scorpion tank plants and lighting .....question...

I had plants in my scorpion tank last winter

and they seemed to do okay with a infared light but it burned the plant a little

now that its summer I don't have the infared lights, and I took the plants out when I put the scorps in a new tank

but this weekend I was gona buy 2 or 3 plants for the tank

will a regular 60 watt light bulb work for the plants ? if I keep the light on for 2 or 3 hours a day

its in a ten gallon tank

or if I buy a plant light , will the plant light hurt the scorpions ??

thanks ......

and no I don't have enough natural light coming in my windows

I have shades over all my windows cuase the sun was baking my apartment im on the 3rd floor

its dark in my apartment 24/7

What plants do you use? I use pothos and philodendrons and they don't need much light. I plnted them in straight eco earth and no bad effects. They are still growing. I did however have light coming in from the windows, but I hear that pothos can grow in dark rooms. Both are vines just so you know.

I wouldn't do a plant light. Your 60w bulb may work if you only have it on a few hours per day. You may also look into getting some low light plants and doing those. I have some pothos, philodendron, barrel cactus and a couple others in my C. vit, Emperor and M. giganteus setups and no light at all other than the ambient light when we have the main overheads for the room on. They are doing great.

sanseverias do well with low light and dry substrates

ShredderEmp wrote:

What plants do you use? I use pothos and philodendrons and they don't need much light. I plnted them in straight eco earth and no bad effects. They are still growing. I did however have light coming in from the windows, but I hear that pothos can grow in dark rooms. Both are vines just so you know.

+1.

Pothos are an extremely low light plant and are definitely the way to go.

im not sure what they are called

ill take a picture when it get them, they are the same plants I had before

as long as petco still has ones that are healthy last time I was in petco the other day I seen two that were alive

most of petcos plants are half dead lol

Oh... I stay away from Petco on stuff like that. They're ok with animals (better, at least, than they were) but plants... Like you said yourself... They're half dead. Try Lowes or Home Depot. Good, healthy plants at decent prices.

I don't know how to get to home depo or lowes

im going to petco in an hour or 2

they better still have the plants I want ! lol

here is the plants and after I put them in pictures .....

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there is three emps in this tank, 2 mature males, and 1 immature female

Looks nice. If you ever keep babies, I wouldn't be surprised if you had some hide in the middle of the plants. Did you take them out of the things they were in the first picture?

yeah I took the plants out of the foam thing

and I don't have baby emps

I have baby bark scorpions

but the female emp that I said is immature , might be mature

im not sure... her stinger is like orange, not red like the males

and shes fat, if it was premolt I think she would have molted by now...

shes been fat for months now,

I don't think shes mature tho cuase shes smaller then the males , that's why

shes the one that's in my first hand in the picture under my name

Well if you do get babies, its gonna be a pain to get them out.

yeah my bark scorpions were difficult to get out

they hide inside the cork bark cracks

I managed to get 21 in on deli container and 15 in another deli container

but the rest are hiding in the cork bark

and I have another female in there with babies on her back

and 2 more gravid females

Looks good.

The telson on females gets dark like the males, also, if I'm not mistaken. Sometimes molts can take a while in certain species. I have a male LQ that's been premolt for over 2 months now and I've read a few places that say that that is normal sometimes for the species.

oh so you did get/use sanseveria plants but the smaller variety .. just make sure they don't get too wet or their base will rot.

TheKevil wrote:

Sometimes molts can take a while in certain species. I have a male LQ that's been premolt for over 2 months now and I've read a few places that say that that is normal sometimes for the species.

Humbug mate.. those long winded final moults to adulthood are more often than not, environment specific and not specie specific (or at least not for Leirus) although some species do have a longer development time than others. Buthidae develop generally quicker than Scorpionidae or Chaerilidae for example.
It's as if there are specific micro environmental parameters required for each sucessful moult within a given specie. Initially these parameters are either wide based or consist of very few critical components but as the scorp proceeds through moults the micro range of environmental parameters squeezes in to a much smaller defined window of acceptable conditions.....and if those conditions are not met then scorps can and do hold back moulting.
Another reason a scorp doesn't moult within an accepted period for that specie will be individual specific, as in there's something different about the biology of that individual scorpion....we've all experienced baby scorps that given same conditions and same prey items proceed to moult over a period with the time between the first to moult and the last to moult increasing as the babies develop through moults. By the time they reach sub adult there can be months between the first and last reaching adulthood.
The last reason is of course interruption...sometimes the environmental conditions can fluctuate at a critical moment causing the scorp to get stuck in an "in between stage" where visually nothing has changed yet biologically change was implemented but stalled because of the interruption. A physical inturruption at the same critical point can also cause the same condition. This type of problem seems to be more pronounced the more developed the scorp is and it's not unknown for a scorp to be in this condition for many months before simply dying.

Back on topic to the OP. You do realise those plants will just give your prey items a place to hide where your scorps won't be able to get them..

yeah my emps haven't been eating lately....


and the one female that I think is in premolt cuase ,, well,,

its been fat for about 5 months, and I still see her eating a cricket once in awhile...

so im not sure whats up with her