hey all, im just curious i dont have all that much experience with scorpions but which one would be the easiest to take care of and even the most active one. like the better begginer one. can they just have heat mats on the side or back of the tank?. im going to get one soon.
flat rock or emperor scorpion.
- Thread starter djb
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Easiest is flatrocks.
Emps are almost just as easy, but you have to the keep humidity up.
Emps are almost just as easy, but you have to the keep humidity up.
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Emps are more active in my opinion. When I first started with an emp, she was out almost every night. I had an H. troglodyte for a while, I swear it never moved one time.
As far as being active, the emps are better. As far as ease of care, flat rocks are easier. If you want something that's easy and active, then I think you should consider a desert hairy. They are super easy(almost thrive on neglect), long-lived, fairly attractive, inexpensive and they are very active. Just my opinion based on my experiences with all three.
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i have a adult male and female pair of flat rocks, and so far they are one of my favs....my male flatrock is always active...he is either around his water dish, or under slate, or ontop of slate, all through the daytime....the female, i just recently got her, but need to rehouse her....and they are very easy to take care of.....sna wiht coco fiber mixed, some hiding rocks or something, water, crickets, thats about it....the emps i had were almost never active, unless it was in the middle of the night...and they were harder to take care of, keeping the humidity up was hard, and also had to deal with mites....
well i actually picked a emperor scorpion today they only had the choice between emps and a flat rock and i decided an emperor would be cool. i basically have heating eco earth substrate and a couple hides,water dish etc.. and do i like mist there tank or just pour some water in there once in awhile and the guy there said they are easy to take care of
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i never poured water in, i just misted...but its up to you...and if you have never dealt with mites, then you will most likely be dealing with them soon....hopefully not...but it seems like the emps leave peices of cricket leftover that is small enough it blends in, and then you wet that, and then all of a sudden the whole inside and outside is covered in mites...but hopefully you will get lucky enough not to have to deal with them...
well i actually picked a emperor scorpion today they only had the choice between emps and a flat rock and i decided an emperor would be cool. i basically have heating eco earth substrate and a couple hides,water dish etc.. and do i like mist there tank or just pour some water in there once in awhile and the guy there said they are easy to take care of
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hey i didnt mean it like that...just with my experience every time i let the dirt get a little moist then here comes the mites...had them first in a centipede, then emps, then tailess whips, then centipedes again, then my lateralis colony, then trap door spiders, then centipedes, then emps, then trap door spiders, then tailess whips....i have dealt with those guys toooo much....so now what i do is bone dry substrate....like my big centipedes that are from the jungle....the have bone dry dirt, and a big water bowl...and they seem fine with it....i had to keep my emps the same way, but i dont think they liked it much, cause every time they burrowed it just filled in on them....but it was better than having to wash them in a strainer all the time, and totally clean out their house, and let everything dry...
hmm well maybe i wont totally keep it humid maybe ill let it dry once in a while and mist a little like once a week and a half. so your emps dont care if you just use dry dirt are thet healthy and everything. i think their hardy pets but im not sure though
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well as far as i could tell they were complete healthy and very responsive....i ended up trading them off...i got rid of all my scorps except my flat rocks, and my deathstalkers...im kinda finding my self so to say, i am weeding out all the species of everything that are harder to take care of....anything that i have that requires high humidity, just gets a large water bowl, and occasional mist....
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isopods and springtails should help reduce the chances of mites. I've had my two scorps for a couple months, no mites yet.
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I have a second generation of emps about to turn adult, real easy to keep the mites under control and easy to keep humidity up, isopods, cover the top, good to go.
do you mean like cover the top of the tank half way or a little more than half way to keep it more humid. and when i bought it the guy said it could be gravid possibally im kinda new so i dont know how to tell i heared that they also get fat if they are about to molt also so im tottally not sure. just the sides are really sticking out and there gaps between its back where it shoes its skin. sorry i dont know all the correct words yet.
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It will prob surprise you, 90% to 100% covered. Don't worry about O2, screen tops and sliding tops have cracks along the edge where O2 and CO2 exchange. Besides, you'd open it frequently enough anyway even if it was air-tight even it you opened it once a month. Most Pandinus and Heterometrus do not need a lot of ventilation, they live in holes. It's still and humid in their holes, they live in rain forests and on the outskirts, where it's mostly still and humid even when they are out of their holes. If that makes sense to you, it's how I would do it. Also, you can answer many of your own questions by researching where they are from on the internet, then use logic and reason to figure it out. Asking questions is good though, I'm not trying to discourage that. Here's a simple set-up, one has been in there for 2 years. I only have to add water about once every two months or so. I have the top wrapped with plastic wrap. You could poke a few holes in if it made you feel better. I have other terrs that I have pieces of glass or fiberglass on the top, you can move them around to open or close it up more. Using isopods is the way to go, it's pretty important imo/ime, it can save you a lot of disappointment when it comes to mite probs. I have grain mites but I rarely see them, it's more about control and balance over here.
