Correct My Tank Mistakes PLZ!

cannabeast

Arachnosquire
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Jun 29, 2010
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143
im not sure if you are familiar with these species, but this is what I'm left with: uroplectes olivaceus, uroplectes triangulifer, tityus stigmurus, and parabuthus transvaalicus.

they are all pretty much in the same substrate(sand mixed with potting soil and gravel), but moisturized differently. for example the t stigmurus is sprayed once every week and a half, the uroplectes is sprayed every 5 days. they have little coca cola bottle caps inside buried a bit so they can get to them without climbing. the bottle caps are half filled with cotton, then water inside for drinking. i would use peat instead of potting soil, but its rather hard to come by around here. we can buy coco substrate at the local marijuana growshop, though, if you guys think i could make a better sub from some of that for specific or all species.

the tityus has 2 sticks inside, one of them he somehow fits in a little crevice about 3mm wide, and has made that his home. the uroplectes and parabuthus have shells, sea glass sanded by the ocean marbles, rocks. they all eat roaches and crickets. can obtain pictures soon if you guys want. lemme know if there is something about this that sounds terribly wrong.
 

Michiel

Arachnoking
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May 22, 2006
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Substrate sounds good, but gravel is not really needed, it makes the substrate heavier, but it does look nice. Maybe you should check on the moisture needs of the Uroplectes species. I did not keep many Uroplectes, but some come from savannah regions, so spraying every 5 days maybe too much.
Every week is enough for Tityus species, and you can remove the bottle cap from their enclosure, because Tityus species do not drink from standing water. They like to drink the drops after you have sprayed, so spray these in the evening so the scorpions can drink before the drops evaporate. P.transvaalicus can be kept as "desert species", so a little spray in a corner once a month is more than enough.
 

cannabeast

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Jun 29, 2010
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Thanks a lot for the advice, Michiel. I always enjoy hearing what you have to say.
 

Michiel

Arachnoking
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Thanks a lot for the advice, Michiel. I always enjoy hearing what you have to say.
Don't say that too often, or I become arrogant, I know myself. Only a compliment every once in a while, LOL :)

I hope some of the Uroplectes guys chip in. Do you know Richard Lind btw? Another scandinavian scorpionkeeper? He is one of the guys that knows a lot about these.
 

cannabeast

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I hope some of the uroplectes guys chip in as well! I do know Richard lind's site uroplectes.com! I wish his store was open! Thanks for that advice! This is certainly an interesting species. I heard they have short lives and breed fast. Last night i opened the cage on the olivaceus to investigate. i picked up that hermit crab shell and shook him out! I know it's probably very stressful on them, but i havent seen them in weeks. They seem to go in the hermit crab shell and never come out. The triangulifer and all the other species come out every night to do their thing, but the olivaceus never come out of that shell! anyway theres a pair living in the shell, and he seemed o be alive last night. He ran quickly back into the shell though after about 5 minutes. I wonder if any of the uroplectes guys know anything about olivaceus never showing his face.

Anyway, here's the setup again with very poor quality pictures. my 3.2 megapixel cam... i know that is NOT cool.

 

Michiel

Arachnoking
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Hi,

I see you have found a use for those useless mobile phone standards, LOL:)
I recognize that what you are saying about the activity (or inactivity) periods of U.olivaceus. I breed six Rhopalurus species and R.laticauda is the one, that almost never show themselves. I have to say that I don't check them very much, but when I sometimes pull out a UV light to do some checking, I never see them. Other species like R.pintoi, R.junceus and R.princeps are active more often, wandering around at night or just doorkeeping.
 

cannabeast

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Jun 29, 2010
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143
phew... well thats reassuring! I was thinking there was something wrong with these guys. I have never seen this before in any species I've dealt with. and lol at the stupid mobile phone standards..
 

psychofox

Arachnoknight
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Jul 24, 2005
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185
I would give the P. transvaalicus a lot more substrate. They like to burrow.

As long as you have good ventilation, a weekly spraying is good for the Uroplectes species. But if the ventilation isn't good enough, the air will become very moist, and this should be avoided. I also spray my Parabuthus enclosures weekly, although I give a smaller amount to these than to Uroplectes species.

Regarding the U. olivaceus hiding, I would see this as a good sign. A calm scorpion is a happy scorpion:) I haven't seen a couple of my Parabuthus species in over 6 months, so it's quite normal for scorpions to remain hidden.
 

Nomadinexile

Arachnoking
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Apr 8, 2009
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Hey Canna, I see a bunch of white stuff in the water dish. What is that?

Water dishes should be just water, or small pebbles/rocks, and that is all. Any kind of paper product/water crystals are a vector for fungus, bacteria, etc. And should be removed. Add clean small pebbles if you are worrying about drowning. :)
 

cannabeast

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Jun 29, 2010
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you think i should put some plants in and spray them with water instead of the bottlecap with cotton spray, or spray against the tank walls?? theres 11 transvaalicus in the big tank. i was instructed buy the seller to seperate them soon, because they are 2nd instar now, from the same brood, and would cannabalize the when the 3rd instar starts to molt.sp i need to make. 11 seperate semi deep containers, with some kind of substrate that is good and keep a stable envirionemt very safe and secure away from family. and other.i still need to make a screen lid for the desert scorpions. winter is comming here soon, and i was thinking of putting a normal flourecent bulb on timer during the winter to emulate there indigenous country's is rather than craazy dark nordic winters. fall is here. its cold... mm..
 

Nomadinexile

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you think i should put some plants in and spray them with water instead of the bottlecap with cotton spray, or spray against the tank walls?? theres 11 transvaalicus in the big tank. i was instructed buy the seller to seperate them soon, because they are 2nd instar now, from the same brood, and would cannabalize the when the 3rd instar starts to molt.sp i need to make. 11 seperate semi deep containers, with some kind of substrate that is good and keep a stable envirionemt very safe and secure away from family. and other.i still need to make a screen lid for the desert scorpions. winter is comming here soon, and i was thinking of putting a normal flourecent bulb on timer during the winter to emulate there indigenous country's is rather than craazy dark nordic winters. fall is here. its cold... mm..
Personally, I would add some DESERT plants for fun. (No sharp cacti)

But for water, I would leave in a small water bottle cap, filled halfway up, twice a week or so.

I would also separate them. I would use a tall deli cup. I don't remember their size though. Can anyone help me out with that?

Anyway, they are twice the size of regular deli cups. I would fill it 2/3 of the way up with a fine sand/coco mix, wet and pack it a bit, then let dry. Holes can be drilled or burned into lid. I use a large drill bit and cut about 8 holes, then hot glue window screen over all the holes. You can also spend a half hour a piece poking a thousand holes in them with a safety pin or preferably a seam ripper.

Don't put the light right next to your cages. They just need a little bit for seasonal experience. And if you do this, make sure they have hides to use until they make little burrows. I would personally use a very small cork tube half, but you could also use flat rocks over pre-dug burrows with entry.
Or you could pre-dig a burrow and use cork tube half.
 

cannabeast

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Jun 29, 2010
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143
i think i will add some desert plants. i wonder if there is already a good method of separating the tank into sections for methods like this. I know when i was a kid we had fish or newts and frogs in separators in a water tank with these specially made net things. i wonder if i could make my own separators so i can keep one big display piece instead of many deli cups with screen over it. i need to forge a screen over the top of the transvaalicus anyway, because they climb up the silicon, when i first got them(haven't seen them do it again), and they need proper ventilation, and i cant take any chance of any escaping. im thinking about buying a hot glue gun and gluing them to the tank after I take out all the substrate and putting screen over those inside the tank.

And they burrow! i have to do this soon. how in the world am i going to dig them up to seperate them? maybe just wait until night time and pick em out with blacklight?

this is very insightful nomad and psycho. so deep sub in tall cups so they can burrow.

and about the seasonal experience, the lighting is really crazy here because im in Finland. its about like alaska. not its starting to turn fall, get cold outside, and soon it will be very dark, for a very long time(all summer we had light 24 hours a day!) so maybe their circadian rhythm will be as messed up as mine.. thanks for the advice! will take more pictures after i work on this some more, and when my new good camera comes in. that would make more sense to use HD camera, on my hd screen than a 3.garbage-pixel camera phone!
 

cannabeast

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
143
tank renovations

psycho i got about 4 inches of substrate now in jars. tonight when the parabuthus come out i will catch them and put them in new containers. if i manage to find all 11 of them, i can put the jars in the aquarium as is. heres what ive done to prepare jars. i was cutting some glass to make new sections within the terrarium, but i thought it was a tacky modification of a perfectly good looking terrarium. the jars are not meant to close with the lids so tight that if they fall over they wont spill, but to just make sure there is a lid so that they wont escape and eat each other in the bigger aquarium. so long as the scorpion cant lift the lid. the screen idea was fantasitic, but i was more please with doing that on the plastic candy containers you see i use. those containers work better, and are free at the candy store. the jars however, are heavy, breakable glass, and not so good to glue screen on. the jars are better because they take up less width space and i can store many more scorpions in a small area very similar to a sea of green grow. the substrate is sand from the sandbox outside, and soil from fresh packaging. i thought about pressure cooking the substrate to get rid of pollutants such as mites and spores, but naa.. i would rather be left with tolerant scorpions that will breed the same qualities...+laziness... the substrate was moist, packed in with my hands, then a shallow hole dug in the middle, and flat rocks found outside placed over the holes. just waiting for when they come out to spot them with the black light and move some of them into their new enclosures.


































finishing up
 
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