Emp given birth, need advice

Ok so some of you might of seen my thread about moving the male cause the female was suspected gravid, well i can now tell you that she is, heres a pic:



I can count about 15 and see another one coming, so far so good.

This is my first scorpion pregnancy so i am very inexperienced as to what to do, i take responsibilty of course for not reasearching more, just been abit busy recently.

I basically need to know all the do's and dont's for what im about to experience, and would appreciate all and any advice no matter how big or small, thanks.

Hey, congrats man!
I am busy at the moment too, but will get back to this if no one provides the info.
For now, leave the babies with mom until they molt to 2 instar.

Hey thanks, yeah i will appreciate any contributions of advice as i have no clue what to do other than wait, im not even sure how long im waiting for lol

When the mother finally drops them off her back after they molt, separate them all into little food containers, if you don't have enough though you could probably get away with two per tub, but if you really want to get rid of the risk of cannibalism, put them all in separate tubs. Put some substrate in all of them of course. Then just throw a tiny cricket in with them, let's say twice a week.

Obviously make sure they're warm, and have a water source. A bottle cap of water will do.

I'm sure people will add to this, but there's a rough guide.

Question: Seperate them as soon as they leave her back?

The-New-Guy wrote:

Question: Seperate them as soon as they leave her back?

First, Congrats!! Beautiful Emp Scorplings you have there.

With regards to separation after they dismount from mum's back, it all depends on individual preference.

Some will let the scorplings stay with mum till 3-4th instars, some might separate all to either individual housing, in small groups or total communal settings once they dismount.

Personally, I've paired my Emps few months ago and am hoping to receive some bundle of joy like you had

As for my humble experience with an AFS brood, out of my 33 AFS scorplings, i left 5 with mum and all other 28 in communal setup (with abandunce of food of cos)

I witness the tender loving care the mother AFS gave to 5 scorplings by pre-killing food and being extremely protective of them. Any roach dropped into the tank will be captured in lightning speed within seconds! The mum will then hold on to the captured roach by her mouth for at least a whole day without munching which puzzled me at the beginning...

After awhile, i saw the scorplings approach her without fear and "steal" her food from below her while the mum just keep still for them. It was very heart-warming to see that indeed. I've then decided to gave her 13 scorplings in total. Leaving 20 in communal setup.

It all boils down to the risk you willing to take i guess

If you haven seen this, do check out this great writeup on raising Emp scorplings:
http://www.venomlist.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9443&hl=%20emperor%20%20brood&st=0

Hope it helps!

Thanks this helps alot, I don't think I have anywhere near 33, I'm pretty sure it's under 20 actually but not 100%, I thought I saw her eating one last night but it was just panicing trying to crawl round her claw lol.

I'm not sure as to what I'm going to do, I might take them all out and put them
in a communal for a while, really I'd like to get the male back in as soon as is safe to do so if that's possible, they've been together for a few good years now, but I guess I'll have to think about it, might leave some
in there I'm not really sure

but this is all good and gives me something
to think about, thanks alot

Another question also: how long should I leave it before trying to give her food? And should it be pre killed or let her kill it and feed them? She hasn't eaten in about a week, usually I just give her one big locust a week, if they are too big I've got some slightly smaller crickets

Usually there's no need to feed while the babies are still on her back but i'll just place a headless + legless roach/cricket just infront of her and she'll take it when she wants to feed. A struggling/twitching prey may stress her imo. You can remove the dead feeder if it was not taken in another day.

Ah yeah that makes sense, I will try it out when they molt, thanks

Update: all seems to be well, just noticed one on his/her own has come off the mothers back and is just standing near her, they all seem to have spread out aswell from her centre back to nearer the edges of her, I'm assuming they will molt soon as it's been nearly 10 days since birth

Thats great news bro. One thing i like to share as well, i just checked on my AFS brood few days ago.
The 13 babies which i left with their mum is indeed 30% bigger in size as compared to the 20 scorplings in communal setup. I'm guessing they will be the first molting batch.

Btw, do post some pics updates of your Emps scorplings if you have the chance, cant wait to see their cute pics

Yeah I will post some when I get a chance, just looked in there and there's what sadly looks like one dead, on the substrate towards the back of the log they're all in, hasn't moved in a
while, or maybe the first to molt? I'm not sure if they leave the mother to
molt or not? Ill try get a pic soon

Just got back from work and looked again, think it's
a molt actually, there's loads all around where she's standing

Just looked again, there's only like 10 left on her back, the rest are in the hide, not moving or showing any signs of life

Just seen one molt successfully on her back, but i think some have had trouble molting, theres atleast 10 missing off her back in the back of her hide, its hard to tell which are molts and which are deceased, but theres definatly a mix of the 2.

Heres some pics




The pic below isnt of great quality but is the best i can get off my phone, you can just about make out one of the scorpions or molts in her hide, i can't tell which, abit gutted but nothing i can do really

Update: 2 have been stuck in molt for about 30 hours, they dropped off her back when she came out of the hide, she has just ran out and started eating both of them, I also witnessed her eating another one inside the hide, I think there has been a molting problem with most of the brood, only 6 or 7 remain on her back.

Will get pics up soon

Hi Bro,

Sry to hear about the bad molts

Maybe it's the photo but just in case, try to keep the humidity up. The soil can be nicely dampened more (just not soaking wet will do).

But i'm sure the remaining ones are the stronger and fit ones

Yeah the substrate isn't in the best shape, just been letting it dry out cause had some fungus
growing, I'll soak it later. But yeah I'm abit gutted but nothing I can do really, was just strange watching her come out to the 2 outside and just grab them, but I guess it's like a putting them
out of there misery thing. Just out at the
moment, going back to mine soon and will post pics

Most probably you are right about her putting them out from misery. Only the strong survives in nature.
From the looks of the pictures, the little Emp scorplings look really cute and big

substrate looks far too dry no wonder they had trouble molting we recently lost a scorp to a bad molt but through no fault of our own our humidity was correct, you really need the humidity up specially at this stage of there lives first molts will prly be the hardest, i hope the rest manage to survive and that you have got that humidity up to 70%

The humidity in my room is seriously high as it is, always above 70, but unfortunatly doesn't matter now, she has appeared to eat all of them, no trace of any left

Actually sadly have just had a proper look and found about 9 dotted around the tank deceased

sorry for you loss dude better luck next time?

No worries mate we live and learn, yeah cheers,
think my flatrock might be pregnant so were see where that goes lol