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 Bioactive scorpion keeping

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Dave Dunn
Hadogenes
Dave Dunn


Number of posts : 72
Age : 54
Location : Mount Barker South Australia
Registration date : 2016-01-29

Bioactive scorpion keeping Empty
PostSubject: Bioactive scorpion keeping   Bioactive scorpion keeping Empty1/30/2016, 5:49 am

Keeping reptiles and herps (mostly) in bioactive set-ups is becoming very popular,has anyone tried this with scorpions? (a bioactive set-up is where various organisms interact with each other in an enclosure,creating an almost self contained mini ecological system)
Usually these utilise a false bottom system of some sort. Various inverts are added,springtails and isopods are common addition.
Has anyone experimented with keeping other inverts with scorpions? Either to have them breed and be eaten by scorpions,or as 'custodians',eating leftovers and other organic material that may otherwise grow fungus,mould or rot if left.
The danger of course is that they may feed on moulting scorpions or disturb females giving birth.
Originally I added scorpions to my wood cockroach set-ups,these enclosures were already set up in a manner such as you might set up for rainforest or mesic scorpion species,a gravel false bottom and 100% coir peat,with plenty of wood,bark and leaf litter. However,since doing this I've been told by a couple of people that wood roaches may eat a moulting scorpion,although no examples were offered. Three Cercophonius squama were added to one enclosure,three Liocheles waigiensis (Hormurus waigiensis?) to another. I haven't checked on the waigiensis as yet,I will soon when I receive the UV flashlights I've ordered,there's just too much decor to search by eye alone. A couple of months after the Cercophonius squama were added I did look in that enclosure and found two quite easily lifting wood,they were healthy and fat,the third may have been buried in the substrate,or perhaps eaten by the other scorps or roaches,I haven't ruled out it still being in there though,I plan a thorough search using the UV light soon.
Currently I am trying Slaters/pillbugs in the scorpion tanks,I figured the soft babies may be eaten by scorpions,and they will eat left over cricket bits and any fungus present. I chose Porcellio scaber over Armadillidium vulgare as they are less omnivorous than A. vulgare,largely preferring decaying vegetation and fungus as their diet. I can report that adding one large P. scaber to a small tank all but eliminated the white fungus/mould growing on the wood in that tank. I added them to three communal tanks,containing colonies of Isometrus melanodactylus,Lychas marmoreus and Lychas 'spinatus'. Of course it's hard to tell if any scorpions are missing,you wouldn't expect them to all be visible at the one time,but they seem to be co-inhabiting quite well.
Has anyone tried similar 'natural' type situations where these or other inverts are kept with scorpions?
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Dave Dunn
Hadogenes
Dave Dunn


Number of posts : 72
Age : 54
Location : Mount Barker South Australia
Registration date : 2016-01-29

Bioactive scorpion keeping Empty
PostSubject: Re: Bioactive scorpion keeping   Bioactive scorpion keeping Empty2/5/2016, 11:50 pm

Update : I received a couple of UV torches in the post yesterday and checked the tanks. All three baby( bought as second instar) Liocheles waigiensis (Hormurus waigiensis?) are alive and doing well in with my Wood Cockroach colony,even though the tank had become crowded with roaches. One has successfully gone through a moult and I suspect another is in moult now as I can see where it's buried about 3 inches below the surface of the substrate,and from what i can see through the peat it is much larger than the other un-moulted one I spotted. I hadn't seen them since adding them to the tank in July or August last year and assumed that others were right and the roaches would eat them,obviously not the case,although still possible,they survived in an overcrowded roach tank with the ravenous adult roaches,surviving on baby roaches. The only thing I have added to the tank in six months is water and vegetables and leaves for the roaches.
So far I'm counting this as a successful result,but early days yet!
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