New owner! Please help!

I purchased my first Emperor Scorpion just under a week ago and I'm getting worried about him. He hasn't eaten since I've had him (I think, there where 2 dead crickets in there yesterday, but their bodies were still whole). Today when I woke up I checked him as usual and he is barely moving. Occasionally he will move his legs a little, but for the most part he's just sitting there. I tried moving him around a little to see if he was just sleeping and accidentally flipped him on his back, but he still just laid there. There is no discoloration, smell, legs aren't curled inward, or anything else suspicious, other than his lack of appetite and movement. I have him in a 2.5 g enclosure with a stacking rock hide, shallow water dish, heat pad, reptile light, and around .5" sand as substrate ( I chose this over the other standard substrates because my house tends to get cold, and I figured the sand will transfer the heat better...). Does it just sound like he's molting, or is there possibly something more serious? Any help is much appreciated!

He's in a very adverse environment

Follow the steps on this care sheet.

Good luck, I hope it recovers. :/

You need to change the substrate as soon as possible. sand doesn't hold moisture well and doesn't allow the scorpion to burrow like it naturally would. This causes a humidity problem, it's probably too low. change to coconut fibre or peat. Coco fibre it probably the most popular and its very cheap it usually comes as a brick and you just add water and it expands. However don't expect your emp to last long on sand. If your reptile light emits uva light or any uv it wont do you emp any good and will cause stress and it will eventually die.

Good luck!

Also if you can get a picture of your emp someone will be able to tell you if he is getting ready for a molt. If he is very fat and looks like he is about to explode then he is due to molt probably quite soon if not then he most likely isn't but try and post a pic anyway.

I actually did take some pics to post but apparently you need to be a member for 7 days to post them....my email address is thundercat85(at)yahoo(dot)com if someone could email me I'll send them the pics. I have one the day I got him and another today and his joining sections (not sure what they're called) are slightly expanded and whiteish compared to a week ago. I'm thinking with the not eating it's possible he's molting. However, I took him out of the enclosure and have left him in the bathroom with the hot water running all day to get the humidity up and he actually does seem a bit more responsive. I'm going to leave him alone for a while, I guess all I can really do now is wait and see what happens...thanks for your help!

BTW the light is a 13W full spectrum light. Is this suitable? I don't have a ton of money to go out and buy a whole new setup right now - really wish the people at the pet store wouldn't have sold me all this crap without first telling me that my scorpion will probably die in it :/

You don't need the light and i think full spectrum is like sunlight, it probably wont be doing your scorpion any good. You don't really need any bulb but if you insist on having a light, an infrared light bulb is better as it cant see that wavelength and doesn't do any harm but just use it for night viewing. I don't have any light bulb just a heat pad. If you could get some coco fibre and mist until moist it should be fine (Don't know where you come from but its about £3 for 3 blocks where i am). Also by the sound of it, it may be molting. I'll send you an email so i can have a look. It might just be fat, I'm assuming he IS a he and not a she but if it is and it's adult it may be gravid.

Yeah, I should note that I call it a "he" but it really could be anything. I'm getting the coco fiber today, setting up a false bottom to help with the humidity, and I'll be removing the light. I'm concerned about heat though, which is really why I got the light in the first place. I have an under tank heater (the smallest I could find) and I'm not crazy about having it on the side of my tank, would much rather have it under and add an additional heat source from the top or side, but something more aesthetically pleasing. Any suggestions or maybe a link to a product that would help?

and BTW utopian I sent you an e-mail. Thanks!

By the looks of things he is starting to get ready to molt. his plates are starting to separate but he will get a LOT bigger so don't be alarmed if he starts looking like a balloon. also you need a good 4 inches of coco fibre and a rock thathe can hide under or start a little cave in the fibre yourself so he can burrow in it. What kind of tank do you have? Plastic, glass or wood?

Hope he gets better

Never place a heat mat under a scorpion tank. Scorpions instinctively burrow to find cooler surroundings and escape the heat. It's hardwired in them that deeper means cooler. If you reverse this, it will cause undue stress to your scorpion and potentially harm them. Heat mats should be placed on the side of the tank with most of the mat above the substrate, i.e., the top edge of the mat even with the top of the tank, rather than the bottom edge of the mat even with the bottom of the tank.

Although commonly used, heat mats are very inefficient at getting heat into your tank. They basically only heat the glass, and glass is a lousy thermal conductor, acrylic is even worse. However, with a tank as small as yours, a heat mat should be fine.

For larger tanks, I've found the best way to supply heat is with an IR heat lamp. It's a matter of radiant heat vs. conductive heat. Personally, I like the Flukers clamp lamp with built in dimmer. You can use it with any IR bulb or ceramic heat element rated at or below 75 Watts. The Flukes lamps are well built and run about $15 at most pet stores. You can buy cheaper clamp lamps at most hardware stores, but they don't have dimmers, and the dimmer is really handy. Be sure any lamp you get has a ceramic socket, as the plastic sockets tend to deteriorate over time.

Oh yeah sorry, forgot to mention that. DO NOT place the heat mat under the tank as shebeen mentioned. Also see if you can get a pic of the underside and i'm sure someone will be able to sex him/her for you but judging by the colour of her telson he/she didn't look adult so that rules out he/she being gravid. https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t8339-how-to-sexing-pandinus-spp-and-heterometrus-spp . This link will take you to a page on sexing the pandinus sp and hetrometrus so you can try and sex him/her yourself.

Good luck

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Hope he/she gets better and keep me updated, i want to know if he/she gets better.

Good luck!!

Well here's an update. Nero (my scorpion) seemed to be getting worse and time to exchange him was running out so I returned him to the pet store for a new one. Along with my new friend (who I'm also calling Nero btw) I picked up some coco fiber, a Flukers heat lamp, and a 100 W IR bulb. Hopefully this one will make it!

Ah well. It's a shame he got worse but i hope Nero 2 will make it, I'm sure he/she will.

Good luck!

A 100w IR bulb would be a bit of an overkill for a 2.5g tank, a 40-50w would work well. I don't know where you are from but if it's a bit chilly over there a 60w would also work.

I'm only using the light for viewing. The uth has the temp at 80 on it's own and I'm actually considering just taking the light off all together and moving it to my snake tank.