Your first scorpion

Thought I would start this thread to find out which scorpion other members got first when they started in this hobby and why?
I started off with Parabuthus granulatus and I can safely say it was the worst decision for first scorpion. They are very aggressive and fast like hell and can inject a big amount of venom because of their huge size (16cm).
That however was years ago and have figured out my boundaries when working with them.
I hope you guys made better decisions.

Pandinus imperator was my first "Scorpion" but I did keep a few Pseudoscorpions for a while before I ever got into scorpions. Though technically not scorpions they are pretty cool little things. Tiny as hell, I'm not sure how I ever managed to keep them for so long.

shadowfoot wrote:

Thought I would start this thread to find out which scorpion other members got first when they started in this hobby and why?
I started off with Parabuthus granulatus and I can safely say it was the worst decision for first scorpion. They are very aggressive and fast like hell and can inject a big amount of venom because of their huge size (16cm).
That however was years ago and have figured out my boundaries when working with them.
I hope you guys made better decisions.

Haha, I thought this was going to be a thread full of ''my first was an emperor'' but it starts off with a P. granulatus. Nutter

Back to the normal people lol, my first scorpion was a male emperor over 10 years ago, followed very quickly by two girlfriends to join him.

If it goes on like this it will be "my first was an emperor".
Come on people, arent there any other idiots that thought "mmmm, yes. I think a Deathstalker would be better than a Desert Hairy"?

Well, I guess it won't be me to do that, shadowfoot!. I just picked up an Emp, and it is my first scorpion.

My first scorpions was 4 H. Laoticus, I bought them like a half year ago. One died two weeks ago :/ but a week ago, the big female gave birth to a bunch of babies

Mine were 2 H. laoticus slings that did not make it to 3i.

Sad to hear guys. My first also died about a year and a half ago.
Its an awful feeling when your first dies.

I had a transvaalus(I think was pretty hard to identify). My dad brought it home from a trip to Namibia. He cought it in his tent and wanted to kill it after he showed it to us but I felt bad and kept it although it died four months later. . I now happily keep emperors they are safer and better looking

My first was a U.mordax they were adults when they were collected and they lived for a year while i had them thats when my addiction started lol

Looks like all the crazy people are from South Africa. lol

Well, surprise surprise, I started out with my emp.

bankies wrote:

I had a transvaalus(I think was pretty hard to identify). My dad brought it home from a trip to Namibia. He cought it in his tent and wanted to kill it after he showed it to us but I felt bad and kept it although it died four months later. . I now happily keep emperors they are safer and better looking

Forgot to add, it would not be P.transvaalicus as they dont occur in Namibia.

Maybe I should get myself an Emperor just to be part of the gang lol.

shadowfoot wrote:

it would not be P.transvaalicus as they dont occur in Namibia.

+1

If it was entirely black to the extent it was confused with a P. trans, it could probably have been a P. villosus black morph. But without seeing it, it's not really worth making wild guesses

DolbyR wrote:

shadowfoot wrote:

it would not be P.transvaalicus as they dont occur in Namibia.

+1

If it was entirely black to the extent it was confused with a P. trans, it could probably have been a P. villosus black morph. But without seeing it, it's not really worth making wild guesses

As I can remember, P.villosus is the only black Parabuthus that occurs in Nam.

shadowfoot wrote:

bankies wrote:

I had a transvaalus(I think was pretty hard to identify). My dad brought it home from a trip to Namibia. He cought it in his tent and wanted to kill it after he showed it to us but I felt bad and kept it although it died four months later. . I now happily keep emperors they are safer and better looking

Forgot to add, it would not be P.transvaalicus as they dont occur in Namibia.

Maybe I should get myself an Emperor just to be part of the gang lol.

Thanks for correcting me didn't even realize I wrote transvaalus instead of P. Granulatus. I was explaining the difference to my sister's friend and nd must have typed wrong name by accident. I really have to check before I post.

Aaah, that explains a lot.

shadowfoot wrote:

Aaah, that explains a lot.

Bought these 3 as my firsts scorpions. Heterometrus Longimanus, Babycurus jacksoni. Liocheles waigiensis.

my first scorpion ...
i still looking someone help me to ID it .
it hard to recognize h.spinifer or longimanus
help

I bought a group of 10 true Heterometrus laoticus from a friend I knew who received inverts via imports from Vietnam and the surrounding regions. I bought them at below import cost, previously only keeping herps and spiders, but I wanted to give scorpions a try and the rest is history. I ended up breeding them, keeping the females until they neared the end of their gestation, got hard up for money and sold the group to make a profit. I still regret selling them. I picked up a pair of petersii not that long ago in attempt to rekindle, but the lack of granulation that the laoticus had was very appealing.

Nice scorpions you have as starters doggmann.
@chaceliew, I am not very good at ID'ing forest scorpions.
@envyizm, I think all of us have had that regret of selling one or two of our animals which we should have never done. What herps did you keep in the past?

shadowfoot wrote:

What herps did you keep in the past?

I've kept and/or worked with everything from crocodilians, agamids, Varanids; venomous snakes, colubrids, etc; even turtles "mostly Macroclemys, chelydra, apalone, etc".

I currently have a pair of Basiliscus vittatus in my possession, but that is the extent of my current herp collection.

I definitely wouldn't mind keeping some Heloderma, which may happen one day.

Wow, thats quite a few. Needles to say you have a lot of experience with herps. Heloderma are awesome looking lizards, would also love to keep some one day, but they are very scarce in my country.
My collection has also been dwindling quite a bit. I use to keep about 15 snakes, but only have 3 left, a Copperhead, Cape Coral Cobra and a Western Hognose.

It does look like most of us South Africans are pretty crazy.

My first scorpion was a Parabuthus planicauda. Found the little guy and he survived for two months.