new to emps, molt question

So after keeping 2 small wild caught Centruoides Vittatus for a little while, my husband and I decided we would love to have an emperor in the house. We're supposed to be getting it tomorrow night, hopefully a male. Already have the tank set up. 10gal, 4-5 inches of coconut fiber, 2 hides, water dish, hygrometer/thermometer ready to put in. I've been reading as much as I can on here about everyone's emps. Really the only thing I'm still unsure about is molting... how to tell when they're about to molt, how long it takes, etc We're hoping to get a sub-adult is why I'm concerned with this. Also, if there's anything else I need to know, please post up. Thanks!!!

Molting usually takes a few hours. They will refuse food for a few days before and after molting. They are very vulnerable having just molted and need a few days to harden their exo.
You can tell if they are coming up to a molt by looking for the signs of "pre-molt".

^That would have been helpful if you'd said what the signs of premolt are.

You'll know if you have a subadult if it has a creamy telson. Adults have brown, juvies have white. As far as premolt signs, it will appear morbidly obese, and in some cases you'll be able to see the new tergites developing through the intersegmental membrane.

Keep in mind that it may take several months to approach premolt. When it does molt, don't offer prey until it glows brightly under a blacklight again.

Also, ignore your humidity gauge. The cheap analog ones from most petstores are all but useless, and the fancy digital ones are only at all useful if you place them right near the substrate (many people place them high up on the walls where it's drier). The easiest way to judge humidity is if the substrate looks damp (if it does, fine; if it doesn't, pour some water onto it ).

Thanks everyone. We just got home with our new emperor a little while ago. We just got him settled in and he seems to be loving his new home.
Here's his first picture.

Looks like an adult, so molting won't be an issue.

i was told at the store that he isn't an adult yet. and if he is, he's very small, like only 3 inches from head to the beginning of his tail.

That's about average.

The only way to refute this being an adult would be to post a clearer picture of the telson (the last segment of the tail) -- the color I can see from your photo looks like the brown of an adult to me.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

the color I can see from your photo looks like the brown of an adult to me.

Same

but they do get bigger after that; my biggest measures 5 inches from tail (recoiled) to her claws. shes massive, compared to my normal sized adult, the 3.5 inches tail coiled. she also almost killed him during a mating pairing, so yeah, she has her own cage.

how do they get bigger after molting to adult? theres no way she molted to full length!

Once they do their final molt, they won't get any bigger apart from getting fatter from time to time

Some specimens are just larger than others, is all. So they don't "get" bigger, some just grow more at each molt.

So, its my 3rd day with my new addition, which we named Nero. He seems to be getting very comfortable in his new home. Going to introduce a cricket tonight, see if he's ready to eat yet. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd have an emperor as a pet, or any scorp for that matter. I guess when those 2 C. vittatus kinda fell in our laps, I realized how awesome they are. I can't wait to see Nero catch/eat food for the first time. The first time I saw our biggest C vittatus catch, sting, and eat a cricket was incredible...and they're so tiny compared to the emperors.

Thanks again to everyone for the info/help. Next order will be to actually find out if Nero is in fact a male. I told the store I wanted a male, but they never actually confirmed it. Since I'm such a noob to scorps, I honestly don't know how to tell the difference without seeing a confirmed male and female in person. I've seen pictures, but those were magnified. Once he(???) gets used to me, I'll try to take some close-up pics of the pectines.

There's a few emp threads in our sexing forum; you can check those out for reference.

And never trust a store to sex a scorpion. They don't know a pectine from a pedipalp.

if it performs household duties like digging, cleaning the burrow, etc, then it is a female
if it watches the female and watches me watch the office, it is a male

my personal observations of my emps

my emp does alot of burrowing but its the only one i currently have in the tank but im getting another female and a 4i male so il be keeping an eye out for his molt too