Androctonus spp.
Identity confidence: provisional. This is a genus, group, or trade name rather than a confirmed species. Treat it as the closest match we can stand behind, and use the more conservative end of any range.
Fat-Tailed Scorpions: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: Among the deadliest scorpions in the world: fat-tails: aggressive, fast-striking, lethal venom, and responsible for human fatalities (A. australis, A. crassicauda). A. bicolor is the jet-black one. Serious hot-keeper territory only, with legal authorization and a documented antivenom-access plan. Adults reach about 3.5-5 inches.
Group: Industry StaplesDifficulty: Spice 5: Extreme (Medical Significance)Setup: Hot arid buthid setupHandling: NEVER
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 80-95°F (day), cooler at night |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Very low ambient (25-40%), heavily ventilated; dry deep sand, dish only |
| Setup Type | Hot arid buthid setup |
| Substrate | Dry sand-and-soil mix, deep enough to burrow; a tight hide |
| Feeding | Appropriate prey weekly |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 5: Extreme (Medical Significance) |
| Handling | NEVER |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Baby Buddy: secure starter enclosure for 2i-3i instars (escape-proof ventilation only)
- Secure small arid enclosure for juveniles
Warnings First
- Lethal venom: documented human fatalities; aggressive and fast to strike
- Hot-keeper only, with antivenom-access planning and (in many places) a permit
- Strict no-contact: secondary containment, long tools, never an open-table transfer
- Tiny ventilation, but plenty of it and placed low. A sealed hot box holds damp air against the cuticle, and mycosis is the quiet killer of arid buthids.
Simple Care
- Hot, dry, deep sand; a tight hide; tiny ventilation only, but many small vents low on two opposite walls so air crosses the sand.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so tiny instars cannot drown.
- Never handle under any circumstance.
- Maintenance is slow, planned, and tool-based with a catch container, every time.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- The hobby names: A. australis (yellow fat-tail), A. amoreuxi, A. bicolor (black fat-tail), A. crassicauda, A. mauritanicus: North Africa and the Middle East, extreme arid. Hot, dry, deep sand for burrowing, a tight hide, and minimal clutter.
- Day temps 80-95°F with a cooler night drop. The enclosure must be sealed and the animal always locatable before you open it.
- Sealed against escape is not the same as sealed against air, and the distinction matters on a species you cannot afford to do unplanned maintenance on. Use many tiny vents low on two opposite walls, at or just above the sand line, so air crosses the layer the scorpion burrows into. An Androctonus spends the day in a scrape under its hide where air does not move on its own, and damp air held still against the cuticle is what grows fungus even in a desert setup.
- On an extreme arid species the ventilation and humidity relationship is entirely one-directional. Heavy airflow holds ambient down at 25 to 40% with no effort, so the water dish is the only moisture input and you genuinely cannot over-ventilate this animal. If you are throttling vents to hold heat, fix the heating instead.
- Check by hand rather than by hygrometer, on the same slow schedule as the rest of your maintenance. Sand should read dry from the surface to the base of the scrape, with dampness only right around the dish.
- Keep the dish shallow and pack it with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Instars are small enough to drown in a dish an adult uses safely, and on a lethal species the stones mean one fewer reason to open the enclosure. Site the dish away from the hide and dry any spill immediately.
- Do not mist. The microclimate this genus uses is the scrape under its hide, which sits slightly cooler and marginally damper than the open sand on its own once the substrate is deep enough. Adding surface water only works against that.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Feeding: appropriately sized crickets or roach nymphs, body length or under, smaller for instars. Young eat every 4-7 days, adults roughly weekly to every other week; remove uneaten feeders promptly. Drop prey with long tongs over a catch container, never on an open desk.
- Growth: matures over several molts. When it stops eating and tucks away, clear out every feeder, and don't disturb the soft, pale, freshly-molted animal until it hardens. Androctonus is a live-bearer: the mother carries first-instar young on her back until their first molt; a carrying female must not be disturbed, and now you have several venomous animals to contain.
- Maintenance: keep it hot, dry and sparse with a snug hide; hydrate via prey and the odd tiny damp spot. Desert species die of chronic humidity, not of a dry enclosure with a small water source. Spot-clean boluses with tongs. This animal strikes fast and means it: secondary containment, long tools, zero contact.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: North Africa and the Middle East: extreme arid desert.
- Habitat translation: A hot, dry, deep-sand enclosure with a tight hide and minimal clutter: sealed, simple, and never handled.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size ~3.5-5 in. A. australis and A. crassicauda are documented in medical literature in human fatalities: this is among the most dangerous scorpion genera kept anywhere.
- For serious hot-keepers with local antivenom-access plans and, in many US states and much of the EU, the required permits. Verify legality before acquiring.
- The threshold the hobby uses: documented years of experience with milder buthids first, then a legal review, then this. Never as an early scorpion.