FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I have several juvenile Padinus imperator, and a few of our native Paruroctonus boreas.

We also have native solpugids here, as well as native pseudoscorpions....I intend on catching and keeping some of the latter this summer....the windscorpions (all species from all locales around the world) are impossible to keep alive for long in captivity...no-one knows why.

Last edited by Toirtis at 25-Apr-2005 11:16

Haha, ok great story. So I go on a school trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. A friend on the trip catches a scorpion and names it Tank. (we also had it fight a HUGE beetle named Edward...)Then when it's time to go home he decides to keep it. So he smuggles it through the airport by putting it in a bag down his pants. I went to his house and he keeps it in a little tank. Haha, he's crazy...

A big Galeodes turning up in the sleeping bag when you've just inserted your legs into it can be an unnerving experience even for the most battle-hardened combat vet,

Faugh...you forgot the part where they run screaming (literally) through the night at 20 mph, ripping the stomachs out of camels and eating people while they sleep.

I hate spiders, so that wasn't a fun deployment; I was more afraid of the native wildlife than the enemy! They remind me of those "Face-Huggers" in 'Alien'(but without the long tails). Glad I live up North.

I will bet you don't live as North as I do (unless you are in Alaska)...and we have them here....

Oh, that'll be one of the Galeodes species GandB. As I said above, Galeodes is the Genus that contains the species with the largest body size and leg span. The problem that is faced by military personnel boils down quite simply to the fact that these creatures seek shadows. Put up a tent, and you provide them with a nice shady hideaway from the blazing desert sun, and they thank you kindly for your generosity. Which leads to interesting encounters when a soldier heads for the sleeping bag. A big Galeodes turning up in the sleeping bag when you've just inserted your legs into it can be an unnerving experience even for the most battle-hardened combat vet, especially if it decides that it's under threat, and responds defensively by using those wonderfully powerful chelicerae. Trust me, you do not want to get your wedding tackle caught in those ...

On the plus side, they are, if harnessed with care, pretty useful to have around. Being non-venomous, they are intimidating looking but otherwise nowhere near the threat that they have been made out to be in some of the sillier Web pages, and because they feed upon a variety of creatures that are dangerous to humans (e.g., certain desert scorpions), they can perform a useful service. But then, learning to live with these creatures is somewhat challenging, given that they are fast-moving, agile, capable of changing direction seemingly at the flick of a switch, and tend to react to threats using the old Gridiron maxim of "the best defence is a good offence". And they are superbly equipped to do so.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 27-Apr-2005 20:09

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

WindScorpions/Camel-Spiders....saw a lot of those in Iraq, except they were white. Very fast(heard someone say they were clocked at almost 5 miles/hour), and they run away from the light of a flashlight at night. I hate spiders, so that wasn't a fun deployment; I was more afraid of the native wildlife than the enemy! They remind me of those "Face-Huggers" in 'Alien'(but without the long tails). Glad I live up North.

One of them jumped on, and bit, the leg of one of our guys(in Kuwait)when he was returning from the showers one night. I guess I'm a bit of a girl when it comes to spiders

-Keith#2

http://www.ozarkgames.com

Perhaps the short life spans in captivity are due to incorrect diet and insufficient quantity of food.

No...wild diets have been provided, and in sufficient quantity....there is some belief that overall enclosure space may be a factor....I have yet to hear of one being kept in anything larger than 8' x 6'.

Scorpions, tarantulas, black widows. Just another day here in Arizona. Don't need to keep them as pets, just walk out into the back yard.]

Those things live in California?

><>

Actually, that creature whose photograph you have displayed in your post and labelled as a 'windscorpion' is in fact a Solifugid. As in the infamous 'Camel Spider'. I recognised the large chelicerae and the leg articulation immediately.

Solifugids gain their name from the Latin meaning "fleeing from the sun". They tend to chase shadows, which is an unnerving aspect of the behaviour of these creatures that helps to add to the myths. However, they are, for their size, enormously powerful predators, and can dismantle a scorpion in seconds. Because solifugids lack venom, they rely upon massive crushing pressure from the chelicerae to kill their prey. They are capable of exerting sufficient pressure to leave dents in metal, so crushing a scorpion doesn't pose too many problems for them. The larger species (Genus Galeodes) are also capable of attacking and killing vertebrate prey, including venomous snakes, a feature that they share with the similarly sized Grammostola Genus of Theraphosid spiders (the Family Theraphosidae contains the large hairy species mistakenly named 'tarantulas').

Solifugids are interesting creatures, very active, and generally need a lot of fuelling to maintain their activity. Perhaps the short life spans in captivity are due to incorrect diet and insufficient quantity of food. A large Galeodes will dispatch a mouse with ease.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The windscorpions (all species from all locales around the world) are impossible to keep alive for long in captivity...no-one knows why.

Really? That's strange. I guess it's a good thing that I haven't been able to find any then.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Does anybody here keep scorpions as pets?

Ever since I bought a couple emperor scorpions a few months ago, I find myself becoming increasingly interested in these creatures.

They are pretty much the perfect pet - They can live in small environments, they only eat once a week, and they don't require any attention (although you can hold them for your own amusement if you want). They are very docile, and would much rather try to run away when scared than try to sting or pinch.

A couple months ago, I decided that I wanted more scorpions, but the only kind I see sold around here are the emperors. I wanted something else, so I went outside and collected a couple near my house. These ones are really cool too, and I even find them to be a bit more interesting than the emperors.

Here they are, the native ones:




[hr width='20%']
"They package brine shrimp and sell them to kids? That's not right, man!"
[/font]

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

i used black lite to find mine cuz id let them loose in my room back when i had a heated water bed theyd end up on it


the reaction u get when u walk downtown in the summer with a big emp on ur shoulder is kinda cool to

if u want an interesteing thing hold black lite over ur emps they turn green

Yeah, pretty much all scorpions do that. At work, we used to keep them under a black light, but I took it out because the UV rays in them bother and hurt the scorpions. While they had it on them, they would be very irritable and often die for no apparent reason (besides the black light).






Last edited by Cory Addict at 23-Apr-2005 01:10

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

ive raised n bred emps and african red claws and dessert scorps

if u want an interesteing thing hold black lite over ur emps they turn green
my big female was jsut over 8" long when she died
the babies r white
emps r by far the most docile n they seem the most inteligent
id open the tank n theyd move stuff around to a corner to get out even balance themselves jsut on thete tail

I've done some research, and and I found out what genus they are in - Paruroctonus. The species look so alike, however, that it is nearl impossible to tell them apart unless the specimens are dissected. Fortunately about this genus though, is that they are not very venomous. In fact, they are only slightly more venomous than the emperor scorpions. A sting from these guys will be pretty painful and cause some swelling, but it is far from life-threatening (unless you are allergic to beestings of course).


[hr width='20%']
"They package brine shrimp and sell them to kids? That's not right, man!"

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

You'll want to be carefull about those native scorpions, cory. An easy way to judge scorpions venom is by the size of their claws. Emperor scorpions have big, bulky claws and are no more venomous than a bee. However, the ones you have in the picture have narrow claws. I would watch out.

- Dj:88)

Sorry, no pictures, so you'll have to trust my word on this one, as outlandish as it sounds. It was up in Washinton state. He keeps several scorpions outdoors in large, capped off rubbermaids, so for a monthly body count, we dug up each and every burrow, a I got my turn at picking up one which he stated was not poisonous, but very intimidating looking.

A big blue one?

Do you know what species it is? I would love to see pictures.





[hr width='20%']
"They package brine shrimp and sell them to kids? That's not right, man!"


Last edited by Cory Addict at 10-Apr-2005 02:52

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Get that thing away from me.

Organized? You give me too much credit. For the most part, I just held out the bin and let Andy drop the suckers in. I did manage to catch one big blue one, though. We only occasionally get them in at work (and even then, our herp guy usually nebs them), so that was really my only experience actually handling one.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 10-Apr-2005 02:45