Desert Hairy tips?

[conipto]

Hey folks,

This question is mostly for my roommate who got a Desert Hair scorp adult the other day. What advice, beyond what I see in caresheets does anyone have in keeping these?

He has it on some ugly blue sand he got at petsmart I think, in a 2.5 gallon aquariam, with a plastic heart shaped box half buried in the sand. How are they as far as ventilation goes? We watched it tear up a meal of 2 adult crickets today... and I definately got a kick out of watching scorpion mouths move.

Is this colored sand safe? Should he ventilate better than a glass top with a few holes? How about feeding? how often, how much?

Bill

 

[skinheaddave]

Heart shaped box, eh? Either of you Nirvana fans?

There was a debate about coloured sand back in the day and the result was that nobody could think of why it wouldn't be safe. Tamara has used it for her flat-rock anyways and he seems to be doing fine. Sand on its own isn't a very good burrowing medium, though, so if it is deep I'd watch for a collapsed burrow. H.arazonensis loves to burrow so it may be good to provide it with a mixed substrate deep enough to burrow in.

Ventelation is probably adequate for such a dry setup. You won't get mould or anything. On the other hand, since it is so dry, you can use a screen top with no problems.

The general rule for scorpions for food items is one appropriately sized food item per week. Appropriately sized is no more than 1/2 the scorpion. Obviously, with the larger scorpions, this usualy means multiple items if you are feeding crickets.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[conipto]

Originally posted by skinheaddave
Heart shaped box, eh? Either of you Nirvana fans?

Heh, no, not particularly. I just caught that. It's a plastic container that had chocolates or something in it at one point. I know he washed it pretty well, and It's kind of his idea of humor to have a big adult scorpion hiding underneath a happy looking heart.

On the main note though, thanks for the advice Dave. I'll pass it on to him, and hopefully this guy will work out better than his failed attempt at Asian Forest scorps did.

Bill

 

[Gillian]

Originally posted by skinheaddave
Heart shaped box, eh? Either of you Nirvana fans?

Dave,
I was so into reading your post, that I didn't notice the heart-shaped box remark. Just when I felt the scorch marks on the top of my head, did I finally snap..:? =D

Peace,
Gillian