- Joined
- Jun 26, 2003
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- 1,620
Last week or so, i received a lovely package from a friend overseas. Much to my surprise he included many freebies, many of which were very very small, and only second instar or so. Usually I have no problems raising scorpions from this tender age to adulthood, but for some reason this particular batch seemed extraordinarily frail.
I started with about twenty 2i I. maculatus. Within the first 3 days FIVE had died. My young liocheles species were also dropping like flies. Something had to be done. Where I live is super prone to all forms of mold, any uneaten cricket parts will be covered in mold in less than 24 hours or so, it is ridiculous.
I was having problems locating prey items in my area small enough for these little dudes to eat, but at the same time my other option (prekilled larger prey) seemed to be causing outbreaks of deadly mold left and right. :wall:
Using techniques i borrowed from this site and others (such as telow on venomlist), I've been able to rectify my situation. Since moving to this new setup I've only lost one scorpling. I can't wait til they molt out of this vulnerable instar! Here's my cheap and effective solution.
For housing most of my more terrestrial scorplings i headed off to a craft store and for $1.77 picked up two of these:
Drill amble holes and add dampened squished cotton balls:
House tons of dudes (such as this CC) in this new mold free intensive care unit:
Now for the I. macs: same principle, except communal, and with bark for molting. I crafted a food dish for them to eat out of and change the cotton after a prey item has been in there for a day or so. These go into my scorpion "incubator" along with my sickly OSN.
Hope this helps someone out! -ryan
edit: theres about a dozen i maculatus in the cage for those wondering
I started with about twenty 2i I. maculatus. Within the first 3 days FIVE had died. My young liocheles species were also dropping like flies. Something had to be done. Where I live is super prone to all forms of mold, any uneaten cricket parts will be covered in mold in less than 24 hours or so, it is ridiculous.
I was having problems locating prey items in my area small enough for these little dudes to eat, but at the same time my other option (prekilled larger prey) seemed to be causing outbreaks of deadly mold left and right. :wall:
Using techniques i borrowed from this site and others (such as telow on venomlist), I've been able to rectify my situation. Since moving to this new setup I've only lost one scorpling. I can't wait til they molt out of this vulnerable instar! Here's my cheap and effective solution.
For housing most of my more terrestrial scorplings i headed off to a craft store and for $1.77 picked up two of these:
Drill amble holes and add dampened squished cotton balls:
House tons of dudes (such as this CC) in this new mold free intensive care unit:
Now for the I. macs: same principle, except communal, and with bark for molting. I crafted a food dish for them to eat out of and change the cotton after a prey item has been in there for a day or so. These go into my scorpion "incubator" along with my sickly OSN.
Hope this helps someone out! -ryan
edit: theres about a dozen i maculatus in the cage for those wondering