Noob needs help with first scorplings

I've been raising a few species of scorpions of a year or so now, and have used this forum many times to help me out...So far its been an incredibly helpful source of information. I've never seen the need to post up until now.


Anyway yesterday I went to my tanks to mist and fill water dishes, and throw a few crickets in. Everything was normal until I got to my centruroides gracilis, when I found this:


Well, it looks like a scorpion I bought was gravid, and now I'm a daddy! I'm very excited about this, but I have no idea what I'm doing other than to keep the humidity on spot because dessication cause high mortality in scorplings.

My main questions are what do I need to do special now? How do I feed these new mouths? Is it necessary to separate them at some point? Centruroides gracilis is supposed to be communal anyway, so I assumed I could move them to a bigger tank and let them go. I've been meaning to try out a communal setup anyway, so it seems perfect.

If anybody has any advice, I would be incredibly grateful!

wow, congratulations!

What you can do is wait until the babies start coming off mom's back. That is when you can throw in a few crickets for mom and the babies to feed. You can pre-kill or wound the crickets just in case they may harm any babies. When they are off mom's back, they can be removed from her.
I'm not sure if they're communal when young, though.
good luck!

H. laoticus wrote:

wow, congratulations!

What you can do is wait until the babies start coming off mom's back. That is when you can throw in a few crickets for mom and the babies to feed. You can pre-kill or wound the crickets just in case they may harm any babies. When they are off mom's back, they can be removed from her.
I'm not sure if they're communal when young, though.
good luck!

Thank you for the response! I'll definitely be killing the crickets...I don't want any of them being eaten by feeders, lol. I've actually seen crickets eat lizards before...It wasn't pretty

Does anybody know if they are communal when they are young? I'm thinking moving the whole brood to a five gallon tank might keep them from feeling cramped and wanting to eat one another. At least I hope.

Also does anyone have info on how long they would take to get to 6i? I keep trying google, but I can't seem to find any details on this. (At least that a layman can read)

Hey, no problems!

I read up some more and feeding them pinhead crickets is a good place to start for the babies. I'm sure pre-killed adults will work fine, though.
I keep reading that they are a communal species, so I am guessing it's alright to house them together. It appears a lot of hobbyists do it, too. Make sure there's plenty of food and vertical hides. Any I'm sure you may already know, it's best to keep them on damp substrate like peat moss/ coco fiber and the humidity in the higher range, around 80% with temperatures around 75-90~ degrees F.

I also found out that they can reach adulthood within about 3-5 months depending on conditions and feeding.
My advice to get them growing quickly is to increase the temperature and up the feeding.
Here are two useful sites I found:

http://bugsnstuff.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=485&sid=16a5f6a6dab9a9d1acebf6dd8dc1e7da

http://thereptileroom.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=2848&mode=linearplus

Thanks again!

Those two links were very useful. I'm going to go pick up a new 10 gallon tank today to house the new ones after they start molting and wandering. Thankfully I have plenty of cork bark and substrate lying about, heh.

I suppose the whole reason you remove the mother is too keep her from eating the young? I remember reading somewhere that around 60 percent of most scorpions diet is other scorpions of the same species. Maybe I'll reintroduce her after they are full grown.

3-5 months? That's a lot quicker than I thought!

No probs

Well, there are people who leave the mom and others who don't
From other species, sometimes the mother does eat a few while other times they live perfectly well together.

Yeah, it's a lot faster than I thought too. But just remember it has a lot to do with the conditions and feeding habits. If you raise the temperature and powerfeed them, they will grow much quicker.

Btw, don't forget to post up a few pics for us of their setup

Buthidae are not communal when juvenile, so as soon as they've come off of mom, get each in their own container.

Also, they'll need a piece of bark to hang from when molting -- a significant factor in juvenile mortality among bark scorpions is not having something to hang from.

Since this species is found in Florida, I'd suggest keeping the humidity on the high side.

Good luck!

I thought so too, about them not being communal when younger, but I saw Brian S. and a few others keep them together when young so I assumed it was ok. However, if you have the space to separate them, I would do it just in case. Those other hobbyists might not have had the space or could afford the casualties.

Well, I'd rather separate them then, instead of risking the loss of scorps. I went to work and bought a full sleeve of deli cups from them for under a dollar, and once I notice the babes leaving the mother I'll set them all up. I'll also set up a spot in my walk-in closet to keep them hot and dark so they don't get stressed. After they reach adulthood, I'll introduce them all and wish for the best....


However...I now have another odd problem. One my my other scorpions ( A female babycurus jacksoni) was due for a feeding, so I threw a fresh cricket in for her. She suddenly got incredibly defensive, which is strange for her. After she nipped and seemingly chased off the cricket a few times, I removed it and started spot cleaning. I then took out what I THOUGHT was a dead cricket piece (which sometimes happens with her.) After taking a better look at it though, I found THIS:



So uh...am I about to be a daddy again??? I got this scorpion from the same place, only much later than the Centruroides!

Well its definitely a baby.

A slight update, my jacksoni just gave birth to 5 new scorplings. It looks like I'll have my hands full for a small while. Luckily its the last female I own, so I won;t have to anticipate any more.

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice, I'll update with pics after they settle into their communal tank when they are old enough.