pill bugs

I'm going to put pill bugs into my scorpion tank to clean stuff up in there burrows where I can't reach. I have three emporers in a ten gallon. How many pill bugs will be appropriate?

I'm guessing no one knows so let me ask this.for those that use pill bugs in your tanks how many do you have in there and how many scor?

Oh, sorry. i guess I didn't press submit with my reply
You should probably use around 5-10, since you won't be able to start a colony in there unless if you feed them other foods, since their diet is very different from that of a scorpions. You caould also start a farm outside of the tank for them, and put some more in when you see they are dying (or getting eaten). Also, be sure not to take any from the wild, as they may have pesticides on them or worse. Of course, you could always go with the farm. If you breed your own, you should not have any problems! And don't worry, these things are very easy to breed! Just remember that they need pretty similar conditions to the scorps! I am keeping them with my hermit crabs, which require almost identical conditions to forest scorpions, and the pill bugs are thriving . BTW, I am assuiming that yuo have fortest scorpions of some sort. If you have desert scorpions, than the pill bugs will not survive for very long, so I would almost require that you make a farm.

Yes I have three emporers. I won't have to worry bout finding then in the wild. There no where to be found round my house. Lol they all hiding. You said you have a farm of pill bugs?

I don't have a farm. Mine actually are reproducing in with the hermit crabs! But starting a farm is a good idea because if yuo do find them (you can usually find them under pieces of rotting wood, especially after a heavy rain), than you don't need to find them again. You could just take them from your farm. Actually, I think I may start a farm of them so that I can put them in with my emperor!

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one of my pill bugs


haha

I so have to have one of those that thing is awesome lol

That thing is massive. They don't get that big round here.

jahines1 wrote:

That thing is massive. They don't get that big round here.

thats because this is a giant pill milipede.

they look like pill bugs but they arent related lol

cody1984 wrote:

I so have to have one of those that thing is awesome lol

you would have a hard time keeping it cool I would imagine, they die if the temp gets over 20c
mine are kept at about 17c
and then theres the issue of feeding them, they only eat moss and really well rotted wood haha

they have a really high mortality rate unfortunately

Forget cleaning up after the scorpion, that thing will freaking EAT it!

Im interested in buying some isopods as a cleaner for my emp as well. What is the best species for this job? Im looking at buying some orange sow bugs but if theres a better choice I'd like to know. Thanks.

I'd assume that almost any kind really works - I keep dwarf white isopods and temperate greys. I culture them and establish populations inside my vivariums. I do this mostly for frogs, but I recently began keeping Amblypygids and I have seeded their enclosures with isopods, as well as springtails. Honestly, I am a major novice invert keeper so I don't know if there are any disadvantages to this or not.

Papoose wrote:

Im interested in buying some isopods as a cleaner for my emp as well. What is the best species for this job? Im looking at buying some orange sow bugs but if theres a better choice I'd like to know. Thanks.

Is your emp an adult? If it is, then any species should be fine. If it isn't, try to get a non-predatory species, you don't want isopods munching on a scorp while it molts. The one's that are flat and don't roll up into balls seem to be the most predatory, while the ones that do roll into balls are not. I use Armadillidium sp in my enclosures.

Thanks guys this pretty much answers my questions I have baby emperors and introduced a few pill bugs the roll up sort in their enclosure and although they ate the adults not before they released a hundred babies it seems they ate the adults so the babies shouldn't be a problem should they?

There are a lot of rollie pollies around my house. If I get a few and let them reproduce for a while in a container, would this make them a bit safer for my emp in terms of pesticides and parasites?

leepower1221 wrote:

There are a lot of rollie pollies around my house. If I get a few and let them reproduce for a while in a container, would this make them a bit safer for my emp in terms of pesticides and parasites?

Short answer: yes.

Once the wild caught isopods produce offspring, move the wild caught individuals into a separate container and raise the 1st generation offspring to adulthood. Repeat this process with the 1st generation adults. The 2nd generation offspring should be safe to add to your emperor tank.