Basics of Emperor Scorpion care.

[ALD]

I am looking at possibly adding a Black Emperor Scorpion to my little collection - What are the basics of care I should know?
If you know of a good website or Youtube video with good info you could point me in the direction of that would be awesome. Thanks.

 

[Denny Dee]

Hi Ald,

Been offline for awhile. Let me know if you still need any advice. I just bought another Emperor yesterday at the All Animal Expo in Wheaton, IL. Thanks.

 

[ALD]

Yes!!! In your opinion what are the must haves and must do things? I'm looking for advice from people who keep them! Thanks in advance.

 

[Denny Dee]

Yes!!! In your opinion what are the must haves and must do things? I'm looking for advice from people who keep them! Thanks in advance.

Okay. These are very hardy and easy to care for scorpions. The most important thing to provide is high humidity (80 percent roughly) so make sure you have a tool to measure that. Adding Moss helps to hold it a little longer. Ideally the substrate supports drainage as it will be moist most of the time. I use Hydraballs (or you can use gravel) as the first layer covered by 70/30 mix of Eco-Earth/Vermiculite. Water dish is critical and will aid with humidity. I recommend stones in the dish to ensure prey does not drown and keeps the scorpion from drowning as well (it took me two losses to learn that). Hide is critical to minimize stress levels. Heat source or whole room heating is possible. 80+ degrees if you are breeding but 75 is fine for general care. There is a lot of debate on temperature on the forum you should read but generally try to recreate an environment that they would enjoy in their natural habitat if possible. Heat is a factor for growth and molting. These are large scorpions and you will hear recommendations on large tanks (10 gallons plus). They spend the bulk of their life in a the hide so I think 5 gallon enclosures are fine for a single species. Lighting is another topic with controversy. I have lights on timers to try to recreate a day/night environment as most inverts are nocturnal. Again, my preference as many keepers do not create light at all. If it is always dark, I compare that to our Las Vegas experience of never knowing when it is time to call it a night and sleep. I feed my scorpions once a week. They do not need more than that but if you really enjoy feeding, twice a week is okay. Hope that helps?

 

[ALD]

Okay. These are very hardy and easy to care for scorpions. The most important thing to provide is high humidity (80 percent roughly) so make sure you have a tool to measure that. Adding Moss helps to hold it a little longer. Ideally the substrate supports drainage as it will be moist most of the time. I use Hydraballs (or you can use gravel) as the first layer covered by 70/30 mix of Eco-Earth/Vermiculite. Water dish is critical and will aid with humidity. I recommend stones in the dish to ensure prey does not drown and keeps the scorpion from drowning as well (it took me two losses to learn that). Hide is critical to minimize stress levels. Heat source or whole room heating is possible. 80+ degrees if you are breeding but 75 is fine for general care. There is a lot of debate on temperature on the forum you should read but generally try to recreate an environment that they would enjoy in their natural habitat if possible. Heat is a factor for growth and molting. These are large scorpions and you will hear recommendations on large tanks (10 gallons plus). They spend the bulk of their life in a the hide so I think 5 gallon enclosures are fine for a single species. Lighting is another topic with controversy. I have lights on timers to try to recreate a day/night environment as most inverts are nocturnal. Again, my preference as many keepers do not create light at all. If it is always dark, I compare that to our Las Vegas experience of never knowing when it is time to call it a night and sleep. I feed my scorpions once a week. They do not need more than that but if you really enjoy feeding, twice a week is okay. Hope that helps?

Yes! Thank you.
I was hoping I could avoid a heat pad. The lowest the room gets it would be in is 70. It's the same room as my Ts and hermit crabs.

 

[Denny Dee]

You would probably get by okay. These are hardy scorps. Will definitely grow slower. Just make sure the humidity if correct. Having a temp and a humidity issue would not be good.

 

[Nk1996]

Does anyone know what’s wrong with my emperor scorpion? It’s a baby and it looks deformed. I am a first time emperor scorpion owner, I bought the mother not knowing she was pregnant about 2 years ago. She gave birth 11 months after I got her to 19 healthy babies. I took care of them but tried to give some away as pets, I currently have 15. One of the babies I found under the water bowl, and the back half of its body is small while the front is wide? I don’t know if the water bowl was crushing it and made him/her deformed or if she/he has some kind of disease? Anyone know anything?

 

[ilovebrachys]

Hi
Has the scorp in question moulted recently?
As long as it seems fine in every other way (feeding ok etc) there's little you can do apart from wait for it to moult again and maybe the deformation will correct itself... That said some animals have them all their lifetime without it affecting their quality of life

 

[Nk1996]

Hi
Has the scorp in question moulted recently?
As long as it seems fine in every other way (feeding ok etc) there's little you can do apart from wait for it to moult again and maybe the deformation will correct itself... That said some animals have them all their lifetime without it affecting their quality of life

No I don’t think it has molted recently. It’s just so strange! He needs more junk in the trunk

 

[Avicularia Kael]

It almost looks squished.

 

[Nk1996]

I know right... one of them looked squished months ago, not sure if it was the same one as now but this one looks squished on the sides. The one that looked squished before looked flattened on its back... sometimes I worry the water bowl is too heavy on top of them