Average Size: up to 6"

Lifespan: 7+ years

Hygiene and Health: Scorpions are generally quite hardy and adaptable if they are provided with the right environment. A few signs that may indicate that your pet is not acting or feeling normal are a loss of appetite , acting listless or sluggish, having an overly swollen stomach, missing/deformed limbs, or showing obvious fear of moving out of the corner of the tank for days. Misting the cage, keeping the temperature as a normal level, and having food around should pretty much ensure a healthy scorpion so this is rare.

Cleaning is not really a hard job but you should make sure to get rid of half eaten parts of food so it does not attract mites or mold.

Temperature and Humidity: This species like it warm and humid. Keep the temperature maintained at about at 75° - 82 °F. Its recommended that a scorpion aquarium has a heat pad on one side of the aquarium, but not necessary. Its just important that you do not keep them in a cold drafty area of your home. They need a humidity level of 70% to 85% as well. This can be obtained by misting the aquarium once a day with a spray bottle.

Behavior: Emperor Scorpions are very hardy species. They not not require much responsibility to take care of. Other than the creepy stance they prevail the life of a scorpion is pretty boring. They are more active at night and do a lot of laps around the enclosure over a long period of time.

Diet: Their diet should consist on mainly crickets. On a quarterly basis you can feed them something different like a grasshopper, pinky, or mealworm, but do not over do this. Its good to always have 1 or 2 crickets kicking around in the enclosure, but do not put in too many because crickets are known to swarm predators and kill them. Its also important to not pre kill the crickets and feed them that because its important for scorpions to hunt.

Habitat: The requirements of the enclosure is not really expensive. A 5-15 gallon terrarium with a screen-top/glasstop will suit fine. Scorpions cannot climb so there isn't much risk of escape either. A substrate of damp sand and peat moss with a top layer of cypress mulch, at least 3" deep (4 - 6" is even better). Also provide a shallow, wide water dish. They will dig deep burrows if the substrate is suitable.

Handling: Please handle at your own risk. Scorpions have a very strong value of bee venom inside their tail and if you are struck it will be painful and possibly life threatening if you have an allergic reaction. For most people this is not a risk but its better to be careful. As for Emperor Scorpions, they do not often use their tails as a weapon. For the most part, its only used for an emergency frieghtening situation. The pinchers of a scorpion are very strong as well and can cause a lot of pain. On top of that, getting them to let go is only by their want so it could take 1 minute longer than you'd like. Still many people hold these scorpions is they are the most passive scorpion specie that does exist.

Loner or Groupies: Naturally Scorpions are loners and will be fine in an enclosure alone but can be grouped together pending their habitat is large enough. Still there is a chance of fights occurring for food even if there is a lot of food available anyway. A good way to avoid this is by having plenty of hiding spots available as scorpions are not known to hold grudges against each other.

Additional Info: Buy a blacklight, turn off the lights so that you are in total darkness with the scorpion and turn on the blacklight. A scorpion will glow green.

Recommended Supplies: