Asian Forest Scorpion wont move

I have recently gotten an Asian Forest Scorpion and have it in a 30 inch terrarium with fogger and temperature/humidity control device...which keeps the temp at around 80 degrees and the humidity from 60-75%. Before I started regulating the humidity the scorpion was very active. Now he seems to have taken a permanant position on a fountain rock about 6 inches high. He hangs on the side of the rock against the terrarium wall about 4 inches up. I have been giving him crickets, which he was eating, but he doenst seem to want to come off of the rock. He is active because if I pop open the terraruim lid he jumps a little. Can anyone tell me why he is doing this and if there is anything I need to do for him if he is sick. He has been there for about 6 days.
thanks

If he is active, then i would say that you dont have to worry. My H. laoticus also acts a bit wierd sometimes.

What are you using for substrate? How deep is your substrate? What are you using for heat?

Thanks KLN, I hope you are right,

shebeen, Im using organic potting soil for substrate, and orchid bark on top of that. The potting soil is around 3 to 4 inches deep. Right now I am using the ambient air which stays above 80 all day and most of the night. I have a heating mat, but im not using it at the moment. I have several hides I made with a broken clay pot and some dried moss on top. There is a water dish in addition to the fountain rock. Is that substrate deep enough?
mark

To tell you for sure if it's deep enough your going to need to tell us how big your h.laoticus is.
The depth you have right now is perfect for anything under full grown. When full grown at least 6" at the deepest point.
Everybody has their personal preferences and success in individual depths. Each scorpion has it's own preferences too. Some hardly burrows and some are digging machines. Mine (about ")particularly doesn't burrow much since I moved him to a 5.5 gallon. Before in his critter keepers he'd make intricate burrows,most likely because he didn't have much room to explore terrestrially.

I think your scorpion could be hanging out on top of that rock because some vibration in the room is disturbing him and that's the spot with the least vibrations. Either that or your substrate is way too wet or there is mites agitating his stationary hours.

Your temperatures are fine and so is your humidity.
I think you are making things more complicatedhan necessary with the humidifier and all. A moist thick substrate of Eco earth or peat moss should be more than efficient with a good lid than doesn't prevent air flow but also doesn't allow too much air flow. Most of the humidity your scorpion is exposed to is in the substrate and like 2" above the sub. At that level the humidity is highest.

Hmmm maybe your scorp disagrees with the pitting soil?
That could possibly be a factor for it playing cliffhanger.

thats all great advice, and interesting points of view. I only got the humidifier and the control device because everything I was reading about the Asian Forest Scorpion said they needed temp above 75 and humidity above 60% to 80% which in texas is nearly impossible to achieve, not the temp but both temp and humidity together. I was getting the humidity up to around 70% with the fogger then it would go back down to 40% during the day when I was gone. So to keep it up constantly I got the control device, which works, its pretty impressive. But im not so sure the scorpion thinks so, because thats right when he climbed up there. It does kind of make a sound, but it goes on and off, obviously, but that part was the same as before. Doenst make any sense it would be the humidity/temp issue. I guess Ill just wait and see for a couple more days. Ill change the substrate if he doesnt come down.
thanks again,

mark

I'd recommend using a false bottom setup to retain humidity. (Do a quick search if you don't know what a false bottom setup is.)

I also agree that maybe he just doesn't like the substrate he's on. Try switching to coco fiber or peat and see if that helps.

False bottoms FTW!

YaY! He came down. Not complety on his own volition, I reached in and moved the rock around a bit, then in about 5 minitues he was down and walking, went to the water dish, stayed there motionless for like 15 mins....must have been thirsty..he walked around for a good bit of the night, went into one of the clay caves for a while then ended up on top of another clay pot cave sitting on top of the moss.

ASF mark wrote:

YaY! He came down. Not complety on his own volition, I reached in and moved the rock around a bit, then in about 5 minitues he was down and walking, went to the water dish, stayed there motionless for like 15 mins....must have been thirsty..he walked around for a good bit of the night, went into one of the clay caves for a while then ended up on top of another clay pot cave sitting on top of the moss.

Well that rules out a substrate problem, so that's good. Scorpions are usually dehydrated when they are bought from pet-stores, so that's why he was drinking for so long.


By the way, from you avatar I'm guessing that your scorp is either a Heterometrus petersii or a Heterometrus laoticus.

I actually didnt get him from a store, but ordered him online, got him in the mail. He is drinking a good bit though. This is my first attempt at scorpion (whatever the word is)...So I am open to any suggtions or comments by anyone. Heterometrus longimanus is what I got from the Internet as the name for the Asian Forest Scorpion, I dont know. Im really interested in the Buddhist lore where scorps are concerned. I know some, like they represent a curse or to ward off evil. Phadmasambava, the great Buddhist adept is depicted with a scorpion in one hand, protector, power, gaurdian..etc...i think they are cool.

ASF

It probably got dehydrated during shipping then.

If you post some pics of the scorp (particularly of the pedipalps and and carapace) I should be able to ID it for you.

I've got a similar problem. I bought my H. petersii (or laoticus, as her carapace is smooth) at a fair on January 26th. The first 2 weeks she used to come out at night, walk around, climb the walls, and drink from her little dish. Now she's been holed up in the "second level" of her hide for a week.. She hasn't come out at night, all she does is sitting there.. Sometimes I see one of her pedipalps hanging in front of the entrance, but that's it. However, she does react when I open the terrarium to mist it.

Temperature is about 80/85 during day, 68 at night. Humidity remains at 80%. The substrate I use is Eco Earth (the loose stuff, not the bricks), as the seller told me that he never had any burrowers. I've also put in some coco husk. My heating sources are an infrared bulb and 2 heating mats on the warm side (my room temperature drops to about 60 at night.. so it gets quite cold here). Terrarium is 55x30x20 (lxwxh), but I plan on buying a 50x40x40. 20 centimeters is too low.  

Yesterday I had the idea to topple her hide, so I could keep an eye on her.. but she still stays in it. Also, she hasn't eaten since I bought her, exactly 3 weeks ago now, but I read that that's quite normal.

Any idea what it might be? I'm concerned that it could be mites.. She has little brown dots, but that could also be from the sticky Eco Earth.. it looks quite similar. I'm planning to buy some predatory mites, just to make sure.. The coco husk I put in might have been a mistake, because it wasn't sealed very well, and it had been standing in my closet for 2 years.. Or could it be that she's just happy? I've read in a number of places that an invisible scorp is a happy scorp.

Doesn't sound like anything's wrong to me. Make sure however that the scorp can burrow; your seller clearly hasn't had much experience with Heterometrus species if he's never had a burrower.

That being said, do check the date of the thread next time. This particular one is from 2012.

She can burrow a little bit It'll be better in her next terrarium.

And my apologies I did actually notice the date.. but I'm used to fora where they prefer that people put questions in topics that already exist, even if those topics are from decades ago... I've been scolded on those fora for not placing my question in an existing topic, no matter how old.. so... that's why I put it here, for fear of being scolded again, haha! Now I know that I can just open a new thread if need be