"Clumsy" scorpion, sick?

[AusBugKid]

Hi all. I have a Urodacus manicures scorpion, but I've seen this once before in a U. elongatus. It stopped eating a few weeks ago, and I suspected a moult soon. Now it has gotten what I can only describe as clumsy. It holds it's tail up, falls over, scrapes around in the substrate but takes a long time to right itself.

When my U. elongatus got this behaviour it died a week or so later. I have a few other very healthy scorpions from the same genus, who all have moulted in my care, and I can't find any link between this one and the one that got these symptoms before, about a year or so ago.

Housing is a clean (unused) food container, with air holes, a mix of sand and cocoa substrate. It had sphagnum moss for humidity until recently, but once I noticed symptoms I moved it into a new container with fresh substrate, to remove any concerns of mould. That rehouse was about 3 days ago, and there have been no changes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't find much on similar behaviour on AB or elsewhere. Thanks in advance.

 

[pannaking22]

Whoa, that's odd. Are they WC or CB? It sounds like some sort of chemical exposure, but that doesn't make much sense if you're keeping several scorps in the same setup and they aren't reacting the same way.

 

[darkness975]

Hi all. I have a Urodacus manicures scorpion, but I've seen this once before in a U. elongatus. It stopped eating a few weeks ago, and I suspected a moult soon. Now it has gotten what I can only describe as clumsy. It holds it's tail up, falls over, scrapes around in the substrate but takes a long time to right itself.

When my U. elongatus got this behaviour it died a week or so later. I have a few other very healthy scorpions from the same genus, who all have moulted in my care, and I can't find any link between this one and the one that got these symptoms before, about a year or so ago.

Housing is a clean (unused) food container, with air holes, a mix of sand and cocoa substrate. It had sphagnum moss for humidity until recently, but once I noticed symptoms I moved it into a new container with fresh substrate, to remove any concerns of mould. That rehouse was about 3 days ago, and there have been no changes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't find much on similar behaviour on AB or elsewhere. Thanks in advance.

Separate it from the others .

Can you take a video?

Is it wild caught?

 

[AusBugKid]

Separate it from the others .

Can you take a video?

Is it wild caught?

It's not a communal enclosure. And it's already in a sort of "quarantine", a brand new enclosure with new substrate.
I'll get a video of the behaviour later today, good thinking.

CB I believe, the shop I normally go to only has CB. But I used to go to a different store before I learnt more, and they definitely had WC. These days I keep better track of my collection and sources, but didn't used to. What's interesting though is the time I've had it with no problems.

 

[AusBugKid]

Also, I meant "manicatus".

My phone autocorrected to manicures.

 

[darkness975]

It's not a communal enclosure. And it's already in a sort of "quarantine", a brand new enclosure with new substrate.
I'll get a video of the behaviour later today, good thinking.

CB I believe, the shop I normally go to only has CB. But I used to go to a different store before I learnt more, and they definitely had WC. These days I keep better track of my collection and sources, but didn't used to. What's interesting though is the time I've had it with no problems.

I figured it wasn't being kept communally. I just meant if there is a suspected issue it is best to separate it (enclosure and all) from the others just as an err of caution.

Honestly it sounds like some kind of poisoning, though without observing it 24 /7 that is only a possible guess.

 

[AusBugKid]

Update: can't get footage of the behaviour as it seems to have regained it's balance. Still very skittish with some questionable pedipalp movement when disturbed. But nothing very notable.
So maybe a chemical problem with previous enclosure? Will keep everyone posted.

 

[drapion]

I've seen this behavior in my Tityus and Centruroides species. It always happens a week or few days prior to them molting. I know that if its a group enclosure and i see a scorp acting like this that its about to molt so ill remove it and put it in its own 16oz deli container with moist coco fiber sand mix with a vertcal bark and raise the temps a few degrees.

 

[darkness975]

I've seen this behavior in my Tityus and Centruroides species. It always happens a week or few days prior to them molting. I know that if its a group enclosure and i see a scorp acting like this that its about to molt so ill remove it and put it in its own 16oz deli container with moist coco fiber sand mix with a vertcal bark and raise the temps a few degrees.

Have you ever experienced the behavior in a specimen that was not in pre-molt? They are pretty apparent when approaching a molt with their bloated bodies and separating plate segments so I am just curious.

 

[AusBugKid]

Update. Now lying like this, legs moving slowly. Have seen this once before and it died shortly after. Any more thoughts?

 

[AusBugKid]

Scorpion is dead. Still wish I knew the cause.