Moving Mothers With Babies

Njnolan1's thread got me thinking. I have a little colony of striped bark scorps (C. vit.) going in a 10 gallon tank. I think I have 4 males and one gravid female. They are very communal and seem to get along together very well. If my suspected female gives birth, should I move her immediately to an enclosure by herself? Or would it be best to leave her in the tank with the others for a bit? There is plenty of room in the tank and they have a lot of hides and climbing area. Thanks!

I believe the best thing for you to do would be to remove the other scorpions from her enclosure. As you don't want to stress her at all. However if that isn't a good option to you I would think moving her and letting her set up in a new home all to herself before the babies come would be a good solution.

In my opinion, it'll be good to rehouse the gravid mother to a smaller enclosure by herself or only with a single adult male when we suspect that she's about to "pop" soon.

It'll be so much easier just to remove that single adult male when she popped and for "fishing" out the 2.instar scorplings after they have dismounted from mom's back.

Of course, if you plan to remain status quo, it might be feasible too since it a 10 Gallon tank with lots of hide and climbing area as you said, but there is this possibility of some loss of scorplings along the way

Thanks for the info! Has anyone tried leaving a C. vit. mother with babies in a large enclosure with other scorps? If it would work with any species it might with these guys since they seem very communal.

All my bark scoprions breeding projects have their individual 10-20 gallon communal tank.
Like my Lychas scrutilus, most are in their hundreds within their cluster but i really can't tell how much i'm losing. They just keep replenishing broods after broods. Hence, if you're not out to micro-manage and get upset over loss of scorpions, then, a communal setup might work for you. It's survival of the fittest in there.

Thanks GS! That sounds like a fun way to do things. So at least some of your bark scorps make it from babies on a mothers back to adulthood and never leave the tank? I have an extra 20 long tank but the 10 seems more than adaquate for now.

I just pour in small crickets once-a-week and let the scorps hunt. There is a small water dish with gravel in it in the enclosure and I keep a plastic water bottle cap with cricket food in the cage at all times. If there were babies in the cage I could pour in some pinheads as well. Is this what you do?

I can backup GS on this, when i had my big B.jacksonii tank i removed mommys with back full of babies and nothing happent..

@robert
Good thinking, you can have a mixture of cricket sizes when you "dump" them in.
Everyone will find their share

As for water supply for such communal tank, i'll always ensure at least half of the substrate is moist and spread out horizontally. You may stack bark pieces on the background and leave the foreground for water provisioning. Simply pour in water along the foreground, horizontally across the tank, on a weekly basis or when required. Misting on two sides of the tank can be done on a weekly basis, these are for the scorplings.

For the adults, offer a shallow water dish and it's essential to fill it with small stones/ pebbles or simple leave a branch or two sticking out of it to allow scorplings to climb out without getting drowned.

@Kejser
Hey Great to see you back with us.

Thanks everyone. Kejser, you did remove moms with babies? I trying to decide wheter it would be best with this species to leave the moms alone in the communal tank or move them if the tank is not too crowded and there are plenty of hiding spots.