A lot of death.

Hey guys,

You might have noticed I have had 3 deaths in a short row.

I have examined the specimens and there are no signs of trauma or external parasites.

So I have examined the facts, things that have recently changed.

- The biggest thing that immediately came to mind was temperature. The season here is rapidly changing to Winter. My house is a steady 20/21 degrees celsius during the day but drop to about 18 degrees at night. My lighting has changed but temperature wise, minimal differences during the day.
The difference with my previous house was, in that particular room the night temperature was higher.

- Both the latter deaths were of younger scorpions.

- Both scorpions ate little lost weight then died.

Conclusion:

I think it is a combination of factors that might have caused these deaths.
The sudden drop of temperature, in combination with my fairly spartan way of feeding, was just too much for the little ones. I tend to feed irregularly to mimic natural prey availability.

My older and bigger scorpions haven't had any problems, and in the summer the little ones ate like a horse so I really think it's the sudden drop of temp and decrease in metabolism, which resulted in loss of weight and eventually weakening and death.

What I have learned:

- I am going to purchase a big friggin' heat pad for the night to compensate.
- My feeding regimen for the younger guys is going to increase.


I am very very frustrated with myself at the moment, because I hold myself responsible.
I think that I might have known this, and could have prevented this especially with my experience.
I actually feel ashamed.

Of course, it might have been a fluke, or coincidental deaths, and there might not have been anything I could have done. I even thought of quitting the scorpion hobby all together. But I decided that would be foolish, giving up yet another thing that keeps me going in Life, and I love them too much.

But shoulda coulda woulda does not help a thing, just to learn from this.

I miss them.


Thoughts are welcome.

There was a time when I had like 5 deaths in a matter of two weeks, so I understand how you feel. I freaked out and did a complete substrate change and put everyone in isolated containers with moist paper towels (ICU's) and left them for two weeks. I believe the issue might also be the sudden temperature drop, not the temperature itself. But whatever the issue is, I hope it stops here and doesn't kill off any more of your scorpions.

What are you feeding the scorps and could this have been contaminated?

Aww sorry to hear about your scorps. Just had my recent scorp death as well so don't feel discouraged

Patcho wrote:

There was a time when I had like 5 deaths in a matter of two weeks, so I understand how you feel. I freaked out and did a complete substrate change and put everyone in isolated containers with moist paper towels (ICU's) and left them for two weeks. I believe the issue might also be the sudden temperature drop, not the temperature itself. But whatever the issue is, I hope it stops here and doesn't kill off any more of your scorpions.

I agree, I am trying to counteract it ASAP. In January I am going to advance my plan of rehousing all my scorpions and I have a thought of a plan, but it will have to wait till January which soon is upon us.

Thank you.

shaneshac wrote:

What are you feeding the scorps and could this have been contaminated?

The feeders get a diet of grain crackers and water and are taken care of, by myself personally. I don't let them waste away in a tiny box with nothing more than pellets and no source of water like I see in some stores, the store where I buy them takes good care of them. And I hand pick every feeder myself I always look at what I give, I have no reason to think there was something wrong with the feeders, but thank you for bringing it up.

Tongue Flicker wrote:

Aww sorry to hear about your scorps. Just had my recent scorp death as well so don't feel discouraged

Thank you.

I personally do carrots and meow mix for my feeders. My friend and I introduced carrots recently due to our lateralis colonies collapsing. Seems to work well and gut loads the feeders really nicely.

Nice to see you taking steps to avoid future incidents. I would recommend consistent feedings and temperature, as it becomes easier to diagnose issues and keeps them on a schedule thats easy to manage for both you and them.

For reference,
I keep my house at 72-73 during the day, 71-72 at night. Bug room is the same, with 2 100w infrared heat lamps and a 150w infrared heat lamp. I only use heat mats for my Tityus.

thegromgrom wrote:

I personally do carrots and meow mix for my feeders. My friend and I introduced carrots recently due to our lateralis colonies collapsing. Seems to work well and gut loads the feeders really nicely.

Nice to see you taking steps to avoid future incidents. :)I would recommend consistent feedings and temperature, as it becomes easier to diagnose issues and keeps them on a schedule thats easy to manage for both you and them.

For reference,
I keep my house at 72-73 during the day, 71-72 at night. Bug room is the same, with 2 100w infrared heat lamps and a 150w infrared heat lamp. I only use heat mats for my Tityus.

Thank you!
I always appreciate advice from a breeder. I hope to breed in the future myself.
At the moment I made a choice.

I had one terrarium left from the recent deaths and I decided to sell it, and not buy a new scorpion for it.

Thus to improve conditions for my remaining scorpions as they are precious to me.
This way, a heat pad came available and I rehoused my H. Paucidens to a tank with a tiny heat mat under the tank and a big self adhesive one to the back.
I made sure it can thermoregulate properly.


The big heat mat that now was available went to double heat both my L. Quinquestriatus and my A. Amoreuxi to compensate for warmth loss during the night.

So everybody except my P. Cavimanus has an extra heat mat. I avoided a mat with P. Cavimanus, because it's the only scorpion I have with burrows and she has an extensive cavern system, so to prevent overheating.


I am not wanting to jump the gun, but I feel a lot more relaxed right now.


Thanks for the help!

Joey

I live here in Canada, my house is around the same temperature and just got my scorpion so ill see if she lives through the tempurature