Noobie Help

My fiance went out and picked up to Asian forests yesterday.. they are smaller about 2-3 inches in body length. the two explored for a big and then settled in. thsi morning we woke up and both of them were upside down, silghtly unresponsive..

I gently picked them up with very heavy gloves and turned them back over.. they didn't move much and shortly after they turned themselves back over.. the humidity is close to 75%-78% and the cool side temp is about 70*F where the warm side is closer to 85*F.

after I picked them up and turned them over it looks like on their sides are split? and that something soft is coming out? Did we do something wrong? are we killing them? they are normally now found on their back.. moving and turning their legs and arms if i step up to the enclosure, but then they settle down again and don't move. it's not much of a set up.. ( I went into the petstore to bring a rat home for the snake, and he fell in love with the lil guys) but the pet store owner was really nice and he explained a lot, and set up.. I would feel really stupid going and asking him this, I am in there weekly for my feeders.. and he thinks i have too many pets.

Upside down?

Can you take pictures of them and your enclosure?

What do you have in your setup?
Do you see any little insects in the enclosure? I know my scorpions acted very strangely when there were tiny ants biting them. I didn't know what was going on until I looked extremely closely and saw them.

Hmmm, pictures would be great.

The soft thing coming out of their splitting sides etc - is probably the membrane (completely normal and should be visible to some degree on a healthy specimen)

My initial thought was molting but then again it could be some sort of irritation as H.Laoticus pointed out.

I am using an old 29gal aquarium set up.. i used it for my ball when i first got her.. it's got about 2-4 inches of peat moss with about a half inch of sand on the top, two larger hides.. i figured they would dig a little, so i have one on the warm side and one on the cool side. and two very shallow water dishes.

I had him contact the pet store when he got home, the guy really didn't have any answers what so ever, he asked if we looked around online. I'm wondering if it's the peat moss?

but here are pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6768137&l=76907df9fa&id=817713495


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6768140&l=815bd41291&id=817713495


if they dont work, let me know, my internet is being wenchy

Hmmm that is bizarre - the fact that they're both doing it.

It looks like molting to me...They are still alive you say? Well leave them be for an hour or two and see whether or not they are in fact molting.

Also, you shouldn't really have sand in there for this species - Just a soil-like substrate (coco fiber & peat are the best ones)

they have been like this all day.. they explored a little bit last night, the slightly smaller of the two running all over the place.. they are indeed alive, when i flip them back over, they curl into almost a U shape and lay back on their side, then flip to their back..

WTH?!? My fiance, quick to give up, figured it a loss and didn't worry about them this morning.. didn't look at them, didn't do anything.. he got home today, turned on the light, and they were both moving around just fine, happy as larks. Though they do have a really hard time moving in the peat..

Could it have been just a 'fool' apporach to im dead don't bother me? The other thing is they will grab a cricket, and then let it go.. should we be worried about that? the crickets are medium and large size, maybe try smaller?

any help would be great, we will be switching the bedding this weekend so they can move more easily..

Do these lil guys burrow?

What kind of water are they being given? Filtered water or tap? That's so strange, looks almost like they're having a seizure.
But it could be a molt as binksy said, so I'd change the substrate and see what happens.

Yes, they are natural burrowers and grabbing/releasing crickets is normal.

Hey Koseckk, I can't tell you anything these guys haven't already told you, nor would have even had any more of a clue than yourself on the matter, but I looked at the pictures and noticed that it looked like you guys were in WI?? If so, we should talk sometime, I'm in Appleton. Might be nice to potentially split shipping costs if anything is ever ordered or keeping ears open for expos or cool shops that may be discovered. And that faux dead deal is a really strange site, I'm glad that they seem to be fine now!

yeah, now the biggest problem we have is the substrate.. they have a really hard time moving in it.. off to fondy this weekend for some eco earth i think.

Yeah, eco-earth is by far the most popular from what I've seen and it also what I used. I did mix some peat moss in with it but not much, didn't really notice a difference with that. I think the coco fiber would be less messy than just peat moss as well.

I got the eco-earth stuff that comes in a package of 3 compressed bricks. Took almost two of them for 6 inches of substrate in my 20 gal High. You could always try 2 or just whip up 3 right away. I keep extra stuff I let dry out in a bag to use later.

Good luck

iitomodachi1 wrote:

I got the eco-earth stuff that comes in a package of 3 compressed bricks. Took almost two of them for 6 inches of substrate in my 20 gal High. You could always try 2 or just whip up 3 right away. I keep extra stuff I let dry out in a bag to use later.

Good luck

i used 3 1/2 bricks for my 29 gallon (long) communal emp tank....
and i used 2 1/2 for a 10 gallon with a 4i emp...
i even used a corner section of a brick for my C. hentzi thats in a 1 gallon triangle shaped betta tank...

for all forest or jungle scorps, its what id use...

ive been wondering if i did a desert setup, if using colored sand for like salt water tanks would work...
id of course clean the sand, bake it, etc....
i just wondered if theres a difference in using different sands for the scorps?

just a thought i had and wondered about

the lycan mikey wrote:

ive been wondering if i did a desert setup, if using colored sand for like salt water tanks would work...
id of course clean the sand, bake it, etc....
i just wondered if theres a difference in using different sands for the scorps?

If you find stuff that works, let me know! I was looking for different options and there were lots of choices for fish and reptiles and it all included calcium or something that recalled reading was not good for them. I ended up at Home Depot buying playground sand, I got the normal stuff and the really fine stuff which is almost white, looks good and looks natural. I usually like that but I wanted something would contrast with my scorps a bit like black