Co habit?

[lukeo97]

so i have a blue death feigning bettle and will be getting more but i really want a scorpion would i be able to keep them in a large container together? And also not a question about scorpions but can i keep millipedes with my chilean rose tarantula? Thanks in advance guys

 

[Paul1126]

Erm no...

 

[MrTwister]

Sure you can...untill the predator eats it’s tank mates. So yes, just not for very long.

 

[BuzzSwole]

People use bdfbs as a clean up crew for desert hairys. The scorpion will end up leaving them alone when it finds them too hard to kill

 

[mantisfan101]

I would personally avoid any tank mates with a T unless they’re springtails, and only if theyw ere moisture loving species. There’s a high chance that the millipedes could eat the molting T and if the t tried to eat it millipedes can excrete certain noxious toxins.

 

[D C]

so i have a blue death feigning bettle and will be getting more but i really want a scorpion would i be able to keep them in a large container together?

A lot of people use death feigning beetles with desert hairys. Worst iv'e seen mine do is pull one of the beetles around by the leg a bit then just let go and walk off.

 

[Polenth]

I would personally avoid any tank mates with a T unless they’re springtails, and only if theyw ere moisture loving species. There’s a high chance that the millipedes could eat the molting T and if the t tried to eat it millipedes can excrete certain noxious toxins.

It's unlikely that a millipede would eat a moulting tarantula. Woodlice will do that, but millipedes aren't that hungry for protein. It is possible for millipedes to release their chemicals, but in a study I read on tarantulas hunting millipedes, the spider usually killed the millipede too quickly for the chemicals to be released.

All of which is great news for the tarantula, but not so good for the millipedes.

As I'm sure someone will ask, this is the study: Klem, Maya L. (2017) "Effectiveness of Chemical Defense in a Tropical Millipede Species on a Potential Predator, the Tarantula Megaphobema mesomelas," Occam's Razor: Vol. 7 , Article 4.
Available at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/orwwu/vol7/iss1/4

 

[darkness975]

co-habitation is a bad idea.

 

[Dry Desert]

People use bdfbs as a clean up crew for desert hairys. The scorpion will end up leaving them alone when it finds them too hard to kill

Clatify why dislike rating on @darkness975 posting ?

 

[darkness975]

@BuzzSwole thank you for the dislike. But the fact remains that most of the co habitation examples mentioned here, and in general, are a bad idea. The H arizonensis / BDFB setup can work but not always. Therefore it is best to keep predatory invertabrates solitary.

 

[D C]

If you keep them together (I do) the bigger the enclosure the better, the H. Arizonensis will want/need a lot of areas to go to get away from the beetles as they do find them quite annoying, from my observations anyway. I wouldn't put more than 3 Beetles with the scorp and they cant really kill them so they have to deal with them bursting into their burrows unwanted, and that really riles them up. The scorpion will need a load of places to go not just one or two simple hides. A deep burrowing substrate (excavator/sand) in a huge tank with varied surface level terrain seems to work well for me.

 

[Joey Spijkers]

It's unlikely that a millipede would eat a moulting tarantula. Woodlice will do that, but millipedes aren't that hungry for protein.

I have observed my Spirostreptus sp. 1 'Tanzania' eating a dead cricket, they may take protein if given the chance. Animals like these don't take up a lot of space, so keeping them in separate enclosures shouldn't be an issue if you ask me.

 

[Polenth]

I have observed my Spirostreptus sp. 1 'Tanzania' eating a dead cricket, they may take protein if given the chance. Animals like these don't take up a lot of space, so keeping them in separate enclosures shouldn't be an issue if you ask me.

I'm not saying that millipedes never eat animal protein. I'm saying that they don't need a lot of animal protein and it's unlikely that they'd hunt down something alive, in response to someone saying there was a high chance of millipedes doing exactly that. The big risk is the predator eating the millipedes. The other way around is not a big risk.

 

[Joey Spijkers]

You're right, the risk is not big. But the chance is there, even if it is small. Of course, the chance of a tarantula eating the millipede is bigger.