opistophthalmus sp.

[atavuss]

anyone keep any of the opistophthalmus species? I like the looks of them and from what I have read they seem somewhat "easy" to keep.....I realize they burrow and will probably be hidden much if not all the time. any and all input would be appreciated. it also seems they are not easy to come by, I have seen few for sale.
Ed

 

[Kugellager]

I have had an Opistophthalmus for about 9 months now. It is prob a O.boehmi or whalberghi but I'm not sure. It has conviently made a burrow that goes along the glass in the front of its enclosure. I keep the lower part of its sandy/rocky substrate moist. This is where it has burrowed to. I use the tube watering method to get the water to the bottom of the substrate and add about 1/2-1 cup of water to it per week. The surface of the substrate is usually pretty dry. I do have a water dish which I add water once a week but I believe it gets most of its humidity from the crickets and the humid part of its burrow.

Mine is about 3-3.5 inches in length.

John
; ' /

P.S. Pat usually has some Opistophthalmus sp. for sale.

 

[jwb121377]

I have one Opistophtmus sp. It's a cool scorpion species. I use Calci sand and give it a water dish also. It feeds readily,and is very easy to care for.

 

[belewfripp]

I have an Opistopthalmus sp. "Mozambique Hissing Scorpion". Have only had it for about a week or so, so can't give any definitive long-term info, but it seems to have no problem using a hide, I keep it dry on a substrate of peat/vermiculite/coconut bark tossed together and it mostly just hangs out under its little hide thing. Fun to watch, I fed it the first day I got it and it had no problem using the ol' stinger on a few crickets. It is not very tolerant of disturbance, unlike emperors. Just about any disturbance causes it to stridulate and get upset. I received a bit of a 'sideswipe' sting, a little prick from an angle, so they seem willing to use it if you bother them enough. Although I got sick later that night, I don't think it was connected to the scorpion. Jan Rein's website lists scorpions in this genus as having a painful/unpleasant sting, but not deadly. Very pretty and the chelicerae seem really pronounced for some reason.

Adrian

 

[Wade]

I had a big one for several years that died recntly. Here's a pic of that one, by Art Evans.

I picked up one of those "mozambique" recently, but it seems to be a different species of Opistothalmus.

Wade

 

[skinheaddave]

Wade,

What sort of lighting setup did Art use to photograph your specimens? They all look very evenly lighted.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Wade]

Most of them were shot outdoors under natural light. If I remember correctly, it was overcast that day. He generally uses a flash. Sorry I don't have more details, I know squat about photography. The originals are 35mm slides and have been converted to digital by the camera store. The resulting images are a bit darker than the original slides. Since I know even less about coputer graphics manipulation, I haven't tried to lighten them or anything. Here's a close up of the same scorpion:

 

[atavuss]

I picked up a "o. boehmi", it said tri-color hissing scorpion on the reciept at the IRBA show a few weeks ago. here is a pic, is that what it looks like? the seller made it hiss with a long pair of forceps (I did not hear it as I am darn near deaf and I do not hear high pitched sounds). cost was only 10.00 each.
Ed

 

[Kugellager]

Ed,

If you ever see any O. sp. for sale for $10 again...buy as many as you can...they are worth 2-3x that retail...Hell...I'd buy 2-3 for that price even with shipping.

John
];')