V. spinigerus Community Attempt

I don't have any photos of it, but it's a 2.5 gallon tank with three large pieces of cork arranged to give plenty of hides.

Obviously not secure enough hides.

With my invidual enclosure, I lay down a couple inches of dirt. Then I moisted it and put the rocks down. Then I sprinkle some sand and place misc. rocks. They build their own burrows. I just try to mimic where I got them from. I guess I might try building the communal tank this weekend.

Another problem is they are all juvenile.

I know this is going to sound weird, but Vietnamese your avatar looks a lot like my car. I have an '05 Pontiac GTO Maybe that's why I like the car. Not the best picture and aspect but you get the idea.

Athlon2k2 wrote:

I know this is going to sound weird, but Vietnamese your avatar looks a lot like my car. I have an '05 Pontiac GTO Maybe that's why I like the car. Not the best picture and aspect but you get the idea.

ytes mine picture of enclosure is in the show off your scoprion en closures ahha

IHeartMantids wrote:

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.

How do you know? Did you find remains or one just missing?
xxxx

I found remains.

awwww.

Maybe somethings are meant to be the way they are and not changed?

but you tried

xxxx

hey its okay ill keep updating with mine i just hope none of mine get eatin ;'( to of the littlest ones got eatin but i still have 9 more in there

Checked again today . . . found the pair of larger ones (the females) hiding together and the two smaller ones (the males) hiding separately -- no further deaths. There were still a couple roaches left from the last time I checked but I tossed in a few small ones for the males.

the is awesome to hear, i would say you have no worries

See, that's what I was thinking, until I looked in last night. I saw the biggest female (upper right in pic) munching on one of her smaller tankmates. There was plenty of prey in there, too.



I'll be separating them today.

That sucks to hear. I decided to keep all five of mine seperate. At least we all know now some of there behaviors.

Im sorry you have to break it all up now. But maybe its not a case of being well fed but they know they are different from each other and in their world they dont like others who are different

xxxx

Well, I'd kept hearing half the people say "they're highly cannibalistic" and the other half saying "they do great together." Obviously I wound up with a cannibalistic bunch.

I sexed the remainder -- I've got a big female in her own tank now, and a smaller male and female. I'll separate the two smaller ones when I get home as I don't want to risk losing my only male.

On a side note, how big are mature V. spinigerus? I'm wondering if she's so ornery because she's gravid. I mean, she's FAT, but I'm guessing that's in part from eating a whole scorpion last night -- and premolt scorps don't feed. She's about an inch with her tail curled up.

hmm i have like 3 big ones that could be females

and the rest are small little guys i dont really know but they are doing really nice together and they did not eat each other only 2 of the littlest ones got eatin up the first day but after that they are doing really fine

I hope you have better luck than I did!

I think they get up to about 3 inches from mouth to start of tail.

Update . . .

The two that I left together are still fine -- added some extra prey last night.

The cannibal is still a big ol' bad-tempered fatty. I haven't fed her since she last ate a roommate (it was quite a meal).

That's what I'm thinking -- and kind of hoping.

I think that more then likely is the case! Just hang on, wait and see and im sure there will be babies!
She sounds preggers to me!

Good luck!!!

xxxxxxx

The community attempt is over for the time being. I got tired of my H. arizonensis kicking sand out of her shallow tank, so I took the two remaining communal V. spinigerus out of their 2.5 gallon and filled it with wet sand to dry for the AZ hairy.

The larger of the two is almost ready to molt -- I can see the new tergites through her membrane (and she stung the cork I was using to coax her into a deli cup). Anywho, those two are in separate deli cups and the "gravid" one is still in her own small KK. After the biggest one pops (assuming she's gravid) I might try a community again after the babies have had a chance to grow.

If anyone's wondering, I put my female flat-rock into the hairy's old tank.

lots of moving about going on then!

xxx

I came to this thread a little late but in my experience they are very cannibalistic, unless they are the same size. Never had problems when they are all adults, every other time, I had multiple losses. Hopefully things go better now.

I'll try the all-adult method, in that case. I've never heard anyone distinguish between successes and failures being due to size differences.

So I guess these guys communal nature is a bit more like barks and a bit less like forest scorps.