Hadogenes paucidens
Olive Keeled Flat Rock Scorpion: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A flattened rock-crevice scorpion: dry, slow-growing, extraordinarily long-lived, and best kept singly except for deliberate, closely supervised breeding introductions.
Group: ScorpionsDifficulty: Spice 3: IntermediateSetup: Ventilated flat rock-crevice setup (stacked cork or slate)Handling: Not recommended
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 | 77-90°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Low-Moderate ambient (~50%) with heavy airflow; dry cage, humid pockets behind the rockwork |
| Setup Type | Ventilated flat rock-crevice setup (stacked cork or slate) |
| Substrate | Shallow: sand, coco, or a rocky/sandy mix; the stacked flat cork/rock crevices matter, not the depth |
| Feeding | Small roaches/crickets every 1-2 weeks |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 3: Intermediate |
| Handling | Not recommended |
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)
- Burrow Buddy: grow-out crevice setup for juveniles (flat cork/rock crevices + humid pocket behind the rockwork)
- Larger horizontal floor for full-grown adults (6-8 in flat-bodied; needs floor space, not a vertical Bark Buddy)
Warnings First
- Needs tight horizontal crevices
- Slow growth means slow recovery from mistakes
- Keep singly; flat rock scorpions are territorial and cannibalism is possible
- Do not keep wet
- Tight crevices are dead air by design. Heavy ventilation is what makes them safe, and on a slow-growing species a mycosis problem takes a very long time to come back from.
Simple Care
- Crevices matter more than deep substrate.
- Ventilate heavily. Tight crevices trap still air, and this is the species that punishes it slowest and hardest.
- Mostly dry, but trickle water behind the rockwork for a humid pocket; ventilate well so it can pick its spot.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so small instars cannot drown.
- Keep one animal per enclosure; only pair deliberately for breeding with separation tools ready.
- Great display animal when settled.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- This genus is adapted for narrow rock cracks. Use stacked cork bark slabs, slate, or secured flat hides with tight gaps.
- Avoid heavy loose rocks that can shift. Any rockwork should be stable before the animal is added.
- Build several crevice choices for one animal so it can thermoregulate and retreat without being forced into the open. Do not sell this as a communal scorpion.
- Ventilate well: a screen top (or no top) lets you keep the cage dry while a few crevices stay humid. Stack flat slate or cork with small pebbles as spacers to keep the horizontal gaps tight, and trickle a little water down behind the stack now and then to create humid pockets without wetting the whole enclosure.
- Add low side vents to that screen top rather than relying on the top alone. A tight horizontal crevice is dead air by design, which is exactly what makes this setup work as a humid pocket and exactly what makes it dangerous if the surrounding cage is not moving air. Vents low on two opposite walls pull air across the base of the rockwork, so the pockets stay humid without going stale.
- The ventilation and humidity relationship is the whole design here. You are deliberately running a dry cage with wet spots inside it, and only airflow keeps those two states separate. Trickle water behind the stack to feed the pockets, ventilate heavily everywhere else, and never close the cage up to raise ambient. On a species that grows this slowly, a fungal problem costs you years.
- Judge by touch, not by a gauge sitting in open air. Reach behind the rockwork and the surface there should feel cool and lightly damp, while the open substrate and the exposed rock faces read dry. If the whole enclosure feels the same, ventilation is the fix.
- Keep a shallow water dish with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Instars of a slow-growing species spend a long time small enough to drown in a dish, and the stones remove that risk for the whole grow-out period.
- Recharge the humid pockets by trickling water down the back of the stack rather than misting the enclosure. That targets the crevice microclimate the animal actually uses and leaves the open cage dry and moving air, which is the entire point of the setup.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Feeding: modest prey (crickets or small roaches) only every 2-4 weeks, and adults will fast far longer; this is not a fast-metabolism buthid, so light feeding is correct. Overfeeding causes obesity and leaves prey remains rotting deep in the crevices. Judge by abdomen condition.
- Growth: glacially slow. Many years and a long series of molts to reach adult size, then females live 20-30 years (the longest-lived scorpions known). Because growth is so slow, a husbandry mistake costs years to recover from. Pull feeders before a molt and never offer prey to a soft, freshly-molted animal.
- Maintenance: fish boluses and dead feeders out of the crevice stacks. They're easy to miss in there. Keep it dry, with only a very small water dish or occasional side dampening; persistent moisture is dangerous. Make sure slate/cork crevices are stable before the animal goes in, and avoid rehousing: it's a sedentary crevice specialist, not a digger.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: South-eastern Africa: rocky outcrops, kopjes, and crevice habitats in roughly the Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi region.
- Habitat translation: Tight horizontal and vertical rock cracks matter far more than deep substrate; keep it dry overall with one humid pocket behind the rockwork and good airflow.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Build stable slate or cork crevice stacks that cannot shift; heavy rock should never rest on loose substrate.
- Default to solitary housing. For breeding introductions, supervise closely, provide multiple exits, and separate immediately after pairing or at the first sign of aggression.
- Feeding can be lighter than fast-growing buthids; avoid obesity and stale prey remains in crevices.
- Humidity is debated: many keep paucidens around 50% and some breeders run it a touch higher; the point is a gradient (well-ventilated, dry cage with humid pockets behind the rockwork), not one damp setup.
- Hadogenes are the longest-lived scorpions known (females can hit 20-30 years), and among the longest-bodied (to ~8 in). Growth is glacially slow, so a husbandry mistake costs years to recover. Venom is mild; the flattened body is a rock-crevice adaptation, not a digging one.