The Questions

As promised, here is my questions thread.

I have been in possession of a 55 gallon aquarium for the last few years, and have debated what to put in it for some time. I finally settled on creating a largish desert vivarium modeled after the Sonoran Desert - complete with native fauna and flora. Currently I am in the gather supplies phase and have already purchased several things for the substrate of the habitat. Any plants I get will likely stay potted but buried in the substrate. I am looking primarily at H. azironensis, but I would be interested in other scorpions that could share the habitat with H. azironensis that are also native to the Sonoran Desert. (See http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/fieldguide/arthropoda/arachnida.html )

Heat lamp vs ceramic emitter vs heat pad

I have read various places that each one of these heating methods have their merits, but which one would be most appropriate for my purposes? As I have to heat a relatively large enclosure to make it comfortable for the scorpion(s) as well as provide the proper lighting for any plants I decide to introduce - currently I am thinking of having both a ceramic heat emitter to run 24/7 (as they create no light) as well as a grow light for the day cycle to keep the plants happy.

Habitat mates

I've read conflicting things about H. azironensis and whether it can exist communally or not, I'd love to have two males or two females (or more) or if necessary, choose another scorpion to share the habitat.

That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.

Thank you all in advance!

Fugue

Those are some nice questions. I am even very happy its not about a pethole this time as H. Arizonensis are quite active. I am a firm believer that if you want to take the risk, to go full out.

By full out I mean to give them everything a scorpion of a certain species would want, which includes some space too. I believe to keep animals communally.. space, abundance of food and hides is all it takes to even let non communal cohabitate. Even in that order.

Nature is not freaky and well setup. Species need to reproduce, they need to be able to not see each other as a meal. 69wishes can chime in on this. She has dozens of them per square foot. Maybe an exaggeration but just to make the point valid.

I keep andro together and none get killed. Sometimes one gets clubbered away, no harm done.


As for the lighting and heating, if you put real plants in their, they do need UV rays. Provide them. There are no UV lamps that do not emit light. This is fine for a day part of the cyclus. Sometimes they even may make enough heat already, as to making ceramic lamps overkill. Might even place as much of them as is needed to get temps up really high. I have not experience for H Ar. but I might guess they might be used to 30 degrees Celsius daytime temperature

Remember that desert species always need heat during the day and a steep drop in temperature at nights. If you dont live or have the setup where it gets below 15 degrees celsius at night, I wouldnt even heat at night, making ceramic bulbs completely useless.

Dont even bother the heatmats... I'd just take the UV bulbs that emit the heat and spotheating necessary.

Those are the basics which I can think of, but I'm sure people actually keeping them can correct some of this stuff, or provide with hands on experience regarding the species.

I have a tub that's 17" long x 13" wide x9" deep and keep 2x H. a's in there- male + female.
I put around a 3" level layer of sand in then on top I put a "cave" system that I knocked up out of sand, gravel, peat and bentonite (excavator sand) with the sand layered up the sides. I tried live plants but found the crix and roaches kept on eating them so ended up with just a few bits of silk/ plastic and a chunk of wood that they can climb around on (and they do, quite often, they go up it after crickets).
As for heating, I have a heated room, no idea how hot it gets, I work on a time scale...
"how hot is it in here?"
" 10 mins"
"eh?"
"after 10 mins I say "balls to this, it's too hot in here, lets f^&k off out."".
At night, if I remember I go in and turn the heater off in Summer but leave it on in Winter.
We have the central heating on in winter so in the day there is c/ heating + oil filled radiator and at night the c/ heating turns off and just the oil filled running so the temp dips but doesnt go too cold.
The tub has no lid on so there is no problem with humidity and I lob in a few crix/ roaches now and again.
There have been absolutely no signs of aggression but neither have I witnessed ay signs of mating. They frequently curl up together in the same hols, even though there are many other hidey bits they can use.

Couple of pics of the setup...

Those look massive!

Yeah, they are on a diet now, only half that size. I was being over cautious with the food for a while in case of cannibalism but even now they sit happily together.

ofc they do! Atm I dont understand the stories of scorps munching on each other

wow cool little haddys you got there mark ours is a complete pethole btw

our haddys a fatty too but its not through eating lol shes only had like 4 feeds since we got her nearly a year ago lol, thinking shes gonna molt....

Our haddy pics :

Those things are hardcore fashion models. 4x in an entire year???

yep we got her last november i think, and she didnt eat for ages lol she just burrows away never to be seen unless we dig her up lol

that's nasty. I would get crazy!

mine wander around all the time.

Bex how hot are you keeping it?

30°C

Try 26 for a change and no lights.. my guess is it will come out more...

it drops to that overnight and she still hides up lol

Should drop to 20 or so at night I think.. not saying i know better btw

ok will try turning the light off tonight see what happens lol

Ok I'm curious now too Bex, good luck

I kept mine under a lamp when I got it. Never came out. Keep it at room temp now and I see it almost every night at about 7:30 or so.

Did someone say my name? Huh?
Lol

Jup exactly. Scorpions even desert species (most notably desert species) they crawl away from direct heat. Even though they can survive 35 degrees celsius easily, they prefer to have their body temperature around 26 degrees (daytime).

At night, you can almost freeze them in place.. they will not die and become active.
Within a few days of moderate heat and a few nights without heating at all, they should come eat to peak around.

At least that is what I hope they will do for Bex.

Hehe jap you're the barkscorp hairy stuff expert!

Nope she just likes her burrow lol

Try a few days Bex, it will work.. If it doesnt, smoke her out lol