New to Scorpions and new on here.

Hi I'm brand new to scorpions but have always wanted on. So i got one. I work at a reptile and salt water fish store and we just got in a lot of Emperors so i decided i would take one home. It turns out i grabbed a gravid female so i need advice on it all. She is in a tank by herself since i don't want more than one in a tank and she seems happy, if you can tell when they are. She is in soil and i haven't gotten any rocks for her yet or logs but i believe we have some here at our house since we own 3 snakes and they have left over things i can wash and give to her. She really is pretty and i have yet to think of a name. Also i will have to read up on what to do when she has her babies. I want to do everything right for her so any input would be awesome. I'm so excited that i got her and am ready to learn any thing and everything about them. I also was wondering how long you leave crickets in there with them until you take them out so they don't have a chance to harm her. Here are some pictures of my new little girl.

Well emps burrow so a hide is usually used as a starting point like a peice of drift wood or something.You need a shallow water dish. I use live plants and just last week my p.cav had me scared he was gunnah make a big burrow and collapse his hide on himself so I switched to a peice of light driftwood. I wouldn't use a rock. As for the babies I have no clue Mordax would know though.

she has a very small water dish in there for her with cricket drink in it for her since i heard that is good for them. We have light drift wood at our store so i will just get some of that for her.

In terms of caring for hte adult, what i have is 4-5 inches of coco fibre substrate to allow burrowing, a number of hides on both the warm and cool ends and a fairly large water dish and make sure she has fresh water regularly, they occasionalyl liek to bathe so thats why it should be fairly large. For temperatures keep her at about 28-31 degrees C but no hotter than 35 degrees C. For humidity keep it anywhere above 80% and you should be fine.

When it comes to feeding if you use adult crickets feed her 2-3 a week and if theyre not eaten within 24 hours take it out (remember to keep the crickets gutloaded and there is no need to dust them with suppliments like reptiles need) They can also sucsessfully tackle adult locusts maybe give her 1 a week 2 at the most.


And for when she pops (what we use to describe giving birth btw) she will keep the babies on her back for 2-3 weeks untill thety absord all of the yolk in their stomach and moult into 2nd instar (the name for periods between moults and is also used to describe an inverts age i.e 3rd instar) then the scorplings will climb of her back and go about exploring, at this point you can remove them into some tubs and keep them basically the same as adults but just on a smaller scale and because ive never actually heard of juvenile Emps cannibalising their siblings the babies can be kept together (but keep the humidity a bit higher at maybe 90%) The babies will take maybe about 3 years to reach maturisty and during this time should moult 5-7 times in that time (i cant remember the exact number)

Because the mother will stop eating a a while before giving birth youll have to feed her well to get her belly full again (maybe 1 adult cricket a night for a week then go back to your regular feeding pattern

Oh and remember ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ANNOY OR STRESS THE FEMALE while she has babies on her back, if she gets stressed out enough she will eat some or all of her babies.

Thats about it i think im sure if ive missed anything someone else will fill the gaps.

Here's a pic of my setup just to give you an idea:


I keep 3 adults (2 female 1 male) in this setup, its an old 30"X12"x12" aquarium.

and just to close, good luck with any babies and I must warn you..your scorp collection WILL grow so be prepared :P

Regards.

Craig.

Edit: Diabolicallycursed, i was afraid someone would beat me to the crunch

Oh and forgot to mention EmperorScorp86 dont forget to say hello in the "introduce yourselff" section.

I just did that . I gave her three inches and found a piece of light wood in our herp closet so i gave her that. She seems kind of grumpy but i would be too if i had to be handled. I hope she will like it.

She should settle down ok give her a while, oh and she might not eat for the first week or 2, mines took like 6 weeks to start eatin when i got them. And emperors are prone to fasting a lot, all of my emps havent eaten since last may.

Also i forgot to mention a little trick to help with humidity levels and it looks good too, is use sphagnum moss strewn about the tank however u like

ok ill try that. I just moved my two female rats into a different cage so after she has her kids she is going into a 20 long will that be enough for her? We also have a humidifier so we can keep our 3 snakes humidity up so i'm hoping that should help her too. Their humidity is suppose to be around the same as hers should so we shall see how that goes.

Also don't forget that you should never hold your scorpion as it stresses them out. Especially if she's gravid. Also rearanging their habitat can stress them so once you have her habitat to both your liking leave it that way.
Oh yeah check out the post about self sustaining habitats it talks about false bottoms and insects that will clean the tank for you it's pretty cool. It's somewhere in this forum.

The-Scorp-Whisperer wrote:

She should settle down ok give her a while, oh and she might not eat for the first week or 2, mines took like 6 weeks to start eatin when i got them. And emperors are prone to fasting a lot, all of my emps havent eaten since last may.

Also i forgot to mention a little trick to help with humidity levels and it looks good too, is use sphagnum moss strewn about the tank however u like

Live plants help with humidity also but are harder to keep in coco fiber.

Hmm, I must have barely missed this thread when I logged off this afternoon.

Whisperer, no scorpion is completely exempt from cannibalism. It's just less common in some species.

To the newcomer, my best advice would be to check this forum for a sticky called "Emperor F.A.Q." or something similar.

The best way to help humidity is to just dump water on the substrate.

I thought the exact thing connie it's not just you. It might be the way she has herself "scrunched" up though.

I thought it looked a bit mishapen aswell maybe shes just ate too much, all they crickets go straight to the hips you know

Oh and EmperorScorp86 what sort of lid is on this 20 inch tank, if its a mesh lib dont forget to put something on the top of the mesh i.e cardboard or a sheet of plastic or cling film to cut down the ventilation and keep humidity up

The-Scorp-Whisperer wrote:

I thought it looked a bit mishapen aswell maybe shes just ate too much, all they crickets go straight to the hips you know

A moment on the lips is a life time on the hips lol also don't completely cover the lid if thats the only ventilation she has about 3/4 will be alright.

Oh and EmperorScorp86 what sort of lid is on this 20 inch tank, if its a mesh lib dont forget to put something on the top of the mesh i.e cardboard or a sheet of plastic or cling film to cut down the ventilation and keep humidity up

Diabollicallycursed, i thoguht just copy n pasted what i said didnt notice the quote bit

You can't quote twice on one post I didn't know that.

I think connie was right its just the way her legs are sitting it's giving her an hourglass look.

She was all scrunched up so i guess that's why she looks that way. we are going to put a glass top on the 20 along with the screen probably. We want her as happy as she can be. Does she need a water bowl that is as long as she is so she fits all the way in it? Just so i get the right size. right now she has a small one thats not as long as she is.

It's not absolutely essential for her to have a bath but they like it so why not but as long as u have a water dish with water in it shell be fine