Info needed on Ophistothalmus walberghi (tri color scorp.)

I was taking a look at one of these at the petstore and I almost fell in love. I've already found caresheets on them and know they dig but if there is any extra info anyone has on them it would be great to know. Just any kind of info, just need to know a little on them.

They can be agressive, the ones i had was not communal.. they injoyed hiding under bark and digging under bark.. they liked a water dish... orther then that its a cool scorpion

yeah defo not communal.

i had mine on a sand and peat mix with a couple of hides. they did burrow but not a great deal, it just dug out an area under the cork bark and was perfectly happy.

you can handle them if you have a good one but watch out for pinching, never got tagged but my fingers copped for the nips!!!!

very beautiful and sizable scorp... nice choice

Thanks!

How deep of substrate do they need?

I'd say about 5 inches give or take a few.

They are definitely burrowers. IIRC, Russ Gurley at the first Acon showed us a picture of an Opistophthalmus sp with an 8" deep burroow. I would give them plenty of burrowing room

Just make sure they are defo O. Walberghi! This scorpion is a commonly mis-identified one from my experience. I once bought 3 juvi's, 2 were O.Walberghi and the other turned out to be a parabuthus Pallidus.... not one you want to get tagged by!!!!

So make sure you can correctly ID them as being O Walberghi!

how did you get them mixed up????
they are the same general coulor but the claws! theres such a difference!

i didn't get them mixed up the supplier to the shop did... I spotted the difference immediately but the shop owner didn't. I was pretty certain it was a buthidae sp. but weren't sure which one until i got it officially ID'd last week from the pictures i had. (it died about 3 year ago of old age)

I still took it home though (slapped wrists i know!!!) but if anyone else had bought that scorpion and got tagged they might have been very poorly.

Thats why I always check before i buy a scorp i've never had before to make sure it is correctly ID'd. Its surprising how many exotic pet shops know loads about lizards, snakes and even tarantula's but haven't got a clue about scorpions.

would 3inches of sub. be enough? It's sorta pricy for peat moss. Even at home depot.

yeah 3-4" should be fine, a piece of cork bark over the top of the burrow will extend the entrance a bit so it should be quite happy

wait um whats cork bark?


UGH IM SUCH A NEWB FOR ASKING!!!

cork bark... the same stuff that wine corks are made from!!!

only you can buy the bark as a whole round piece or just as small lumps... google it, or look on ebay there's usually loads on there so you can see what it is.

could i buy it at the petstore?

hell yeah anywhere that sells reptiles or arachnids will sell this stuff.... they're rubbish if they dont!

Okay thanks! I'll be getting the tri some time this week. probably...Friday unless I have time to go get it.

lol bet ya cant wait !!!

I cant, lol I might get it earlier than friday though.

For the cork bark would it be a flat piece I would need?

you could get a squared off piece but personally i'd get a slightly rounded piece so that when you introduce your scorps to their enclosure they have somewhere they can go straight under until they get their bearings and can start burrowing. you may find that they like it under the cork bark and dont burrow, the piece i had was quite long, about 9-10" so it was long enough to act like burrow.

When my dad went to the petstore he said the guy told him that cork bark is what u put in water so it makes substrate?

put in water to make substrate? hmm.... cork bark floats. he must be talking about fish tanks.

I'm confused...is it a piece of bark you just put in the tank? cause couldnt u just put a piece of bark u found outside there or somthin?

The stuff that you "add water to to make substrate" isn't cork bark, it's coconut fiber. I actually don't see cork bark at a lot of the larger pet stores. I sometimes see it at smaller stores and I ALWAYS see it at shows.

Yeah! Thats what I was telling my dad but he was saying, "well the guy at the pet store said thats it."

So I should find a cork bark piece thats a cut in half circle so its like half of one? Heres a pic. if u dont know what im talking about...

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752734


Heres something I was looking at its a coco fiber block. Would this work better then peat moss?

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3092177


And would a tri color use this for cover/its burrow?

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3039693

SORRY FOR ALL THE URLS