Heterometrus spinifer Question(s)

[Matt Man]

Hey guys,

So I need some additional advice. As I mentioned I was going to set my 30G Tall tank up for her, but I had a slight change of plans and I'm going to use that for something else. With that being said, one of the local pet stores had a sale going on tanks. I picked up another 20G Tall tank to replace the one that had the crack in it. I'm currently getting that one prepped, I had a couple of substrate questions, I found a bag of Forest Floor Bedding Cypress Mulch, is it safe to mix that in and use it? I was intending on using the same mix I had with the 15gal tank, Reptisoil, coconut fiber, along with moss (moss would be on half the tank) I included a pic below.

Also, as I think I mentioned previously, I bought a couple of heating pads/mats; unfortunately, it appears that they were pirated off of my porch, so I'm working on getting a refund/replacement for those. Due to the thievery by some unscrupulous individuals, I ended up buying one yesterday when I picked up the replacement tank. I included a pic of that one below as well. I know you guys said NOT to put them under the tank, I'm just curious where the best spot to attach it would be? I've always used heat lamps for my critters simply because I generally keep them in my room, and I generally don't keep my room in the 80ish degree temp zone where these guys are most comfortable. I've been doing that for this gal while I got a permanent habitat solution figured out, but if I'm totally honest, I've been having a hard time keeping my room that warm/hot, simply because I'm kind of a cold weather person; my room is usually in the low-mid 60's. I have a suspicion that the heating pad/mat won't keep the tank warm enough on it's own, can you use more than one heating pad to maintain a constant temp in the tank, or use a pad in conjunction with a lamp to keep the temp stable/consistent? I'm just wondering what you guys would do/recommend on that front.


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Attach the pad on the side, or on the back NEAR one end OPPOSITE the burrow. Also place it up high. You want the Scorpion to have the ability to go away from the heat both laterally and vertically (burrow) Place a lamp (if needed) same area as the pad.

and a big ole, EMPHATIC NO on the Cypress Mulch. Aromatic woods have tannins that are unhealthy for Inverts. Typically they put aromatic woods in reptile bedding because it is a bug killer / repellant.
Use the reptisoil and coco fibre. Mix in some peat or sphag for added water retention. Mix it all up and build your container. You can have a small pile of SPhag (don't go crazy) somewhere

 

[Diao]

Agreed with all of the above. If you plan on breeding true Heterometrus spinifer (all too often pet stores and dealers sell Heterometrus silenus mislabeled as various other species, very often as H. spinifer) then you'll want a substrate that can hold high humidity. I've recently been using just a mix of soil, peat moss, and sand to get something that holds shape to allow for burrowing but also holds humidity well. I've found that H. spinifer thrives in very, very high humidity spikes. Every couple days I give the enclosures with any babies or younger juveniles a real heavy dose of water, both getting the soil wet as well as spraying everything down, basically emulating heavy rainfall. I then allow it to evaporate over a day or two before repeating the process. Adults seem to be more tolerant of a lower humidity, but growing babies and juveniles definitely thrive in a more wet environment. For this I find that a heat lamp works better as it helps with evaporating the water up into the air, but I've also heard of success with heart mats as well. If you plan on having live moss and plants in the enclosure the heat lamps are then a better option as well. If you don't mind the extra work having plants to care for then the moss and plants can be worth it with this species as they can also help with the humidity.

 

[Barbarianhorde]

Hey guys new enclosure seems to be doing good, though I have one pressing question. When a scorpion eats, does it leave much if any evidence of its predation? My reason for asking is, I've never actually seen her eat anything in the 3 weeks I've had her, the initial batch of crickets and super worms I bought for her she didn't show much interest in. I put a couple of medium crickets in her enclosure last week and they vanished inside of a day, I searched high and low for any sign of dessicated cricket remains and couldn't find any. That led me to believe she ate them, I put a couple med-large crickets in her enclosure last night with the same result. So I'm just making sure it's normal not to find any remains at all from the sacrificial lamb.

I'm still getting used to caring for a scorpion, with the other critters I have as soon as you put food in they usually move out and grab it, so you get that visual confirmation of them eating. These seem to like to take their sweet time, which was a bit worrying to me initially since she wasn't showing an interest in the food.

 

[CRX]

They take pre-killed prey also, you just crush the crickets head first

 

[invertinverts]

If you're dead set on using the heat mat, put it on the side. I wouldn't use the forest floor stuff on its own as to my memory it's mostly wood chips. You could mix it with top soil or reptisoil though

 

[Barbarianhorde]

They take pre-killed prey also, you just crush the crickets head first

I may try that with one of the super worms.

 

[Barbarianhorde]

If you're dead set on using the heat mat, put it on the side. I wouldn't use the forest floor stuff on its own as to my memory it's mostly wood chips. You could mix it with top soil or reptisoil though

Yeah, I put it on the side, she created her own little burrow over by the heat mat. As far as the substrate, I had a brick and a half of that compressed coconut husk material, so I mixed those with some water to let them loosen/expand, then I mixed in about 2 bags of reptisoil and mixed it all together in a 15 gallon tub and put it in the 20G tank and compressed it down, I also added a package of the zoo med terrarium moss to one side of the tank. I'll take a couple of pics of the setup when I get home just to see if there's anything you guys would suggest changing.

 

[CRX]

Yeah, I put it on the side, she created her own little burrow over by the heat mat. As far as the substrate, I had a brick and a half of that compressed coconut husk material, so I mixed those with some water to let them loosen/expand, then I mixed in about 2 bags of reptisoil and mixed it all together in a 15 gallon tub and put it in the 20G tank and compressed it down, I also added a package of the zoo med terrarium moss to one side of the tank. I'll take a couple of pics of the setup when I get home just to see if there's anything you guys would suggest changing.

Sounds good I think, but some safe reptile sand mixed in couldnt hurt for stabilization

 

[Matt Man]

If you're dead set on using the heat mat, put it on the side. I wouldn't use the forest floor stuff on its own as to my memory it's mostly wood chips. You could mix it with top soil or reptisoil though

the wood chips are Cypress which is an aromatic wood. Really bad for inverts