Emergency Babies

I'm sure I can find some answers with a little time and some searching but I am quite busy tearing apart my tank and trying to figure out how to take care of some new babies and hoped someone may have some suggestions.

I have 5 Hottentotta Trilineatus's and I was wondering if they were even fully matured. I posted some pics a little while back with a fat one wondering if it was on to it's last molt or potentially prego. Everyone seemed to think ready to molt but apparently one of them was prego! I was out of town yesterday and came back tonight to find a baby scorpion runnin' around the tank. I immediately grabbed a bunch of deli cups and baby food containers and started tearing the tank apart. I got all 5 adults out and found 8 babies.

Couple of questions if anyone can answer it would be greatly appreciated. I'll definitely do some searching for my own answers after I get the tank put back together and everyone situated again. Also I'll post some pics as I will take some of the adults for sexing also.

Can I keep the babies together? It is a communal species but wasn't sure if it was best to separate the babies. They are all at least 2i as they are running around.

What is the average number of babies for H. Trilineatus? I have 8 but wouldn't be surprised if some got munched. I stare at the vivarium every night and this was the 1st I saw of anything.

Recommendations for food for the babies? I will have to go get something tomorrow as it is late here and my son is sleeping. I know I can't get pinheads. I can get small crickets and maim them or use roach nymphs. I believe wingless fruit flies are also available.

Thanks in advance

Hey there,

Congrats on your brood!
I read the average brood size is 12 scorplings. Crickets or roaches cut in half will be fine for food.
The adults are said to be communal at times, but I am not sure about this. I would probably separate the babies due to limited knowledge. Maybe you'll be able to find more information on this.

Awesome, cut up crickets and roaches I have on hand Thank you! I have had no problems with the adults living communally but wasn't sure about the babies. I know I'll wait until they are adults to introduce them to the rest of the colony though Thanks for the help, that was probably the most important question! And thanks for the congrats, I'm excited as all get up!

lol no problem

Yeah, I'd be super excited too. Nothing like having a fresh batch of baby scorpions

What in the world is going on today??? I had picked up some things for some vivariums today before coming back to find my 8 H. Trilineatus additions and was putting new water bowls in with my V. Spinigerus (2 remaining out of the 3 I tried as a communal set up) I'm thinking the little guy that got eaten was not eaten because they weren't communal but was eating because he got another one prego, who knows, but I do know one thing... It looks like there are about 40+ little white scorplings on moms back! So on top of waiting for the 3 Parabuthus Transvaalicus in the mail I have approximately 50 new scorps :/ Excitement is starting to turn to worry. Might have to sell some of the V. Spins, or Ummm.. all of them! I'll post pics in this thread too!

Congrats! You have alot of work ahead of you

hahaha
You got what you asked for and more lol!

I can see your collection is booming out of control

As promised here are some pics!

scott land wrote:

Congrats! You have alot of work ahead of you Very Happy

Thanks, and yes I do and to think I was building back drops fro 20 T slings when they get a bit bigger :/

H. Laoticus wrote:

hahaha
You got what you asked for and more lol!

I can see your collection is booming out of control Smile

Darn right, I have to be careful what I ask for! It should be fun, the H.Trilineatus I have a colony started so another 8 is no biggy, but what to do with the V. Spins now :/ Aside from selling the young


Hottentotta Babies:







V. Spinigerus

Sweet nice one mate, that spinigerus brood looks huge! Your collection is definatly booming. Can't wait to see the P.Trans.

You're taking some nice pics, you using the dslr now?

Anybody have any suggestions on water for the little ones? Misting? Or just a tiny puddle in the bottom of a water cap? Or do you not have to worry too much with the babies? They are also a desert species and I keep water in the communal set up at least every night or every other night as I have read numerous people putting water in 1x a month. I figure they won't take it if they don't want it and the humidity levels are staying around 40%, usually just under.

JamieLawrence wrote:

Sweet nice one mate, that spinigerus brood looks huge! Your collection is definatly booming. Can't wait to see the P.Trans.

You're taking some nice pics, you using the dslr now?

Thanks Bro, yeah 40 may be a low estimation, not sure, thought I counted 33 visible from the pic. She is actually tucked away in the back of tank. I can see a little with a mirror otherwise I noticed when I pulled the viv off the shelf to add some substrate and swap out water dishes. I'm wondering if the other one I have is gravid too. With the new camera I finally could take good sexing pics. Don't need confirmation now though I'm sure both are the same sex at least. The other one that got munched was smaller and thinner, never got good pics of him though, all's I have left is his telson

And yeah those were with the new camera, still on the auto zoom mode though . I have so many pics now I need to do more organizing as I started Flicr account. So I'll get a lot of them up on there and post links. I thought I posted some links but still had a lot of other pics to get up there. Thankfully the winter is coming as my living room is now banging and all these little ones will keep me very busy!

Congrats!!! And great pics!

keep them seperate untill 4th instar or above as they will cannibalize .
after 4th instar that isnt as common as they are a communal species
but only realy as adults .

cut up roaches / crickets are good fruit flys are 90+ % water
so they are not all that good for scorplings in all reality honestly.

as for brood size when i had my group of 15 i had broods that were between 10 and 30
were the most common but they can have up to 40 i believe.


hope that helps

Yikes, talking about jump starting a colony
Thanks Telow.

Definitely much appreciated

just put a squirt of water on a small part of the substrate weekly to make sure they are hydrated,along with what Telow/Wayne said.

Fantastic pics! Good Luck!

Thanks Scott, as well as everyone else, the insight is much appreciated.

The H. Tri's seem to be doing good in their new baby food jar homes. I have noticed most of them eating on their 1/2 cricket. (Scissors suck for that job, had to call a favor in from Moms as she is a nurse and will have to go pick up some scalpels from her tonight:D).

The V/H Spin's are still on moms back. I head crushed a cricket and removed it's hind lets and dropped it in by her as she had not eaten in a couple of weeks (by the way, tarantula's make a great clean up crew for uneaten prey items), well she ate it right away. Hopefully this prevents any babies from getting munched and she is a bit more comfortable. Still a mound on her back and I'm getting ready to drill another 30 or 40 caps out of more baby food jars (sure glad I saved those and recently stumbled across boxes of them! This stash will definitely be exhausted now!)

More updates to come and of course if anyone else has any suggestions they are always welcome. This is my first dealing with newborns aside from my son so it is quite the experience with two different species being found the same night!

Well, everything is going smoothly thus far! Actually amazing to watch progress. I did have another question though if anyone can help it is always appreciated.

I was wondering the frequency to feed babies? I feed for the 2nd time tonight and was thinking of doing every other day. Also would anyone recommend putting a small piece of bark or something to crawl under and hide?

Thanks

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Well, everything is going smoothly thus far! Actually amazing to watch progress. I did have another question though if anyone can help it is always appreciated.

I was wondering the frequency to feed babies? I feed for the 2nd time tonight and was thinking of doing every other day. Also would anyone recommend putting a small piece of bark or something to crawl under and hide?

Thanks

Thats great!
Feeding twice a week is fine but if you want more often is fine as long as they eat and a bark hide is great.

Thanks Scott, I'll be baking some bark then tonight

yeah every 3-4 days is good for them and bark is great to use so your set man good luck

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Thanks Scott, I'll be baking some bark then tonight

You are welcome!
Baking the bark is not needed it will only encourage mold and other nasty stuff to colonize them,it kills the good bugs that keep the bad bugs and mold etc... in check.In have only put cage items under warm water if it looks yucky or it is bought,usually if I get it from outside I just stick it in and I've never had trouble in all the years I've kept critters.The only time I ever had trouble is when I baked/boiled or soaked in chlorox solutions.

Scott Land wrote:

Baking the bark is not needed it will only encourage mold and other nasty stuff to colonize them,it kills the good bugs that keep the bad bugs and mold etc... in check.In have only put cage items under warm water if it looks yucky or it is bought,usually if I get it from outside I just stick it in and I've never had trouble in all the years I've kept critters.The only time I ever had trouble is when I baked/boiled or soaked in chlorox solutions.

Thanks for the tip, I never knew that and have been baking, boiling and soaking everything. Well, that at least makes my job a lot easier. Thank you

iitomodachi1 wrote:

quote="Scott Land"]Baking the bark is not needed it will only encourage mold and other nasty stuff to colonize them,it kills the good bugs that keep the bad bugs and mold etc... in check.In have only put cage items under warm water if it looks yucky or it is bought,usually if I get it from outside I just stick it in and I've never had trouble in all the years I've kept critters.The only time I ever had trouble is when I baked/boiled or soaked in chlorox solutions.

Thanks for the tip, I never knew that and have been baking, boiling and soaking everything. Well, that at least makes my job a lot easier. Thank you[/quote]
You are welcome!It is an old practice that needs to be changed.Unfortunately it is so ingrained in us that everything has to be sterile but if you think about it nothing in nature is sterile .

Scott Land wrote:

You are welcome!It is an old practice that needs to be changed.Unfortunately it is so ingrained in us that everything has to be sterile but if you think about it nothing in nature is sterile .

Yeah, I have thought of that and the fact that people litter all over the world and the creatures both verts and inverts deal with a lot of it (at least anything we'd try to put in our tanks) very well. The one debate that I had and main reason I had kept doing this was that the species are not local for me and I worry about anything that may not be in their environment effecting them in some unforeseen manner.

Having a room full of pets though sure gets tough baking everything! So I will try to go without and save a little time. Thanks again

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Scott Land wrote:

You are welcome!It is an old practice that needs to be changed.Unfortunately it is so ingrained in us that everything has to be sterile but if you think about it nothing in nature is sterile .

Yeah, I have thought of that and the fact that people litter all over the world and the creatures both verts and inverts deal with a lot of it (at least anything we'd try to put in our tanks) very well. The one debate that I had and main reason I had kept doing this was that the species are not local for me and I worry about anything that may not be in their environment effecting them in some unforeseen manner.

Having a room full of pets though sure gets tough baking everything! So I will try to go without and save a little time. Thanks again

You are welcome! Scorps are tough and a few species have made colonys in far off lands from where they originated ,without harm .

Scott Land wrote:

You are welcome! Scorps are tough and a few species have made colonys in far off lands from where they originated ,without harm .

Yeah like the euscorpius flavicaudis in sheerness in the uk (which we recently visited) they are believed to have come from italy on shipments of masonary and they manage to live in cracks in the wall down a normal street opposite houses with no problems at all...amazes me how adaptable some creatures are!