P imperator bangs claws

[FrankiePinchinatti]

Yeah that's pretty normal. Most of mine actually spend the majority of their time sitting exactly like that, in a little half dug out hole in the corner.

 

[aarachnid]

And it’s okay that she’s against the mat? Sorry, I’m so used to seeing them as a way to kill my spiders lol

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

If the scorpion is able to come in contact with the heating mat itself then you better make sure that mat never reaches 50°C. find
As long as your mat is properly regulated by a thermostat it's usually no problem.
At 50°C (122°Fahrenfunnies) the scorpion exoskeleton can no longer keep water/moisture inside, scorpy will die.
Since you have the heat mat at one side of the enclosure, that side became the 'hot' zone and thus there is also a cold zone which is recommended.
If you find that the scorpion never comes out of the hot zone, it might be a indicator that the overall/average temperature is a bit low.
You could raise the overall/average temperature by raising both zones a bit. A bigger (but not hotter) mat on the side, insulation at the cold side.
You also probably have found out that you can't have a lot of ventilation holes if you want to maintain the high humidity.
Changing the location of those holes also helps to regulate the temperature. Having the ventilation at the cold zone is usually preferred.

 

[aarachnid]

She has been good at thermoregulating, I guess, and the mat is small and maxes out at 90 degrees F. The hot end of the tank is usualy ~85, the cooler side usually goes down to about 75-78 I have a towel over the enclosure to keep the moisture and heat in, but I'll lift up an edge to give her more ventilation. Her hide is on the cool end, and she spends most of her time there. Sorry, I'm so used to heat mats being a death sentence for my bug pets, I sort of hate having it! I am glad she's okay, though.

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

Your husbandry seems fine !

 

[aarachnid]

Thank you!! I will try to wait a full two weeks before inventing another problem.

 

[Dr SkyTower]

I love the enclosure and the bath! She looks like a healthy happy scorpion

She should be fine with the heat pad on the side... she has the option of a warm and cool side to regulate her body temperature.

"Coal". Love that name by the way!

 

[aarachnid]

There’s an exotic pet/plant store near me that sold me this lovely red fittonia for her enclosure. While moving dirt and stuff around, I saw just how many springtails were in her enclosure. Hope that helps, I’m thinking about using one of the plants for my T blondi when it gets a little bigger (it was four plants in one). She’s my first bioactive setup, I felt like it would be easier since the substrate has to constantly be moist anyway.

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

The enclosure looks very good, scorpy is chillin at his private pool.
You do keep at lid on the enclosure ?

 

[aarachnid]

The enclosure looks very good, scorpy is chillin at his private pool.
You do keep at lid on the enclosure ?

I always do. It’s a mesh lid that I keep a towel on. I will be adding some leds on a timer for the plants.

 

[Dr SkyTower]

nice! I like the addition of the plant.

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

Yeah, looks like she caught the scorpy virus, but she's still in denial.
Soon just 1 scorpion won't satisfy anymore, needs a species that stings their prey to death.
Just wait until she finds out about the mating dance of the scorpion....
It won't be long until she drops her T's in the classifieds section....

 

[aarachnid]

Yeah, looks like she caught the scorpy virus, but she's still in denial.
Soon just 1 scorpion won't satisfy anymore, needs a species that stings their prey to death.
Just wait until she finds out about the mating dance of the scorpion....
It won't be long until she drops her T's in the classifieds section....

Haha, id have to drop some Ts to get scorpions; I have space restrictions. If I ever got my own house or moved in with my partner, I think I’d look into a Hadogenes troglodytes. I love that squashed look.

It stinks because almost every time I see a scorp that catches my eye, it ends up being more venomous than I’m interested in keeping as a pet. Warning colors are like Tide Pods to me, I guess.

 

[Dr SkyTower]

Haha, id have to drop some Ts to get scorpions; I have space restrictions. If I ever got my own house or moved in with my partner, I think I’d look into a Hadogenes troglodytes. I love that squashed look.

It stinks because almost every time I see a scorp that catches my eye, it ends up being more venomous than I’m interested in keeping as a pet. Warning colors are like Tide Pods to me, I guess.

H. troglodytes can grow massive, but is very slow growing! If its a female and a scorpling, you'll have her for about 30 years. Their venom is mild so its not a highly venomous species!

 

[Pickle]

beautiful emp you got there! i've been keeping t's for years and only recently became interested in scorps. I have one CB emp adult (they said it was cb anyway) and two asian forest scorps, a baby and an adult both CB.

My adult asian forest scorp sometimes clangs her claws together when she's annoyed. It's so loud i was startled the first time she did it. I was handling her for overlong and she was getting tired and a little pinchy along with the clanging. I put her back home real quick after that.

Only time she tried to sting me was when i had to use tweezers to remove a stiff sliver of coconut fiber that had somehow got stuck inbetween one of her ventral segments. It penetrated almost a quarter inch!

Handling isn't recommended on these forums and I can certainly understand why. There's risk of fatal injury if they fall/jump/are dropped/are shaken off reflexively in case of a bite. We're thoughtful about it and take steps to mitigate the risk. I usually start handling them as slings and over the years they seem to not mind so much. I know, I know: handling them doesn't do anything for them at all and they can live happy and fulfilling spider lives without ever having been picked up by a hairless ape. Well, they don't seem to mind it much and anyway i don't really do it for them.

I don't handle any of the notoriously aggressive species i keep (looking at you, Cheeto, my psycho OBT), nor any of the OW t's with the strong venom (my 3 pokies are beautiful to look at only). Actually, there was one exception to that rule. We had a beautiful female L. Mactans (rip Button!) that I would occasionally handle. She was as docile as can be I just wasn't worried too much, even if she got spooked and did bite me. Beautiful animal. (Button was off-limits to the kids fyi).

My 3 kids (all under 10yo) and I only ever handle the pink toes, various grammastolas, brachys and other t's we have raised and whose temperaments we're familiar with. We sit down on carpet to reduce the risk of injury from falls and the spiders have our full attention 100% of the time we handle them.

We constantly aknowledge they're wild animals and can behave unpredictably at any time. Im teaching my boys that everything with a mouth can bite and to always expect they could be bitten or stung whenever they hold even the most docile-seeming t or scorp. The first rule is to never force them to be handled if they seem agitated or otherwise evasive. The boys are learning to be properly respectful and if they ever forget, they'll learn right quick with a nice bite to remember for a good long while.

Our system works for us: knock on wood i've kept arachnids for 20 years and i've never been bitten. When it happens, i expect it'll be from one of the pokies; serve me right i suppose for tempting fate this long. I've also never dropped or otherwise injured one (double knock on wood); even the pinktoes who love to leap off hands and parachute the 12 inches max i hold them above the carpeted floor.

I'd never recommend anyone else handle their arachnids; it depends entirely on your own temperment and comfort level . A nervous t keeper will absolutely make the t nervous and dramatically increase the risk of injury to self or animal. YMMV.

 

[aarachnid]

Help!! Coal has been acting normal, mostly staying under her rock hide and hanging out near the heat mat. A couple min ago, though, i heard her bang her claws. I texted my bf (the one who left me with her) that “his” scorpion scares the crap out of me sometimes... but then she rolled on her side. She righted herself, but her tail is covered in something. Is it mutes? What do I do? Did I give them to her by introducing the plant? I feel terrible, she seems to have knocked most of them off but she was struggling and using her tail like crazy.

 

[Poonjab]

Yep, those are mites.

 

[aarachnid]

I did some searching on here. Are they grain mites? I am thinking about giving her a smaller enclosure and shaking them off of her every few days and changing the substrate. Repeat til I’m sure they’re gone. Then I’ll move her back into her old enclosure, which I’d wipe down and replace the substrate. Does this sound like a good way to treat her? I feel terrible, she’s going to be so stressed out.

Where did they come from? The plant? Is it my husbandry?

 

[Poonjab]

I did some searching on here. Are they grain mites? I am thinking about giving her a smaller enclosure and shaking them off of her every few days and changing the substrate. Repeat til I’m sure they’re gone. Then I’ll move her back into her old enclosure, which I’d wipe down and replace the substrate. Does this sound like a good way to treat her? I feel terrible, she’s going to be so stressed out.

Where did they come from? The plant? Is it my husbandry?

I’m not sure what kind of mites those are. They might be harmless and clear up on their own. Me however, I hate mites. If it was me, I would put it in another temp enclosure until all of the mites were gone. Then throw the original enclosure in the freezer for a couple of days to kill the mites. But I would wait to here a few other responses before going that route.

 

[Dr SkyTower]

you could transfer her to a drier enclosure temporarily and put something damp in there that will attract the mites to it (ie a wet small piece of sponge or something). I can't see anything in the pics.
I found this link on mite issues, its has a lot of useful info regarding mites problems!

All you need to know about mites

Mites are one of the big topics that turn up over and over again. I can't count how often I've posted about them and tried to put a rational view on some rather phobic reactions. So, here is a consolidated post with everything about mites that I (and others) can link back to: Mites are harmless...

arachnoboards.com