Totally Unexpected!!

Hey all,

Been a long time since I've been on this forum, but am in desperate need of some help!

Whilst the hubby was doing his feeding rounds (he's not done it for a LONG time!! naughty boy!) he opened up our "male" hetrometrus spinifer's cage and lifted a piece of the bark and thought..

"They aren't crickets!" and holy moly the tank was FULL of babies just wondering around! So what we have done, is since we have both heard that the females tend to eat the babies once off her back, we have removed all 36 of the lil babies and put them into their own tank.

Their tub has got the same soil as the female, and 2 piece of cork bark for hides. Nothing else.

So I guess I'm asking for some help on how is best to rear these babies, i.e. do they need to be seperated into individual tubs straight away, what to feed, how often to mist etc etc

Thanks

Here's a few pics...

mum.


babies

Congrats what a nice surprise to find, that's a big brood too! Lovely pics and Het.

Found an interesting thread on raising Pandinus & Heterometrus babies that may be of use to you.
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=69385

how many do they normally have?

and thanks for the thread, very useful indeed.. altho no tips on feeding the young, only mum after the babies have been taken away from her.

thanks again x

You can feed the babies pinheads or cockroach nymphs. If you don't have those, use pre-killed prey by chopping up a large cricket. He definitely didn't check on them for a while, those are babies are 2 instar I believe.

pin head crix? arent they a bit err small? these things are rather large.. at least 2-3cm in length.
and yeah he hadnt checked on them in a couple of weeks.. hes not been very well bless him and i dont dare go near them lol! ive got a feeling they are 2nd instar as they werent on the mums back at all.. just running round, but she was guarding them pretty well.. got really aggressive and started trying to shoo them into a corner as tony opened the lid!

Wow that's awesome wish that would happen to me if they are big enough (they do look big) they should be able to handle prey around the same size as they are could still he'd crush them if your worried though

i think we'll ive them crushed food for a bit.. will they darken up as they seem very "pale"

sky_69 wrote:

we have both heard that the females tend to eat the babies once off her back

Completely false. Heterometrus spp. (yours looks more like H. longimanus to me than H. spinifer) are very protective of their young and will even crush and tear up large prey items to feed to the babies.

You can either put the babies back in with mom (as they were obviously doing fine), keep them all in their own habitat (makes feeding simpler, but you might get some sibling-sibling cannibalism -- around 10% or so in my experience), or put each in their own container.

For food, you can either headcrush larger crickets or offer small / medium crickets. Pinheads are way too small and only suitable for smaller species of scorpion or baby Ts.

Aww. Those babies are too cute. It's a good thing these scorpions are so hardy. Those babies made it to 2nd instar without anyone feeding them? XD

sky_69 wrote:

pin head crix? arent they a bit err small? these things are rather large.. at least 2-3cm in length.
and yeah he hadnt checked on them in a couple of weeks.. hes not been very well bless him and i dont dare go near them lol! ive got a feeling they are 2nd instar as they werent on the mums back at all.. just running round, but she was guarding them pretty well.. got really aggressive and started trying to shoo them into a corner as tony opened the lid!

Sorry, for some reason I kept thinking they were small. I've never had babies of this species, only other bark scorpions so there is a big size difference. Medium/large will work just fine then

Gratz to a wonderful find there!

For these scorplings, baby-mid size b.lateralis roach can be another good alternative.
These roach are soft, nutritious, does not burrow and at times, their agility helps to entice the killer instinct in scorps.
Although they can be fast, it shouldn't be a prob if the enclosure is not too big.

Prob thats the reason H.laoticus and myself like them so much.. haha

Good Luck with the babies. Hope to see more updates on them as they grow

GS wrote:

Gratz to a wonderful find there!

For these scorplings, baby-mid size b.lateralis roach can be another good alternative.
These roach are soft, nutritious, does not burrow and at times, their agility helps to entice the killer instinct in scorps.
Although they can be fast, it shouldn't be a prob if the enclosure is not too big.

Prob thats the reason H.laoticus and myself like them so much.. haha

Good Luck with the babies. Hope to see more updates on them as they grow

Oh yeah, I love feeding my bark scorpions B. lateralis nymphs. They go crazy for them and it's as you say, their agility helps to entice the scorpions. They do exactly what any prey item should lol. And a little off topic, but my skink also likes eating them over B. dubia. In my opinion B. lateralis smell better and I think the B. dubia excrete an odorous substance.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

sky_69 wrote:

we have both heard that the females tend to eat the babies once off her back

Completely false. Heterometrus spp. (yours looks more like H. longimanus to me than H. spinifer) are very protective of their young and will even crush and tear up large prey items to feed to the babies.

You can either put the babies back in with mom (as they were obviously doing fine), keep them all in their own habitat (makes feeding simpler, but you might get some sibling-sibling cannibalism -- around 10% or so in my experience), or put each in their own container.

For food, you can either headcrush larger crickets or offer small / medium crickets. Pinheads are way too small and only suitable for smaller species of scorpion or baby Ts.

where you say (yours looks more like H. longimanus to me than H. spinifer) how can you tell the difference?

and thanks for all the other advice guys

we will keep posting on their progress hope they do well

The overall size and the shape of the chela. It looks almost exactly like the female H. longimanus I had.

Edit: I, too, mistook mine for a "male" H. spinifer at first; she was so huge that her "girly little pectines" looked too massive to not be male.

so nearly 2 weeks since we discovered 36 lil baby h.spinifer in mums tank.. 2 weeks they have been together, and we still have all 36!!
all doing well catching and eating their own prey without it needing to be cut up for them.. so proud of our lil babies x

That's heart warming to know bro. Great kids you have there

Congrats on your success, quite a lot of babies to take care of lol

GS wrote:

That's heart warming to know bro. Great kids you have there

thanks but im not bro.. im sis lol :p

and yes lots to look after!!!

sky_69 wrote:

thanks but im not bro.. im sis lol :p

and yes lots to look after!!!

Sry sis :p so you are another one of the few..Ha
Cheers!