S. heros mycosis?

[kdiaz]

Hi all. I have a Scolopendra heros heros that's been acting weird since last Friday, and I'm not sure what to do. Only the back part of the body was responding on Friday. It's enclosure was a large glass tank with coconut fiber as it's substrate. It also had a water dish, blocks of wood that it could hide under and a heating lamps on one side of the tank. I would spray the tank every so often but not too much so it wouldn't be super moist and there was also plenty of ventilation. I changed the enclosure to a container with a lot more moisture on Friday evening and today about 2/3 of it's body is responding but the other 1/3 is not. I also noticed that there are some dark spots on the body of the centipede and I'm not sure if those spots are normal or not. The centipede did have the the spots before when it was doing perfectly fine. FYI, I moved the centipede to a clear container to make it easier to take pictures.

 

[Teds ts and Inverts]

Contrary to popular belief, a lot of Scolopendra sp. (polymorpha, heros, SA Giants, just to name a few) don’t need to be kept moist, and I’d go as far as to say that many die due to being kept too moist. Make sure that the substrate is mostly dry, and that the pede has access to its water dish. You can still moisten the substrate every now and then, but it should not be moist 24/7.

Also, DON’T use a heat lamp! They aren’t necessary, and they can be detrimental to your pedes’ health.

Post some pics of your setup as well, as it should make it easier for myself and others to pinpoint what you may be doing wrong