A thought on cage decoration.

[skinheaddave]

Well, I dissassembled my C.exilicauda enclosure today. While it was a great setup, it was not meeting my investigative needs anymore so I seperated what was left of the colony into smaller subcolonies. Anyhow, as I was doing this, I had to rip all the bark off the back wall, empty the water dish, break off a lot of the dried grasses etc. Since I had to be sure nothing escaped, I was doing all this within the confines of the aquarium. What resulted was some sand with various things littered all over the place. There were pieces of bark, bits of grass, stones from the water dish, dead crickets and so on and so forth. And then it hit me -- that was what the world looked like. I am definitely going to be adding ground litter to my future naturalistic enclosures.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[rainman]

hey, since i'm going to AZ in the following weeks, plz tell me ur thoughts on a good setup for exilicauda. substrate, deco's, heating, water, and anything else. i dont want a site, i would much rather here from u since you've actually had experience with them. i'd like to see a pic or 2 of ur's if it's not any trouble. that way i can get the jist of things.

 

[rainman]

oh, what do ya mean by ground litter exactly? what size of tank was ur's also and how do u tell male from female? i'm thinkin of housing 2 in a 5 or 10 gal tank with an inch or 2 of sand. and vertical pieces of slate and chunks of bark. hopefully some vertical hollow pieces as well that i hope to find on the trees in AZ. u know, keep them on what i find them on so that they feel like they're at home still. im thinkin that'll reduce the stress of them re-making a home for themselves. good luck on ur new inclosure.

 

[neveragain]

Two c.exilicauda's in a 10, or even a 5 gallon tank would be too much space. From what I've read, you would want to keep at least one per gallon in the tank. That is also what I do. I have 6 c.exilicauda's in a 5 gallon tank and they seem to be doing perfect. One actually just molted within the last couple of days. It was the first time any of my scorpions have molted (I mostly purchased adults before these) It was very cool. I was feeding them, when I saw in the corner of the tank a "white scorpion" And I think to myself "oh man, one o them died ) but then after closer inspection, I realized that it was a molt.

And for no reason, here is a pic of the molt.

 

[neveragain]

Oh, and rainman, check out this thread to see pictures of many people's scorpion enclosures. You seem to ask to see a lot of pics, so this thread can help you a lot.

 

[skinheaddave]

neveragain beat me to it. You can see my exilicauda tank in the thread he has linked to. Telling male from female is actualy incredibly easy. The skiny scorps with the long tails and really long pectines (the feather-like structures underneath) are the males. The fat scorps with the slightly shorter tails and shorter pectines are the females. You should check the pectines at first to get the hang of it and then you can probably sex them just by appearance.

And yeah, neveragain is right about population density. The aquarium I had used until yesterday was 20 gallon and I started with 22 individuals.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[rainman]

i just want to see pics instead of going to some other website. some of u seem to have excellent experience so i'd rather see a pic then go to a site or somethin like that. thanks for the info dave. i'm not a novic on keeping scorps, i just have a bunch of ?'s to ask every now and then on certain scorps. i'd just rather ask the ?'s before i get the scorp.

 

[neveragain]

That link I posted wasnt a link to another website. It was a link to a thread that is from this messageboard that has pictures and info on a bunch of the people's enclosures that post on this board.

 

[rainman]

yeah i know that. i've already seen all the messages in the forum. just looking at the enclosure doesnt do anything i need. i cant tell what the temp is, the type of gravel. all most the ppl say is what type of scorp they have in there.

 

[Frank]

You'll get the informations about how to keep species in caresheets.. not in pictures showing setups... Why would you know the type of gravel? You'll hardly get the same brand as everyone, there's people from around the world here.

Frank

 

[rainman]

dude, i dont mean brand type or crap like that. i mean what they use, as in what mixture of substrate. i dont know why it's such a big deal if i ask. i'm talking about what ratio of gravel and sand, or peat. i'm just wondering what i should use for my desert hairies. i didnt mean to piss u off or nuttin, man.

 

[Frank]

You don't piss me off, your questions aren't clear. How could we know that you were talking about what mixture of substrate when you say: "i cant tell what the temp is, the type of gravel. "?

I thought you already had desert hairies... if you're asking for your babies, search in the forum, I think atavus posted what he is doing for his babies, he seems to be the only one out there that have his h. arizonensis babies still living after second instar. Good luck raising them until they become adults.

If you want to know the substrate ratios you have to PM people and ask.


Frank

 

[rainman]

ahhhhh ha. thanks a lot, dude. yeah, i know they're hard to raise. thats why i just wanted to sell them to the reptile shop. i just want to buy another pair. how long til they have their 1st instar? they're about maybe 3 weeks old.

 

[neveragain]

I'm pretty sure that in that enclosure thread, krugelagger gives details about his substrate, and I know that I have talked about the details of my desert hairy substrate in at least one other thread.

 

[rainman]

just the mixture, but what i'm looking for is like what gravel it is. should i just get regular sand from out in AZ since i'm going there next week and use that as the substrate? or buy some of the regular sand from my reptile place and mix it with peat? or what?

 

[neveragain]

What do you mean what type of gravel??? Just regular aquarium gravel. You dont even have to use gravel if you dont want too. I'd also imagine that it would be safer to use sand that you bought from someplace rather than some sand you got at the beach.

 

[rainman]

aquarium gravel, eh? awesome