Tell tales for molting?

I've searched around here and seen multiple topics on molting, but still not quite sure what the signs are. IDK what instar it is, but it is male and its stinger (don't know another name for it) is redish brown. As of late it seems to be acting more slugish, and lays around night and day. Could just be a temporary thing or molt? Lays with legs in a resting position and the stinger to the side and curled. Temp during the day is 80F and drops to around 74F at night with hum between 80 and 90 %. Any info is welcomed!

It's actually out during the day? Mine sometimes sits just inside her hide during the day, and that's rare, but I've never seen her actually come out in the open. An emperors' telson (stinger) darkens with age. If it's redish brown, it may already be an adult. If you could post a photo, that would help a lot. Your temps and humidity sound ok. How is your enclosure setup? Substrate type, depth, hides, etc. Any info you can provide will help us figure out what, if anything, is wrong. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Substrate is about 5 inches deep, has one hide. He doesn't come out during they day, stays in the hide. There is also a thick branch in the corner that he made into a semi hide with some moss. Seems to stay in the hide at night too lately, which is whats throwing me off. Substrate is cocofiber.

Says I cant upload pics for another 7 days.

It sounds like typical behavior for an emperor. An emperor you don't see is a happy scorp. They're pretty much "pet holes"--once they get settled in, all you see of them is a hole in the ground.

You're doing everything right, so I wouldn't worry too much. All I see of mine is a pair of claws occasionally sticking out of her hide. She sometimes comes out a night and knocks over the fake plants, but I'm never around to see it.

Emperors are recommended as "starter" scorps because they're hardy, docile, available, and relatively easy to care for. But, they're definitely not a display animal. If you want a scorp that you'll actually see, I recommend a Desert Hairy (Hadrurus arizonensis). Their tank setup requires a little more work in the beginning--hard packed sand and lots of it--but they do come out at night and dig like 8 legged beagles. They're also pretty big, but like most scorpions, you won't see them out during the day.

So I guess what I'm asking is do they normally act really active at night and then just stay docile a week? For the past month I have had it it had been super active at night and sometimes during the day it would chill outside its den and clean itself. Now it just lays around at night :? Thanks for the help! I'll let yall know if anything changes.

Once they settle in to their home they usually stop being so active. Most scorpions, especially obligate burrowers, will wander around for a bit before they finally dig a hole and start hiding. I think that they are looking for their old territory, and once they don't find it they dig a new hole. The most I see of my emp is it's claws at night. They are ambush predators and usually sit in wait for something tasty to wander by. This is usual behavior for them, but some are more active than others. A scorpion in premolt condition will not be active and will be very plump. They literally look like pinchy sausages.

Sweetness. Thanks for the help. It deff would explain the lack of activity. I had figured they would actively move around at night that way always. Makes sense what you said. He is not blimped so I'm assuming he is no where near molt. So if he is blimped, wont eat, and super docile, that means there is a molt on the way?

More or less. If it's an adult already it's not going to molt again. They will sometimes eat until they are fat, and to the untrained eye they can look to be in premolt. There are subtle differences though.

This is a good photo on a pre-molt Pandinus imperator, posted by wodesorel here.

wodesorel wrote:

And this is the one who molted. He had to have molted within a day or two of this photo:

Click here to view:

Basically a heavily pre-molt forest scorpion (which is yet an adult) looks like the above and with some of the following observations:

1) Sluggish (but not tail dragging with inward curling of the legs)
2) Refuse food (or totally ignoring their(feeder) presence and this means.. even if they crawled across her back)
3) Reduced or zero activity in the night

If you wish, you may pm me on your image's direct url and i'll fixed it up for you.

As mentioned before in this most, "an emp you don't see is a happy emp". Well I see mine all the time. Like 50% of the time both of them will be out stilting, even during the day. And sometimes, when I go inside the room and they're hiding, they'll come out. This is not typical scorpion behavior from what I've heard. My setup is 4" of coconut fiber, temps are a steady 90F at the hot end and 80F at the cool end. Humidity is around 65%-85%.

My 2 female emps do that too, I was chalking it up to curiosity. I pretty much just got the tank and the emps the other day, so im doing some subtle changes. Like putting another layer of coco fiber on top of the existing layer, put another hide in on the "hot" side of the tank, put some moss down..... Its like they have got to see what I do, because as soon as im done they both come from the hide they share and seem to inspect their surroundings to see whats changed. Lol.
And its like they already come to expect that when I open the hood they will get something tasty to eat, they just pop up from the bottom of the hide and all of a sudden I see 2 sets of claws. Although I have to admit, im kinda looking forward to getting them to eat from the tongs.