Anansi is in ICU

Unfortunately, my largest original spood appears to be sick. Since I moved Anansi to the larger braplast tub, I have been having problems with retained humidity in his enclosure. He is a desert species, and while he need a certain amount of humidity to successfully molt, he does need mostly dry conditions. In his previous enclosure, I filled his water bowl to the point of overflowing so that it dampened the substrate around it, and that was all he needed. Since I moved him and I had to rehydrate a new block of dried coco fibre, the substrate just hasn't dried. I tried everything that I could think of - from wiping condensation away twice daily to putting him on a heat mat, and even mixing dry substrate in with the damp to try and spread the moisture out. But unfortunately, it didn't work fast enough and two nights ago I discovered a fine fuzzy mould growing on the surface of his substrate:

Checking on Anansi, I found him to be sluggish and unresponsive. He didn't react to being nudged with a brush, and in the end I had to scoop him out of the enclosure entirely with a paintbrush under his body, and move him into an empty tub. He didn't respond at all, but for occasionally lifting a leg. Anansi usually bolts at the first hint of my interference, so this was incredibly out of character, and definitely a cause for concern.

I wasn't going to put him back in a contaminated enclosure, so for now he is staying in the tub that the stick insects arrived in, which I have dubbed Spider ICU. He has some clean tissue on the floor to act as some form of substrate, some fresh bark and moss for decor, and his water bowl. I have tried to keep it as minimalistic as I can, to prevent further mould growth and give him the best chance at recovery. I did not put his bark hide in as I suspected it may be contaminated by mould, so after this photo was taken, I cute a toilet roll tube up to give him a little tunnel to hide in.

This morning he seemed more alert - he certainly ran for cover when I picked up his tub to have a look at him. I have ordered him a different type of substrate - one intended for deserty species called "Arid Earth". Hopefully this won't retain as much moisture as the coco fibre, but will still allow him to burrow. I have also ordered fresh braplast tubs so that I can get rid of the contaminated one - I don't feel comfortable exposing a spider to it now, but if I cleaned it I'd feel uncomfortable exposing my spiders to a tub that had been cleaned with chemicals, so I think I shall be disposing of that one tub entirely.

Hopefully Anansi makes a full recovery - for now all I can do is watch and wait.