Whats the best scorpion??

[mimic58]

vipers(wild caught adders), oldworld T's Weavers my greatest claim to fame was helping a vetinarian friend move a few recluse spiders you may take the mick but for that we dawned bee farmers suits for the duration im used to what i call a striking range or dangerzone my policy is simply NEVER enter this zone without apropriat protection always keep double this distance away intrusions should only be made by your tools ie tongs that are the appropriate lengh anyone care to estimte a scorpions range? id guess its below 12" an work at 24"

did i just get my self tagged? :?

 

[carpe scorpio]

Im thinking about getting my first But I must stress I do not want a sissy cowardly one with naive defence Quick,Agressive and Preferably dangerouse! African Fattailed Scorpion (Androctonus australis)
Black Thick-Tailed Spitting Scorpion (Parabuthus transvaalicus)
Israeli Deathstalker (Leurius quinquestriatus)
Are there better choices???

Heterometrus(beginner scorp)..................................................

 

[errit]

I would say that a parabuthus Trans is oke to begin with. Because as said before in my opinion it won't kill you, Androctonus and leiurus are a different story.

 

[TresScorps]

I have about 9 different speices of scorpions , Some of them pretty dangerous , The Hadrurus Az's use to be my favorite , But my EMPs have grown on me alot and are now my favorite scorpion .. Most of my more dangerous scorps are alot less active then my emps & hairys .. I would say everyone should start out with an emperor or hadrurus .. You wont regret it ..

 

[mimic58]

i would prefer one that doesnt harbour garanteed death inits tail but im willing to take on something medicaly significant to get an active scorp il see out alot..
>
what i REALLY dont want is one that sits and hides constantly

 

[danread]

Hi Mimic,

defiitely check out H. arizonensis, they are great scorpions. Mine always uses its stinger to take down prey, they are fairly aggressive and mine is always out and about at night. It is one of the most active inverts that i own. If you give them the correct substrate, they will dig a huge amount too. They are available on most of the UK dealers price lists at the moment, for around £30, although you may be able to get it cheaper.

 

[G. Carnell]

yeh i know a guy selling them for circa £20

and this is the supposed pallidus type..

 

[skinheaddave]

anyone care to estimte a scorpions range? id guess its below 12" an work at 24"

did i just get my self tagged? :?

There is a bit more to it than that. Vertically you are pretty safe, but you have to be aware that many scorpions can move incredibly fast horizontally. Also, some species of Parabuthus can spray their venom -- so you now need goggles or a face mask. All in all, scorpions are easy to work with, but you do need to understand them. Mistakes come when you don't know where they are, let your hand drop too low, hold a cup with your hands when cupping and so on and so forth. Your experience will help, but I'd still recommend working with a less dangerous species first to get the hang of it. Think of it like driving a car after driving a truck. Theoretically you've done the harder task and know what you need to know. In practice, you might still want to ease into it until you have developed the specific set of skills necessary for the task at hand. H.arazonensis is a great start, since it is an active and sometimes agressive species but if you do get tagged it won't even throw you off your day.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[guesskatiejules]

i would prefer one that doesnt harbour garanteed death inits tail but im willing to take on something medicaly significant to get an active scorp il see out alot..
>
what i REALLY dont want is one that sits and hides constantly

My emperor is quite active (mostly in the early morning, for some reason), and he definitely doesn't harbor guaranteed death in his tail. He's not very aggressive, which is something you want, but he's definitely fun to watch.

I have a friend who has a p. transvaalicus, and she is facinating! She's very active, a bit aggressive, and uses her stinger on her prey, whereas my emperor uses his claws more often. As long as you wear goggles when handling them, as they can sray venom, they can be a wonderful specimen to keep.

Good luck!

 

[MACZ]

yeh i know a guy selling them for circa £20

and this is the supposed pallidus type..

Give me his details George

 

[mimic58]

Ok you win

I have order a Desert Hairy for now ,if this thing sits and hides all day i wont be happy with you lot lol

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I think it's time for me to strap on my armor and step into battle... in order to defend my "little" Pimp!

She's quite active too, a few days ago she was even digging for half an hour, she has a heat mat at the back of the tank and her hide is in the front. I turn off the heat mat during the night so she moves between those two positions every day, staying near the heat during the day. It is quite shady in her tank so she doesn't feel to uncomfortable to be in the open. I can basically see her every day if I want to.

I realize it's a bit late because you've already ordered your scorp, but I just had to say this

 

[mimic58]

I hear for scorpions its best to break with the recomended undertank heatpad and put it on the side of the tank is this right??

 

[G. Carnell]

yep

they dig, so you want alot of depth of sand, so put the heatmat on the sides of the tank to let the heat get through

otherwise your just heating sand..

 

[mimic58]

do they require any sort of over head lighting (uv, fluro , infra etc) just the place im using to order is abit hrm well they just sell the things dont seem to know much about them

They had some fat tails in but not any spitting PT's I have applied for my DWA licence i think its worth the fee but hey im not fused its only so i can buy legaly lol

 

[fusion121]

No, scorpions don't need any form of lighting, although ambient daylight does let them regulate their activity patterns.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

You can have two other problems too when using the heat mat under the tank - If the scorp finds it too warm in the tank it may dig deeper to get away from the heat. That's instinctual so it might not understand that it is actually going to a warmer region by going down.

Another thing is that many of the usual substrates insulate quite well and if you are using a glass tank, under tank heat and thick substrate you can if you are unliky burst your tank into several pieces because the heat only builds up more and more creating a lot of stress in the glass, thus breaking it eventually.

 

[edesign]

yes, scorpions will not do well with undertank heaters as someone mentioned they will try to dig down to escape the heat as an instinctual reaction. they think heat = sun = comes from above...they cannot figure out that the heat is coming from below them so they dig and dig and eventually burn up. Put it on the side of the tank if you need one. I don't have one on my hairy's tank, i keep my apartment between 70 and 84F (21-29C) and occasionally i put a 40W red bulb close to the side of it's tank. When I do that and it's not underground burrowing it will go sit as close the wall of the tank as it can to soak up the heat...gets in to some funny looking positions lol.

Right now it's been underground for at least a week...backfilling it's tunnel system as it digs more and more. If it's current burrow was completely open it would measure ohhh....over 30" (90cm) long. Not sure when it will decide to emerge topside but i figure since it's winter time in it's natural habitat it's not gonna be for a little while. No biggie as I can see it in the tunnels through the side of the glass...active above and below ground

be sure to do plenty of research on how to setup the tank for this species...people use different kinds of setups, often mixing slight amounts of bentonite clay or celluclay to help the sand stick together after it dries, helps to hold a burrow. however, i was unable to find any bentonite or celluclay so i picked up some peat moss and some play sand (non-toxic sand at a local hardware store for sandboxes). Using my kitchen bowls i mixed the sand with water (just enough to dampen it) and mixed in a little bit of peat moss to help it adhere together once dried. Pour it in to the tank in layers, taking time to pack each layer as much as you can...do this as early as possible because it's going to take a while for the sand to dry up completely.

My sand was dry on the top 3" (7cm)when I put my hairy in and it has been just fine (7cm deep on the shallow side and about 20cm deep on the deep side...i made it at an angle on purpose, creates more land area topside). It will burrow to a level of humidity that it is comfortable with. So far it has held burrows just fine for weeks, the dealer who I purchased it from just uses wet sand to keep his in and apparently has had no problems with that route either. And judging from mine, i think next time I'm just going to use straight sand without mixing any peat moss in as well.

 

[mimic58]

Thanks again Edesign im gunner start setting it up over the next few days my scorp wont be in till next week so i got a litle while to get it all ready