Scorpion care?

[Tyler Kuykendall]

Can anyone experienced with owning scorps tell me if it's any different than owning t's? For example, for my 3 1/2" B. albopilosum, 4" G. rosea and 5 1/4" N. chromatus,

• I have for them hides and water dishes,
• feed them two crickets a week,
• spot-clean feces, food remains and old silk,
• keep the temperature in the 60-90 range and don't worry about arid humidity unless they spend fair amounts of time standing on their water dishes (I was very concerned about humidity and temperature for my spiders until I read about the two topics on http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/myths00.html)
• and I keep them in 10 1/4"H x 19 1/8"L x 14 7/8"W enclosures, giving them at least 2x their legspans in length and width even when full-grown, and half-filled with coco fiber to let them climb and dig if they want.

Do scorps have stricter requirements regarding any of those things or is caring for them about the same as what I do for my t's?

 

[MatthewM1]

Care/setup depends alot on which spieces your interested in. Husbandry wise they are trickier than raising T's but are easier to work with/manipulate.

 

[Tyler Kuykendall]

What differing care/setup requirements are there mainly between different scorps? Like fossorial and terrestrial enclosures or what do you mean?

 

[MatthewM1]

Some scorpions need loose sand, some need densely packed clay/sand mix, some do best with a sand/coco fiber mix. Desert species need low humidity or they will develop fungal infections, tropicals need it higher. Some will dig deep burrows, some dig scrapes out from under rocks, and then some live semi-arboreal lives.

Like I said husbandry is a bit trickier than with T's. Figure out what species you would be interested in first and go from there.

Also unlike T's there are some scorpions who's venom can be fatal, so keep that in mind when looking.

 

[Tyler Kuykendall]

What are some species that you'd recommend for a beginner? And are there any scorp breeders that you know of?

 

[MatthewM1]

I would start, by checking out Heterometreus sp.(Asian forest scorpions). Low venom potency, tropical species that digs deep burrows. 6"+ deep substrate(tightly packed coco fiber works week) moisten the substrate about once a week. The top can dry out a little but make sure the lower levels don't. 5+ gallons each for adults, they are communal and easy to breed with enough space. Attached pics are of my set up before I traded all but one scorpling off, and also an adult female.

Also scorps need to be heated above normal room temp. Before I switched to a space heater I used a 50w red bulb a few inches away from the enclosure aimed at the side of it. You wanna keep atleast part of the enclosure at or above 80, pushing 90 is good but you need to make sure there is a gradient if you go that high.

 

[Denny Dee]

I find that the requirements are very similar. As mentioned above, the enclosure set up is key. Personally, I think husbandry is much easier (even if you don't want it!) with scorps. If you have an interest,and you have experience with T's, I say go for it!

 

[Tyler Kuykendall]

Not to sound like an idiot who has to ask the same thing more than once to understand it, but do you find the hardiness of scorps toward humidity and temperature to be similar to my t's or do the climate requirements fall under the setup that you refer to?

 

[Denny Dee]

Lol. No problem. I find them to be the same. Biggest issue is around molting time. Scorps need that humidity to be close. They say that scorpions that have been frozen and unthawed have come back to life. Urban Legend? Either way, they are hardy. Desert scorps are very low maintenance. Also, I usually go with a smaller enclosure for scorpions now. Otherwise, you will never see them.