Hadrurus arizonensis

[jay76]

How does this sound for husbandry:

5 gallon tank, 4 inches of sand, small piece of wood or rock, 80-85 degrees, low humidity... does that sound alright? Would you recommend anything done differently? Do scorpions need/use hides? Thanks!

[reverendsterlin]

those guys can get the blood pumping when they crawl out beside you around here. I give all of mine hides, the big ones with clay crockery and the little centroides has an irregular rock he burrows under.

[jay76]

They're labelled 'hot' here, and everyone's nervous around them (which I can understand), but the sites I've seen say they're not that bad unless you're allergic to their venom. Just how dangerous are they?

[BrandonVeenstra]

Some flat rocks would do well for hides

[FrankQC]

H. arizonensis aren't hot at all :) Your setup seems fine, but be sure to provide a stable burrowing substrate OR flat rocks so the little guy will be able to burrow under. I saw somewhere that they live on half sand, half small rocks, so maybe you could add small gravel to the sand.

This species ALWAYS burrow! It's a very interesting species, you won't regret getting one desert hairy scorp. Mine was in a 10g tank, with 50/50 sand/aquarium gravel (5" substrate), a flatrock to burrow under and a small wood branch so he could hide if he wanted to.

[jay76]

I was wondering about burrowing. The one site I was reading mentioned about 6 inches of sand, and wetting the top half or so so that it becames kinda crust like to let them do some stable burrowing... I've still got a 20kg bag of playsand to mess around with, but does that sound feasible?

[FrankQC]

Playsand is small sand, it isn't good for burrowing. Unless you have a big flatrock so he'll have alot of place to burrow, but it can't be done as you want to put him in a 5g tank.

Get another type of sand or bentonite (or wet down playsand and let it dry before putting the scorp in) and it'll be fine.

[jay76]

I'll have to find a better sand then... figures I still can't use that bag I have :p

Is there any specific variety that's recommended? I've never heard of bentonite before... just what is it?