c. exilicauda just had babies. Advice?

[many many legs]

My set up: 7 c. exilicauda in one enclosure, plenty of room for more. I removed mom and babies into separate container and I'd like to reintroduce them all at some point. When and how should I do that? I'm looking into other threads now, but if you have any advice you'd like to add, please do!

Scorpling Surprise!

• many many legs
• Jul 25, 2019
• 6

Woke up to find that one of my c. exilicauda had become a mom overnight! I removed her from the...

 

[AzJohn]

Babies should leave the mother in a week or so. Once that happens I'd put the female back in with the adults. I usually don't feed the mother until that point. I usually keep the babies separate for a few molts. The babies can be kept much like the adults, except they may need a little more water as they will dry out faster. Little centruroides are very capable predators. They will rodeo down food items larger than they are. You will often find babies sharing a cricket.

 

[many many legs]

Babies should leave the mother in a week or so. Once that happens I'd put the female back in with the adults. I usually don't feed the mother until that point. I usually keep the babies separate for a few molts. The babies can be kept much like the adults, except they may need a little more water as they will dry out faster. Little centruroides are very capable predators. They will rodeo down food items larger than they are. You will often find babies sharing a cricket.

All great advice, thank you. I do have a couple questions though:

• Why not feed the mom for two weeks, doesn't she need to feed herself and babies while they are on her back?
• Can all babies be kept together? If not, what's the maximum amount in a container?
• When can I return the babies to the adult cage?

Thanks again, very helpful

 

[AzJohn]

All great advice, thank you. I do have a couple questions though:

• Why not feed the mom for two weeks, doesn't she need to feed herself and babies while they are on her back?
• Can all babies be kept together? If not, what's the maximum amount in a container?
• When can I return the babies to the adult cage?

Thanks again, very helpful

In my experience the babies will molt to 2i well before two weeks. I don't feed the mother because the act of hunting can dislodge some of the babies. In the past I have offered prekilled food items. You may want to do that.

I house most of my baby bark scorpions together. If I have a species that has proven to be highly cannibalistic or they are very rare, I might separate them. It makes caring for them much harder. Their is a chance they will eat each other during molting if housed together. You can cram many together in a correctly set up tank. 25 2i babies in a 5 gallon tank to start with would be fine, considering the size of this species. Give then plenty of stacked cork to ensure that they have places to hide. Feeding a group like that is fun to watch. (A little bit extra advice. A lot of bark scorpions like to molt hanging upside down)

I keep them separated from the adults to ensure that the babies are getting food. Once they get half the adults size you can put them back in with the adults. It's up to you really. If they have adequate hiding spots and feed them enough I think you will be okay. If you pack them in too tight you may have some of them get eaten during molts. With this species will should have a brood every year from each of your adult females. It really depends how much work you want to put into it. Do you want 100 scorpions that are separated until adulthood at the cost of all the time you need to put into feeding multiple tanks or individuals, or one nice colony that keeps it's numbers at a fairly consistent size that is easier to maintain.

This is how I would keep this species. This is just my opinion and may upset some people. I know this species breeds fairly easily and I wont be able to really sell them to other people because wild caught will always be cheaper. I would keep them because it makes me happy. I would set up two enclosures. The first will be what you have now, I display tank to watch and enjoy the way these animals interact with each other. The second would be thunder dome. Thunder dome would be a larger enclosure, at least ten gallons or an appropriate sized plastic thing maybe more if you feel like it. I would fill it with a lot of cork stacked everywhere. I would keep one side with a higher humidity and throw a few dozen crickets of various sizes into the tank weekly. The cricket should not be to big that no one can eat them, so they would be small to start with. I know that not every single scorpion that is in thunder dome will survive. The goal is to be able to keep you display colony healthy and full with out having to collect any from the wild. If you do a good job you may end up with more scorpions than you can handle anyway. So start looking for friends or pet shops that may be interested in taking some off your hands.

 

[many many legs]

Do you want 100 scorpions that are separated until adulthood at the cost of all the time you need to put into feeding multiple tanks or individuals, or one nice colony that keeps it's numbers at a fairly consistent size that is easier to maintain.

Definitely the latter. Great advice. I use sandstone, cholla wood and soil locally collected from the desert. They looooovvvveeeeee cholla wood and sandstone, so I'll stick with those. I've already had an adult molt upside down on sand stone so i'll keep that up. Good to know with the hunting prey stuff, she so far is just extremely defensive. A small cricket landed right in front of her and she went into defense mode. Normally that cricket would have been toast.