Problems with my emp - please help

Pyrdacor

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Messages
194
Hey,

my emperor scorpion is behaving a little strange.
First thing is, she's pregnant, that's at least what I think because she has grown so fat.
I'm keeping emps for many years now but i've never seen any of them do that...
For the last two days she is outside her hide near the light spot from a bulb which i use for heating. Today she's often pressing herself to the ground, that's how it looks, as well as pressing the telson into the substrate besides her body. And she moves the end of the mesosoma from left to right and up and down a little bit. And she's put her chelicerae all the way out. If they walk around usually I can see only the end of them.
If I talked in a humanized way about it, I would describe her behaviour as if she was in pain...
Yesterday I tried to feed her. She grabbed the roach and stinged it (!) which i have never seen doing any of my emps before. She keeped it in her claw for some time but didn't eat it. After a couple of minutes she let it go...

Has anyone seen something like that before?

Thanks in advance,

Chris
 

Thaedion

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
894
Curious, what are the tank conditions? Temperature, humidity, moisture/water source, substrate? What is her estimated age, how long have you had her?
 

Brandelmouche

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
277
To me, probably she wonth to mult, are you sûr she's gravid ?
Do you have see some mycose or parasit ?
Or if you buy an adult several years a go, mabe it's the end.?

good luck ! ;)
Jean.
 

Pyrdacor

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Messages
194
Tank conditions are the following:
90x50 cm height 60 cm (5 emps are living in there)

Temperature ranges from 30-32°C under the light spot down to 24°C in the corner farest to the heating. During the night: about 20 - 23°C.

Humidity ranges from 70 - 90% depending from the height of measurement.

Water source is a deep water dish (about 7 cm deep) filled with stones to prevent drowning
As substrate i'm using a mixture of cocos bricks 80%(those that need to be covered with water), sand 15% and clay 5% (to keep humidity high).

I have kept her for about 2 years but purchased her as an adult.

Oh, i just checked her and noticed that she passed away.... :(

I checked her book lungs but didn't see anything looking like mycose. But doing that i found three little worms on the left part of her pectines. And the operculum doesn't look healthy imo. Is that parasites? If thats true i guess i have to clean up the whole tank to protect the other emps?
Made a picture of the worms and the pectines...what do you think? (i found the worms where i put the red circle)
 

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Thaedion

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
894
Pyrdacor, sorry to hear you lost her.
All of your tank conditions sound good to me, and seeing as you had her for 2 years shows you did. I would have been leaning toward old age, but the 'worms' got me wondering... :confused: they look like leaches? how big are they, are there any in the water dish or on the substrate are there any on the other scorpions?
 

Pyrdacor

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Messages
194
Yeah, that's what I thought of first too...leaches. They also moved in a similar way to the big ones we all know. But they are only about 1 cm in length when they strech to move. What also catched my atention was they they dried out in a very short time. On the paper on which I shot the pic they stopped moving after about a maximum of 5 minutes. I guess they need a very very humid environment to survive, otherwise they would'nt dry out that fast.

I go check all my other emps in the tank and also they water dish...for now I did'nt notice them on the surface before...
 

Pyrdacor

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Messages
194
Ok, got something new...

I found another of these "worms" near the water dish...maybe I've kept my emp too humid?!?! I'm watering every day after the lights are switched off for 1 minute with an automatic self built watering system..on the surface there is only about 90% humidity but the bottom of the tank is almost swimming. maybe i should reduce the watering to every secong or third day?! but until now I've never had problems with my method...

my other emps in the tank look healthy, I checked them. nothing on the outside...

maybe my lady was just old...
 
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