HELP I think my scorpion is sick

[Andrew Kiely]

Hey, I'm new here. I just recently got my first Asian Forest Scorpion, and he ate 2 crickets the first week I got him, one cricket the following 2 weeks, and now he hasn't eaten for 2 weeks. I know they can fast for several weeks, but he started acting really weird, and his tail has something white on it, it could be dirty, but I'm scared it's fungal or bacterial or something. Just in the last couple minutes, I noticed it after getting home from work, and he started resting his tail, which would graze his leg, and startle him. This went on for 2 minutes. I am scared he could stress himself to death and I have no idea what to do. Otherwise he has been acting very normal for the last 2 weeks and is still active at night. He has stopped getting scared of his own tail, but I have never seen, nor heard of a scorpion doing that. Should I really be concerned? I will also include an image of the white spot on his tail. By the way, I keep the enclosure at ~75 degreed with a heating pad and give him new water daily in a shallow water dish

 

[Dr SkyTower]

scorpions tend to poop out the end of the tail (behind the telson) and it's a white colour. That white stuff looks more like poop than fungus. When it dries out it goes like that. Big healthy well fed specimen by the way!

 

[Andrew Kiely]

scorpions tend to poop out the end of the tail (behind the telson) and it's a white colour. That white stuff looks more like poop than fungus. When it dries out it goes like that. Big healthy well fed specimen by the way!

Thanks, that makes me feel much better! I was very stressed for him. Do you know if it's normal for their tails to startle them though? It was something I'd never seen.

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

Indeed, as @Dr SkyTower says that white stuff is dried up scorpion feces. But normally it shouldn't be on it's telson. The anus also looks 'bloated'.
I quickly took a look at my own Heterometrus scorps, they don't have those 4 bulbs/swellings on their anus.
Normally a scorpion can straighten it's tail making the telson cover up the anus, looking at the 3rd picture i doubt if he can still straighten it out.
You describe the scorpion touching his legs with it's tail makes me think he want's to scratch that irritated spot, i doubt the tail touching his leg startles him.
The scorpion just like you and me are aware of the positions of our appendages even with our eyes closed.
With my eyes closed i know if my arm is hanging close to my side or if it's touching my leg, or whatever you get the idea.
When you observe scorpion defending or attacking, you can see it knows very well about where it's tale, telson and stinger is with respect to the rest of it's body.
In rare cases that i have observed my own scorpions pooping (they just don't poop often) they walk around with their tail (metasoma) straightened out pressing it onto the ground.
I think it's their way to wipe it's 'behind', scraping it over the substrate. A enclosure too small wouldn't allow him to do that.
Maybe other users can give an insight on those swellings on the anus, I've not seen it before. It looks like hemorrhoids ?

 

[Lewis Catlin]

“Scorpion Haemorrhoids” the diagnoses is complete. I have seen this before in my own collection with a S/A H.Spiniffer but not to this severity. I moved it into a smaller enclosure so it had pretty constant conditions with high humidity. It’s was pack to perfect form with a month or two.

 

[Andrew Kiely]

Indeed, as @Dr SkyTower says that white stuff is dried up scorpion feces. But normally it shouldn't be on it's telson. The anus also looks 'bloated'.
I quickly took a look at my own Heterometrus scorps, they don't have those 4 bulbs/swellings on their anus.
Normally a scorpion can straighten it's tail making the telson cover up the anus, looking at the 3rd picture i doubt if he can still straighten it out.
You describe the scorpion touching his legs with it's tail makes me think he want's to scratch that irritated spot, i doubt the tail touching his leg startles him.
The scorpion just like you and me are aware of the positions of our appendages even with our eyes closed.
With my eyes closed i know if my arm is hanging close to my side or if it's touching my leg, or whatever you get the idea.
When you observe scorpion defending or attacking, you can see it knows very well about where it's tale, telson and stinger is with respect to the rest of it's body.
In rare cases that i have observed my own scorpions pooping (they just don't poop often) they walk around with their tail (metasoma) straightened out pressing it onto the ground.
I think it's their way to wipe it's 'behind', scraping it over the substrate. A enclosure too small wouldn't allow him to do that.
Maybe other users can give an insight on those swellings on the anus, I've not seen it before. It looks like hemorrhoids ?

Thank you for your input, I will make sure I put him in a larger enclosure as he has grown quite a bit. But I will first follow the steps that Lewis took when their scorpion had hemorrhoids. Thanks!

 

[Andrew Kiely]

“Scorpion Haemorrhoids” the diagnoses is complete. I have seen this before in my own collection with a S/A H.Spiniffer but not to this severity. I moved it into a smaller enclosure so it had pretty constant conditions with high humidity. It’s was pack to perfect form with a month or two.

I will follow exactly what you did! Hopefully he gets better soon enough. Never would have considered haemorrhoids! Thanks so much for your help

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

Minimum enclosure size is of course important, but more important for this species is high humidity.
I would recommend a relative humidity of at least 70%.
My own Heterometrus species scorps also have a bath in their enclosure and they use it regularly.
They go in there, (book lungs and all) under water for several minutes and they don't seem to mind at all.
Taking a bath might help your scorpion to get rid of the dried-up feces on it's telson.
I never put the scorpion in the water myself, they go in if/when they choose to themselves.
In my case I've also noticed that this high humidity loving scorpion does not like to get sprayed with water, they go into defensive/attack mode right away.
If you have difficulties keeping the enclosure moist enough be sure to have a lid on it, not too many air holes, spray regularly.
Personally I've added a few things in my Heterometrus enclosures for (backup) safety and lazy lower maintenance;
I have placed a low voltage water-suitable heat-wire (5V, 1A) in the scorpion bath, hooked that up to a 'SHT2000'.
I've set the SHT2000 to turn on the heat-wire when humidity drops below 65% and turn off the heat-wire at 80%.
Slightly heating the water makes the water evaporate increasing the humidity.
In case you don't know, SHT2000 is a low-cost (Ebay) thermostat for both heating/cooling and humidity.
It allows you to measure and regulate temperature and humidity separately.
This setup works well for me, i call it a 'lazy' setup because i don't have to spray the enclosure every day ever since.
Sometimes depending on the delta of enclosure temp and ambient temp some of the water vapor will condense on the coldest spots of the enclosure,
that's normal physics at work, not a problem.
Lastly i would recommend adding lots of springtales to combat nasty smells and fungus.
Good luck.

 

[Dr SkyTower]

Thanks, that makes me feel much better! I was very stressed for him. Do you know if it's normal for their tails to startle them though? It was something I'd never seen.

I did notice the odd swelling around his anus area... that does look unusual. The tail is actually an extension of the abdomen (metasoma). If he seems startled by his tail and can't seem to straighten it out, that could be due to signs of discomfort (anal swelling).

 

[darkness975]

Hey, I'm new here. I just recently got my first Asian Forest Scorpion, and he ate 2 crickets the first week I got him, one cricket the following 2 weeks, and now he hasn't eaten for 2 weeks. I know they can fast for several weeks, but he started acting really weird, and his tail has something white on it, it could be dirty, but I'm scared it's fungal or bacterial or something. Just in the last couple minutes, I noticed it after getting home from work, and he started resting his tail, which would graze his leg, and startle him. This went on for 2 minutes. I am scared he could stress himself to death and I have no idea what to do. Otherwise he has been acting very normal for the last 2 weeks and is still active at night. He has stopped getting scared of his own tail, but I have never seen, nor heard of a scorpion doing that. Should I really be concerned? I will also include an image of the white spot on his tail. By the way, I keep the enclosure at ~75 degreed with a heating pad and give him new water daily in a shallow water dish View attachment 331383 View attachment 331384 View attachment 331385

Looks constipated/impacted.

 

[Andrew Kiely]

Minimum enclosure size is of course important, but more important for this species is high humidity.
I would recommend a relative humidity of at least 70%.
My own Heterometrus species scorps also have a bath in their enclosure and they use it regularly.
They go in there, (book lungs and all) under water for several minutes and they don't seem to mind at all.
Taking a bath might help your scorpion to get rid of the dried-up feces on it's telson.
I never put the scorpion in the water myself, they go in if/when they choose to themselves.
In my case I've also noticed that this high humidity loving scorpion does not like to get sprayed with water, they go into defensive/attack mode right away.
If you have difficulties keeping the enclosure moist enough be sure to have a lid on it, not too many air holes, spray regularly.
Personally I've added a few things in my Heterometrus enclosures for (backup) safety and lazy lower maintenance;
I have placed a low voltage water-suitable heat-wire (5V, 1A) in the scorpion bath, hooked that up to a 'SHT2000'.
I've set the SHT2000 to turn on the heat-wire when humidity drops below 65% and turn off the heat-wire at 80%.
Slightly heating the water makes the water evaporate increasing the humidity.
In case you don't know, SHT2000 is a low-cost (Ebay) thermostat for both heating/cooling and humidity.
It allows you to measure and regulate temperature and humidity separately.
This setup works well for me, i call it a 'lazy' setup because i don't have to spray the enclosure every day ever since.
Sometimes depending on the delta of enclosure temp and ambient temp some of the water vapor will condense on the coldest spots of the enclosure,
that's normal physics at work, not a problem.
Lastly i would recommend adding lots of springtales to combat nasty smells and fungus.
Good luck.

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[Andrew Kiely]

Looks constipated/impacted.

Impacted? like injured?

 

[darkness975]

Impacted? like injured?

No, impacted in the sense that it's having trouble passing fecal matter properly.