My Whip scorpion (Damon Sp.) just died and I have NO idea why!

Mewks

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 22, 2022
Messages
9
Hello guys,
So today I woke up to my Amblypygi lying on the substrate, looking dead. He usually hangs out under his bark but during the last two weeks he was just lying there, occasionally moving during the night. Feeling something was wrong, I lift him up today and he was very limp in my hand. Usually he moves a little bit when I pick him up, even during the day, but today he was just...not there. I placed him on his bark under the light and usually when I do that he moves back to an area with shadow but today he just. Didnt. Didnt move an inch. It cant be moulting, or else hedd be hanging upside down instead, not just...lying on the substrate.
Im heartbroken and I have NO IDEA what happened! I kept him fed, moist and everything else! Ive only had him for a couple of months (about 6) and its my first time taking care of a whip spider. I have a good setup with a lot of branches, bark, heat, everything. (I can send pictures) I feed him 2-3 crickets once a week and he has been eating fine until 2 weeks ago.
Im listing up things that could be the culprit, but honestly I have no idea, so please bear with me and provide me with answers if you have any in the comments.
About a month ago, we had a power outage because of a storm and my scorpion spent 2 days in total darkness, without heat. I was very stressed during that time, but after the outage he ended up fine and he was eating and active.
Then about two weeks ago, I decided to try out some 25 watt daylight blue bulbs I had bought by mistake, (I usually go with 60 watts) I thought it would be ideal since the summers here are very hot and it was starting to get warm. They usually only need a little more then room temperature and 25 watts could relatively easily achieve that. The only problem is that it didnt provide much light unlike the 60 watts. So anyways, only a little bit after providing the 25 watts, he stopped eating. I replaced the 25 watts with 60 after I realized that which was only a few days after he had completely stopped eating. And then, two days later, hes dead.
Important note as well, around the time I placed the 25 watts instead of the 60, I noticed that my baby millis had all died for, again, unknown reasons. I take care of the millis as well as I cared for my scorpion. Another important note, I went on vacation for one day and a half before putting back the 60 watts. I had watered his cage before leaving, I only missed one spray in the days I was out. I also forgot to ask my sister to close the lamp for the night, butI figured it wouldnt be that bad of an issue since it was still 25 watts back then, meaning it didnt provide much light anyways.

Its not the crickets eating him, he has no sign of wound on himself appart from his missing antenna, it was already missing when I bought him.
I doubt its a heat problem since he was fine during the outage and during the 25 watt periodhe still had enough heat. (About 24-25 degrees)
Could it be a fungal infection? A disease? Anything?
 

CutThroat Kid

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 26, 2022
Messages
206
In circumstances like these I always suspect poor quality pet store crickets. Only buy from places that let you scoop crix up yourself. Otherwise, they just get the nasty dark colored ones from the bottom of the bin. If possible, find a local or online dealer who specializes in selling high quality feeder insects. This is the best practice, aside from culturing your own feeders.
 

Mewks

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 22, 2022
Messages
9
In circumstances like these I always suspect poor quality pet store crickets. Only buy from places that let you scoop crix up yourself. Otherwise, they just get the nasty dark colored ones from the bottom of the bin. If possible, find a local or online dealer who specializes in selling high quality feeder insects. This is the best practice, aside from culturing your own feeders.
Ive Been feeding my crickets carrots, along with regular cricket food. Is it possible that this is the issue?
I’ve been buying from a local specialized reptile pet store for a while now and they have a very good reputation amongst reptile keepers. I have a hard time believing their crickets are bad quality since I’ve bought from them for a while back too, when I had a mountain dragon and the crickets didn’t seem to cause issue back then. It was 5 years ago, so that might have changed but even then…

thank you for the answer!
 

Joey Spijkers

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
1,054
First off, despite the common English name, this species and the whole order has very little to do with scorpions, so it is kind of misplaced here.

99.5% of Damon spp. you buy are wild caught. In the process, they arrive weakened and dehydrated. Then, they are kept in often suboptimal conditions at the distributor and pet store, before finally arriving at your house. Even if you keep them perfectly, some of them are unable to recover fully, and may still perish months later. In many cases, they are also not kept humid enough, increasing the chance of this happening.
In my opinion, this is just one of those groups that is especially badly suited for wild collection, although it's not ideal for any species.
 

aprilmayjunebugs

Fiery but Mostly Peaceful
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Nov 7, 2019
Messages
435
Were you watering the enclosure only by spraying? I think they like it almost swampy.
 

Mewks

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 22, 2022
Messages
9
First off, despite the common English name, this species and the whole order has very little to do with scorpions, so it is kind of misplaced here.

99.5% of Damon spp. you buy are wild caught. In the process, they arrive weakened and dehydrated. Then, they are kept in often suboptimal conditions at the distributor and pet store, before finally arriving at your house. Even if you keep them perfectly, some of them are unable to recover fully, and may still perish months later. In many cases, they are also not kept humid enough, increasing the chance of this happening.
In my opinion, this is just one of those groups that is especially badly suited for wild collection, although it's not ideal for any species.
Thank you SO much for the answer, i didnt really know where to post this so I posted it in scorpion. Should have I posted it in spiders instead?

I had no idea they were wild caught, they did mention at the pet store that they "Didnt usually survive the trip whole" when I asked about the missing antenna, but I had just assumed they had been bred elsewhere and were just being brought to my province. Thank you for the insight, ill be a lot more careful with this in the future and ill make sure to ask more questions!
 

aprilmayjunebugs

Fiery but Mostly Peaceful
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Nov 7, 2019
Messages
435
I was spraying heftily twice per day, every day. Once in the morning, once in the evening.
The trouble with misting is that it never reaches the bottom layers where the humidity is held best. Had the sub been drenched you wouldn't have to spray as often and missing one day would have probably been fine. I'm very sorry for your loss. If you'd still like to post pics, I'm sure others would like to see it too.
 

Joey Spijkers

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
1,054
Unfortunately, mass importation is still a big issue for some species that a lot of beginners aren't aware of, so it's always good to research and find a captive bred source if available.
It's a shame, because it usually results in a species that is common in the hobby, but rarely bred because it's barely worth the effort. And then you get situations like with Pandinus imperator or Hadogenes spp.

Thank you SO much for the answer, i didnt really know where to post this so I posted it in scorpion. Should have I posted it in spiders instead?
'Other spiders and arachnids' makes the most sense. Since they are arachnids, but neither spiders nor scorpions.
 

Mewks

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 22, 2022
Messages
9
The trouble with misting is that it never reaches the bottom layers where the humidity is held best. Had the sub been drenched you wouldn't have to spray as often and missing one day would have probably been fine. I'm very sorry for your loss. If you'd still like to post pics, I'm sure others would like to see it too.
I can post some pictures! Im posting some of the setup as well. Rip my sweetheart :(
To be fair, I also made sure to spray the ground a bunch, but i should have probably done it more.
 

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Mewks

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 22, 2022
Messages
9
Unfortunately, mass importation is still a big issue for some species that a lot of beginners aren't aware of, so it's always good to research and find a captive bred source if available.
It's a shame, because it usually results in a species that is common in the hobby, but rarely bred because it's barely worth the effort. And then you get situations like with Pandinus imperator or Hadogenes spp.


'Other spiders and arachnids' makes the most sense. Since they are arachnids, but neither spiders nor scorpions.
Yes, this will definitelly be a question I always ask in the future! I assumed this wasnt a problem anymore, I didnt even consider it as a possibility...I guess I was too excited about findind a specie I loved, its my mistake, I should have been more aware of that issue. I dont think I will be keeping Amblypigy again, I love them and invertebrates in general but theyre fragile and difficult to interact with. If you have any propositions of good invertebrate for beginners, idd love to hear them!
 

CutThroat Kid

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 26, 2022
Messages
206
Ive Been feeding my crickets carrots, along with regular cricket food. Is it possible that this is the issue?
I’ve been buying from a local specialized reptile pet store for a while now and they have a very good reputation amongst reptile keepers. I have a hard time believing their crickets are bad quality since I’ve bought from them for a while back too, when I had a mountain dragon and the crickets didn’t seem to cause issue back then. It was 5 years ago, so that might have changed but even then…

thank you for the answer!
Thats good! It’s the chain pet stores that employ wage workers you usually want to avoid. Not hating on em, they just dont always know better.
 

Purplepuffball

Arachnosquire
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
88
I mean it could have died from a bacterial infection that happens when you keep the substrate wet and allow bacteria to grow...
 

ForTW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Oct 20, 2021
Messages
405
Yeah the answer is pretty simple.
That's a wild caught adult male and besides the fact that they do very poorly (import) as mentioned, Nobody knows the age and wild caughts are harder to get used to the food you offer.
Just get a CB, wild caught whip spiders are having lots of trouble in captivity.
 

Veno Manus

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 16, 2023
Messages
335
I can post some pictures! Im posting some of the setup as well. Rip my sweetheart :(
To be fair, I also made sure to spray the ground a bunch, but i should have probably done it more.

I have owned a Damon for a couple years with molting success and very stays plump. You have to literally swamp the substrate. I do cleaner bugs and really saturate the substrate. I have leaf litter, coocfiber and 2 cork tubes. In different direction. Your setup looks sufficient enough. I'm wondering if it beeded to molt but couldn't? Respiratory problems? This has all worked very well for me. The tank is a aboreal zoo med. 20230401_124836.jpg 20230402_192747.jpg
 
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that1ocelot

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 21, 2021
Messages
233
Thank you SO much for the answer, i didnt really know where to post this so I posted it in scorpion. Should have I posted it in spiders instead?

I had no idea they were wild caught, they did mention at the pet store that they "Didnt usually survive the trip whole" when I asked about the missing antenna, but I had just assumed they had been bred elsewhere and were just being brought to my province. Thank you for the insight, ill be a lot more careful with this in the future and ill make sure to ask more questions!
It is a Damon Medius, they require as close to 100% humidity as possible. Having a light on the animal is awful. Ambly are the most photophobic animals I know. Damon Medius in particular are balls of stress. I find that this species requires for you to cover ventilation, because they need as much humidity as possible.

Otherwise, it was a wild caught adult. Your husbandry doesn't seem too off, but there are some things I would change. They absolutely do not need supplemental heat, unless their enclosure gets below 18c. Most ambly do great at 18+
 

Matt Man

Arachnoprince
Joined
Jul 4, 2017
Messages
1,685
it may have been wild caught and therefore also possibly old or ill. But a mother's have said, they need a ton of humidity. Probably an okay candidate for a vivarium
 
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