H Spinifer strange behaviour?

Ive had a spinifer for about a month now, at first she (i think) was very skittish. she was almost always in a hide or would go into one when the lights were switched on or if i put my head near the tank. i'm concerned at the moment as its cold in the UK but she stays out in the open and is always on the cooler side of the tank. ive tried moving the heat to the other side of the tank and she just eventually moves to the opposite side of the tank. i'm keeping the humidity at 75-80%, with the temperature of 26-28C on one side and seems to be about 16C on the other side (sorry don't know F). can any one tell me if this is normal behaviour or if shes trying to hibernate or something?

Seems like normal behavior to me. As long as you’re providing a heat source no need to worry. I think you can afford to turn up the heat though. I don’ know Celsius well but that’s about high 70’s low 80’s I think. (yup google confirmed it.) Post a picture of your setup. I don’t think you have anything to worry about but let’s have a look make sure everything is fine.

Thanks for the reply. just got back home to find her back under her log. i was just getting a little paranoid as i lost my emp just before christmas and my friend lost his a week later.



The left side is the warm side. was just concerned as she was spening days at a time in the cold, usually between log and the glass on the right.

Thanks again for the reply

Are you using wood chips for substrate? Please check out the caresheet https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t7735-asa-forest-scorpions-caresheet

You need more substrate and your enclosure isn’t humid enough. Probably why you lost your emp and probably will lose this scorp as well unless you fix it. Don’t worry beginner mistake but you’ll want to fix ASAP. Coco fiber holds in moisture well and most petshops carry them.

not sure what the substrate is exactly, its called prorep spider life and seems to be mostly sort of spongy soil (sorry, best i can describe it really) with a mixture of bark and gold colour kind of almost metallic crystals (sorry again thats probably not much help).i was judging by the depth from the shop i originally bought it from.

the tank originally had a polystyrene rock effect back on it to feed cables through and unfortuanetly my emp managed to climb inside inside it, she had dug a fairly deep burrow underneath a hide so it wasnt really unusual not to see her. wasnt until i did a sweep for cricket parts that a realised she had been stuck half way up the tank for a couple of days and presumably froze to death.

Thanks for the advice, will sort it in the morning

paul_83 wrote:

not sure what the substrate is exactly, its called prorep spider life and seems to be mostly sort of spongy soil (sorry, best i can describe it really) with a mixture of bark and gold colour kind of almost metallic crystals (sorry again thats probably not much help).i was judging by the depth from the shop i originally bought it from.

Sounds to me like it's simply a mixture of bark chips and vermiculite.

Definitely go with Eddy's advice and get the scorp some coco-fiber substrate.

paul_83 wrote:

the tank originally had a polystyrene rock effect back on it to feed cables through and unfortuanetly my emp managed to climb inside inside it, she had dug a fairly deep burrow underneath a hide so it wasnt really unusual not to see her. wasnt until i did a sweep for cricket parts that a realised she had been stuck half way up the tank for a couple of days and presumably froze to death.

Ok, what are you currently using for a heat source?

What is the temp in that room? I highly doubt the scorp died from being too cold, unless you're keeping that room at 4°C or lower 24/7. More likely it died of dehydration, or, if stuck in a hot spot in the tank, overheating.

Also, what are you using to measure the temp?
I highly doubt that there's such a massive difference in temperature on one side of the tank from the other, given the size of the tank. If there is, then you have a hotspot, which is going to stress the hell out of your scorp and shorten it's lifespan. The only way I can see that happening is if you are using a heating pad that's only transferring heat to one area of the tank.
(For those of you that don't know Celsius, one side of the tank is around 82ºF while the other is around 60ºF.....a temp difference of over 20º.)

Anyway, the temp difference is probably what's causing her to stay on the cooler side of the tank, as the temp is more uniform away from the heat source.