Tailless Whip Scorpion Pet help.

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Arachnopeon
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Mar 4, 2022
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Hello, I created an account just for this. Unfortunately I cant find much info on this particular issue. I got this African whip scorpion just before valentines day and it was missing one of its whips then. I keep it in a 10 gallon tank thats regularly misted and feed it once a week. today i noticed that its other whip is gone. i dont see it in the tank anywhere and i haven't seen any uneaten prey (crickets) on close inspection. Its my understanding that they use these whips to locate prey but im worried that it will starve now that its missing both (from the middle joint). it hasn't molted at all since i got it so im not sure when its last one was. will it still be able to eat or is it
 

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Poonjab

Arachnoking
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Nov 4, 2019
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Yeah. It’ll eat. It’s preparing to molt and get new “whips”
 

that1ocelot

Arachnoknight
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Oct 21, 2021
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The user above me is unfortunately incorrect, they should never, ever lose their whips but can drop them due to stress. What does your full enclosure look like?

As well, I'm going to say what every other experienced ambly keeper will say here: mist pointless.

You can mist so they can drink, but even that is mostly unnecessary. Your animal dropped it's whip because the conditions likely aren't right. It looks like a Damon Medius. They SUPER DUPER need humidity. The fact that your animal is seemingly low to the ground is another indicator that the humidity needs to be turned up 3 notches. An easy way to turn up the humidity is soak the substrate. Almost to a swampy consistency. As well, you're going to want to cover most of the ventilation. I use plastic wrap.

It looks fairly large so it won't molt for awhile. Yeah, it'll regenerate the whips but it will take a minute. If you wanted to make its life easier, you could tear the jumping legs off off crickets you feed it. It won't have the worst time eating, but it might have trouble getting the strike just right I imagine.

I'll say it again: losing whips as "preparation to molt" isn't a thing. Here is my Wild Caught Medius, with both it's whips.

The best thing you can do for YOUR likely wild caught Medius is silence, privacy, and humidity.
 

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Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
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Aug 1, 2019
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The user above me is unfortunately incorrect, they should never, ever lose their whips but can drop them due to stress. What does your full enclosure look like?

As well, I'm going to say what every other experienced ambly keeper will say here: mist pointless.

You can mist so they can drink, but even that is mostly unnecessary. Your animal dropped it's whip because the conditions likely aren't right. It looks like a Damon Medius. They SUPER DUPER need humidity. The fact that your animal is seemingly low to the ground is another indicator that the humidity needs to be turned up 3 notches. An easy way to turn up the humidity is soak the substrate. Almost to a swampy consistency. As well, you're going to want to cover most of the ventilation. I use plastic wrap.

It looks fairly large so it won't molt for awhile. Yeah, it'll regenerate the whips but it will take a minute. If you wanted to make its life easier, you could tear the jumping legs off off crickets you feed it. It won't have the worst time eating, but it might have trouble getting the strike just right I imagine.

I'll say it again: losing whips as "preparation to molt" isn't a thing. Here is my Wild Caught Medius, with both it's whips.

The best thing you can do for YOUR likely wild caught Medius is silence, privacy, and humidity.
All of this.

Whip loss is a stress indicator. Your animal is NOT DOING WELL.

This is almost certainly due to inappropriate environmental conditions.

Please post photos of your entire enclosure so we can help you correct any issues before they become fatal!
 

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Arachnopeon
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All of this.

Whip loss is a stress indicator. Your animal is NOT DOING WELL.

This is almost certainly due to inappropriate environmental conditions.

Please post photos of your entire enclosure so we can help you correct any issues before they become fatal!
The user above me is unfortunately incorrect, they should never, ever lose their whips but can drop them due to stress. What does your full enclosure look like?

As well, I'm going to say what every other experienced ambly keeper will say here: mist pointless.

You can mist so they can drink, but even that is mostly unnecessary. Your animal dropped it's whip because the conditions likely aren't right. It looks like a Damon Medius. They SUPER DUPER need humidity. The fact that your animal is seemingly low to the ground is another indicator that the humidity needs to be turned up 3 notches. An easy way to turn up the humidity is soak the substrate. Almost to a swampy consistency. As well, you're going to want to cover most of the ventilation. I use plastic wrap.

It looks fairly large so it won't molt for awhile. Yeah, it'll regenerate the whips but it will take a minute. If you wanted to make its life easier, you could tear the jumping legs off off crickets you feed it. It won't have the worst time eating, but it might have trouble getting the strike just right I imagine.

I'll say it again: losing whips as "preparation to molt" isn't a thing. Here is my Wild Caught Medius, with both it's whips.

The best thing you can do for YOUR likely wild caught Medius is silence, privacy, and humidity.
Thank you for the advice. I thought i did my research before hand but It appears i didnt do enough. I upped the moisture by quite a bit by manually spraying in addition to the mister. he seems to be more active since then and IS eating normally as i just confirmed today. I dont know what its environmental conditions were before I got him. the pet store only had him for a day before i saw it though i can guess that it was also less than ideal since it had already lost a whip at that point. Here's his current enclosure, the lighting isnt normal, this was just for the photo. It has a mesh top with a glass over to help with humidity. he is able to climb on to the mesh top easily. the structure on the left is cork bark with the space behind filled with coconut fiber substrate and terrarium moss on top. the right is some store bought driftwood with an open space behind for a hide (where he is in the original pic) middle piece is dragon stone. everything used is store bought and marketed for terrariums, so nothings from the wild. as another thing, after upping the moisture Ive noticed some small flies made the terrarium their home. I dont know if they would bother him or not. hope this helps and i can provide more details if needed. again thanks
 

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Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
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Forget spraying to moisten the substrate. Pour water in so it’s wet all the way through. Ignore any soil flies or fungus - they won’t bother the animal, and your main priority right now needs to be maintaining a nice wet enclosure to help this critter recover.

It looks like you have the enclosure oriented horizontally - what’s the height from the top of the substrate to the highest spot the animal can climb on? They need a fair bit of height to safely moult.
 

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Arachnopeon
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Mar 4, 2022
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Forget spraying to moisten the substrate. Pour water in so it’s wet all the way through. Ignore any soil flies or fungus - they won’t bother the animal, and your main priority right now needs to be maintaining a nice wet enclosure to help this critter recover.

It looks like you have the enclosure oriented horizontally - what’s the height from the top of the substrate to the highest spot the animal can climb on? They need a fair bit of height to safely moult.
Yes, I forgot to mention that I did pour water directly into it. the height from substrate to ceiling is about 1ft. he regularly climbs onto it. the cork bark is about 8 inches high
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
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Yes, I forgot to mention that I did pour water directly into it. the height from substrate to ceiling is about 1ft. he regularly climbs onto it. the cork bark is about 8 inches high
Okay, I'd recommend getting a piece of cork that reaches to the top so it has the full height to work with when he eventually moults.
 
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