He did have a propensity to poop on the glass of his tank and he also spent a good deal of his time at night tapping and drumming on his tank with his forelegs,palps and also by thrumming his body against the glass so Craig's assessment is highly likely. Mucky pup!

[Richard Harper]

Probably is, because he is fine. Drummed all night until the sun came up.

[Richard Harper]

That aside, Ron Hill and I have decided to have a 50/50 union between our P. Metallicas, Indy and Bluebell. So wish Indy and Bluebell luck, their courtship will begin in 2 to 3 weeks as Bluebell has recently moulted.

[Ron Hill]

Put up a nice pic of Bluebell when you get a moment Richard. My good lady is eager to see who i've packed Indy off to meet.

[Richard Harper]

Hello Community,

Never mind found the answers to my questions.

A few quickquestions on breeding, last October (2013) I paired my P. Metallica AF(Bluebell) with Ron's MM (Indy). The information on how it was carried out and what has happened since is mentioned below.

My Questions is, since it has been about 6 to 7 months since the pairing of Bluebell and Indy, and there hasn't been any real change in Bluebell's abdomen, does this mean the pairing was unsuccessful? Also would there be a reason for her to remain sealed in her hide for the past 3 months? I'm not worried about her or do I need to wait to see if she will moult to know if it was an unsuccessful pairing?

As I do not have a device to measure humidity, I cannot guess accurately how humid Bluebell's enclosure is. What I can say is that her water dish is always kept refilled (once a week as it is usually empty by the end of the week) and the substrate is kept moist not damp with simulated rainfall about one a month.


September


15^th – Moutled


25^th - Eating normally, 1 adult red runner roach every3 days.


October ( room temperature between 24 night and 28 day degrees)


4^th – Fed 1 Red runner in preparation for pairing theday after.


5^th – Assumed successful pairing with Indy as thereappeared to be 2 successful insertions before Indy was thrown off thewall by Bluebell. (took approximately 30minutes)


10^th – Attempt 2 at pairing, ends in failure asBluebell only wanted to eat Indy. So Indy was removed and Bluebellwas fed 1 more adult red runner.


15^th Attempt 3 at pairing ended the same as attempt 2.


20^th – attempt 4 at pairing ended the same as attempt2.


25^th - attempt 5 at pairing ended the same as attempt2.


30^th – attempt 6 at pairing, I decided to leave Indyin with Bluebell and let nature run it's course. One check dailybetween the hours of 5 am and 6am (yes I know I get up early) notesthat Indy is in Bluebell's hide facing her with a 2 inch gap ofdistance between them.


November (room temperature between 22 night and 28 day degrees)


28^th – Indy removed from Bluebell's enclosure as shehas sealed her hide and he doesn't seem interested anymore.


December (room temperature between 22 night and 28 day degrees)


27^th – Bluebell's has reopened her hide entrance andhas accepted 1 red runner but refuses a second which is removed thenext day. The same occurs once a week until the end of January (28th)when she reseals her hide again.


January (room temperature between 24 and 28 degrees)


2^nd - Indy reintroduced but is no longer interested.Just stays in a corner.


4^th – Indy in removed as he hasn't budged from thecorner.


28^th – Bluebell's hide is sealed. No notable changein the size of her abdomen.


February (room temperature averaged at 26 degrees) hide remainssealed


March (room temperature averaged at 26 degrees) hide remainssealed no notable change in abdomen size.


31^st – Indy Dies, spent the las 2 days in his waterbowl, so I checked up on him and he had past on. Indy refused to eatprey the entire period I had him, well maybe once or twice.


April (room temperature averaged at 26 degrees) no change in sizeof Bluebell's abdomen, hide still sealed.


May (room temperature averaged at 26 degrees) no change in size ofbluebell's abdomen, hide still sealed.


Thanks for your time

Richard

[Richard Harper]

Hello everyone

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that my P. Metallica female past on. I'm not sure what the reason for her passing is. So I'd like to post a few pics and give you guys some information on what has been going on up to today when i found her dead.

I've moved house, 3 days ago (Friday 20th) and while I was doing so I moved all my T's into padded containers for transport. They all arrived safely with their enclosures (somewhat intact). I moved the T's back into their enclosures after brief maintenance, My E. Murinus and H. Lividium were not pleased that I had to destroy their homes to move them and I spent a lot of time dodging 25 bite attempts. Note: the P. Metallica's hide was open when I moved her from her enclosure before transport.

Anyway, when I placed my P. Metallica back into hey home, she seemed a bit sluggish, but I assumed it was because she was in premolt or egg sac mode as she was mated last October and has refused food since December. When I checked on her on Saturday, she was in a typical P. Metallica stance, stretched out along the side of the container. Last night when I checked on her she was in an odd pose. She was on the side of the container, with her body horizontal (parallel to the floor) but her abdomen was at right angles to her body. I thought it was a very odd pose to be in because it looked like her abdomen was stretching. This morning however, when I saw her in the same position, gave her a proper inspection and found that her mouth was filled with a grey like liquid (you can't see it now) and she wasn't moving when I blew air on her or dropped some water droplets on her. So I got worried and used my tweezers rub her abdomen and lift one of her feet and instead of getting a response she just fell to the bottom of the tank. I've taken her out. And here are those sad pictures. :'( Does anyone know the reason for her dying like this? Note: I had her since she was 8cm and now she is 15cm. I've only been keeping her for 2 years.

[Nicolas Charrière]

Hello Richard. Thanks a lot for the sharing, and sorry for your loss...

Could you believe that almost exactly the same happened to me with my P metallica, who was a female but not mature (then no mating). I noticed that she became to act more slow, not eating, etc. I thought she was in pre-molt, but after some months, I began to worry. One morning, I saw her hanging on the wall exactly in the same position as yours, not moving. Legs were not curled under the body, then I wasn't sure if she was alive or dead. But when I took her from the wall and saw no reaction, I understood it was too late. Like you, I saw some kind of "humidity" around her mouth. On closer inspection with binocular lenses, I saw it wasn't nematods, but some very tiny white parasites (like spots) were coming in and out of the mouth. I don't know what it was, but I maybe assume they were coming from a little fly who was crawling in the terrarium some weeks ago. Anyway, I'm not sure that these parasites killed the P metallica, but it could be.

One specialist on a french forum told me that I should be careful not to give these T too much moisture: they need the enclosure to be dry, with a waterdish and that's it. I thought mine was in a rather dry enclosure (with waterdish overflowing a little once a week and sometimes a misting), but maybe was it not dry enough? I don't know.

Sorry not to be able to give you more help! I just wanted to share my experience with you, because it was rather similar (but without any meeting with a boyfriend!).

[Richard Harper]

Hello Nicolas, Thanks for sharing.

I'm sorry for your loss and that the same thing happened to you... It's so sad.

Well I've been told it may be because of stress or a fall or that I didn't have her at a high enough temperature since she was paired to stimulate her producing an eggsac so she may have died "egg bound" according to some people on the Arachnoboards FB page. But in the end one she has died it's too late. Only thing to do is, be better next time.

Have to tried raising P. Metallica since? Is the dry enclosure working for you?

[Nicolas Charrière]

Yop, I've one new P metallica since one week. I'll try the "dry way" and see how she'll be reacting.

Stress? Maybe. A fall? Always possible, but unlikely with arboreal, no? For temperature, I don't know: maybe if it's really too low, but a T can keep the sperm for quite a long time before laying the eggs. Who knows?

Anyway, I wish you good luck for next time!