My First Setup

Hello, My names Tyler and im completely new to keeping an Emporer. We bought our little buddy (Spike) and when we asked about their living conditions these suplies were sold to us with him as "the proper equipment".
-Bark chips for substrate
-Light fixture with day and night bulbs
-a hide that we picked out
-A live desert plant
-and some crickets
For some reason I have a fealing that the stuff the pet store gave me (Pictured below) is inadequate.


Its been 4 days now and we havent seen spike come out dureing the day or night cycles, so im starting to think he's not happy

Oh and here are the two lights that came with him, maybe the wrong kind?
Day: Exo-Terra Sun Glo Neodymium Basking Lamp 50w
Night: Exo-Terra Night Glo Neodymium Moonlight 50w


I also Have these three lights:
Flourescent Black Light 12w
Flourescent Red Light 13w
And Exo-terra Heat Lamp 75w
Perhaps they could be used ?


Anything I can get/change to make my little buddy as happy as possible? I love him so much ^^

I'm going to be short, but you did the right thing asking...
1. Substrate = coco fibre
2. Heat mat on the back side of the tank, some people use bulbs.
3. Have more than one hide.
4. Try not to disturb too frequently.
5. Feed 2 or three crickets a week or equivalent and depending on size of scorp
6. Have fresh water readily available.

Hope this helps.

1. Will switch ASAP
2. I asked about the heat mat at the pet store when I was buying spike, He told me he wouldnt sell me the heat mat unles I got the 150$thermostat thing cuz the heat mat would "burn" him without it.
3.Will buy 2 more ASAP (one for middle and another further from light to allow hides with heat gradients)
4.the hide I have is larger then you can see in pic and is pretty burried. I havent moved the rock at all since he went in on day one.
5.I put 2 crickets in the day after I put him in, and left them overnight. in the morning when I saw no scorp and the crickets were still running around, I took them out beacuase i was worried that the crickets would bite him. Last night the same thing happend, Uneaten crickets and no scorp.
6. Fresh water is replaced in the Green 2mm deep dish every morning.

Don't need the lights at all.

Ditch the plant; these guys live in jungles, not deserts.

The petstore guy is flat-out lying to you -- with a head pad attached to the glass (side, not bottom), you don't need a thermostat.

A scorp that stays in its burrow is a happy scorp.

Emps fast all the time, so don't panic if he doesn't eat. Some will want to "settle in" before eating, anyway.

Thanks Mr.Mordax, Im going to put an add on kijiji for a heat mat seeing as the petstore guy refused to sell it to me without the thermostat, Ill switch it over ASAP. Removed the plant. ill keep trying my overnight feeding every few days. It urks me the lack of knowledge pet store workers seem to have...

Thanks for your guys's help thus far ^^

Another thing you might want to do is go to the pet shop and give them a good kickin' from us, cause if theres one thing that annoys scorp keepers is people trying to sell as much pointless stuff as they can to people starting out in the hobby!

If theyre selling all that stuff to people as "Ideal Emperor Setups" then they shouldnt sell scorps in the first place!

Im not impressed ither... My wallets lighter and my tanks wrong... evil people.

if the dude at the pet shop resists selling you something, report him.

once you switch to coco fibre your scorpion will probably construct a burrow and just chill out.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Don't need the lights at all.

So, is a 24 hour dark cycle bad? or do they require some form of ambient light to distinguish day and night?

Quote :

if the dude at the pet shop resists selling you something, report him.

I think I might ^^

chronicknight wrote:

It urks me the lack of knowledge pet store workers seem to have...

I used to work in an exotics shop and they were clueless about their scorps till i came, i spent my first week gettin all the scorp steups done properly as well as most of their other inverts, like millipedes and Phasmids and when they sacked me i went back to get some stuff a few weeks later (no choice only shop in edinburgh) all the tanks were a total shambles, forest scorps on dry coco fibre and 2 2nd H. Swammerdami given about 6 crickets as big as them each running about their tank. I was NOT ammused likes, i had to tell the guy i was workin with (the guy that was at the bottom of the pile with me so to speak) to get it sorted out, luckily he listens and they seemed in pretty good shape hte next time i was in.

chronicknight wrote:

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Don't need the lights at all.

So, is a 24 hour dark cycle bad? or do they require some form of ambient light to distinguish day and night?

As long as the room your setup is in has a window theyll be fine

they don't really need to be able to distinguish day from night (I think they have other methods of doing it other than the amount of ambient light) but it would be better.

Thanks guys for your help ^^ Im sure he will be much happier once the changes are made.

the problem is once youve finished setting the tank up (which to me is one of the best bits about the hobby) youll wonder what to do then and in a couple weeks youll buy another scorp, then another and so on

Lol, Speaking of that we were allready planning another addition once spike gets settled.
The pet shop had some bark scorpions too, maybe after I get the emps down I can move on
to harder species.

better be carefull with bark scorps you need a DWA liscence to own them...annoyingly ¬_¬

Probably not where he lives^

although i can read the name of where he lives im buggered if i can find it on a map lol

He's from Canada, so he doesn't need a DWA license.

If the pet store is as bad as it sounds, don't buy bark scorps there. You can find a lot of dealers carrying them online.

As far as the day / night cycle goes, this species spends the majority of its time in a burrow, so it never even sees daylight.

so as for heating my tank with lights (untill I can buy a heat mat) I need to figure out witch of the lights I have will stress out spike less. right now the most important is the night light(the day light works good, keeping the top of the substrate warm and if i put my finger into the chips its cool), my house gets pretty cold at night. I want my scorp to be active at night, but the tank has to be heated by a bulb witch I have a fealing is whats keeping him underground. so the question is... wicth bulb will mess with his night cycle as little as possible. I read that emps cant see red light... is this only Infrared? will my exo-terra red heat lamp work? I have the ex-terra moon glo bulb for night time now, maybe i should switch?

oh, and last night... no sho with spike... 5 days now and only saw him at the pet store and his rear end as he ran into the burrow. I know he's alive cuz i have a tiny red LED light that i can kinda shine down his hole and see his tail.. always in a different position.

Scorps can't see red wavelengths, so if you get a red bulb he won't notice it.

And as I said before, you don't need to worry if he spends all his time in his burrow. Emps spend almost their whole lives down in burrows, and in the hobby they're referred to as "pet holes."

thanks again mr.mordax. once we get spike settled in, my family and I have decided to try a community tank, perhaps 2-3 more emps. maybe then we will be able to see more activity.

Welcome to the addiction!!
If you get a community set up add more hides then there are emps and make sure its a new setup when you introduce them all. And im not 100% but its just nature to keep it to 1 male. Or just all female. But im sure after a while if not already your gonna wanna try out some scorplings =)

Made spikes tank better!!!
first I pushed the bark chips to the right half of the tank, and filled the other half with peat/soil mix about 5-6 inches deep then sprayed it down till it was all moist. I took some pothos cuttings that I had rooting in some cups and planted them around the tank. I covered about 3/4 the top of the tank with plastic food wrap then moved the light to the middle and misted tank again. After I put spike back in it took him almost 3 hours to find the hide hole (kept going around or over it) but eventually he went in and he seems much more happy, He now comes half out of his hole with his claws up waiting for me to give him a cricket with the tongs. At first he would take the crickets and run back deep into his hide, but now he will sit there and let us watch him eat the whole thing, sometimes sticking his claws out for another cricket to hold onto while he allready has one in his mouth. Watching him melt the crickets whole and swallow them up is awsome. DEFFINATLY THE COOLEST PET IVE EVER OWNED!
Any more advice on any way I can imrove his tank is greatly welcomed and thanks again for the awsome help SF has provided. I only hope to one day be as knowledgable about this hobby as you guys. ^_^

Heres some pics of his tank now:




Big upgrade from other pics eh?