A sad morning

I wake up this morning to find several enclosures sitting on the kitchen counter. 1 mature male A. versicolor, one 1.5" versicolor and one .75" A. minatrix. . .dead. All three must've passed durning the night.

The mature male isn't much of a surprise (kind of expected, we were surprised he lasted this long), but the two slings were. The versicolor was the fast grower of the bunch, healthy, molting and eating everything put in its enclosure, webbing like crazy. Same with the minatrix.

My first thought was it got too chilly last night, but my boyfriend's other Avics are still alive and well. Then I thought crickets, but why aren't any of the other slings, that ate crickets from the same batch, dead? Keeping an eye on all the slings, just in case.

Or maybe it's just a case of Sudden Infant Tarantula Death Syndrom?

I don't know!! Even though I'm not the arboreal nut of the house I'm bummed. They were cute little fuzz balls. Guess I'll go see about getting some replacements from Botar.

This sucks.

Wow Kris
You have my sympathies
The counter that they were on was it cleaned with something ?
Also where did you get the crix from, remember Crix have the same ability as thier cousins the roaches to build up an immunity to chemicals and T's do not

The enclosures were moved to the kitchen from where they're usually kept, after the discovery of the dead Ts.

Crickets came from Flukers, and were fed for several days before feeding to the tarantulas. None of the other slings in the house have died, and they were all fed at the same time. Keeping an eye on them just in case, but I don't think crickets were the cause.

It's a puzzle.

Hey Kris
I remember hearing stories of avic's and irid's dying off for no apparent reason. This happened to one of my A. metallica babies and that was out of a hundred, the rest were sold and we kept 5 for ourselves and they are thriving. This looks like one of those weird phenomena that is unexplained.
People have said the reason could be lack of better than favorable conditions [not the cause in your case I am sure] ,smaller babies , inbreeding, blah blah blah... you get the idea In any event you may never find out for sure and if you do share it with us all please..
I apologise for your loss and hope you get some more.

I've experienced the sudden death thing with tiny Avic Avic slings. Out of around 70 that hatched, 2 died unexpectedly. One died shortly after a molt, I'm thinking something went wrong during the molt. The other died out of the blue for no visible reason.

It's possible that it did get a bit too chilly in the house during the night, and those two slings were a bit more sensitive than the others. I don't think I'll ever know for sure. I'll just be thankful that all the other slings are alive and well.

Botar has minatrix and versicolor slings. Looks like I'll either be doing a day of overtime at work, or selling some of my Ts for extra cash. Still not sure yet which option is the most appealing.

It wouldn't surprise me if the cause of death had something to do with the crickets. Flukers in general has a bad reputation. See this thread for details on their crickets, and be sure to read the post by Marcia (Golden Gate Geckos) since I remember she had her crickets lab-tested for bacteria. As for why your other Ts are still alive, some crickets could have ingested more moldy food than others. Or maybe some of your Ts were more resistant to infection.

Sorry about your loss.

Thank you for sharing that link.

I never thought to check the BOI for Flukers since I got a good reccomendation from a friend, and never had any problems. I just emailed him that link, and I have a feeling he'll join me in finding someplace else to order crickets from.