Hello All,
About six months back I made my entrance into inverts by buying a Red-Kneed. There was a lot of trouble at first with my ignorance - it's a lot different actually having one than reading up on them and thinking I knew how to handle her. She came to me small, and climbed the glass because the substrate was too wet. I didn't have a proper water dish for her. I had put too many crickets in there. I stressed because she didn't seem to eat. I asked you guys for help. I made the changes, gave her a dinner plate for a shallow lake. She dug her cave under the plate. She stayed under there 100% of the time, which convinced me she was dead. So I set up a schedule of lifting the plate when the heater dried it out. She was always healthy and cowering back. Finally I decided to let her do what she would, and hoped she would survive.
Well that method worked. After a couple of months I saw shed on the ground, let crickets loose in the cage, and sporadically kept water in the dish about 2/3 the time. Now she's' quite large and comes up when she's thirsty. It's like she's saying "What the heck, Roger, where's my water!!" She stands there while I pour it in, then jumps in the 1/4 inch deep water to drink. Sometimes she stays above ground 12 hours at a time. She positions herself in the middle of the warm zone emanating from a 100 watt CHE I have propped high against one end of her 20 gallon tank. The ambient temp of the tank is about 75F. I think she likes the warmth in the zone nearest the heater. I don't use under-tank heaters on her, probably because I'm mainly a lizard guy and believe heat should come from above. Plus I don't want to over-heat her cave.
Do you-all think an under-tank heating pad under half the tank is a better way to heat her?
Now I'm trying to gain insight into the practical care for Emperor Scorpions. If I let a water dish dry out, and re-fill it, they immediately jump right in. I have two in each tank. They like to hide under magnolia leaves. I think they ambush crickets there, because they are not dead from starvation. I have one odd thing to report. When I received them in the mail, I carefully opened the boxes and found the scorpions. For self protection I put on a glove I use for lizard bites. Well scorpion stingers pierce right through them. It was about one-third or one-fourth the pain of yellow-jacket stings. The sting wasn't too bad, except the pain lasted for five days. Oh the odd thing is that as fast as I could shovel them out, they each grabbed a cricket and carried it around. They needed no time at all to adjust to the new home before they could eat. Now it's a little more mysterious.
One thing I don't like is the way they reach up the glass trying to get out. It's single-pane glass, and water condenses like crazy on the inside. They reach up and smear peat moss all over the glass to about six inches up. Is this escape behavior a result of bad care? Is it possibly too humid in there? The substrate is damp. The heat is from heating pads under 1/2 the tanks. I have the tops covered with newspaper to slow water vapor escape, plus it eliminates cold breezes near the substrate.
Well I got to mow the hay now.
I wish health and prosperity to all of you this coming year!!
clffdvr
