Woo, next week!

Welp, next week my favorite pet shop owner will be selling me an emp. He's got 4 in now, two from a private breeder, two from his conglomerate source, I should be able to go in and choose which one I want.

While I"m not against buying from people online, I like to support this guy anytime I can, because he's a private breeder himself, of many reptiles. And actually takes care of all the animals in his shop. I've never come in and seen something dying, or kept in absurd conditions, like every other shop, corporate or privately owned. I've got a 10g tank set up, the substrate is damp and packed atm, and drying under a heat lamp. It's a "false bottom" set up, like the ones posted on the forum here.

I only have one question(so far), I plan on feeding it out of my supply for my CWD. Which means everything it's going to get is going to be gutloaded with all sorts of vitamins and calcium supplements. Are any of these bad for scorpions? I assume the vitamins won't be an issue, but I'm curious if arachnids will react negatively to a lot of calcium in their diet.

although it's not well documented you can find documentation about the negative effects on any animal with an exoskeleton of calcium. I stay away from any additives and supplements because inverts don't need anything that doesn't occur naturally in their diet. it's good to hear that there's a pet shop out there that sounds to be ethically in tune.

I think I discussed with someone on ab that to much calcium or any calcium for that matter can be a proble for scorpions. I'll look to see if I can find the post somewhere. Remember the substrate has to be damp so no need to let it dry..unless it's really wet. Congrats on the new scorp to come.
-Eddy

~Abyss~ wrote:

I think I discussed with someone on ab that to much calcium or any calcium for that matter can be a proble for scorpions. I'll look to see if I can find the post somewhere. Remember the substrate has to be damp so no need to let it dry..unless it's really wet. Congrats on the new scorp to come.
-Eddy

dude, we've had a number of debates over calcium - mainly over that calcium carbonate sand that I abhor and stand strongly against using. I'm off now, I'll be back to comment more on any rebuttals in the morning - I'm taking the day off and staying in babysitting my sis' hellspawn

Lucky you... yeah Calcium substrate doest worry as much as actually eating the stuff.

yeah the guy who owns it is pretty cool. he breeds a lot of snakes, will only accept large animals (rabbits, dogs, cats, etc) from breeders who he goes and checks out. Has a 100% placement policy and record. Has 4 or 5 rescued monkeys that he takes very good care of, and has a big display room of them, for people to some see them in his shop.

He also breeds a few other reptiles, tortoises, bearded dragons, basilisks, savanna monitors, I think crested geckos, and veiled chameleons as well. And will try to order pretty much anything you want. I pay slightly higher prices going through him, than say Petsmart & such, but most the time he knows what he's talking about; and he doesn't try to push useless crap onto you as well.

Anyway, I guess I'll stay away from the gut loaded crix for my emp once I get it, and just feed them straight away from when I get them.

Sounds like a plan. Roaches work better.

~Abyss~ wrote:

Sounds like a plan. Roaches work better.

I prefer crickets, I hate roaches. it's a matter of preference of the keeper

Most people hate roaches on account that they are ...roaches. We have a natural digust for them. But they don't hop around everywhere. Easier to breed. And no smell.

Honestly my big problem with crickets, is the chirping.

Oh i forgot the chirping. I usually bought medium roaches to avoid that.

well,good luck with the scorp! you gonna breed?

Not sure yet. Probably eventually, I just want to get used to them first before I breed.

Well I got one. Can't tell what it is, I want to say female, but I'm not sure. I'll try and get a pic of it, when it's dancing with the glass. But so far they've been so blurry you can't see anything.

I've got it in a 10g set up, and would like to get a 2nd. Will fem/fem coexist? Or do I need to do male/female.

male/female, male/male, female/female, and even transgenders will be fine when it comes to emps.

Cool. I tossed a cricket in, to see if it was hungry when we first got home. Didn't even kill it first, just ate it's head while it was still alive and kicking in it's claw.
In other words...awesome.

Well before the night was over, he (pretty sure it's a he now, still trying to get a good pic) has dug a pretty sizable tunnel for itself, starting off one of my starter holes. I gave it a name.. "My new pet kitten" is it's name, cause then when I ask people, hey want to see "My new pet kitten"?, they are totally surprised by what I show them

Ha! I love that idea!!

Ok, well I got a second, and put it in the tank. The first thing that happened was the new one went into the old ones burrow. I heard their claws "clanking" against each other, couldn't see much through the peep hole against the back... but after about 3 minutes, the big one "bulldozed" the old one right out of the burrow. The new one is quite a bit bigger than the old one. I didn't see any serious looking injuries on the older one, but it seems to be missing a lot of it's pride, as it slunk away to one of the starter burrows, and has just been laying in there.

Is it normal for them to fight over burrows? Now that it's established, will the older one most likely leave the newer ones burrow alone, or will they constantly be battling back and forth.

The older one, killed a beetle I put in, but hasn't eaten it, it's just hanging out in it's claws. I got a nice florescent red bulb, to view them at night, hopefully it will illuminate more of the enclosure than my red LED light, which is lights up about a 50cent coins area.


Also, I held the new one in my hands today, although I used gloves to pick it up with. I'm not sure if I picked it up correctly. Is there a guide/video on this site that I can see?

I'm excited about this whole scorpion keeping thing, though I think I'd like to stick with P.Imp, and possibly P.Cav later. I have no desire to keep anything with a nasty sting around. I can deal with the pinches (I think), cause my CWD doesn't always agree that my hands should be around him, and delivers some pretty nasty bites

The best way to prevent territorial scuffles is to take both out, rearrange the terrarium (being sure to stir up the substrate while you're at it), and put them both back in.

Also, most scorps don't seem to like beetles. Try a cricket or roach; if your beetle is a mealworm just leave the adults alone to breed.

Thaedion has an awesome guide on how he handles scorpions. Search Youtube for his account (Thaedion) and then browse through his vids for it.

Yeah, I would have fed a cricket, but I woke up to find all my crickets dead. I think I'm going to start buying medium size instead of adult, cause they just don't last very long comparatively, and also they are noisy. I have proper temps, and plenty of food water, through gels, and other stuff I use to gutload. They just seem to die all the time. Or maybe it's time to switch to roaches Wonder if my shop keeper will get them for me. I know I can get them online, but I try and support him as much as possible.

I'll try getting them both out and redoing the tank, and see if that works.

BTW here is a pic of the new one, hope it's not too big, dimension wise.

i dont know why, but to me it looks like he is asking for a cigarette lol.


"hey, got a smoke?"

lol it kinda looks like it does wnt one but then itd die i mean nicotine is a insecticide so im guessin itd kill scorps aswell lol, (i dont think ne 1 wud try teach a scorp to smoke) plus it wunt be possible, funny pic tho

With out shop bought crickets *silents* we put in carrot, food and water all in one!
When I used to buy hoppers I would put them into a small "tank"...that helped with the deaths.
Too many in that small space causes toxins

I would take both out the tank, move it all about, ruffle up the substrate and put them back in again.
The one who was there before will always think "this is my home, back off"...everytime the other gets too close when exploring

xxxxxx