emperor setup and molting

[fiveohatch]

i just picked up an Emperor on sunday (it's tues. now). the guy that i bought it from had it for 7 months and kept it in a kritter keeper with just a little bit of sand type substrate, a water dish and a hide. he also bought it from a pet store. as far as i could tell, the only heat it was getting was from a floor heater that was by the cage.

when i brought it home it pretty much just stayed in it's hide that it had. it also ate two crickets that day, while still in the kritter keeper.

now i've got it in a 10 gallon tank with a rock bottom and about 5"-6" of jungle mix. i'm using a heating pad on the side of the tank and i've also got a 60 watt ceramic heater. there is also a larger water dish and 2 hides in there for it (one on the hot side and one on the cool side with the water dish). the temp seems to be staying around 78-84deg and the humidity is fluctuating between 65%-85% (depending if i mist), the heat is on the warm side and the humidity gauge is in the middle. i'm having a hard time maintaining the humidity, it seems to drop quite a bit after a couple of hours.

i came home on lunch to check out how the temps and everything were today. it was about 64deg in my place and just under 70deg in the tank. i only had the heating pad on it at that time. i went out after work and picked up the ceramic heater and now the temp seems to be staying pretty good. i'm still playing with the height of the light to keep it a constant temp. though.

when i first put it in the new tank, it was pretty active exploring it. now it's just sitting in the back of the hide on the warm side of the tank. i've got part of the hide buried so it's only got one way in and out and is pretty dark. i'm guessing that it's just happy in there, since i've read that they're pretty inactive. there is also a cricket in there now, i've seen it go by it a couple of times but it doesn't seem to have any interest. i'm going to take the cricket out tomorrow if it's still in there.

one last thing. from what i've read on here regarding molting, i'm doubting that this one has recently. it seems to be pretty plump and is probably 3" long not including the tail. how long would it take for it to get adjusted enough to molt in the new tank (if it's going to). i don't want to stress it out, but i want to make sure it's still alive. i'm thinking about just leaving it alone for a few days (except for misting and stuff) and seeing what happens.

this is my first scorpion so i'm just kind of worried and don't want to screw things up. i pretty much just want to know if my setup sounds good and if my Emp is acting fairly normal.


i know this newb post and is kind of unorganized but i kept thinking of more stuff to say.

 

[RaZeDaHeLL666]

Sounds like you doing everything correctly. Emps spend aLOT of time hiding. To keep humidioty up, spray everyday and even pouring water around the corners and sides of the tank helps the water seep deep into the substrate. Many people use a false bottom. But that would mean re-doing ur whole tank. As long as the heat and humidity is up, your scorpion should have no problems molting.

 

[Mmm_Pies]

Raze, he said hes got a rock bottom so hes already got the tank setup for filling the bottom with water.

Oh and u will be lucky to see the emperor molt, i missed mine molt and found its old skin when i cleaned out the tank recently.

 

[RaZeDaHeLL666]

Oh im sorry! It must be all that beer I drank last night :8o
So what can be the problem? I understand that the humidity evaporates... But you say it drops quite a bit after a few hours. Do you think ur tank might have a leak? Did you try to cover it with something like plastic or a towel and leave an inch or two fro air? I got this huge piece of plastic "plexi-glass" type thing that I cut down and use for a cover for my emps.

 

[Kugellager]

If the lenght of the body without the metasoma(tail) is in the 3 inch range then it is most likely and adult and will no longer molt.

As far as keeping the humidity up; You didn't mention how much of the top is covered if at all. The best way to keep the moisture levels up is to cover about 90% of the top with plexiglass, glass or plastic wrap. That will help the humidity situation by far. Your temperatures seem fine now that you have the other heater working.

John
];')

 

[fiveohatch]

when i got up this morning it was wandering around the tank and trying to climb the walls, being pretty active overall.

i've got probably 3/4 of the top of the tank covered now too to help keep some of the moisture and heat in since it's been pretty cool lately. i'm wondering if running my heater all the time is drying it out some (i like to keep my place at 70deg when i'm home), since it blows pretty dry air.


i'm glad that everything seems to be doing pretty well with it.

 

[Kugellager]

How warm are your house temperatures? If it doesn't get below the low 60's at night then place the heaters on a timer from about 7AM to 9 or 10PM. The scorpion will be fine for the night and there will be less drying out of the substrate...the heaters are what is causing the enclosure to dry out so quickly.

John
];')

 

[fiveohatch]

the coolest it's been getting in my place at night is about 61deg. it'll drop into the high 50's if i have my windows open (which i haven't lately since it dries out my throat).

i guess i'll try turning them off around 10pm then and turning them on when i go to work in the morning (around 6:30am).

hopefully this will work.

thanks for all the help on this too.

 

[NihonRobot]

Your tank setup sounds exactly like mine, minus the false-bottom setup. My temps and humidity stay about the same as yours too. I find that if I turn my heat lamp off, the humidity stays up longer. I usually turn the lamp on when I see the temp drop below 78, and off when the temp goes above 86 or so. I end up having my lamp on around 12 hours a day and misting about once every other day.

Also, my scorp will venture between the two hides every few weeks. He seems to go through active phases, but it's a good idea to have a hide on each side so they can have privacy whether they're hot or cold.