Zoo Med excavator clay.Anyone else Use?

I set-up a habitat for my Cavimanus using this stuff and was just wondering if anyone else here has tinkered with it.

I have about 6 inches of it set-up as the base in my tank and set a paper towel roll in it so that the clay would dry around it and form a nice burrow.After a week's worth of drying my scorp took to the burrow right away and changed it some to it's liking.I'm surprised he was able to move so much of it as it's rock hard! I have about another inch of coco fiber over the clay that I mist every so often to keep things moist. My obviouse fear is that it collapses on my scorp but I wanted to try it.So far so good!

you dont necessarily need that clay for a Cavimanus....Its more for desert kinds and ones that like it hot.

Hey there,

I wouldn't use that for your P. cavimanus. They are said to not need as much humidity as an emperor scorpion, but they nonetheless need a tropical setup.
You should invest in more coco-fiber to give your scorpion the humidity it needs.
There is no need for the excavator clay for it to dig burrows because it can easily do it in coco-fiber which also holds burrows well.

However, excavator clay would go great with a desert species.

H. laoticus wrote:

Hey there,

I wouldn't use that for your P. cavimanus. They are said to not need as much humidity as an emperor scorpion, but they nonetheless need a tropical setup.
You should invest in more coco-fiber to give your scorpion the humidity it needs.
There is no need for the excavator clay for it to dig burrows because it can easily do it in coco-fiber which also holds burrows well.

However, excavator clay would go great with a desert species.

+1

As loose a substrate as the coco fiber is I couldn't see it holding the form of a concealed burrow,as it'd have to bet wet first during construct then allowed to dry in order to harden and maintain shape.Unless I prefabricated a burrow using something to keep it's form.I don't think my scorp minds the cave he's made at all. The humidity in the enclosure is still 75%+ so don't let the clay fool you.Like I said, the coco fiber is set over the clay and kept very moist at all times. Just thought it'd come more natural to a burrowing species.

Can you take a picture of your setup?
I recommend the coco-fiber because it is about as close as you'll get to providing them with a substrate like their natural habitat.
It's something they can easily burrow in and something they can collapse on themselves (which they do). The fiber may also reduce risk of impactions.
The coco-fiber in the case of emps is meant to be damp and packed down so that it can maintain humidity and hold burrows. Humidity is kept by dumping water onto the substrate and making sure all of it is damp, but not wet.
As you can see from this link they can hold burrows very well: https://media.photobucket.com/image/emperor%20scorpion%20burrow/T9FURY/Scorpion/scorpion11burrow.jpg

I don't have the means to post a quality photo sorry.

I'll see how this stuff holds for now. Like I said,I just wanted to experiment with it. I may not waste the money or effort on my next acquisition-probably an emp.

Thanks for the pic. I took burrowing a little bit too literally I think! The scorp in your picture looks perfectly content. When I read that the species was a burrowing kind, I pictured a cavernous space underground that is set and this is what influenced my decision to try the excavating clay.

Nismo400rgtr wrote:

As loose a substrate as the coco fiber is I couldn't see it holding the form of a concealed burrow,as it'd have to bet wet first during construct then allowed to dry in order to harden and maintain shape.Unless I prefabricated a burrow using something to keep it's form.I don't think my scorp minds the cave he's made at all. The humidity in the enclosure is still 75%+ so don't let the clay fool you.Like I said, the coco fiber is set over the clay and kept very moist at all times. Just thought it'd come more natural to a burrowing species.

lol trust me dude...
with coco fiber, any burrowing scorp can make SEVERAL tunnels all over the place...
ive seen my 5i do it..
and theres another member on here that has said his made all kinds of tunnels everywhere

Excavator clay is usually used for in setups for dry habitat species that burrow... i.e. Hadurus arizonensis... this is supposedly ideal for them... mix with fine sand+gravel substrate.

For tropical scorpions... keeping the coco-fibre substrate sufficiently moist will allow for burrow integrity...

The humidity stays up like I mentioned. Do you think it's worth un-doing? ie. Am I making my scorpion unhappy with such a substrate? If so,I can easliy remove all the clay and substitute with straight coco-fiber.