Asian Forest Scorpion Strange Behavior

[Banana]

Hi there, I have yet to find an answer to this question so I thought I'd post here. I got this scorpion on March 10th and was told it was likely a female. She lives in a 5 gallon enclosure that ranges 75-85 degrees throughout the day with the humidity staying at 80% with a light daily misting. We use LED lighting occasionally for viewing her in the day time and blue lighting at night. There are two live plants, a cave for her to hide in and a shallow water dish with filtered water in her enclosure. She usually ends up hiding in the plants or laying out in the open if the lights are out. The substrate is coco husk with a bit of moss. The substrate ranges from 3-5 inches deep because of the plants but I haven't seen her try to burrow. I'm assuming she has eaten 3 crickets in the first three days and three more a few days ago since there has been no signs of them since and no bodies or parts found. She seemed to be otherwise healthy until about 3 days ago.. I had found her laying on her back in the middle of her enclosure
she moved her legs a little when I opened the enclosure but was motionless afterwards. I had flipped her back onto her feet thinking maybe she had fallen off her cave or something and she seemed fine. The same thing happened yesterday morning, but she had stayed a little bit active walking around and climbing up onto the backing of the enclosure behind a plant. I figured she was fine but this morning I found her again on her back. I haven't touched her today thinking maybe it might be behavior I'm new to since she is my first scorpion. I can't pinpoint what would be causing her to do this other than maybe seeing her climb up and hang upside down from the screen two times before she started laying on her back. She doesn't show signs of having anything hurting her like mites or a fungus or something. What could possibly cause her to do this? Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[ArachnoDrew]

Flipped on it's back!?! I'M No expert but if not mistakes you might have caught it beginning to molt and you disturbed it!!! I'm not sure what the consequences are or side effect but If was the case I imagine not very good. Do you have a picture of the specimen and it's enclosure? My Asian forest likes to hang too and the few times it does fall off a little it's immediately going back to its feet

 

[ArachnoDrew]

@Collin Clary is pretty knowledgeable as Well as @gromgrom and a few others

 

[Christianb96]

Some scorpions molt on there backs. I've never seen it but I have read about it. Do Not disturb your scorpion, if it is indeed trying to molt you could cause serious harm or death. Also I would highly recommend you make it so your scorpion cannot climb and hang from the lid as a fall could cause serious problems

 

[Banana]

Thank you all for your quick responses! I didn't see anyone talk about their scorpions molting on their backs so I just figured she had fallen and couldn't get up so I'm thankful to learn that this could just be molting behavior and she should be left alone. I have since figured out that she was using one of the plants to climb up to the screen l, which I will be pruning and making adjustments as needed. I did get a picture of her earlier, it looks like she had fallen off of her hide or something and was on her back again. This is just a photo of the corner of the enclosure, but For the future I'm wondering if I should give more space between the plant and the rock cave for her to move about easier? This seemed to be her favorite spot to hang out under the leaves between the cave and plant beforehand though. I'll upload a picture of her full enclosure later today when I am back home!

 

[ArachnoDrew]

Yea if the leaves are sturdy enough he'll definitely use it. Mine will use anything to prop on his tail to get as close as he can to the lid. I had to remove substrate because he would hang for a while but when he wanted to get down sometimes he would stumble a little but I've never seem him flat on his back. It falling off that plant and onto that rock cave might do some serious damage if it took a bad fall I would imagine

 

[GingerC]

@Banana

So, how is the scorpion doing? Has she molted yet?

Also, just a pointer here, you might be overfeeding your scorpion. You're only supposed to feed once a week at most, although some keepers only feed monthly.

 

[Tenodera]

Even dead scorpions are very rarely found on their backs. Is she a full-grown adult (it's difficult for me to ascertain size from the photo)? It looks as though she was climbing on the leaves, slid down, and was content to lie there. That could just be a quirk, but age or something else could cause a lack of balance or coordination.

What scorpions molt on their backs? I'm aware tarantulas do, but every scorpion I've seen molting in person and every photo have either been right-side-up or on their sides.

 

[kevinlowl]

What is the distance from the screen to the ground in your enclosure? How high does the backing of the enclosure go up to?

 

[do0gles]

Sounds like they may have been trying to molt. I'm not aware of any Dcorpions that lay on their back to molt. Tarantas yes.. How is it doing now? Any updates? Mine continuously try to find ways of reaching the lid.