Hi all,

I bought the P. ornata from the expo in march from the tarantulas.co.za stand and it was my first pokie.

I haven't seen the little guy for about two days and thought that was fairly odd as he's always out. Anyways he shed on 3 April so I'm sure what happened wasn't a moulting issue. I could see this morning there was a tiny bit of mould growing so I had a look and found this guy dead (at least I think it's dead). Just to be sure I've put the little guy in a ICU tank but I think it's definitely dead.

I don't know how it died, are P. ornata's difficult or sensitive? The temperature was fine, I don't know what it was but my other T's are all quite active still.

I kept the tank moist, maybe a bit too moist because of some mould but I'm not entirely sure what I did wrong, any ideas?

I'm very disappointed that I've murdered my first pokie.

As its still a sling they tend to hide alot... found that with most of my pokies. If you did everything right, and it seems like you did, then the one thing happened that no one can help for.... from time to time tarantulas just die.... harsh reality of it.

Dont beat yourself up about it... I have lost a pederseni not to long ago for no reason.... please dont give up on them... they are an amazing genus.

Sent with Uncle Charlie's Pokie machine

Oh ja... before I forget... I keep the peat not to moist. When the peat starts drying out I only spray it every now and again (and also not to much).

Sent with Uncle Charlie's Pokie machine

Good advice fro UC.
I keep mine mostly dry, spray occasionally and then flood with more water once a month maybe.
Have no heating so its room temp and humidity.
Sometimes these things happen, lost my Ami sp Panama recently. its not nice but so you learn I suppose.

Hi there
Sorry to hear about your loss

Sent from my GT-N7100 a long time ago and far, far away.....

Thank you uncle Charlie and sk27. I will keep the peat moisture in mind next time I have an ornata.

One of the members (Ruan) pm'd me and offered to replace my ornata free of charge, what a genuinely nice thing to do! So in the very near future I'll be able to give this a go again