# Asian Forest Scorpion not leaving corner of habitat!



## AKRONS (Jan 28, 2016)

So ive had my scorpion for about 2 months now and he/she has been doing completely fine, but in the past week its been acting very weird. (Im just gonna call it he) He usually puts his claws/pincers out of his habitat when he is hungry and when i feed him he eats it instantly with no problem, but for a while he sat in it burrowed down in the coconut substrate and not moving out of it. But since then he has move out of it and moved to one corner of the tank away from the heat pad and the heat lamp and wont move. he has water at all times and i think he has only eaten once in the last 5 days-a week. ive tried to gently move him back to his home to remind him its there, but he will just move right back out. the temps are always perfect and the humidity is perfect 75% of the time. i dont know what to do at this point because im scared for his life. please help, and thank you for reading!


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## Formerphobe (Jan 28, 2016)

Can you post a picture of your set up? Where is your heat mat located? Side? Bottom?
Generally, the size of enclosure suitable for a single scorpion is not large enough to support both heat lamp and heat mat. They burrow to escape the heat. You may be cooking him/her.
Feeding once every 7 to 14 days is adequate for most adult scorpions.


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## AKRONS (Feb 2, 2016)

Formerphobe said:


> Can you post a picture of your set up? Where is your heat mat located? Side? Bottom?
> Generally, the size of enclosure suitable for a single scorpion is not large enough to support both heat lamp and heat mat. They burrow to escape the heat. You may be cooking him/her.
> Feeding once every 7 to 14 days is adequate for most adult scorpions.





Formerphobe said:


> Can you post a picture of your set up? Where is your heat mat located? Side? Bottom?
> Generally, the size of enclosure suitable for a single scorpion is not large enough to support both heat lamp and heat mat. They burrow to escape the heat. You may be cooking him/her.
> Feeding once every 7 to 14 days is adequate for most adult scorpions.


That's his enclosure in the pic and you can see him in the bottom right and the heating pad is under his enclosure to the left. (I can take pictures of certain things if you want)


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## Formerphobe (Feb 2, 2016)

Take the heat mat off the bottom and mount it on the back above the substrate level on one side or the other.
You probably don't need the heat lamp either. However, a low wattage red bulb lets you snoop on it at night.
Raise the substrate level to at least 4 inches, preferably 6 to 8 inches or more. I use a mixture of top soil and potting soil and whatever leftover eco earth I have laying around. Firmly pack the substrate so it will hold burrows better. You can prestart a couple of burrows, but this burrowing species generally will dig wherever it wants. 
Live plants help keep humidity up. If the top is screen, cover most of it with plastic wrap.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Rogerpoco (Feb 2, 2016)

Couple things-
"Asian Forest Scorpion" is a generic term for "Big,mostly black scorpion from southeast Asia",and can be several varations on S. heterometrus. I would also imagine,big W/C,somewhat unidentified,could even lead to other sp. altogether offered as such occasionally.
I'm not the biggest research guy,but I think the habitats,behaviors,and even venom type/potency may vary wildly among these guys.
I have one,full grown,on the smallish side,with a greenish tint. I have seen several other types over time at the same store,offered as Asian Forest Scorpions.
When I got mine,I'm very serious-It didn't eat for an entire year. Evidently was given opportunity to gorge itself @ the petstore,just wasn't hungry. Worried me a lot.
Mine pretty much acts like the behavior you are describing all the time. I think it's just settled in.

Last thing-I actually got mine because it was clearly uncomfortable at the petstore,arid,under a lamp. These are mostly from a monsoon area,pretty wet,I imagine,and plenty cold at times. Unlike desert scorps,I don't think they need external heat sources,mine has been fine for a couple years at room temp,with crazy temp accidents at times.

Good luck

Agree,Formerphobe,they need humidity. Main reason I rescued mine.

Reactions: Helpful 1


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## The Snark (Feb 2, 2016)

FYI, Asian Forest scorps endure ground temperatures of 40F to 65F year round. They burrow, find hides to get away from the heat and are nocturnal. Working word: FOREST. Not desert. Not defoliated or destroyed habitat. Forest. Read thermal battery maintaining cool temperatures.

Out in our arid areas scorps are rare. they do not like heat. Their preferred habitat and safe/sleep zone is buried deep under the detritus layers which are always cool and damp.

The rule of thumb is, if I see a scorp out and about it's habitat has been encroached upon. If you don't see them that is normal. They hunt bugs which come out and roam the detritus  in the middle of the night. Out and about during daylight, they aren't happy.

Had to shoo one off the road two nights ago. A farmer had cleared the weeds adjacent to his rice field and flooded the field. Scorp came out at dusk and decided to find happier haunts.

Reactions: Like 1


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## AKRONS (Feb 3, 2016)

The Snark said:


> FYI, Asian Forest scorps endure ground temperatures of 40F to 65F year round. They burrow, find hides to get away from the heat and are nocturnal. Working word: FOREST. Not desert. Not defoliated or destroyed habitat. Forest. Read thermal battery maintaining cool temperatures.
> 
> Out in our arid areas scorps are rare. they do not like heat. Their preferred habitat and safe/sleep zone is buried deep under the detritus layers which are always cool and damp.
> 
> ...


Thank you man, I personally like reading stories to understand things so thank you!


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## The Snark (Feb 3, 2016)

It's a double edged sword. The natural habitat of an animal can actually shorten an animals life. A synthesized environment could possibly prolong it. So the job is finding a happy medium.

Natural selection sternly establishes the rules and has given us the animals we now know. It is a cruel and merciless task master that often kills animals before the 'normal' end of their life span. But from this, animals have adapted in a myriad of ways that are difficult or even impossible for us to fully fathom.

In the arachnid world vacating the entire intestinal tract before the next meal has been proven to be beneficial - most of the time but not always. Extremes in humidity and temperature can cause a shortened life span. But they also go hand in hand with fertility of the animal, producing offspring at the most opportune, read healthiest, time for the parent.

So it's a juggling act. The animal keeper can either force a synthetic environment on the animal which often leads to walking unknown pathways, or emulating nature as closely as possible while eliminating some of the known hazards as predation.

But with some animals, especially those that come from a very well established and known ecosystem, like the detritus layers, it's pretty much a no brainer.

Detritus layers are a war zone, dog eat dog so to speak and dozens of hierarchies of the food chain may get involved in a single night. A fungi may be ingested by a larvae to be ingested by a cricket to be ingested by a spider to be ingested by a skink to be ingested by a bird because it stayed out just a little too long come dawn. Well, that bird just ate a fungi, perhaps a deadly poison in concentration to that animal. The rule of what doesn't kill it make it stronger. The web of life.

And night is a  much too overlooked part of many animals lives. People want to see the animals they keep. Over 90% of the animals on the planet, 98% according to some biologists, are nocturnal. Being seen often equates to an early demise.

As example, take some of the hunting spiders as lycosids and sparassids. They have determined some can detect 2 milliwatts of light, differentiating movement within that light that tells viable prey from deadly predator. So your animal room is constantly lit by a single 18 watt CF bulb. Looks fine to the animal keeper but is 9000 times what the animal is adapted to using to hunt by. 1 candle power at 20 feet can be blinding.

Anyway, with the dominant predators of the detritus layers, we are talking several million years of evolution and adaptation. A scorp is a prime example. It's world and the one most conducive to it's survival is an emulation as closely as possible of it's natural habitat. Cool, damp, and dark.

Detritus layers are tell tale. Dried out or warmed up, they begin to die. They are the biological base of nearly all land animals of the planet. In temperate climes this equates to cool and moist for the micro-organisms to flourish, the sini quo non of the ecosystem, and the higher order organisms adapt to and use those layers according to their place on the biological ladder.

Your detritus layer 'crocodiles' like the scorps know genetically what they need in order to feed, procreate, shed, hunt and thrive. Emulating nature is more often than not critical to the animals health and survival.

Reactions: Like 1 | Clarification Please 1


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