Imperator burrowing

[chaoshybrid6]

Ironically enough I just posted about my rosea burrowing now its about my imperator. I have her set up on a false bottom setup with the aquarium gravel on the bottom of the tank and about 5 inches of peat. She has a rock hide that she dug under and went all the way to the bottom, proceded to remove the gravel from the bottom, and dug along the bottom for a while. So now that shes done the top of the substrate looks like a quarry because she brought all the gravel up and put them where she wanted lol. I just thought I'd share my emps weird behavior with you guys and see what you thought about it.

 

[brandontmyers]

yeah my emps all burrow to the false bottom...i used big rocks so they couldnt bring them up. all i ever see of my emps is when they are waiting at the edge of their burrow for food...

 

[Thaedion]

I never experienced that, due to using big aquarium stones. I heard several people mention that the scorpion would pull up the stones so they recommend using a screen between the substrate and stones. here is a picture of how mine looks.

Just one way of several to make a false bottom tank.

Thaedion

 

[brandontmyers]

has anyone experienced emps molting in their burrow. I expect mine should be molting soon, and i am kind of worried about them molting down there. What would i do to get the exoskeleton out, and should i be worried about cannabalism???

 

[chaoshybrid6]

wow, at least I'm not the only one this has happened to lol. But thanks in reassuring me

 

[slimtim454]

That burrow is awesome Thaedion. I gotta add some more peat to my emps enclosure.

 

[~Abyss~]

I actually got 2 emps and 2 H.spins and the weird thing is that my emps started digging some tunnels but whenever I check up on them there in the hides instead of the tunnels but the H.spin are the ones that made their homes in the burrows. There are occasions when there all down there and it seem like I have an empty tank.

 

[chaoshybrid6]

My emp stays down there all the time except when I put some crickets in the tank. So it looks like its empty in mine too.

 

[Bayushi]

My big female emp has a couple of scrapes with tunnels dug down under them. i suspect the scrapes are connected by a tunnel, mostly because she will be under one and then appear under the other with out anyone noticing her moving above ground

 

[Mark Newton]

It's interesting. Why do people think the emps spend so much time in the base of their burrows?

 

[Bayushi]

My opinion on that goes on two things. First, they dig down to their maximum moisture tolerance and secondly they feel safer the deeper they are. Even in my home where noone bothers the scorps there is still alot of vibrations from people walking around during the day and i rarely see any of my emps outside their hide or above ground in daylight hours. even less so when the kids are home from school and there is more activity in the house

 

[Mark Newton]

Has anyone tried a sealed situation with emp's whereby above the burrow the humidity is the same as below ground? Just wondering and if not, is there a reason why this wouldnt be suitable?

 

[~Abyss~]

Yeah i have actually. It meant a drier substrate in order to accoplish that. and a misting every so often even with a false bottom. I didn't get any accurate information because I've had emps that don't dig at all. I did make an observation when I had several sized emps in one inclosure it was the youngest that did most if not all the digging. Needless to say the other emps used them too but it was the younger one that acually made a series of tunnels that split up in many different directions all across the tank. It worried me that i hadn't seen it in months that i dug it out only to see all the tunnels cave in.

 

[Mark Newton]

I didn't get any accurate information because I've had emps that don't dig at all.

So that might suggest they dig primarily to reach high humidity rather than seek a place they 'feel' safe. In my opinion the primary reason burrowers burrow is to reach the humidity they require. Of course this may not have always been the case, they may have burrowed for many reasons, a safe haven/retreat from predators to raise young etc. But in choosing to live a burrow existence they have developed a physiology that 'now' requires burrow conditions. Creating an environment with burrow conditions would alleviate the burrowing problem.

 

[~Abyss~]

not really tried making man made burrows and still get the same situations. Some very active burrowers and some non active burrowers. I haven't yet done an experiment to prove or disprove a hypothesis of mine. I believe that it is the wild caught emps that are used to digging in their natural habitat that continue to do it in captivity. Of course I don't know which of my scorpions are wild caught or captive breed.

 

[Mark Newton]

I believe that it is the wild caught emps that are used to digging in their natural habitat that continue to do it in captivity. Of course I don't know which of my scorpions are wild caught or captive breed.

Do you think that makes any sense? It almost suggests a learnt behaviour rather than a genetic one. You are suggesting that behaviours learnt when young reside with the scorpion for the duration of their life. ....possibility. I would suggest that a home captive situation tank already has some of the parameter sof a burrow, in that it is a relatively small area and the scorpion knows that, after it wanders around the perimeter a few times it will soon learn the area is not too big. There is NO sunlight, which is a biggie, most scorpions hate sunlight. So, less desire to burrow. The higher the humidity in the tank the less likely the scorpion will burrow in my understanding...well, it may burrow but not necessarily choose to spend as much time in it.

Basically this is my experience with desert burrowers I am keeping and emps are similar in that they need high humidity as do my desert burrowers. Even though it seems odd that a desert species and rainforest species almost need the same conditions...at least with respect to RH.