thinking about Androctonus amoreuxi

JungleGuts

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Well ive been thinking about geting a Androctonus amoreuxi, it would be my first HOT scorpion. At 2-3", would a 5g be to big? Reason i ask i saw some nice glass 5g's at the petstore with a lid that you can put a little pad lock on the tank. Id also wear leather gloves or something when im doing any enclosure maintance so i feel pretty confident about it, but theres always that "what if" in the back of my mind:rolleyes:
 

Bayushi

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instead of wearing leather gloves when working in the tank, why not get a pair of tongs or hemostats. It'd be a lot safer.
 

JungleGuts

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instead of wearing leather gloves when working in the tank, why not get a pair of tongs or hemostats. It'd be a lot safer.
oh yea im planning on using like 12' tons when i can, but if i need to put my hand in the tank for any reason(to do something that i would have trouble using tongs) id wear gloves.
 

CaptainChaos

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If you need to use your hands there, it would be wise to secure the scorp in a little box or container. They are pretty fast and although my amourexi usually run, every now and then they did the opposite and andros are one of those scorps that you definitely wouldn´t want to get stung by.
 

Crono

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If your tank is well set-up you won't need to put your hands in, and it would be best to isolate and secure the scorp like CaptainChaos mentioned, gloves or no gloves.

If I remember correctly, A. amoreuxi is supposed to be one of the more high strung Andro's, so just take care.
 

EAD063

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Your going to use 12 foot tongs? That's a bit extrememe.:rolleyes: How do you plan on getting a hold of one, chances are a dealer (which one, if not two have any androctonus at all) will not sell to a young man under the age of 18.
 

JungleGuts

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Your going to use 12 foot tongs? That's a bit extrememe.:rolleyes: How do you plan on getting a hold of one, chances are a dealer (which one, if not two have any androctonus at all) will not sell to a young man under the age of 18.
Personally if something is potentially life threating I think its better to be overly safe. Ill be 18 at the end of the summer and thats when I would buy one, probably from Swift inless I find a better deal. Oh yea, and I ment 12" tongs lol, not 12':) .
 

Crono

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I would imagine that the scorp would find heavy leather gloves to be quite an easy to climb ladder.;)
 

EAD063

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I personally wouldn't go from C vittatus (which your still waiting to recieve correct?) as your first buthid to an andro, I'd go for c gracilis or maybe babycurus or something like that first, something you can breed and get use to that wont become inmanagable. Theres no need to rush, you have 45 years before your a retired old man, plenty of time to get a solid collection going.
 

JungleGuts

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I personally wouldn't go from C vittatus (which your still waiting to recieve correct?) as your first buthid to an andro, I'd go for c gracilis or maybe babycurus or something like that first, something you can breed and get use to that wont become inmanagable. Theres no need to rush, you have 45 years before your a retired old man, plenty of time to get a solid collection going.
From now till the end of summer I will have some more experience under my belt, but I have all the experience necessary I believe. We have a family friend who Ive know for around 5 years now with all kinds of hot scorps and T's...hes been teaching and guideing me for along time and ive learned alot from him. I can say that I wouldnt have any problems properly careing for an andro and that I would take all the safty measures to an extreme. If i was racing tword buying one(which i dont do for any of my inverts) i would have one by now trust me:)) , I still got 4 months before I could order from a dealer anyways and ive been thinking about it for a good while now.
 

EAD063

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BTW, if you did have it, for you I think a 5 gal would be too small. From what I've seen you play around with your tanks a lot, adding furniture and cleaning them out a bunch. I belive you'd be pushing your luck trying to work in something that small, I don't know the gallons but 19L sterlites work great for every mid to large sized species, even most aboreals.

 

JungleGuts

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hmm thanks for the suggestions...but the thing i like about the glass tanks(i think t hey make em in 10g also) at the local pet store is they screen top slides on and off and is made to accept a small pad lock. Theres no little kids in the house or anything(if there was i wouldnt think about a hot scorp) but non the less id feel more compfortable with a locked enclosure cause ya just never know. Though a downside of the glass tanks ive thought about is if it fell it could shatter, were as a plastic enclosure probably wouldnt.
 

EAD063

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I don't mean to make you sound inexperienced, it's just S mesa and C vittatus are scorps that can be (although no scorp should be) taken lightly. I was around scorpions for a total of 4 year before I went for some more exciting (and more venomous)species to keep and I still can't consider myself a master at this, very far from it.. Mistakes are made with all species sometimes, and it's just better to learn progressivly than in large jumps no matter how big or small the lesson is. Some major differences in androctonus compared to say vittatus is that the andro is going to be quicker and much more willing (and able) to defend itself, just as say a gartner snake wouldn't waste it's time in a defensive posture to ward off an enemy as say a copperhead would. It's not just us that know they pack a punch, they know it too and they act accordingly. Also to consider that if a mistake did happen, a fat tail will would be far more probable to penetrate the first few layers of the skin and are able to inject much more venom than most other buthids. I don't want to discourage you at all but I do think there are some better and just as uncommon species that would be better in your situation.

hmm thanks for the suggestions...but the thing i like about the glass tanks(i think t hey make em in 10g also) at the local pet store is they screen top slides on and off and is made to accept a small pad lock. Theres no little kids in the house or anything(if there was i wouldnt think about a hot scorp) but non the less id feel more compfortable with a locked enclosure cause ya just never know. Though a downside of the glass tanks ive thought about is if it fell it could shatter, were as a plastic enclosure probably wouldnt.


Then go for something like this. ;)
http://junglehabitatsplastics.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=0
 

edesign

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for what reason would you need to use your hands instead of tongs??? tweezer tongs (forceps) combined with some BBQ tongs can do anything your hand can do as far as picking up and relocating things. There is no reason to put your hand in to a tank of a potentially fatal scorpion unless the scorpion is isolated under another cup or has been transferred out of the tank.

As for the leather gloves, not a good idea since as has been already mentioned they are easily climbable and if they're not thick enough the stinger could possibly penetrate anyway. Do yourself and everyone else in the hobby a favor and do NOT do ANY tank maintenance with your hands unless the hot scorp is safely isolated :)
 

JungleGuts

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No I totally know what your saying and understand where your coming from. Im gonna be going to expos alot this summer and will be working my way up with scorps more dangerous each time. We'll see what happens...thanks for the help everyone. Btw, if anyone has pics of their A. amoreuxi post em up!

btw, if i did have to pick something up i would def. isolate the scorp before i did it, like i was thinking for something heavier like a water bowl(which ive been told to offer once every few weeks for a short period of time) would be harder to pick up with tongs, but i never thought of using heavyduty ones like BBQ tongs..good idea.
 

Bayushi

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BTW, if you did have it, for you I think a 5 gal would be too small. From what I've seen you play around with your tanks a lot, adding furniture and cleaning them out a bunch. I belive you'd be pushing your luck trying to work in something that small, I don't know the gallons but 19L sterlites work great for every mid to large sized species, even most aboreals.
If a 4 litre milk jug is roughly the same size as 1 gal milk jug then a 19 litre container is over 5 gallons.... of course i could be totally wrong and most likely am.
 
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EAD063

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Without the time to check I'd say your probaly correct.. I previously estimated it at about 8 gallons, but since he is a tank guy, I'd just stick with all 10 gallons for anything, 8.99 and aren't hard to store.
 

Bigboy

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I'll advocate not using gloves as some other people have. They really limit dexterity unless you have lots of practice wearing them. The best advice I can give you is to get a good pair of tongs and treat all your current scorpions like they are the deadliest things on the planet. It'll teach you to be really handy with tongs. Even practice snatching up crickets with tongs. If you can grab a running cricket without damaging it then you'll be good enough to snatch an escapee scorpion without using your hands and not have to worry about damaging it. Once you don't have to ever worry about your hands going into the tank, you really don't have to worry about being stung.
At that point your only real worries will be making sure that you are keeping the ambient temperature right, providing a yearly temp drop, maintaining proper humidity (damn near none), and making sure your hot spots are appropriate and hides safe (no big heavy rocks that could squish your wards). Those should be your biggest worries, highly venomous or not.
 

atomiceric23

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My 2 cents

In order to safely keep any potentialy dangerous insect, arachnid, or reptile you need to keep one thing in mind and that is this, "HANDS OFF". This is what I was taught as a 13 year old and in 15 years of keeping these animals I havent had any problems. The "hands off" approach means that you never come in contact, that you use the proper equipment, and you take every saftey precaution, EVRY SINGLE TIME. It's when people get lax that they get bit or stung. It's funny because most of the people I talk to who have been bit and or stung are not young inexperienced keepers, they'er older guys who have gotten to comfortable and forget the most basic rules. I can't say what you should or should not keep but if you decide to get into "Hot" species you MUST keep this type of mentality or eventually you or someone in your house is going to get hurt.
 

edesign

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In order to safely keep any potentialy dangerous insect, arachnid, or reptile you need to keep one thing in mind and that is this, "HANDS OFF". This is what I was taught as a 13 year old and in 15 years of keeping these animals I havent had any problems. The "hands off" approach means that you never come in contact, that you use the proper equipment, and you take every saftey precaution, EVRY SINGLE TIME. It's when people get lax that they get bit or stung. It's funny because most of the people I talk to who have been bit and or stung are not young inexperienced keepers, they'er older guys who have gotten to comfortable and forget the most basic rules. I can't say what you should or should not keep but if you decide to get into "Hot" species you MUST keep this type of mentality or eventually you or someone in your house is going to get hurt.
excellent first post (and spot on too)! :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
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