Mycosis?

Last night during feeding time I noticed a black "spot" near the base of the telson on this H. arizonensis. Does this look like mycosis to you guys/gals?

If you aren't mistaking it for substrate that's stuck (I know you aren't), then that is definitely mycosis… Welp, drying up the substrate will help it keep it down! I wish you luck my friend.

The substrate has been dry from day 1. I've done everything possible to prevent this knowing how susceptible the species is to this issue. I can't figure out what happened. I'm not too happy about it though. =/

:cry: I've never had a problem with mycosis, but I know that if you keep the bacterial infection down long enough they'll molt out of it and be fine, but it seems your scorp is at its final instar. Is it an H. arizonensis?

remainpositive said:

:cry: I've never had a problem with mycosis, but I know that if you keep the bacterial infection down long enough they'll molt out of it and be fine, but it seems your scorp is at its final instar. Is it an H. arizonensis?

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I said in the original post it was an H arizonensis. It's not at it's final instar, in real life it is a lot smaller than it appears in the images. The seller was initially supposed to send me an adult but sent a sub adult instead. Given H. arizonensis' molting issues in captivity I was hoping it was not mycosis. I also heard of them molting out of it but that would constitute surviving the molt =/

@ everyone - what other ways besides humidity are ways they can contract the fungus? I've kept this one dry. Unless ambient air humidity could cause that much damage?

Side note @ remain: I like your username, though idk if I can remain positive on this one.

It appears that leg 3 on its left side has a little spot of mycosis on the foot.

It sure looks like mycosis to me, kinda concerned that it's developing around a book-lung..

Mycosis is (for now) incurable with scorpions.. ..All you can do is halt the spread by maintaining low humidity.



Also, keep in mind, these scorpions are sponge-bathers, and wet themselves with their own saliva, but that wouldnt explain the book-lung.


Im sure it had mycosis before it was captured..

imo/ime, injuries on scorpions turn black, esp. showing up on lighter colored scorpions of course. I'm going to say that scorpion was injured there and turned black like injuries do. I don't know if the dried fluid and tissue damage naturally turns black or if it turns black because of growing fungus before it dries but my guess is that it's not a big problem now. Fungal spores are practically on all scorpions, in every breath you take. If you have an environmental issue, at the breaching point you will see a symmetrical infection on your scorpion, darkening at the soft tissue on just about all the legs and not something like in your picture. Injuries are much more susceptible of course but if it's dry it might do OK imo.

Hows it doing?

I've seen a few injured scorpions where the injured area has turned a darkish colour (not black) although in every instance it's been obvious the problem has been an injury as opposed to some kind of fungus. Tissue and chitin can usually clearly be seen to be damaged whereas mycosis is just a dark/black stain at our level of magnification.
I've tried magnifying those pics and from what i can see it's mycosis, not an injury.
Not just that, the location of the affected area's (spiracle, bottom segments of legs) is classic mycosis area's,
The mycosis on the leg segments is not especially life threatening yet The same unfortunately can't be said for that development on one of the spiracles. Here the danger is that the infection can migrate to the interior.
Keeping it dry won't necessarily reverse the infection. It may halt it or slow it down but it won't get rid of it.
Young scorps that develop quickly between moults have the best chance of making full recoveries from mycosis. Adult specimens have a tendency to eventually die well before their expected life expectancy.
If you have kept the animal bone dry then i'll agree that it must have had mycosis before you acquired it...Either that or you keep your scorpion under to humid conditions

Olsin said:

If you have kept the animal bone dry then i'll agree that it must have had mycosis before you acquired it...Either that or you keep your scorpion under to humid conditions

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The only species I keep humid are my pandinus imperators. I was going to purchase another adult Hadrurus (spadix in this case) but now I'm concerned about if it develops the same issue. There is no restriction of ventilation on the enclosure, the only case I can think of where humidity would even enter the enclosure is from the ambient air humidity. I have no idea what the ambient air humidity is but the only other exposure to water is the occasional water dish/cap that I fill up once a month or so with water and let it dry out until the following month or more.

@ Monthud - no change

@ Gala I am not sure what would injure the scorpion in the enclosure. All I have in there is the substrate, an empty bottle cap that I fill with water every month or other month, and the hiding rock thing that it burrowed under. The rock is plastic and smooth, no sharp/rough edges. I did have another water dish in there briefly, perhaps 2 weeks? It was one of those rougher surface dishes.

@ Olsin - how long (estimate) would you say this one has left? It is not adult but it has not molted in my care (though it is quite fat). Is this going to be a long drawn out death for the animal? I've read about mycosis plenty but this is the first time I've had experience with it first hand.

Absolutely no idea i'm afraid...impossible to know.
If (and that if isn't be any means certain) it can moult then i'd be surprised if there was any trace of mycosis afterwards. The infection isn't massive or even approaching pretty bad and i have seen scorps affected much worse than yours and still be alive. A fresh moult should remove it all......It's just that spot on the book lung that's worrying.
All you can do is keep it dry, bone dry and hope it pulls through....The dry conditions though won't help it moult so yeh, stuck between a rock and a hard place eh.

A long drawn out death......hm, it could be but it could also pull through.
If it was my scorp i'd go dry, warm and quiet for a decent period (at least 3 or 4 months) and if it still hadn't moulted i'd probably take the chance and increase humidity and night time temps over another long period before going dry again....I often notice that sudden chances in environmental conditions can induce a moult .. and if it didn't pan out then at least you had actively tried to do something instead of just waiting around to see what happens.

BTW...I have heard of people trying fungicides/alcohol/turpentine and other types of chemicals to kill the mycosis. To my knowledge none of these home remedies have ever worked.

Olsin said:

BTW...I have heard of people trying fungicides/alcohol/turpentine and other types of chemicals to kill the mycosis. To my knowledge none of these home remedies have ever worked.

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Doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Inverts are pretty susceptible to chemicals.