Scorpion bioactive

[Finn19]

I got an Asian Forest Scorpion little over two months ago. Her name is Akhlys, after the godess of deadly poisons (despite her essentially harmless nature to me as a non-cricket). She is currently in a fairly small but sufficiently sized tank which stays at around 24-26c. However, as she will grow bigger in the future she will need a new tank. I currently have a 15gallon unused fish tank that I've cleaned and emptied, and am planning on making it into a bioactive tank just for her. Been going through the first few steps today to order the equipment I'll need (I already have the drainage layer, separating layer etc). I moved onto her heat requirements and was looking to buy her a heat mat but remembered I have a reptile ceramic heater I don't use going spare. I was wondering if this would be suitable? I occasionally use it in my large invert tank to boost the temperature after a colder night here in the UK, it can significantly affect the humidity of the tank and I don't want it to dry out the scorp enclosure...would it do this? I find the heat mat I use in my invert tank can sometimes not be good enough in providing the right temperature, although that may just be due to a large amount of ventilation in the tank. In your experience, would this ceramic heater be okay? If I'm going to be using live plants they would most likely need lighting, with the fish tank having an LED already fitted. I know scorpions aren't fond of light, but if the light was off during night would this be fine with it replicating a wild experience (light during the day, dark at night)?

Thank you for any help, hope you're all well

 

[Sterls]

I would stick to a heat mat, mounted to the side, not extending to the bottom of the tank. Scorpions bury themselves to escape heat so you want the bottom layers to be free of any heat. If it's having trouble maintaining the temps (high 70s or so) you'll need one with a higher output.

I wouldn't use a ceramic heat emitter for fear of cooking the scorpion.

Many will likely come on here saying bioactive is pointless, FYI. Just ignore them. It's definitely a fad but if you want to do it, do it. I've debated throwing my Heterometrus' into a bioactive setup before.

 

[LizardStudent]

I would say no to the ceramic heater for the same reason, possibly cooking your scorp. Some people use a simple suspended incandescent bulb to warm their scorps tank, but anything more bulb-wise I think is overkill and either way is just going to dry the tank out faster.
I think bioactive is a great way to mimic a natural environment for your pet as well as provide a healthier, cleaner environment for your scorpion with minimal disturbances from you trying to enter the tank for cleaning and the like. 'Fad' is an interesting word choice for it. But same goes for the plant lights, mimicking day and night cycles will not be detrimental to your scorp but rather help with natural instincts. Just make sure your clean up crews don't completely overrun your habitat, I've seen keepers dump large isopod cultures and the like into a tank only for a few months later the environment to be utterly swarmed with them, which isn't really what they were going for

 

[Sterls]

'Fad' is an interesting word choice for it.

Yeah bad word choice on my part. Guess I meant many on here see it as a fad, since it's getting more and more popular. I definitely think it's a good direction for more people to go naturalistic, so long as they research and do it right (like OP seems to have done).

 

[Finn19]

Heat mat it is. I've always personally found bioactive setups to be more visually pleasing, but just a personal preference. Thank you for the help

 

[Finn19]

The one I'm looking at is 12W so hopefully that'll be enough?

 

[Finn19]

The plants I've looking to order tomorrow are devil's ivy (Epipremnum aureum), 2x earth star (Cryptanthus sp.) and variegated creeping fig (Ficus pumila)

 

[LizardStudent]

12W should be fine, I would recommend getting a temp reader when using any heating element. I have an infrared temp gun, it cost me like $8 for the peace of mind it brings. Your choice of plants sounds great too, one thing to keep in mind is that scorps are destructive. It is usually recommended that if you're going to keep a pet in a terrarium with plants, you should put the plants in maybe a month prior to the scorp so that their roots can develop and they can establish, this way they will be much hardier and less susceptible to being easily destroyed by messy pet bugs. If you don't have this kind of time for preparation, you can still put them in, just understand that some might not last