Faint is dead

Today HugeSpider found Faint (Pandinus imperator) dead in her terrarium....

HugeSpider have watched her for me for a while, and she haven't eaten and the terrarium has been a little to dry lately. But she was a old lady so she probably died from age...

Faint was my first tropical arachnid and I bought her in Bergen the 15th of August 2005. And like every other arachnid you buy in a pet store in Norway she was probably captured in the wild (so don't buy from arachnids from pet stores!). When I brought her home to Drammen the first thing I did was to tell my mum, one day later she came to me and asked: "The scorpion isn't real is it?"

Some days later she escaped from the terrarium and when I found her and tried to get her up in a box she singed my thumb 3-4 times in row (I still got a scar as a memory of that).

One year I was afraid for her to die since she wouldn't eat (she just ate two crickets and one cockroach and one locust I think), but after a while her appetite came back (video).

And the last year she has accomplished to eat HugeSpiders Pandinus imperator male and been handled by a woman on a exhibition (the second time she was handled in my care and the only one without gloves) without stinging.

She has been a lovely girl full of attitude and I'm going to miss her...

Rest in peace my little girl

Chiisai

I have now dug up Chiisai (Cyriocosmus elegans) from it's terrarium for the second time in a about half a year. Since I have not seen it in a long time, and since I was afraid that it maybe had got it's borrow in the head like last time when I dug it up. And like last time that was the case. I dug it up, and thought it was dead, and then it started to move so it's still alive.


It seemed very sluggish, but had a big abdomen (seems like it's going to molt soon ^^) so it seems like Chiisai is still fine even if it's haven't eaten in about two months or more. After placing it back in the terrarium it used it's time but dug a new burrow in about 5 minutes. I'm wondering how it's able to get it's borrow in it's head, since the substrate always is very moist.

Since I feel that I have stressed my little baby enough today I think I will feed it after a couple of days, and see if it's wants a little meal then.

Unfortunately I didn't have batteries in none of my cameras, so the only picture I got of Chiisai this time is a crappy mobile photo:

By the way I fed all the other tarantulas today. Rosa (Grammostola rosea RCF) was the only one to throw itself over it's meal as usual. And it seems like little Strawberry (Brachypelma sp.) is going to molt soon to ^^