Centruroides communal observations

PureXotics804

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I have two centruroides communal tanks. One contains C.Gracilis (4) while the other one contains C. Sculpturatus(im not sure how many are in this tank). The C.Gracilis tank has slightly moist substrate while the Sculpturatus tank is bone dry with except the area near the water dish. They are both maintained in the 80's using a heat strip. They are fed various insects multiple times a week. Both are aggressive feeders. They will tank down insects much bigger than themselves.
15413609451712468193122997788389.jpg C.gracilis tank
15413609911169009933320148289586.jpg C.sculpturatus tank
Even though they are the same Genus the Gracilis are much more aggressive toward each other, ive witnessed multiple fights between my females. Two of the females are gravid for sure and the other two im uncertain as my male died a few weeks ago(old age). They frequently drink water together, but refuse to even get close to each other during feeding time. They also get into random scuffles during the day. This is a stark contrast to the Sculpturatus tank. The Sculpturatus eat together and drink together. Even though the Sculpturatus are an arid species they enjoy a good misting daily, I frequently see them cleaning themselves with the water. I even caught them submerged in the water dishes soaking. I have never seen them fighting, i have even had gravid females in the tanks with babies on their backs and they werent agressive towards cage mates. Of course I seperated the moms eventually. Both species however will readily cannibalize tankmakes if they arent fed frequently (typically during or after a molt).
I have witnessed mating rituals in both. The Gracis seem to be less tolerant and recpetive of males. The males would frequently try to initiate the mating rituals and the females would walk away or sometimes hit them with their tail and the mall would scurry off. When I did witness a successful ritual it was quick and not as smooth. Almost like the female gave in unwillingly.The Sculpturatus males are better recieved by the females. Ive witnessed one male trying to simultaneously mate with two females. Some of the sessions would be brief however some lasted for hours (4-6). The males have even mated females that were already gravid without any aggression. Once gravid both species become lethargic as the gestation period goes on, but they do eat alot more. In some cases powering down 3 or 4 large crickets in one feeding. I have witnessed the Sculpturatus takinf care of the young if I leave them together once they leave her back.
 

Inverts4life1

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I'm hoping to find these 2 species at an expo here this weekend, probably my two favorite Centruroides species. Gotta get those communals going :astonished:
 

PureXotics804

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I started off with just few species of each, and now i have dozens. It just takes alot of time and patience, and be expected to lose a few due to various reasons especially if they are all wild caught. This could be from various reasons such as parasites, stress, old age ect. Once they are established though it becomes relatively easy other than feeding and watering i dont mess with them too much.
 

InvertAddiction

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I love gracilis :p My pfp is one of the females I had and bred. I think she had 57? or so in that picture. For me, these are so easy to keep and breed. I've never had issues with aggression and at one point had so many I couldn't give them away as freebies lol. I got out of the hobby for a bit and came back in recently and am starting over again. Currently I have 3 females, 1 male, and 2 unsexed. The babies are kept separately until they molt one more time, but the adults that are kept together, I've noticed stay huddled together under one of their long wood hides. I've never seen them drink water, but they always have a full water dish available.

As for the sculpturatus, I've only ever had 3, but I was told from the guy who sent them to me, they were more aggressive and better kept individually, so I kept them in deli cups. All ended up males so I sold them to someone else who was wanting to breed his females.
 

PureXotics804

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I frequently find them huddled together sharing a hide, but other times they violently hit each other with their tails and lock claws. It seems like they get along until one of them gets annoyed with the other one. Im hoping my females give me large broods like yours. Scorpion gestation periods take forever. But ive never had any problems with my Sculpturatus although they are generally ill mannered towards me and my intruding tongs.
 

Bob Lee

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I wish I can get a communal of scorpions going one day :angelic:...
The tanks looked great by the way, do you keep the babies in there with the adults?
 

PureXotics804

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I wish I can get a communal of scorpions going one day :angelic:...
The tanks looked great by the way, do you keep the babies in there with the adults?
Thanks, and no I dont keep the babies with the adults for the sole reason that they are so small and i want to make sure they are eating. However I have mini tanks set up with all of the babies in it communally and I havent had any problems. When they become get around the 1inch mark I plan on reintroducing them into the adult communal enclosure. When I first got my Sculpturatus they ranged from juvenile to adults and I kept them all communally with no issues. Although it is a gamble they seem to do better when kept together, as they group up and take down prey (even though its pre-killed). Another theory as to why they eat better could possibly be due to the competition of all their siblings. One way ive found to minimize the canibalism is that i feed them large crickets and allow them gorge themselves as opposed to feeding small prey such as ff or pinheads. I believe this makes them uninterested in eating cage mates as they become very plump.
 

InvertAddiction

Arachnoknight
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The gracilis I currently have were bought wild caught, unsure if that has anything to do with it, but I had horrible luck with 2 of my females. Apparently they were already gravid when they were sent to me. 2 were significantly fatter than the others, so as a precaution I put them into their own kritter keepers just to see if I was right. I think it was maybe a month in, the first female had her brood of 8. She ate all but 2, yes she was left alone and I have no idea what happened, I went to separate the remaining 2 and she was in the process of eating one so I snatched up the other one and put the mother back in with the other adults. Now the 2nd female only had 3 babies, 2 of which died and I still don't know what went wrong. they were moving on her back, a couple days later I went to check and they were dead off her back and she had 1 that was stuck in its molt hanging off the side of her back. Let me just say, that was interesting trying to get the baby off one very pissed off mother and even more fun trying to get its tail unstuck from the molt. when spring hits, I'm gonna try to get some CB gracilis and see if I have some better luck with breeding again. Idk if these females are old either, which I've been told can also play a part in bad broods.
 

PureXotics804

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The gracilis I currently have were bought wild caught, unsure if that has anything to do with it, but I had horrible luck with 2 of my females. Apparently they were already gravid when they were sent to me. 2 were significantly fatter than the others, so as a precaution I put them into their own kritter keepers just to see if I was right. I think it was maybe a month in, the first female had her brood of 8. She ate all but 2, yes she was left alone and I have no idea what happened, I went to separate the remaining 2 and she was in the process of eating one so I snatched up the other one and put the mother back in with the other adults. Now the 2nd female only had 3 babies, 2 of which died and I still don't know what went wrong. they were moving on her back, a couple days later I went to check and they were dead off her back and she had 1 that was stuck in its molt hanging off the side of her back. Let me just say, that was interesting trying to get the baby off one very pissed off mother and even more fun trying to get its tail unstuck from the molt. when spring hits, I'm gonna try to get some CB gracilis and see if I have some better luck with breeding again. Idk if these females are old either, which I've been told can also play a part in bad broods.
From my experiences with wild caught scorpions that are gravid its a toss up, ive had wild caughts have huge broods and some have small unhealthy broods. I think nutrition and stress plays a huge role as well. Ive read that scorpions will absorb the babies in them for nutrients if they dont have enough to make the babies. I keep all of my scorpions heated with a mat and the gravid scorpions put their bellies against the warm side of the glass almost 24/7. The heat can help in the gestation process. It also helps their metabolism, so they power down multiple crickets a week. I also gutload my crickets with repashy bug burger and i noticed that once i started doing that the scorpions broods were bigger and healthier as opposed to feeding the crickets random vegetables or foods. Age can also play a factor on broods as you mentioned. The older the scorpion they smaller and unhealthier the broods tend to be (of course this is just a general trend). I would definitely recommend fattening the females up before mating them and offering alot of food will they are gravid..i feed my gravid females multiple large crickets a week. I offer them almost as much food as my emperor scorpion. This can also help with them eating the babies as they are well fed when the babies are on the back. I hope these tips help you produce large healthy broods
 

InvertAddiction

Arachnoknight
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From my experiences with wild caught scorpions that are gravid its a toss up, ive had wild caughts have huge broods and some have small unhealthy broods. I think nutrition and stress plays a huge role as well. Ive read that scorpions will absorb the babies in them for nutrients if they dont have enough to make the babies. I keep all of my scorpions heated with a mat and the gravid scorpions put their bellies against the warm side of the glass almost 24/7. The heat can help in the gestation process. It also helps their metabolism, so they power down multiple crickets a week. I also gutload my crickets with repashy bug burger and i noticed that once i started doing that the scorpions broods were bigger and healthier as opposed to feeding the crickets random vegetables or foods. Age can also play a factor on broods as you mentioned. The older the scorpion they smaller and unhealthier the broods tend to be (of course this is just a general trend). I would definitely recommend fattening the females up before mating them and offering alot of food will they are gravid..i feed my gravid females multiple large crickets a week. I offer them almost as much food as my emperor scorpion. This can also help with them eating the babies as they are well fed when the babies are on the back. I hope these tips help you produce large healthy broods
I do power feed my females if they are gravid or I suspect they are gravid. I keep my heat set in the 70's so the temps aren't an issue. Like I said before, this was the first time I'd had anything like that happen. Before, I had brood after brood with no problems lol. I don't use heat mats, never have. The only animal I have that uses one is my leopard gecko. I've heard horror stories of scorps with heat mats lol.
 

PureXotics804

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I do power feed my females if they are gravid or I suspect they are gravid. I keep my heat set in the 70's so the temps aren't an issue. Like I said before, this was the first time I'd had anything like that happen. Before, I had brood after brood with no problems lol. I don't use heat mats, never have. The only animal I have that uses one is my leopard gecko. I've heard horror stories of scorps with heat mats lol.
I dont have any issues, i keep the temperatures in the 80s using a thermostat, and the tanks have gradients. They can thermoregulate as necessary. I built a shelf and installed the heat mats on the back of it, so all of my inverts are kept with heat. Of course you have to be more diligent in the care bc the substrate dries out faster and the water evaporates from the dishes but its worth it the animals are completely different then when i keep them at room temps. I live in VA so the room temps in the winter get pretty cold for them.
 

moricollins

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Nice setups and thanks for the descriptions. What sizes are the tanks?

Thanks!
 

PureXotics804

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The C. sculpturatus being a bit smaller are in a 8x8x12. The C. gracilis is in a 12x12x12. Its only 3 gracilis females in the tank now since the male died a few months ago. Its about 6 or 7 C. sculpturatus in the tank. I find that they dont use all the space i gave them a bigger tank and they just stayed in groups and never use any floor space. The gracilis are more terrestrial in my experience. I also have about 50 gracilis 2i babies in a large beta keeper.
 

Bigme213

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The C. sculpturatus being a bit smaller are in a 8x8x12. The C. gracilis is in a 12x12x12. Its only 3 gracilis females in the tank now since the male died a few months ago. Its about 6 or 7 C. sculpturatus in the tank. I find that they dont use all the space i gave them a bigger tank and they just stayed in groups and never use any floor space. The gracilis are more terrestrial in my experience. I also have about 50 gracilis 2i babies in a large beta keeper.
Would those be exo terras with the vent holes under the door?
 

PureXotics804

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Would those be exo terras with the vent holes under the door?
No theyre just aquarium tanks with screen tops. I dont use front opening tanks in these situations because its easier to manage as far as cleaning feeding or watering them from the top so its no chance of escape especially with my Sculpturatus tank. Just my personal preference.
 

Bigme213

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No theyre just aquarium tanks with screen tops. I dont use front opening tanks in these situations because its easier to manage as far as cleaning feeding or watering them from the top so its no chance of escape especially with my Sculpturatus tank. Just my personal preference.
Yeah I keep debating between a 10 gal aquarium or the spare 12x12x18 exo terra I have. I was wondering about small ones getting through the vent holes they Put in the front of those. They open from top or front so I could use the top when I want. I’ve got 7 sculpuratus adult/sub adult coming and having trouble decide which to use is why I ask.
 

PureXotics804

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Yeah I keep debating between a 10 gal aquarium or the spare 12x12x18 exo terra I have. I was wondering about small ones getting through the vent holes they Put in the front of those. They open from top or front so I could use the top when I want. I’ve got 7 sculpuratus adult/sub adult coming and having trouble decide which to use is why I ask.
Well i wouldn't put anything they can climb on near the front vent. I keep the babies in a sealed container and ive had them escape through 1/32 drilled air hole so they cant be escape artists. Ive even had some climb the siliconed corners of the tanks attempting to escape. Those guys were juvies, luckily i caught them before they got out. The as aquarium i use has a locking top its made by zoo med i believe.
 

Bigme213

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Well i wouldn't put anything they can climb on near the front vent. I keep the babies in a sealed container and ive had them escape through 1/32 drilled air hole so they cant be escape artists. Ive even had some climb the siliconed corners of the tanks attempting to escape. Those guys were juvies, luckily i caught them before they got out. The as aquarium i use has a locking top its made by zoo med i believe.
I think I know the ones you mean. They’re pretty pricey for larger ones but idk if seen any of the small size u use. I’d like to use this exo terra as it is taller and I can provide more climbing area. Idk if they can reach the vent slot but I ain’t big on taking chances
 
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PureXotics804

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I think I know the ones you mean. They’re pretty pricey for larger ones but idk if seen any of the small size u use
Yea they're tiny. I got them in a set. Harbor Freight, lowes, Home depot or even walmart has them..i dont knkw if they have them where you are but harbor freight would be the cheapest then Walmart
 

Bigme213

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Yea they're tiny. I got them in a set. Harbor Freight, lowes, Home depot or even walmart has them..i dont knkw if they have them where you are but harbor freight would be the cheapest then Walmart
Yep I found a 5 gallon with a good locking lid. Gonna go with that for these hot little buggers. Thanks for the help. Btw this is a very interesting thread. Great info. Bravo
 
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