My new Red Claw / Pandinus Cavimanus in its new home all decked out!

My buddy picked it up last week for 10 bucks, I am not sure the sex, Ill post a pic of the bottom as well. But it was the biggest one out of its brood and for 10 bucks how can you pass it up. I wanna say 5i? I fed it the day I got it and it devoured the cricket.

I had it in a small KK for about a week while I was waiting for my exo terra to show up.

It finally showed up the other day and I moved it in, but the terrarium looked too plain so I spruced it up with a pothos plant and a standing dragon lol

It spent most of the first day/night hanging upside down cause I guess it can climb the fake background lol.

It finally went into hiding after I had to take it out for the 2nd time (basically 3 moves in 2 days poor guy )to put in the plant and decor.

So far it walks around at night trying to climb the wall and still eats when I offer it food every time. Feeding 2-3 times a week depending on the cricket size. Right now it is hiding in its hole/hide.

Well anyways here are the pics:
The only Pic I have of it before I moved it to the Exo Terra from the KK.

Pics of the Enclosure:



Here is a shot of inside the hide, I scraped away at the coco fiber a little bit so that I could peak inside.

Here is a pic of the underbody if anyone could sex it that would be great.

Here are some pics of it hanging upside down from the first night, and most of the next day, this is before the decor of course.




Let me know what you guys think and if there are any tips of taking care of it, so far I am treating it the same as my Baby Emperor I have, temp and humidity wise. I have a heat pad and a 50W Ir light shining down on both enclosures as they are side by side and the temp says 80~, I dont trust the humidity gauge, but my substrate is moist along with a pothos plant in both enclosures for looks and to help with humidity.

Looks really cool grats on the new scorps! Just remember to not put he heating pad on the bottom of the enclosure. I would think 50w is a bit low, but if it says 80degress it's doing fine.

its on the side the 2 enclosures are next to each other so its right splat in between so they can both benefit from both the lamp and the pad.

You can see on some of the pics too its the big black sheet

I just rearranged my room again so that the plants are facing the window so they can get every little bit of sunlight and to where it doesnt shine into the hide as well. Basically I just turned the whole shelf 90 degrees. My desert scorpion starting skittering around the moment I turned his enclosure too lol

According to the scale the bulb came with 6 inchs from the bulb is 96, 12 inches is 90 and 18 inches is 86, so sitting at 80 is ok seeing how the bulb is like 20 inches from the substrate floor.

I cant rest the bulb on the lid as it will get too hot and melt the plastic, and I cant go lidless or anything like that since both scorpions climb the wall at times lol.

Its a 12x12x12 enclosure by exo terra, I am using the factory lid for them both, I even have the factory lamp cover but that only goes up to 25W so I am using a small desk lamp that goes up to 75 I think. It sits on the top shining in between the 2 enclosures.

Male, same as mine. They burrow like crazy too.

cool now I can call him a 'he' instead of it lol

I made the hole to his hide small so he would be forced to burrow, but he hasnt he dug more in his tiny KK, like he walled off the entrance and dug under so his tail would come out, then he would knock down the front to drink water then go back in and wall off again like brick laying lol.

I am guessing since its a new home, last night he just climbed either on the glass or upside down on the ceiling, when I got home today he was upside down on the ceiling then he came down and just sat next to the heat pad under the IR.

Thankfully hes eating though so thats always a good thing, I fed him again first thing then I put him into the enclosure yesterday before the decor, he even chased it down lol.

Hey Roblicious, that is one cool enclosure with the dragon and pothos plant man
Giving it heat and making sure the substrate stays moist is all it takes, really. And for $10 bucks, I'd grab one too!

By the way, I would use a different lamp for the heat bulb because I did exactly what you're doing with the desk lamp and I burned out 2 of them! (the bulbs AND the lamps) They're just not made to withstand the heat and don't have the porcelain/ceramic to protect the lamp from the heat emitted by the bulbs. That's just my advice because I've ruined 2 perfectly good desk lamps and 2 perfectly good heat bulbs as a novice

As for the burrowing, give it some time and see what it does. Then if you see that it's not burrowing, you can manipulate the environment and try again.

Thanks my fiance picked it out and I thought it was cool too so yeah I got it and it looked cool in there

Well I did start a wide and semi deep burrow in its hide right now, probably why it hasnt done anything but then again it is too soon, I am leaving it alone of course I am sure it is stressed as all hell since I had to move it so much in the last 2 days.

What kind of lamp should I be getting then? this lamp says it can handle 75w lol I leave it on 24/7 for the last month lol

I just cant wait for my baby emp to get even half the side of this red claw.

It was a choice between this red claw, the 3 other smaller but same brood red claws, and olive flat rock which I dont really like and has been there for a while it was 30! (my DH costed the same! and those guys are local!), or a Asian forest scorpion for 15 bucks! I opted for the red claw cause it was huge already lol.

I am guessing it is 4-5 instar?

I have a total of 3 heat mats, 1 is on the red claws being shared with the emp and my 2nd one is with my DH, so if it does blow out I can use the 3rd heat pad as a backup.

I'm surprised it lasted for a month lol Well, you are using a 50W bulb for a 75W lamp, so maybe it's not that bad so far. Who knows, it might just keep working for a while. All I know is regular desk lamps aren't meant to hold heat bulbs and what I use are heat lamps: http://tortoiseshack.com/store/images/fluker%20clamp%20lamp.jpg

What was the P. cavi sold to you as--a sub-adult?

H. laoticus wrote:

I'm surprised it lasted for a month lol Well, you are using a 50W bulb for a 75W lamp, so maybe it's not that bad so far. Who knows, it might just keep working for a while. All I know is regular desk lamps aren't meant to hold heat bulbs and what I use are heat lamps: http://tortoiseshack.com/store/images/fluker%20clamp%20lamp.jpg

What was the P. cavi sold to you as--a sub-adult?

Yeah I have seen those kinds of lamps, I just need it to be able to mount on the side now lol.

Is that bad that I got him as a sub adult?

I am not sure the age and I was just guessing the instar and I cant completly rely on the lady at the pet store even though she claims she raises and breeds scorpions at home. I say this because she says that scorpions continue to go through their molting stages even past adulthood until they die. I always thought they stopped molting when they mature?

I wanna say hes about 3 inchs from head to the begining of the tail. Dont they get a little smaller than a emperor? Liek aroudn the 4-5 inch area?

It's true that scorpions continue to molt during adulthood, it's just that they don't get any bigger and it really depends on how old they get. It's widely thought that they continue to molt because of a an evolutionary adaptain to replace dings and injuries and not to grow at that point. Though this is not true of all scorpions (adult molting), it is true with pandinus spp, but it doesn't happen all the time.

Great now I feel like an idiot lol

So there really isnt a way to tell the age of this red claw is there? I will measure from head to the 'butt' or where the tail starts when I get home if he is roaming about, but I would hate to bother him again. I estimate its about 4inches though give or take. Bigger then my desert hairy for sure lol.

Will a desert hairy continue to molt after adulthood? I have one and I am pretty sure its an adult just wondering.

I'm guessing it's an adult based on its mature features and size, but this is based on pure observation.

Yeah observation is all I have to go off of too

EDIt:

When you asked if it was a sub adult I thought it was a bad thing that I got it has a sub adult lol bad assumption on my part.

Looks like an adult, if not then it has 1 more molt to be an adult but it doesnt show signs of being a sub adult at all.

I'm not sure if Hadrurus spp. do adult molts, I haven't really looked into it, but I do know that all jungle type like pandinus and heterometrus do from time to time.

what are some signs of it being a sub adult?

chubby, odd or light colored telson, smaller than 4 inches are a few

yeah then mine is either a adult or 1 molt away then