Unfortunately, we got my fiance a kitten a while back. This kitten grew up and became a bit malicious. It showed interest in my scorpion tanks, all of which are latched. Except the emperor tank... it had an opening with a hinge to get water on the substrate. My fiance thought she would show the kitty because it showed so much interest. My fiance isn't too well educated on scorpions so I can't blame her. Somehow the cat got in and managed to capture the scorpion, get it outside of the habitat and kill it.
I woke up one morning to check my stocks and get my morning brew. Went to check on zergy and the entire top portion of the habitat was not only moved over... but his hide was flipped upside down and no signs of zergy.
My first reaction was "Don't move, for fear of stepping on him, look around carefully... places he might want to hide."
I said "Amanda... we have a problem."
literally 30 seconds later i hear an "AHH it's up here OH MY GOD!" (she didn't mind scorpions when they're in the tank, near her feet are another thing...) and apparently zergy was dead, she didn't know that though... and nearby the bed where the cat put it.
Needless to say I was NOT a happy camper.
I educated my fiance on the scorpion habitats and "Curious cats" and we found a place to put the habitat with a new setup, latched, hinged, and in a tight enough spot that there is no humanly (errr catly way...) possible for it to get into it.
I started my search for another emperor. I had zergy for a long time (I want to say close to 2 years now) and have only experienced a few scorpion deaths out of ALL of the scorpions i have kept over the years since I got interested in this. (I also have IHeartMantids and other community members to thank for all of the wonderful education) but zergy was a cool scorpion and i'll miss him.
RIP Zergy. (picture of him in the after-arthropod-life)
I started my search for another emperor. I didn't just "want another emperor" but one that had a little bit of personality to him and one that stuck out. I went from store to store. Put my number in at some places that were getting them in normally. Eventually a petco called me "We've got 3." i came down and checked them out and watched for a few. They lifted up the hide and showed me. There was 2 smaller ones, and a bigger one running around. Every time one of the others got near him he'd push them around and get back in the spot he wanted to go to. He was HUGE. I said "Mind if i look at him?" and the guy scooped him up and put him down on the top of the terrarium. The others were pretty mellow and this one turned on him and gave him a little warning. I said "I can tell that one has a bit of personality from the others, i like it. I'll take that one."
I didn't want to leave him in the cold, so I brought him to work with me. My co-workers knew I kept scorpions, but pretty much none of them had seen a scorpion in person at least not one as big as him... So it was cool to show people a bit about the hobby and educate people. I got a lot of "Will it kill me?" followed by simple education and how docile the emperor is compared to others, etc.... and "You want to hold it?" (knowing no one would say yes, lol, i don't handle my emps anymore anyway) with a prompt "EW NO OMG you can hold them?"
I hadn't seen any crickets, fed him a few crickets and he would stuff the WHOLE DARN THING down! I was used to zergy picking at them face first and enjoying them slowly like a snack. This one flat out was pretty much *NOM* all gone. I had never seen an emperor do that.
So because zergy was so popularly named after "zerg" from starcraft (seemed to fit him) i named this one "Torrasque" which is the name of a very large zerg. Fit him well because he dwarfs zergy in size. Much larger... Here's some pictures of my new addition to the family.
I have a feeling when he gets bigger I'm going to have to do something about the tank, or get a bigger one, good lord he can ALMOST touch the top....
Nom nom crunch crunch
I can't understand you with your mouth full..... At least chew first?
If you're lucky it's a girl who came over gravid.
