#morbidsask

I have a 10 gallon set up with two blue death feigning beetles, Chowder and Gumbo, as well as an Orthoporus ornatus, Morb. I mostly just want more desert friends and a lot of resources suggested BDFBs and certain species of desert scorpions do well together. Morb can move to his own tank if need be as I couldn't find any confirmation one way or another if they can cohabitate.

There's 6 inches of substrate and the tank is heated. I prefer smaller species, and have no preference regarding arboreal vs terrestrial. I would love something that can be captive bred but it's not a big deal. Not looking to ever handle the beastie and I have no preference for activity level. I just love desert friends.

Personally paravaejovis spinigerus are one of my favorite species of all time, so I'd pretty much always recommend that. Centruroides sculpturatus are medically significant, so although they could also work in that set up I wouldn't get them unless you're experienced with scorpions. I don't really recommend Hadrurus, they're the only US native scorpion I'm not planning on getting. Similarly to bdfb and orthoporus, we haven't really gotten their care requirements down yet and they're almost impossible to breed in captivity. They need a deep, clay based substrate that they can dig permanent burrows into and are really sensitive to water and wet substrate. These requirements do overlap with bdfb and orthoporus tho so they can be cohabed. I'm honestly not sure if orthoporus can be cohabed with a scorpion? I believe they have some chemical defenses so the scorpion wont see them as food, and bdfb are too armored to really be appetizing to a scorpion which is why they dont get eaten. If you get a scorpion tho, make sure you get an adult, as a molting scorpion is an easy target for the bdfb.

@ovvscolofex Unfortunately arachnid first aid is in its infancy, most of the knowledge we have about it is based on the tarantula keeping community, which pioneer such techniques as superglueing together breaks in the cuticle and inducing your tarantula to have a fever by keeping them hot to cure nematodes. These techniques mainly deal with breaks from drops, broken limbs, or other physical trauma to the tarantula. As of right now, no one knows how to cure bacterial or fungal infections once they've colonized the cuticle of the arachnid. Mycosis kills a lot of desert scorpions, even the smallest spot will quickly spread or cause the fungus to break off and circulate in the scorpions blood stream, and as of right now no one has any idea how to cure it.

This isn't mycosis, this is an altogether different thing. You have to appreciate what it feels like dealing with something so unknown. I don't know if its bacterial or fungal, or if it's dangerous, and how dangerous it is. I don't know if it will spread and kill her, or if it's just natural discoloration. No one really knows, because such things have never been studied before. Arachnid keeping as a whole is still a new subject, even more so than herp and reptile keeping.

The hermit crab treatments have been proven to cure fungal and bacterial infections on the cuticle of an arthopod, and that route seems safer than trying to use human remedies like using neosporin or something. The dosage of the bath is already adjusted to a small arthopod, and the ingredients have been proven to be nontoxic to at least some brand of arthopod (again, much less risk than using a human antiseptic).

As for whether or not the actual soaking itself is cruel, that's just silly. Tropical scorpions (especially heterometrus) have been shown time and time again to willingly enter bodies of water both in the wild and in captivity.

(the first pic is mine, the second I got off fb somewhere)

https://youtu.be/JN8_PLHW0Q4

Video of a scorpion (from an arid region at that!) walking along the bottom of a pool.

This is from František Kovarík's "Illustrated Catalog of Scorpions Part 1", the range of how long scorpions can hold their breath ranges from a couple days to well over a week, I typically say 2-3 days if people ask.

From the same book, the range of p. viatoris is listed as "West Africa", with the particular scorpion he was studying coming from Zambia.

This is in the "wet" band throughout the middle of Africa, which ranges from tropical regions in the central area to temperate forests and "woodland savanna" with seasonal heavy rains. I have stated several times I would not bathe a scorpion from an arid or semiarid environment, as they are much less equiped to deal with standing water.

This is my scorpion

I don't wanna bother them to much but I was wondering your opinion on if it's mature or not, I'm thinking mature based off of your post but I do know