Emperor Scorpion questions

I am very new to scorpions and have had my male Emperor for a little over a week now. I have a few questions which I can't seem to get a certain response but more of a 50/50 from people.

Setup:
10gal. aquarium
2-3" Zoo Med Eco Earth Compressed Coconut Fiber Expandable Substrate
Broken clay potter pieces
Bark house i found out back(it has been boiled)
Clay water bowl

I'm going to make it look like this guys setup in the second picture
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=102830
but use small gravel.
Well post the updated setup this week.

Pandinus imperator
Name: Cyris
Sex: Male
Length: 5"

Substrate:
I'm using Zoo Med Eco Earth Compressed Coconut Fiber Expandable Substrate
I had it around 2-3" deep, it is now starting to "shrink" from 2-3" to more around 1-2" especially the side that has a lamp. It is starting to dry out, I mist it 1-2 times a day lightly but it doesn't seem to help.
How can I keep it nice and moist/damp without over doing it?
Is this a good substrate? Should I try something different?

Humidity:
I can not seem to get it above 50-55% unless I mist the aquarium while the lamp is on, then I can achieve 70-80% for a short period of time, no longer than 15 minutes.
How can I keep the humidity around 80+%?
What if he happens to molt and the low humidity causes injury or possible proves fatal?

Lighting:
During his day cycle I use a 50Watt ZOO MED:Repti Basking Spot Lamp which stays over the left site of the living area.
During his night cycle I just purchased a 75Watt Exo-Terra NightGlo moonlight
I was worried that is had UV rays since his exo illuminated green but I went to their site and it didn't emit UVA/UVB but only Visual & Infrared.
Is it safe to have his burrow/home under the lamp?
If there is a problem with my lighting setup please let me know.

Temperatures:
To ambient air temperature on the lighted side stays about 80-84 degrees and the non lighted side stays about 75-78 degrees. I'm not quite sure how hot the ground temperature is. Room temperature without lighting is 74 degrees flat room is not breezy.
The moonlight keeps the temp around 80 degrees
Do I need to have a greater temperature if so what and how?

Diet:
I feed him regular size crickets about 4-6 a week. Most hand fed to him.
The pet store didn't have crickets today so I bought giant meal worms and put a cricket calcium gutload in their packaging for them to eat.
Should I hand feed him?
I try and hand feed him the crickets who lay eggs so they aren't laying them all in the substrate.
If baby crickets start to emerge what should I do to prevent agitating Cyris?

"Home":
That clay pot(now using pieces) used to be in the aquarium with a big break for an opening to enter. He never went in it so I put the bark piece in there and within 5 minutes he retreated under it. He didn't make any burrow so i made one under it for him.

Activity:
Cyris is pretty active at night, I have been watching his behavior to the new moonlight to see if he doesn't like it.(Should I use moonlight?)
He is very responsive to touch or very close movement, he doesn't seem to be at all aggressive toward me, he is easily held(not for more than a minute at a time)
I always see him in the corner with most of his body off the ground being held up by his tail. He does this only at night and retreats to his bark burrow when I turn on the heat lamp in the morning.
Is this normal or is he just trying to escape?
He is like this 90% of the time when I happen to check on him in the night, same when the moonlight is on.
Is he just trying to adjust his body temp?
When I wake up to turn on the normal heat lamp he is still in the same position.


Any help or answer will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advanced!

Q: How can I keep it nice and moist/damp without over doing it?
Is this a good substrate? Should I try something different?

A: Try just pouring water on the substrate. Misting will raise the humidity levels, but only for a very short period. If you don't have the false bottom setup (which I don't have due to the tank not being suitable) then pouring water onto the substrate is pretty much your only option. Or buying an automatic mister which will set you back quite a bit of dosh.

Q: How can I keep the humidity around 80+%?
What if he happens to molt and the low humidity causes injury or possible proves fatal?

A: As above, keep the substrate damp and the air humidity should rise. I wouldn't trust the hydrometer as the gospel truth either.

Judging from that picture, he is adult and won't molt.

Q: Is it safe to have his burrow/home under the lamp?
If there is a problem with my lighting setup please let me know.

A: In my setup, I have an Infrared bulb inside the enclosure and I also have a flourescant light which I only use when lifting remains out of the tank. Quite often, if the Scorpion is out and I switch the flourescant light on.... she'll retreat to her burrow. I use the Infrared bulb as a 24/7 light source. Also, try using a stronger bulb during the day, a weaker one at night rather than the way you are doing this. This is done to try and emulate the temperature changes in the rainforest during daytime and nighttime.

Q: Do I need to have a greater temperature if so what and how?

A: It's only preference. Personally, I enjoy keeping my P.Imperator's at around 90F at it's peak, the temperature plays a large part in the Scorpions metabolism and activity. But the temperature's you mentioned are pretty much spot on. Of course, there's no real way of measuring temperature in a burrow unless you have a probe and don't mind having your probe attacked

Q: Should I hand feed him?

A: I've always hand fed mealworms to mine, I hate the things and they really stink plus leaving it in the enclosure allows it to burrow and dig and dissapear.

Q: If baby crickets start to emerge what should I do to prevent agitating Cyris?

A: I'm not sure, but I'm sure someone else will be able to help you here. I've never been in this situation yet, I've had a locust try laying eggs in my substrate but they haven't hatched (yet maybe).

Q: Is this normal or is he just trying to escape?
He is like this 90% of the time when I happen to check on him in the night, same when the moonlight is on.
Is he just trying to adjust his body temp?

A: Don't worry about it. I've found mine doing things like this before and I've seen friends Scorpions doing the same thing too. I read a few weeks ago about 'Stilting'. They do this to adjust their body temperatures.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=102200&highlight=stilting

I hope this helps, I'm not an expert but I'll try my best.

About the baby crickets... most die drowning in the water bowl looking for a humid area.

Great response, goes to show how "non" educated local mainstream petstore workers are. I just had to come to the pros

Most said keep it mostly dry, mist it and thats it.
Their responses to me seemed so farfetched that it didn't seem natural for a tropic living thing to not be in a tropic environment.

But then again I had no Idea and most googles produced the same close answers.

I was afriad to "pour" water into the living area, yet from what i've seen here the emps are living on top of water so to speak with a very damp substrate.

Now I feel better about doing the things I assumed should be done with so many different views on the matter.

I appreciate the response and insight can't wait to see if more would like to add to the matter.

Aztek said:

About the baby crickets... most die drowning in the water bowl looking for a humid area.

Click to expand...

Good, just wanted to make sure they are not going to crawl on him much when/if it happens and annoy him making it stressful.

Is there a special topper to keep it less ventilated in order to raise the humidity?
I put a large piece of hush mat for your car over 3/4 of the aquarium and poured plenty of water to get the substrate nice and moist/wet.
It has a silver thin meal plating on one side which i have facing down into the aquarium I thought it would keep heat in.

Edit:
Within 15 minutes its a little over 80% humidity is the aquarium with a temp of 83.
Hopefully it stays this way . I still think i'm going to go get some extra ZooMed and make a false bottom and tall mounds on both left & right side of the tank for burrowing and then leave it like 4-5 inches in the middle

I love how sensitive he is to air pressure and movement. Every time I move the topper or hushmat rig he get into his stance and is ready to rock n' roll

I just taped the mesh cover to keep humidity in with a little ventilation/Lighbulb hole.

Also little things like dumping the leftover water in there while changing it helps.

New Setup

I did a complete revamp of his habitat just now took about an hour for the substrate to expand in water then break it all up. I had to go collect gravel from our driveway turn-around then boil it.
Broke my hydrometer(only 4 bucks to replace)

Here is what it looks like now, please comment.
I'm using 2.5 pounds of ZooMed substrate listed in first post.
False bottom(small gravel)
I also used a cheap snorkel, ripped off the mouth piece and just have to tube going from a 1/4" off the bottom of the tank to flush with the top of the tank.
Please comment on my setup, leave helpful tips and advice.

Will he burrow in more than one of the hiding places I have available for him? The one on the top left is the deepest will he figure that out and move there and burrow?

I use a 15 gallon tank for 3 P.imperator with a glass top
Temp around 21 to 25 degree
Humidity 80 to 90%
1'' of small rock and 5-6'' of substrate,

I water mist 2-3 times per day, light to medium mist.
No basking Spot, just a 20w Light bulb, 'On' 14hours per day
With a undertank heatpad very small and low temp.


No problem for now, Yesterday I become a new father of 27 pullus

Nice. I really want to get Cyris a friend but don't have to money to really buy 20+gallon tank.
I was thinking an Asia forest scorp or just another emp

If I could put another one in there without changing much of that layout I'd love to know and just go get him a new friend.(Close to same size of course)

I also purchased a light timer, I have it set for Day cycle 10AM-10PM then No light night cycle 10PM-10AM

The temp has rose quiet a bit in the tank since the new false bottom and humidity its now staying at 86-88 F which im happy about. Hope it burrows soon

Here is my myspace gallery of him
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind....viewPicture&friendID=42197299&albumId=980381

I have 2 emps in a 10 gallon.

Good to hear

SO it is safe to say I can have the two communal together without changes to the tank setup(i'm assuming)

Finally the temp has reached 88-89 F and humidity of 85%
IF only I was told how to setup the tank properly every time I asked a petco/uncle bills reptile guy!

How long does it usually take(average) the emp to start burrowing?
What happens if he manages to dig down to the false rock bottom?

if you have an Emp in there, I would stick with another Emp, not an Heterometrus spp. (asian forest scorps).

Im not sure if two different species would cohabitate well.

I was ready somewhere that they can be communal but the asian might bully emp.
I still think im going to go with another emp

I was wondering where I could get ahold of a baby emp 1-2" already in its 2nd instar(second molt finished if at all possible)
I was wanting one very cheap but $25-60 shipping has gotten me into a bind. I just wanted a young ling to watch it grow then join my adult emp.

I would prefer a born in captivity baby to preserve what Emps are left in africa

Midnightrdr456 said:

if you have an Emp in there, I would stick with another Emp, not an Heterometrus spp. (asian forest scorps).

Im not sure if two different species would cohabitate well.

Click to expand...

I try to make a community with 2 Spinifer and 2 Emperor,
1 Spinifer was killed the first day, after everything was right.

But if you want my advice, it's not a good idea.
Spinifer was a good community scorp, i used to have 9 in a 30gallon, never ad any problem.

Spinifer with spinifer, emp with emp.

yeah, i think im going to take to safe route and go emp with emp.
Seems like everyone thinks that is best anyway.
I'd still like to get a hold of a baby.

Have a pissed him off to all hell?

I'm not sure but as soon as I put him in the new setup he has been acting more natural I guess.

He is loving the humidity and heat, however he is very aggressive toward me now.
Is it just that I have got him high strung over the 2nd move so to speak changing his habitat again?

He actually attacked me while I was trying to feed him a giant meal worm.

He pinched me and missed with his stinger!
I know he isn't a cat or dog but I love having some interaction with all my pets.

Also it seems to me he is starting to burrow now!! I can only see it while the Black Light is on, which seems to make him stop when the blue light makes him glow he turns around and gets in a semi-piss off stance.

I thought they couldn't see blue light? or can they just see black light since it emits UV rays?
Can the see IR light?

Cyris69 said:

I'm not sure but as soon as I put him in the new setup he has been acting more natural I guess.

He is loving the humidity and heat, however he is very aggressive toward me now.
Is it just that I have got him high strung over the 2nd move so to speak changing his habitat again?

He actually attacked me while I was trying to feed him a giant meal worm.

He pinched me and missed with his stinger!
I know he isn't a cat or dog but I love having some interaction with all my pets.

Also it seems to me he is starting to burrow now!! I can only see it while the Black Light is on, which seems to make him stop when the blue light makes him glow he turns around and gets in a semi-piss off stance.

I thought they couldn't see blue light? or can they just see black light since it emits UV rays?
Can the see IR light?

Click to expand...

The only light which isn't in their spectrum is infra-red. I only use a IR heat Lamp.

But I'm glad to hear that your P.Imp is acting more natural, I dug mine out the night before last to remove remains, reset the tank back to how it was with just half a plant pot. I woke in the morning and she had another burrow. But for the first few weeks of having her, she didn't burrow once.

Again, strange emperor behavior which you'll probably get used to!

I have been hearing a lot about IR lighting.
What wattage bulb I'm going to need to keep his climate the same as my 50Watt basking spot lamp.

His temp right now has been staying pretty steady at 86-88F when the lamp is on and 78F through the night

Humidity has been sticking about 80-82% with the lamp on and about 90-92% humidity with the lamp off overnight.

I'm getting him a new P.imp friend from Georgia, this lady is giving him away to me.
Waiting to see the shipping costs, plus I get his whole setup for $30 if I want it.

With him being more aggressive right now is its wise to put in a new P.imp?
I'm excited


Edit:
Now, with an IR light setup, will he think it is night time 24/7, or will he just go off ambient light?