Gravid,molt or fat?

Hi all, these are some pics of our female emp, she finally came out of the burrow we havent seen her properly for months she is the one that shared the tank with our male that recently died ....anyway was wondering what your thoughts are on this, is she gravid, going to molt or fat lol

I dont think she can be fat as she is not over fed and supposed to be sub adult as sold to us by virginia cheeseman

if shes not already adult is this her final molt? i have no idea what large scorps look like before the molt as have only ever witnessed our much younger ones molt and that was very recently.........anyway here are the pics....

i am going to say she (you sure its female?) is an adult, and i would guess gravid unless you have been feeding a LOT of food.
its quite hard to tell until there are actually babies on its back, and if its gravid you should see them before Xmas.

what happened to the male? gravid females tend to kill tankmates, so unless it was just old age that could be another clue.

good luck.

My emp looked simlilar to yours, very fat I too thought it was gravid, but was unsure of it's sex. A week later it had molted, which must've been it's final molt as it was quite big.

_scorpio_ wrote:

i am going to say she (you sure its female?) is an adult, and i would guess gravid unless you have been feeding a LOT of food.
its quite hard to tell until there are actually babies on its back, and if its gravid you should see them before Xmas.

what happened to the male? gravid females tend to kill tankmates, so unless it was just old age that could be another clue.

good luck.

The male died of old age I think they seemed to get along fine didn't fight after the first night together

She was sold to us as sub adult so I'm not really sure if she's adult or not sometimes her telson looks dark and other times it doesn't ... Will have to wait and see lol

My reluctant guess is it's on its last molt but only time will tell,sorry;that is as best as anybody can do on a scorp of unknown age/molt cycle.

yeah my emp looked like that for ages, got all excited thinking she was gravid and then just to be disapointed that it was only a molt.
you gonna get another male for her bex and try n breed?

Yeah was hoping our male was gonna still be around but unfortunately he died the other week shame coz they got on well

yeah im trying to breed mine, the female has had all her molts now, just waiting for the male

Well, I have never had emps and my H. Spins are still babies, but from what I understand is that their telson is white as sub-adults and turns red after the final molt when they reach full maturity. It is hard to tell in these pictures for certain but the telson appears to be red making your scorp an adult. If you got a clear shot of her telson and posted it up I'm sure someone else could confirm this. I believe it is the same as H. Spins so maybe Alex could help.

All that jazz being said I'd go with gravid. Obviously if she is not fully mature and I'm wrong than, ready to molt lol!

Do you have any pics of her operculm (spelling?) Folks on here could sex it and confirm the sex for you as well if you are not 100% certain on that. Best bet is to find a clear dish or container and put her in it and take pictures from the bottom. Or if you know for sure it looks different than the males you just preserved you could post pix up of that one and rule it out that way. I did that with my V. Spinigerus, I had 2 that looked the same and the 3rd was completely different, that one got munched and later one of my 2 remaining V. Spinigerus popped - now I know who is who

If you don't mind the extra work, I hope she is gravid as you male will be properly replaced g'luck

Quote :

If you don't mind the extra work, I hope she is gravid as you male will be properly replaced g'luck

plus i could buy some of bex lol

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Well, I have never had emps and my H. Spins are still babies, but from what I understand is that their telson is white as sub-adults and turns red after the final molt when they reach full maturity. It is hard to tell in these pictures for certain but the telson appears to be red making your scorp an adult. If you got a clear shot of her telson and posted it up I'm sure someone else could confirm this. I believe it is the same as H. Spins so maybe Alex could help.

All that jazz being said I'd go with gravid. Obviously if she is not fully mature and I'm wrong than, ready to molt lol!

Do you have any pics of her operculm (spelling?) Folks on here could sex it and confirm the sex for you as well if you are not 100% certain on that. Best bet is to find a clear dish or container and put her in it and take pictures from the bottom. Or if you know for sure it looks different than the males you just preserved you could post pix up of that one and rule it out that way. I did that with my V. Spinigerus, I had 2 that looked the same and the 3rd was completely different, that one got munched and later one of my 2 remaining V. Spinigerus popped - now I know who is who

If you don't mind the extra work, I hope she is gravid as you male will be properly replaced g'luck

she is definatly female so that parts sorted lol but like i said her telson seems to be dark one day and not the next lol and i rarely se her last night was the first time shes come fully out of the burrow in months and she legged it the first 5 times i tried to get pics lol...will just have to wait and see...be a nice suprisei guess.........would be really good if she was gravid though i dont mind the extra work...if she is out again soon though i will try get a pic of the telson although the light is usually against me

Color of the telson is not a good indicator of age.

especially with camera flash and things looking different depending on your computer screen.
im still going to say gravid, because a gravid scorp is always more exciting than a molting one!

Scott Land wrote:

Color of the telson is not a good indicator of age.

No? I thought that was the general thing with emps and some of the Heterometrus sp. or just a misconception? So then the only true way to tell if the scorp is fully mature is by the number of molts?

i wouldnt say gravid just yet, i cant even see the heart line...

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Scott Land wrote:

Color of the telson is not a good indicator of age.

No? I thought that was the general thing with emps and some of the Heterometrus sp. or just a misconception? So then the only true way to tell if the scorp is fully mature is by the number of molts?

It actually IS a good way to tell age...Different colors differs in the age groups. Once its already red/brown tho, unless you owned it from there own its nearly impossible to age afterwards. If you have one of a milky color, you can often tell its under 2 years of age...

anemiaffx wrote:

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Scott Land wrote:

Color of the telson is not a good indicator of age.

No? I thought that was the general thing with emps and some of the Heterometrus sp. or just a misconception? So then the only true way to tell if the scorp is fully mature is by the number of molts?

It actually IS a good way to tell age...Different colors differs in the age groups. Once its already red/brown tho, unless you owned it from there own its nearly impossible to age afterwards. If you have one of a milky color, you can often tell its under 2 years of age...

It usually only works with the early molts but once they get older towards the last 2 or 3 molts it gets tricky.The one in this thread is probably an example.

Awesome, thanks everyone for the clarification on that, it is definitely good to know.

Sorry Bex, hope I didn't get you all excited I'm still hoping it is gravid for you though!

iitomodachi1 wrote:

Awesome, thanks everyone for the clarification on that, it is definitely good to know.

Sorry Bex, hope I didn't get you all excited I'm still hoping it is gravid for you though!

I hope she is gravid,Too!!

Either way I'm just happy if he's healthy lol don't want her going like the male, and for some reason the last two heat lamps have blown a few hour after being put in ( annoying keep buying bulbs )

I've gotten a few bunk bulbs either they didn't work right out of the box or they randomly died. Sucks though, I just dropped 45$ on new bulbs
Keep pictures up with the questionable scorp you never know. I had received feed back about mine being sub-adult and ready to molt and then next thing I knew I had babies It is always a very educated guess in this stuff and you may not be able to get a 100% definitive answer. I'm hoping this is the case in your situation for you

The bulb thing is weird the first one lasted 2 months then blew and the nxt 2 was in a couple of hours and blew now we have put the back up bulb in it's not a proper infrared just painted I think and that has been fine so far so not sure what's going on but it is annoying

If the last 2 bulbs only lasted a couple of weeks, try taking them back. If that doesn't work try contacting the manufacturer. It is at least worth a try. Maybe mention that you had another one go after a couple of months to as then they might realize you are not complaining to just complain. 2 weeks would be worth looking into a refund or replacement though. Let us know how it goes if you go that route. Good luck

Are you using a clamp lamp for those heat bulbs?

make sure they are screwed in properly in the battern holder, if they not fully in it can cause an arc causing lamps to blow, also make sure the wattage of your lamp is correct to battern holder.