V. spinigerus Community Attempt

I've heard mixed results on the communal behavior of this species, so I thought I'd give it a go myself and see what happens. Here's where I'm at so far:

On January 26th I purchased a small (1/2" with metasoma curled) V. spinigerus from NWInverts at a show in Wilsonville, Oregon, and later sexed it as male. On February 23rd I purchased four more V. spinigerus from KenTheBugGuy at a show in Hillsboro, Oregon, ranging in size from as small as the initial male to one that appeared full-grown. These four were later sexed as 2.2.0, with the larger two being female.

Early morning on February 25th I put all five in a 2.5 gallon tank with approximately 1" of dry coconut fiber and several pieces of corkbark, and I misted one side of the tank. I also added several small B. dubia cockroaches. Later that morning it was found that all five were still alive and two of the smaller specimens were hiding under the same piece of bark, each eating their own cockroach. The evening of February 25th, four were observed in separate hiding places (both under bark and in tight-fitting fissures in the bark) and one was wandering across one piece of bark.

Updates to come as this community continues.

I think that at the moment I only have one adult -- so we'll have to wait and find out.

I think this will work out fine. These creatures seem to be rather unsocial.

i would say you Will have great luck keeping them together.
I use to have 5 spinigerus, 3 were adults so i kept them together in a kritter keeper like the oines you get at Wal Mart for $5 or $6 and they did just great. Would placed the two juvies in there but didn't want to chance them becoming a meal.

I have heard that their isn't a suck thing of an active scorpion, i will tell you this those 5 V. spinigerus were my most active scorpions i ever had kept .

I've heard of a lot of people encountering cannibalism when they try this, but about as many also have success. I wanted to try my luck.

I looked in tonight and saw the big female facing one of the little ones, and no one was trying to eat a neighbor.

I think , go ahead and try it

Update, checked last night and all five were still alive and well. That's around 48 hours of success so far.

good to heaR BRO, i didn't think you would run into a problem

well said and makes sense

Thanks! I'll just have to be patient and toss in a few more roaches.

Checked the last couple nights -- the last "thorough" look revealed all five scorpions, most of the "quick" looks revealed four, so I think I'm doing alright. I added a few more roaches over the weekend.

great, things are looking good

i acutally have 5 together too since yesterday and they are all doing well

I've had a pair together for about 7 months with no ill effects

I might try this my self. I have four that are taking up vital specie space.

Athlon2k2 wrote:

I might try this my self. I have four that are taking up vital specie space.

hhaha


when i checked all my hides i have in there just by looking no fluiiping them over none of them were in the other hides

but i just wanted to check only once under this huge flat rock i have theey were all under there chillin

Sweet. This is sounding more encouraging every day.

now i have 10 of them i just receved a package from brandon (reptist)

and added 5 more in there and there was fighting for the first 5 mintues but after that they are doing all fine and like 7 of them under that rock now ahahha

Down to four.

Apparently these guys have big appetites, 'cause all the roaches I put in are gone -- after a few days, when all my other communities still have roaches in there after over a month sometimes.

I tossed in some more roaches and I'll keep a closer eye on them.

sigh i have a total of 11 in there now i lost 2 of the small ones that sucks

but hey i threw in about 10 circkets in there and theyre all gone!

hungry little guys and females

Wow that sucks. I was seriously going to setup my 10 wide and put 3 of these guys in there (all about the same size.) They are pretty abundant here but I don't want to loose these guys. Then again...I still have an adult that will be by hisself and I could always get more...but I don't want to loose scorpions because of this. Any ideas. Do you guys have pics of your enclosures?

-Dustin