Heterometrus Spinifers: IDs / Sexing

Thanks for your reply Alex.

I guess i'm alittle too late.. this is what i saw when i came back from work.. My adult female (Scoop) has eaten my newly acquired sub-adult female (the one with the missing leg)

Picture 1 (Adult female (Scoop) with the male)


Picture 2: (You can see the size variation of the 2 adult females (left is scoop, right is Grum) to the male below them)


The little male doesnt seem full adult to me as you mentioned above, his chela does not seemed bulbously bloomed and the telson color is as shown below, is this considered distinctively dark red?


Btw from the picture 1 (sorry for the gross shot) the male is trying to mate the female.. even though she is.. ehhemm.. eating another female..

1) My question is.. does a male spinifer try to mate a female even though he is yet grown to full adult?

Whether is the two adult females wild caught i'm not sure.. so as the seller who sold them to me (as some sellers are simply resellers..) :/
But i do take some shots when they just arrived at my place. Pictures below:

Adult Female (Scoop):



Adult Female (Grump):


From the pictures above, i'm not sure if they are gravid when they first came to me.. and right now.. they have grown fat probably due to their heavy appetite..

i'm thinking if a female is gravid.. even though she does not eat much.. her stomach will get bigger by the days ? Please correct me if i'm wrong..
btw the two adult females are with me for about 5 weeks since they arrived..

2) Should i separate the females or all of them ? so far after 2 days of communal.. the females now shares the same hide.. probably because they are well fed.. and the male.. always gets a sting or two and thrown aggressively back and forth (due to its light weight) when trying to do the mating dance..

Sry for the long post.. any replies is appreciated. Thanks so much

Just something I figure I should point out... a recent paper i read on Heterometrus communality... for that regards H. fulvipes... but this could well work across the board for all Heterometrus...

I noticed that in earlier pics, the substrate of your enclosure was rather on the dry side... this is one condition in captive keeping may affect the susceptibility of cannibalism. Findings in the paper reveal that Hets kept in moist substrate for long periods of time even without food, rarely resort to cannibalism... in fact the cannibalism index for that control experiment was '0'. Another control experiment of specimens kept in dry sand substrate resulted in cannibalism.

So, for most of you who are keeping Asian Hets in countries with drier climate, it would be advisable to keep the substrate moist at all times. If at all possible, don't allow a chance for the humidity in the enclosure to dissipate completely. Keeping a ready water-bowl does not negate this necessity, though the cannibalism index in this situation would be considerably lower.

After enduring shipping and marginally suitable conditions, most wild caught Heterometrus in my experience will dip their mouth parts in any available water bowl at the first perceived opportunity. In fact, I had one male H. spinifer which I allowed to crawl freely on my work desk, straight out of the box... feisty as it was... I placed a petri dish with water in front of it, and there it stopped to drink for about 10 minutes... allowing me to attend to other things while keeping an eye on it... and it didn't seem anxious to do anything else like crawl off somewhere. When I had its enclosure ready and wanted to coax into a holding cup, its temperament was evidently placated...

So... give these guys gives ample moisture AND water.... they love it. They sometimes stand over a water bowl periodically so that the book lungs will trap evaporating moisture, and unlike bark scorpions, are not inclined to drown. So if you feel that the misting duties are starting to result in arthritis LOL, just pour water right on to the substrate and let it seep to the bottom. I'm aware that some people resort to false bottom setups.. but unless you want to leave you scorpion unattended for months on end, this is not particularly necessary for Heterometrus. Additionally they will dig up the bottom gravel... so I've abandoned my old practice of having a gravel layer at the bottom... Just keep the substrate reasonably soaked and all should be right as rain...

Best Regards and Cheers.

Thanks Alex, the information you provided is really helpful.
Yup I'll definitely take note of the amount of moisture they need!

wow. this help me alot... good thing ive been keeping my tank super moist... lol at the arthritis, i feel like my hand is gonna fall of every time i mist.

lordpotato wrote:

wow. this help me alot... good thing ive been keeping my tank super moist... lol at the arthritis, i feel like my hand is gonna fall of every time i mist.

lol.. i am there with you man..
As for me.. i have grown tired of misting.. thats when i start pouring water straight in the substrates in order to maintain the humidity.. can last more then 1 week before i had to do it again.

yeah, i find misting not that effective at all. does nothing but exercise your fingers.

ill have the biggest hands on the block if i mist till the end of the year. :hulk:

yeah and a big case of arthritis

or HULKthritis

indeed, that was a good chuckle.

Stellar insight again Alex, I got a lot out of this too! Always appreciated!

Manser wrote:

yeah, i find misting not that effective at all. does nothing but exercise your fingers.

LMAO well its not a bad exercise for guitar playing LOL Squeeze with one finger at a time and reverse order... and alternating!

LXDNG79 wrote:

Manser wrote:

yeah, i find misting not that effective at all. does nothing but exercise your fingers.

LMAO well its not a bad exercise for guitar playing LOL Squeeze with one finger at a time and reverse order... and alternating!

There's a little hand tool for that, but hey if you have to mist a bunch of Viv's.. .why not

i thought you could tell sp. difference between H. spin and H. long by telson color in adults?

To all of you who use a one-pump misting device and are complaining: Go to a hardware store and get one of these:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xg8/R-100164531/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I've been using one for years, and it's so easy.