Growing too quickly? (5 months old and 5i)

Update:

Found a molt this morning! That puts one of them at 7i.

The strange thing is that I did see both of them yesterday for a moment before I turned the lights on, and while one was slightly larger than the other I seem to recall them both still having white telsons.... I was just happy to know they were both still alive so I wasn't paying much attention to them though. Could they really be going for an another molt?

They turned a year old on the 5th, btw.

Do they still behave very inactively around their enclosure, coloration is soft/ pale and not far from a freshly molted?

If yes, the true coloration of "reddish-brown" on an adult's telson would probably firm up only by the 2nd week after their recent molt.

Usually they mature at 7.instar.

Congrats

I got a good look at both again tonight, and there was very little growth this time. The other one is nice and plump and should be molting pretty quickly. The molted one's telsons were still very light, but I'll keep checking them over the next few weeks to see what happens. Compared to Femscorp (the new momma) they look to be about half her weight.

Also, they seem to not want the lats..... Grrr. I think every male lat I put in there is running around willy nilly without a care in the world. I've even had to start leaving food out for the roaches since they've been in there so long! I broke down and finally put a half dozen crickets in and they were gone in a few hours. Do they have to be so picky?!

And thanks, GS!

wodesorel wrote:

Also, they seem to not want the lats..... Grrr. I think every male lat I put in there is running around willy nilly without a care in the world.

wodesorel wrote:

I've even had to start leaving food out for the roaches since they've been in there so long! I broke down and finally put a half dozen crickets in and they were gone in a few hours. Do they have to be so picky?!

And thanks, GS!

No prob mate.
Yeah sometimes they just prefer some finger food which are not so nimble + with some extra "juice"

nice to see live plants doing well, every time i try live plants they die off, dont think the coco fiber holds enough if any nutriants for the plants plus no uv light

The peat moss is working excellently for the plants, and I even used it for the potted ones I'm growing next to the tank. The 4 foot shoplight with double daylight bulbs is what's doing the trick with the lighting. (Daylight in color, they aren't UVB or anything special, just GE Reveal Daylight florescent tubes from Home depot.)


So, here are the latest photos of the boys.

The one that hasn't molted yet but is due anytime now:




And the one that did molt:




(Blurry as all get-out, I know, but the telson is visible. I'm not seeing a huge color change yet.)

Nice pics. What instar are they at now?

Great shots!
Are the older ones supposingly 7.instar?

The top one is at 6i, the bottom one at 7i.

I have four molts for the top one, five for the bottom. I actually kept the shed exoskeletons (there is a word for those right? Sheddings? Molts? I only know hermit crab terms) since I thought it would be neat to compare them all once they were done growing. They are in little cups lined up on the windowsill, and they freak my mother out whenever I can convince her to "come look at the plants" when she stops over for a visit.

The scorps had to have been 2i when I got them. They were definitely not 1i, and it's possible they were and extremely small 3i, but their first molts with me are nearly the same size as my new 2i babies.

Sorry to drag this one out of the depths, but since it's a continuation I thought it would be better to ask this here where the old info was handy. Both boys molted into 7i a little over a year ago.


I just caught a glimpse of one of my boys tonight.  He looks like he's going to burst! I didn't have a flashlight or camera handy before he ducked back into the hide and I only saw him under the red light, but his telson looked much lighter than it should have been for a mature scorp. It's hard for me to tell colors under the red light though. I haven't been seeing all that much of them in the last year to tell for sure if they had matured - a claw here and there and sometimes a half-body, but never their rears.

I also haven't been feeding them much at all lately. (Hard to get to the store for crickets and my dubia colony crashed.) So I seriously doubt he's over weight. They get a dozen crickets to share between them about once a month now, and that's if they're lucky, sometimes it's more like 5 weeks. There are lats breeding in their tank but they are refusing to catch or eat them. (I can tell by the number of lats running around that no, they aren't eating them...)

It really really looked like he's either going to molt soon, or "he" is pregnant. (I asked for sexing help here and they both appear to be boys: http://www.scorpion-forum.com/t7590-can-you-double-check-the-gender-with-pictures )

Is there any way possible that he could honestly be getting ready for yet another molt now? That would put him at 8i if he does, and they're two years two months old on the 5th. But that bloating! He looked like my female did before she popped out 14 babies. I'm just in shock!

Lucky! He was out again tonight. I snapped one photo before he ran back underground. Sorry it's so blurry!

Hey, welcome back!

In the thread you posted about sexing your scorps both individuals were immature, correct? In that case the sexing may have been a bit ambiguous.

The telson does look to be kind of light for an adult, though it may be the camera flash.

Thanks! Been lurking now and then, but I don't know enough to contribute and things have been going well with them so there's been no emergencies to post about.

The sexing thread was when they were 4i. I was hoping that it would be possible to tell then since I haven't handled them since!

Yeah, I've been asking everyone I can think of about the photo, and it's all coming down to:

a.) molting
b.) pregnant
c.) ate his brother

If it's a or b it would be dangerous to go digging to check. If it's b or c it doesn't matter and the other one is already dead. Sigh.

Guess I just have to find some patience and wait it out. Half the tank is tunnels and caves, so it could be underground for months.... Argh!

Eee!! I think I saw the other brother tonight at the entrance to their burrow!

Not positive since I could only see his front clearly, but what I could see of his rear was about a third as puffy as in the photo above. I doubt that scorp could have deflated that quickly? (hoping?)

They seem to be going through an active phase right now, so I'll be checking nightly with a red light to see if I can make a positive ID!

(I really needed some good news tonight, so this sighting has left me really happy. )

Get a pic when you can....I'd like to see.  

It was a she, and she was pregnant!!!

I just saw a gaggle of 2i babies running around. (LOTS of squealing and dancing ensued!)

They're the only two in there, and she became pregnant when she turned 2 years.

Not sure how or what they've been eating seeing as I've only been feeding for two adults. Running out now to get small crickets for them!

Anyone have any idea though on if her mate would have survived the pregnancy? For the past six months one had taken to sitting outside of the burrow a lot, but never tried to make it's own somewhere else so i just figured it was a phase. They have a 30 gallon long so there was plenty of room if he had been chased away from the main burrow. I hate the wait with these guys, but with teeny babies I won't go digging to check. It would be nice to know if he had a shot of making it. I never really truly thought she was gravid, or I would have pulled them apart. :/

Wait, is this even possible? (I mean, it happened, so it's possible, but - ) If they're gravid for 8 to 18 months, and my young are at least 2 months old (same size as their parents were when I got them), that would mean she got pregnant in January at the latest. She was born May 5th, 2011 for sure, which means she was only about 18 months when she got pregnant? I thought they didn't hit maturity until 4 years?!