Opistophthalmus boehmi care

[Ladislav Vasil]

Hello,

I bought some O. boehmi to my collection but I can´t find a good caresheet.
Curently I keep them on a mixture of sand : peat ( 4:1), which I sprayed with water so the whole thing woul come together and they could dig. The problem is, that when the substrate dries their holes kind a fall. I know high humidity is not good for them. Any ideas on the substrate ?
Also, do they need anything special for breeding ? I would really like to try to have some babies from them.

 

[Pandinus97]

Hi Ladislav. Ive seen a few care sheets on O.bohemi but nothing too in depth. I
would research the biome and rate of rainfall Etc of the area they live if you cant
find anything else, ive done the same with several gecko species.

 

[Olsin]

The problem is, that when the substrate dries their holes kind a fall. I know high humidity is not good for them. Any ideas on the substrate ?

You need to mix sand and clay together to make consolidated sand...You can either make it yourself or buy it at a pet shop...If you buy it then simply follow the instructions on the bag. If you want to make it yourself all you need is standard sand and some clay. You can use the clay blocks you can usually buy from florists.
Simply take a small ball of clay (about the size of a childs clenched fist or a bit smaller) and dissolve that in ½ a liter of warm water. You should break the clay up into small bits to make dissolving it easier. Once done use that clay water to dampen of approx 10 liters of sand. Form the damp sand into the kind of landscape you want in your enclosure and then let it dry out. It may take a couple of weeks to dry because you are going to want a decent depth to it if your scorp is going to be able to dig a burrow. Alternatively you can use blowers and heat to dry it out quicker....If you find it's to hard for your scorp to dig in then just break it up and add more sand and plain water to thin it out, re-form it and let it dry again.....Mixing a bit of coco fiber with it will take the rough edged sand feel of it and won't affect it's hardening properties....Using just a damp sand and cocofiber mix will only hold together as long as the mix is damp as you've discovered..

 

[Ladislav Vasil]

Thank you for respondig so quickly guys.
Pandinus97: I´ve read some caresheets on the internet, but most of them were really bad, most people recommend keeping them like Pandinus sp. and I´ve tried that about 4 years ago, it didn´t go well :/.
I tried to get some info on their habitat, but so far I only found just some basic informations, also the problem about this, that I don´t know nothing about the climate in their burrows.
Olsin, thank you, I will try to get my hands on some clay. I want to move them into bigger tubs, and I will make an update.

 

[Ladislav Vasil]

BTW, just to be sure. the clay you´re talking about is clay used for ceramics right ?