I picked up an Emperor Scorpion from a Craigslist ad; it was free including the set-up. The kid who had owned it was going off to college and couldn't take it with him, yet couldn't leave it with his mom.
He's a good sized scorpion; when asked about its age I was told it was about a year old. This seems off to me, because the scorpion looks to be at least 6 inches long if its tail is stretched out, but then I'm no expert- maybe this is normal for that age?
It was also kept in a large tank with about 5 other scorpions, 4 of them being various different species (I don't recall which species), but all of the others had died over the last 2 years. I was told that this scorpion had been fed only crickets and the occasional frozen pinky mouse. The substrate in the enclosure was some combination of coconut fiber and some sort of small bark chips. Judging from the strong smell and the large number of cricket corpses, the substrate had not been cleaned in a long time. Also, it was absolutely bone dry in the enclosure and the water dish had a thick lime build up on it from never having been cleaned.
Despite all this, the scorpion seems healthy enough--- but it is very aggressive. The kid said he handled it frequently and it had never stung him before, but I'm not sure I believe that based on my observations. I used a big cup to gently scoop up the scorpion and put it in a new tank, with a mix of coconut fiber and cypress mulch which is kept moist (in accordance wit the information I've gathered), overall environment quite humid, gave it fresh water, a decent hide (it didn't have one before- well, not one that it could fit inside anyway) and a CHE. The first day I got it (yesterday) I gave it a medium-sized dubia roach which it consumed over the course of about 3 hours. It seemed uninterested in a cricket I also offered it, so I removed the cricket. Today I checked on it and it was still acting very aggressively- attacking anything and everything with its pincers and stinger, even snapping angrily at little drips of water as I was misting the enclosure.
I've never seen an Emperor Scorpion act so aggressively before. Is it likely a response to having been kept with other species of scorpions? Could it be a result of the living conditions it had been kept in? Is it possible (or likely) that it might calm down after it gets acclimated to its new environment? I don't feel that I necessarily need to handle my scorpion to enjoy having it, but it would be nice to know that if I wanted to, I might be able to occasionally with at least some likelihood of not immediately getting viciously pinched and stung. If it's a hands-off pet, I can live with that- I'd just like to know if there's a chance it might settle down given some time.
He's a good sized scorpion; when asked about its age I was told it was about a year old. This seems off to me, because the scorpion looks to be at least 6 inches long if its tail is stretched out, but then I'm no expert- maybe this is normal for that age?
It was also kept in a large tank with about 5 other scorpions, 4 of them being various different species (I don't recall which species), but all of the others had died over the last 2 years. I was told that this scorpion had been fed only crickets and the occasional frozen pinky mouse. The substrate in the enclosure was some combination of coconut fiber and some sort of small bark chips. Judging from the strong smell and the large number of cricket corpses, the substrate had not been cleaned in a long time. Also, it was absolutely bone dry in the enclosure and the water dish had a thick lime build up on it from never having been cleaned.
Despite all this, the scorpion seems healthy enough--- but it is very aggressive. The kid said he handled it frequently and it had never stung him before, but I'm not sure I believe that based on my observations. I used a big cup to gently scoop up the scorpion and put it in a new tank, with a mix of coconut fiber and cypress mulch which is kept moist (in accordance wit the information I've gathered), overall environment quite humid, gave it fresh water, a decent hide (it didn't have one before- well, not one that it could fit inside anyway) and a CHE. The first day I got it (yesterday) I gave it a medium-sized dubia roach which it consumed over the course of about 3 hours. It seemed uninterested in a cricket I also offered it, so I removed the cricket. Today I checked on it and it was still acting very aggressively- attacking anything and everything with its pincers and stinger, even snapping angrily at little drips of water as I was misting the enclosure.
I've never seen an Emperor Scorpion act so aggressively before. Is it likely a response to having been kept with other species of scorpions? Could it be a result of the living conditions it had been kept in? Is it possible (or likely) that it might calm down after it gets acclimated to its new environment? I don't feel that I necessarily need to handle my scorpion to enjoy having it, but it would be nice to know that if I wanted to, I might be able to occasionally with at least some likelihood of not immediately getting viciously pinched and stung. If it's a hands-off pet, I can live with that- I'd just like to know if there's a chance it might settle down given some time.
