Orthochirus arrived, now I need advice

Hi all,

Yesterday I happily received 4.5 Orthochirus scrobiculosus negebensis. They certainly are cute little critters! I’ll get photos up as soon as I can.

I haven’t kept Orthochirus before, so I would appreciate hearing from anyone that has experience with them. I do have one specific question: I have heard that Orthochirus can be kept communally, but the guy I got them from has only ever kept them individually except for breeding. I’d like to set-up at least the females together as a bit of a display if that would work OK. Has anyone kept them together in groups? Any thoughts on this would be very much appreciated!

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

Congrats man. I keep 2.3 Orthochirus afghanus communally and have had no problems what so ever. I keep mine on higher temps than my other desert scorps, usually their temps are between 30-35 depending on ambient temperatures. Keep them on consolidated sand as my females like to burrow. They are also ferocious eaters and I usually drop in about 8 roaches at a time and they munch all of them. I give them a very small bottle cap of water once every 2 weeks at the moment, but this isnt actually necessary.
Hope that helped a bit.

Breeding them is also much easier if kept communally, the males will jump right in if the female is ready to breed.

Thanks shadowfoot!

What size of enclosure do you have them in? And how deep is the sand?

EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

The five of them are in a 15cmx20cm enclosure with about 10cm substrate depth.

Great, thanks again!

No problem, glad I could help.

You may also keep them between 85-90F. That would suffice. Keeping them slightly on a higher temperature is fine but have to watch out that they do not dehydrate.

It's ideal to provide a small bottle cap (filled with pebbles) filled once every week. Keeping these scorpions in captivity is different when they are in the wild where they knew how and where they can get a drink e.g from a morning dew. Ensure good ventilation for the enclosure and mycosis shouldn't be an issue for them

Hi all,

Well, it seems like O. scrobiculosus might not be as communal as O. afghanus. I tried setting-up my group together temporarily in an extra large Critter Keeper (16" x 8" x 12") with lots of bark on sand. Once the sun went down and the room got dark they all came out and started roaming around and I tossed in a number of small crickets for them. After a while I went and checked and two of them were locked in what appeared to be a death match. I broke up the altercation and let them be again. An hour or so later I check on them again and this time 3 of them were locked together. Sigh. So I gave up and separated them all. I guess I’ll have to have 9 separate little containers. It’s really too bad, because it was fascinating watching them all wandering around the larger enclosure...

EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

They were not trying to mate were they? Their mating dance is quite unique.

shadowfoot wrote:

They were not trying to mate were they? Their mating dance is quite unique.

Sadly I don't think so...the first two were really grappling down in the dirt grabbing each other's body rather than pushing and shoving. And the threesome included 1 smaller scorpion that couldn't get away fast enough!

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

Sad to hear man, then its probably best to seperate them.
Just for interest's sake, did any of them show mating behaviour?