unsure

hey guys. the emps are doing some thing that im not sure of. I have read that they will self regulate their body temp, well, i have a 75w IR light for heat and a heat pad on the same side of the tank. the light is on top, sitting on the screen top. The two emps are staying under the light up against the side of the tank with the pad. thermometer says 80.1 in the middle of the tank, so it is higher where they are at and humidity is at 73%. they have two hides and the non aggresive one is a bit slow and sluggish and will only eat if i "hand" it to him. i have research and i understand that they can go awhile with out food. Substrate is coco fiber, about 4" thick. i have two hides, one on the cool side and one on the hot side. should i worry or what should i do. i would post pics but for some reason my comp and my phone no longer want to communicate with each other. gonna try emailing the pics to myself.

If it's evening and the lights are out they could just be out for a stroll and trying to warm up a bunch. Look at their tails. If they are curled up and held up I would think you have nothing to worry about. If there is tail dragging and they just sit there under the hot light for a day... I would start to get worried. Ensure they have a water dish to grab a drink from if they want. And monitor how long they stay there. Keep us up on what's going on.

they are staying under light. have been there for over 48 hrs. they have water on a free choice basis. for some reason i cant post the pics i took. i will keep trying. i saw the little reddish one eating a cric he caught.

Your scorpions look healthy to me but I would be a bit concerned about your substrate. The moisture looks good and the depth is probably adequate, but it's full of wood chips. The coco fiber (or peat) substrate that's recommended for Emperors should be relatively free of sticks, twigs, chips and rocks. It's ok to have some of this material, along with leaf litter or moss, on the surface to add some ambiance to the enclosure, but the main body of your substrate should be pure coco fiber or peat to accommodate burrowing.

It's obvious that you've put a lot of work into setting up a nice enclosure, but you should consider changing the substrate at some point. Also, scorpions prefer tight spaces rather than cavernous spaces, so try to bury your hides in the substrate instead of just setting them on the surface.

shebeen wrote:

..scorpions prefer tight spaces rather than cavernous spaces, so try to bury your hides in the substrate instead of just setting them on the surface.

+1
This is something that is worth reminding our new hobbyist about.
Hopefully we'll see lesser of keepers placing hides such as a "half log hide" on top of the substrate..

the half log is partially under the substrate. I should say, "started out half buried." They uncovered it the first night when they started redecorating. thats just one end that you can see. the wood chips, cyprus, were what the pet shop said i should use to help keep the moisture. i will not be using them again. i did not find this community till after i got my emps. i tried researching and this site said i should do this and the next site said the complete opposite. the pet shop said that i should us sand and i called "BS" on that. i told him that they were tropical, from the rainforest, and another sales person came over and said that the wood chips would help. it is only about 30% cyprus, the rest is coco fiber. I really wish i would have found this forum prior to getting them. Update on their behavior. they have started a burrow under the water bowl, it is also a hide. I thought that a hide with a water dish on it would be a good idea....NOPE, because i have to take it out to clean it, which i had to do alittle while ago because it was full of substrate, thats how i found the burrow. i appreciate all the constructive criticism that i see on here. It is helping me alot. Thank yall. I am going to over haul everything in a couple of weeks when i get a 20 gallon tank and put in a false bottom. I am trying hard to make it to what they would want. Again, thank yall for all the help. i appreciate it all and am try to "listen" to all of the experience that yall have and are willing to share.

two very healthy looking scorp you have there :)i tried false borrom with our once...it was poinltess as they just dug it all up lol

A piece of window screen between the gravel and the substrate will prevent your scorp from digging up the gravel. Be sure the screen extends to all four walls so the scorp doesn't dig under it and become trapped. Of course, you can forgo the false bottom all together. Some people like them, some don't. It just depends on whether you prefer to add moisture to your substrate by pouring water down a fill tube or directly onto the substrate. Both methods work well.

I am going to try the false bottom due to my "different" work schedule. I have to be gone for 48 hrs and wont be able to mist the substrate while i am away. last time i went to work the humidity dropped to 48%. Thank yall for the compliments and the help. they are all greatly appreciated and will all be taken into consideration with the tank overhaul.