Please help! Molting, gravid, overfed, or sick?

Hi,

I have a young Asian forest scorpion that I got in February who appears to be very bloated, but the bloating has lasted for around a month, and he (she?) has basically parked himself under a rock on the hot side of the tank and doesn't want to come out.  He still has his tail up but hasn't eaten for a month as well and isn't moving or reacting much to being touched.  Any ideas as to what is going on? Could it be a gravid female, or did he overeat, or is it an unusually long molt, or is he sick??  Please help!

Thank you in advance!

Michelle

It could be gravid, getting ready to molt, or it could just be fat. :-)

In any case, hiding and not eating are perfectly normal behaviors for ANY scorpion. How often are you feeding it, and how much?


If possible though, please post pictures of your scorpion, and include pictures of the carapace, pedipalps, telson, and pectines.

That way I can tell you what species you have, what sex, and possibly if it's an adult.

Thank you for your reply!  Fortunately, though, he molted two nights ago, so I suppose that answered my question.  I just thought they did not stay bloated for that long before molting.  

I haven't figured out how to post pictures yet, but when I do, I certainly will!

Unfortunately, he lost a leg during the molt, and I was wondering if it might regenerate.  I have heard conflicting stories about them regenerating lost legs and would like to know if you can give me some more information about it and what I can do prevent that from happening again.  I have the humidity around 80 % and the temperature around 75 degrees, but obviously I did something wrong.

As for feeding, we feed him one large cricket every few days, but he has refused to eat since he molted even though he is more active.

Thank you again for your help!

Michelle

Scorpions rarely ever regenerate more than part of a lost limb, and if they do it's usually when they are very young.

I suggest offering a couple crickets every 7-14 days.

And DO NOT try to feed so soon after molting. The exoskeleton is still soft and the scorpion is very vulnerable to attack. Wait until if glows normally under a blacklight to offer food.

In fact, are you sure that it lost its leg while molting? Or did a cricket chew it off?

Ok.  We just tried to feed him last night, but we will wait a while longer to try to offer him food again. As for his leg, I know he lost it during the molt since we had not tried to feed him for a while before the molt given his lack of activity, and you can see the dark leg on the carapace (pictured in my Avatar) where he is now missing one.  The fact that that leg was so dark is what made us check to see if he had lost it to begin with.  I don't know if you can tell anything about his size and age from that picture, but he is probably only 3 inches long from head to tail (if you were to straighten his tail out).   I will post more pictures once I figure out the proper way to do it.

Thank you again for your help!

Michelle