R.I.P. Parabuthus
I'm incredibly sad, because my Parabuthus transvaalicus scorpion (the black/brown spitting thicktail) went down today, and it was partially my fault.
Yesterday I managed to find a way to create a better substrate for the Androctonus, and as long as I was at it, I decided to swap the two scorps in their tanks. So I dug up the transie from its underground burrow where I knew it only went when it was about to molt. Yea, I was impatient - I knew that it was going to molt, and that it is very stressful for an animal to be dug up from its hiding cave, but I really wanted to finally make a good place for my new pet, the Androctonus.
What I didn't know was that it was going to molt that very night - it was probably the raised humidity levels that started the whole process. Initially, it is all the same for a scorpion wether it molts under- or overground, it can do it at both places with no problem. The problem came when the little creeper managed to turn itself over on its back, right underneath the heat lamp...
By the time I woke up and checked upon it, it was already very exhausted by trying to get up on its feet. I immediately turned it upright again, and sprinkled it with some water to give back the lost humidity. My first thoughts was that it was not gonna make it, but it tried, and in an hour (boy, was it a long hour - I was watching over it so nervously that I almost missed my train to the university) it managed to wrestle itself free from almost its entire skin, leaving only the tail in - and then it got terminally exhausted. I tried to move it, to help it to unfold at least its legs, but it moved very weakly, and then it didn't move at all. I tried to cut the molt off it, but partially succeeded, as the scorp is very soft when molting, and it had already suffered damage.
It went into the freezer, and I went to University. Wow, it really got my entire day overcast. It would have been the molting that would have turned it into an adult female, and quite a big one, too.
I know that all my friends who are now really experienced in keeping and breeding these animals have had such cases countless of times more than I had, but I still wonder how many times do I have to make mistakes like this until I can say that I'm without fault; that I won't make any more mistakes with my pets again. Not even if I learn - even the hard way - from these mistakes...
For no matter what anybody says; however frightening these insects look, they are frail, fragile little creatures, trusted to our care. I'm sure I've learnt a lot - I'm just sad that my learning had a part in one of my pets going... I'm really sad... :(