Caught another one

To replace my C. Vit that died, my dad brought another one home today. This one seems a lot more lively than the last. Boomer MK II is here lol. It's a male C. Vittatus again, a little larger than the last one, his stinger is a bit shorter, but it's sharper than the last ones. He's adjusting to his new habitat as we speak.

I'll keep you guys posted on his health.

keep us posted man.

congrats on the new specimen

Congrats man, hope things go better this time round.
What are your enclosure conditions like?

Small 14x7 container, single scorpion. Natural soil, 2 large pieces of bark for him to hide under or crawl on, large rock in the corner, water dish, little bits of wood and rock for him to crawl under or on.

This one seems a lot healthier than the last one overall. His movements are much faster, and he was actively hunting and eating the moment I dropped him into his enclosure. The other one was very lethargic and wouldn't hunt for a few days. I think the other one had a broken stinger possibly, but this one is having no issues.

On a side note, he actually scavenged a spider. My father had caught a large (same size as the scorpion) spider of some kind and put him in with the scorpion. I thought he might be a threat to the scorpion, and not wanting to lose him, I squashed the spider with a stick. The new scorpion comes over and I see him eating the remains, he completely devoured it. I've never known scorpions to scavenge, but maybe because it was a fresh kill he decided to do so.

Scorpions will eat almost anything that they can overpower or is edible for that case.
What I mean with enclosure conditions are the temps and humidity as this plays the biggest part in keeping a scorpion alive and thriving.

Temp is 76 degrees, humidity is fairly low.

Thats a bit low imo. Try and raise it to about 80+ in the day and at night that temperature(76) is good.

According to the care sheet info, 75-85 degrees is their butter zone for these guys, and it's specifically stated they can tolerate room temperature without any special heat requirements. Is this in error?

Its not wrong but its always better to keep them a bit hotter than 80. They become more active in this temp range and are not as lethargic as when kept in colder conditions.
Its all up to you how hot you want to keep him but I would raise it a little bit.

I'll see what I can do. I don't control the thermostat heh. To be honest though, with my computer going, it raises the temp in here to about 80 degrees anyway, so I think he'll be alright. He's been very active as it is, much more so than the other one. It's really nice to watch him.

Then everything should be good
They are a joy to watch when they go about their business. Enjoy him man!

Now I have a dish of water in there with him, but he doesn't seem to like going anywhere near it. Do you think it'd be better just to mist instead of having that in there?

How big is the dish? Keep it small and filled with some pebbles. As long as the dish isnt too big and too deep it should be alright. Misting also works but I use bottle caps for all my adult specimens as its there when they need it.

It's a cap from a pill bottle. I'll get some pebbles to put in there.

That should work perfectly.

Hi. I have two C. Vitt. scorps. They are both male (I think) and WC in S.E. Texas. I have them on Ecoearth with a piece of bark to hide under and a small water bowl in the cage. I keep the substrate slightly moist, with one side being moister than the other. I find this species to be very communal. The males were added at different times and they frequently hideout during the day next to each other. I heard that when adding a new scorp (of this species) to an enclosure make sure there is plenty of prey in the cage to distract the scorps. I'm a beginner but it worked for me. I really like this species.

If you don't mind me asking, what is your location and how were your scorps found? Thanks!

The first one was found on the airbase at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, the 2nd was found on the property of one of the guys who works on base, I think he's got about 40 acres. Apparently they're seen all the time out there, I've asked if they catch anymore to deliver them to me.

I like these little guys too. Despite having a painful sting, they are really docile and mine is actually quite inquisitive. I see him wandering around his enclosure a lot looking in every nook and cranny, and he even followed my finger on the outside of the box for a while. Have held him in my hands (gloved, I'm still too nervous to do it without gloves) and he's just cool to watch.

If your scorpions are males, they should have long, thin metasoma's (tail). Females have shorter, fatter tails. For reference, this is a shot of my male C. Vittatus.

My two look just like yours, very long thin tails. I just got a black light LED flashlight and would like to find a few more to start a colony. My two were purchased at a local pet shop but were WC here in the Houston area. I know they are around here because I have been tagged as a kid! The Houston area is very humid and I don't think they are as plentiful as in drier areas, but they are here. Mine eat small crickets very well but they don't like to eat if I'm around watching them. I have tried leaving meal worms in their cage but I don't think they like them.

That is interesting that yours follows your finger around! I handle my emps and AFS but I don't have the guts to handle these little guys! Did yours try to sting when you handled him with a glove? Cool close up pic!

Mine did not try to sting at all, he never even raised his tail up to attempt to sting me. He just kept changing direction, or moving up on the other hand when I put it in front of him. Even when I'm moving things around in his enclosure, I'm very aware of where he is at all times, but he has never made an aggressive move towards me at all. These are very docile little critters in my experience. Still, not recommended to handle them, as the guy who caught this last one has been stung, and he said it felt like someone was driving a lit cigarette down hard into his arm for several hours.

That's a good description of the sting. I've been tagged on a couple of occations as a kid camping, etc and it did hurt a lot. On the other hand, my wife got tagged in Austin some years ago by what I believe had to be a striped bark scorp and she said it only hurt bad for 15 min or so. I wonder if the sting from these little guys varies a lot.

I have some other small but hotter scorps and they do seem more aggresive than the striped barks. When I go into my striped barks' cage they seldom even bother to move around. I agree that they seem very docile.

It seems to me that the natural habitat of these guys varies a lot from sub tropical here in SE Texas to dry and arid. I have mine on slightly moist Ecoearth coco fiber. I wonder how they would do in a drier setup? How do you have yours setup?

I have mine on natural Oklahoma soil with some rocks and bark in for him to crawl on and hide under. Even though we obviously can't ask him how he feels, he seems quite content in there to me. He's hunting, drinking water, and exploring.

I've heard these little guys can survive sub-arctic temperatures for limited periods of time, so they're really a little marvel of animal engineering.

What do yours C Vitts eat? Mine will take small crickets but don't seem to like small meal worms. Has anyone had any luck with mealworms?

I feed mine crickets. He'll actually take on and kill prey easily his own size. He actually paraded a cricket the same size as he was around his enclosure in his mouth after he killed it. It was like he was saying "Hey dad look what I did!"

I haven't tried mealworms with mine though. So I can't offer any advice.