H. Troglodytes drinking a lot.

JLPicard · Jul 26, 2015

Hello, everyone! I was wondering if it's normal for H. Troglodytes (or any scorpion for that matter) to drink a lot. She's been doing so ever since I got her. I find her every morning near or in her water dish, which is always empty after a day or two.

Cheers!

edgeofthefreak · Jul 26, 2015

JLPicard said:
Hello, everyone! I was wondering if it's normal for H. Troglodytes (or any scorpion for that matter) to drink a lot. She's been doing so ever since I got her. I find her every morning near or in her water dish, which is always empty after a day or two.

Cheers!

I have a Pandinus imperator (so not quite the same environment), and I've only ever saw her drinking twice in the 3-4 years I've had her. Her enclosure is fairly wet though, and she lives at the bottom of a deep burrow. If you find that yours is drinking everyday, try raising the humidity with some extra waterbowls, or stuff some moist sphagnum moss into some crevices and the enclosure corners.

It's an easy way to monitor humidity, without the need for "decoration humidity gages", or the expensive ones that actually work.

Saw your enclosure, and it looks quite nice! Bet you could fit all kinda of humidity raising bits in there! Just make sure you have good ventilation, and you should be golden.

ARACHNO-SMACK48 · Jul 26, 2015

Not a scorpion guy... just a T guy... but is it possible that your enclosure is so dry/ hot that the water is evaporating?

pannaking22 · Jul 27, 2015

JLPicard said:
Hello, everyone! I was wondering if it's normal for H. Troglodytes (or any scorpion for that matter) to drink a lot. She's been doing so ever since I got her. I find her every morning near or in her water dish, which is always empty after a day or two.

Cheers!

Is she captive bred or wild caught? And do you know it's an adult female? If that's the case that she's drinking a lot she may be gravid.

Scorpionluva · Jul 27, 2015

pannaking22 said:
Is she captive bred or wild caught? And do you know it's an adult female? If that's the case that she's drinking a lot she may be gravid.

I was going to say same thing as they usually drink a lot more when gravid or really dehydrated

JLPicard · Jul 27, 2015

She was caught in the wild, I think, because she's pretty old (I'd place her length around 15-18 centimeters) and H. Troglodytes seems hard to come by where I live. I doubt she's gravid because she's not really increased in girth. The humidity is usually around 50% and I always make sure her water dish is filled.

JLPicard · Jul 27, 2015

So since I was going to clean her enclosure this week, I decided to head to my local bug guy and buy some moss. I've added some patches on random places, so we'll see how it goes from here. Thanks for all the replies so far!

Here's some pictures as well. I thought that if she showed symptoms of any kind, this would be the best place to show them.

P.S. It's the first time I've ever handled her. I'm not usually in favour of this, but I thought it would give you a better idea of her size. (I did quite enjoy it, though. It was special haha.)

Galapoheros · Jul 27, 2015

I like the look of the trogs so I've been breeding them. I have a hunch they will be harder and harder to get as time goes by. I use all course sand with no organic material for the substrate and flat rocks, big tiles work along with other things and a water source in a corner. btw your trog looks a little "too" flat, is it eating? I've been messing around with them for some years now, I have many of them so I've learned to tell when they're not healthy and your looks a little too flat to me. If it's a wc adult it prob mated in the wild. If you plump her up she might have babies later.

JLPicard · Jul 28, 2015

I feed her every seven days, though sometimes she just doesn't seem to care for the crickets. I'd say on average she eats one cricket every two weeks. I've been thinking about switching to meal worms because maybe the crickets are too hard for her to catch?

Galapoheros · Jul 28, 2015

Have you actually witnessed her eat something? I'm not a fan of meal worms but can't hurt to see if she eats. You can take the back legs off crickets to slow them down.

Arachnomaniac19 · Jul 28, 2015

Try superworms. My emp doesn't care for mealworms nor crickets, but eats about 3 supers a week (I just got it as a skinny farmed/WC animal a couple months ago).

JLPicard · Jul 30, 2015

I found her dead this morning.. I don't get it, she still ate a cricket a couple of days ago.

EDIT: I went to the pet store where I had her remains checked out. The owner told me it either died of dehydration, because according to him the species should be kept at room temperature, or old age.

I was wondering if I could have your opinion on the matter. 25-31 degrees Celsius doesn't seem too hot to me, considering it's indigenous to South-Africa. Should I keep my next scorpion at room temperature? I feel really bad 'cause I did a decent amount of research before buying a scorp..

pannaking22 · Jul 30, 2015

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that

My first guess would be old age, but it did look a little on the skinny side. Did you have it at those temps all the time or just during the day?

Galapoheros · Jul 31, 2015

I think mid 70sF is OK for a while but even then I would use a heat mat on a side, at least one of those small ones. I'm not sure of the size, something like 4x6 inches(?) In a room with AC, I would use a mat. It's not for heating up the whole terr but to just give it a place to warm up if it wants, like a reptile would do. I see them do that all the time over here. I use all sandy sub and flat rocks. Once or twice a month you can pour a little water down the back of the glass where the rocks are. If you buy another one, I'd ask to see if it will eat. If it doesn't it may still be healthy but if it does you will know it's healthy.

JLPicard · Jul 31, 2015

Temperatures dropped to around 18 °C at night, so it would not always hit 30+ °C degrees during the day, unless it was hot outside as well. I have a timer, so the lamps would be on from 9AM to 7PM.

I was also told the substrate needed to be moist at all times.

pannaking22 · Jul 31, 2015

They don't need to be moist all the time. They're a desert species, so they a little water every week or two, but the substrate doesn't have to be moist.

Smokehound714 · Jul 31, 2015

you should feed them until the refuse a meal and give them LOTS of water.. these things will drink for like half an hour until full of water.

Substrate should be sandy and dry, these live in dry rocky hillsides and stony cliffs- for this species you'll want a vertical surface they can rest on, as they're lithophiles. I've kept other lithophiles with similar behavior, and they didn't fare well if they couldnt hang on a vertical surface.

Only use IR lamps to heat scorpions, or heat pads. If you're using a reptile basking lamp it will bake them alive.

These do not need any additional heat, really. Room temp will actually be just fine. Only in winter will you need additional heating.

Galapoheros · Aug 1, 2015

The lamp might be the reason the water was gone, evaporation, best to do the IR thing like Smokehound said, good to offer a gradient of temps. If they want to warm up, they will find it and park there. It's cooler in the rock cracks in their natural habitat, they can regulate by moving around. Check out the pic halfway down this page, imagine that in riparian areas in south Africa, you'd find them in those cracks. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/...ate?guid=d437155e-85ec-4a3d-bebb-4fc88428f764

pannaking22 · Aug 1, 2015

Smokehound714 said:
you should feed them until the refuse a meal and give them LOTS of water.. these things will drink for like half an hour until full of water.

Substrate should be sandy and dry, these live in dry rocky hillsides and stony cliffs- for this species you'll want a vertical surface they can rest on, as they're lithophiles. I've kept other lithophiles with similar behavior, and they didn't fare well if they couldnt hang on a vertical surface.

Only use IR lamps to heat scorpions, or heat pads. If you're using a reptile basking lamp it will bake them alive.

These do not need any additional heat, really. Room temp will actually be just fine. Only in winter will you need additional heating.

Interesting, I hadn't heard of them needing a vertical surface...looks like someone is going to be getting a few things changed around then

I have a red bulb (don't know where the stupid bulb box went), but mine is in a fairly large enclosure and that bulb heats up my closet enough that the other scorps can be warm. If that's an issue though I might swap my Hadogenes for my Androctonus then so they can have more suitable temps.

Galapoheros · Aug 1, 2015

I personally haven’t have problems with a “vertical” issue but they would meet with it in nature, might at least give them a variety to crawl around on. I have little room so I’ve been raising 50 or so babies in delis with rocky substrate, no organic material. Since the containers are kind of small, no hiding place and a cap of water, they are all very healthy and some years old now.

H. Troglodytes drinking a lot.

Arachnosquire

Arachno-titled!

Arachnoknight

Arachnoemperor

Arachnoangel

Arachnosquire

Arachnosquire

ArachnoGod

Arachnosquire

ArachnoGod

Arachnolord

Arachnosquire

Arachnoemperor

ArachnoGod

Arachnosquire

Arachnoemperor

Arachnoking

ArachnoGod

Arachnoemperor

ArachnoGod