Smeringurus mesaensis opinions?

Vermis

Arachnoknight
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Dec 11, 2005
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Okay, I admit this topic is partly to crow to someone about the S. mesaensis I got at the BTS show. American scorps seem to be as rare as hen's teeth in the trade, this side of the Atlantic; and the only other time I've seen mesaensis available in the UK, they were going for £50 (about $100) each.
I hope it's the beginning of a lucky streak.

Anyhow, I already had an inkling of how to keep it, and a search of the forum confirms it - warm, dry, somewhere to burrow. What I'd like to know are opinions and experiences of S. mesaensis in captivity. Hardy or delicate? Particularly scorplings, and their humidity requirements.
 

JungleGuts

Arachnoprince
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ive never had a scorpling but as adults there hardy if provided the simple requirements of care
 

EAD063

Arachnoprince
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I've found scorpions from that area benefit from moisture at molt time... which is plainly noticable by how plump they get. I cannot describe the exact amount but do advise you beware of adding too much as they are prone to fungal infections if so. The moisture content should be removed immediately after the sucessful molt.
 

tarsier

Arachnodemon
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ive never had slings but juveniles are quite hardy.
 

Vermis

Arachnoknight
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To tell the truth I'm not sure if it's a sling or a juve. It's perhaps 15-20mm chelicerae-telson.
Thanks for the tips.
 

Alakdan

Arachnoangel
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15-20mm? Definitely a sling! Most likeky 3I.

I keep one. I got it at last Sep '06. It has molted once and is now 60mm. A hardy specimen. I keep mine on dry sand mixed with a little dry topsoil, approx. 10:2 sand/topsoil ratio. I provided a dry piece of driftwood as hide.
 

Rigelus

Arachnoknight
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I have adults and young.
The adults are kept on consolidated sand and they will burrow, The young also are kept on consolidated sand but they seem content to dig out a scrape under a bit of surface furniture.
Males are more active than females, young are more active than adults.
The adults have a temperature that lays around 28-30c /40% humidity while the young experience a temperature between 30-33c /30-40% humidity.

I've also discovered (at least in my case) that the young are not so fussy with the humidity when it's time to moult.
What has worked really well for me is putting the young that are approaching a moult into my boiler room. The temperature there gets up to 35c during the day and doesn't fall under 30c during the night. The humidity in my boiler room fluctuates between 20-30%. Within a few days they have usually moulted.
Mine have gone from instar 2 to 5 since last autumn.

Fresh moulted L5

 

edesign

AB FB Group Moderatr
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agreed...I used to have one (adult) and I kept it bone dry on sand. I had heard that adults don't do well with any moisture save for what they get from their prey. Every time I would add a cap of water from a gallon jug of water the scorpion, upon finding it, would RUN the other direction as if it had touched some acid. I tried this several times over the course of a year or so with the exact same response every time.

It also only ate maybe five crickets over the course of the year and did like to burrow. If you so a search in this forum for this species you should turn up a post or two by me regarding this species along with some pictures. They can be hard to find on this side of the pond too, I rarely hear of anyone keeping them...do you know if you have the yellow or ghost color morph?
 

JungleGuts

Arachnoprince
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yea ive never offered mine any water, ive had it around a year by now. Mine eats a large cricket every week though, or if not ever week every other week. My temps daytime around around 85 and can drop a good deal at night.

heres a pic of mine from a good while ago, as you can see this is what the Arizonia ones look like, with some transparency. The Cali ones are more yellowish
 
Last edited:

Mark Newton

Arachnobaron
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.....
What has worked really well for me is putting the young that are approaching a moult into my boiler room. The temperature there gets up to 35c during the day and doesn't fall under 30c during the night. The humidity in my boiler room fluctuates between 20-30%. Within a few days they have usually moulted.
I'm just curious, if you dont mind. Do the young molt in the open or under something? How much ventilation does the housing have they are molting in?
 

Rigelus

Arachnoknight
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do you know if you have the yellow or ghost color morph?
Well i received both the young and adults from Arizona so they should have the ethereal morph but without having a Cali comparison it's hard to judge just how much of a difference there is between the two....

I'm just curious, if you dont mind. Do the young molt in the open or under something? How much ventilation does the housing have they are molting in?
They usually (maybe 4 out of 25 have moulted under something) moult out in the open which has allways surprised me because the young can take up to 12 hours to completely finish the process. If they did this in the wild they would be easy pickings for any predator that came along.
Their containers are well ventilated with air holes in the lid and around the sides.

So it would seem that this species is not so dependant on moisture to get it through ecdysis, or rather the low relative humidity i have in my boiler room (20-30%) is sufficient.
 

Mark Newton

Arachnobaron
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So it would seem that this species is not so dependant on moisture to get it through ecdysis, or rather the low relative humidity i have in my boiler room (20-30%) is sufficient.
That's interesting, so it would be safe to assume the atmosphere in which they are molting is not much higher in RH than the boiler room...very dry hardy species.
 
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