Dictator from petco

[Sommers]

Sold to me as a dictator. I'm new to scorpions. If it a female?

 

[MrTwister]

I do not see a picture? Did you post one?

 

[Sommers]

I did but it didn't seem to show. I'll try again

I do not see a picture? Did you post one?

 

[Sommers]

I did but it didn't seem to show. I'll try again

I do not see a picture? Did you post one?

 

[Sommers]

I did but it didn't seem to show. I'll try again

 

[Sommers]

Its a big one

 

[Pythonipus]

It looks like a female to me. Would need a better picture of the underside, specifically between the 3rd and 4th set of legs, to say for sure.

 

[Sommers]

Sorry having trouble getting pics to attatch

 

[Sommers]

Here a better pic

 

[Pythonipus]

Yea, I'd say female.

 

[Alex99]

Yea, I'd say female.

A pregnant female, Have fun @Sommers

 

[Sommers]

Really?! I just went and got another female last night that's even bigger! Should I separate them or will they be ok? They were sleeping great in their hide all night together.

 

[Pythonipus]

I'd separate them to be safe. Once they give birth they can get aggressive to defend their young. They may also eat their own young if the scorplings get knocked off the mom's back or if the mom gets too stressed.

 

[Liquifin]

Should I separate them or will they be ok?

If it's really pregnant/gravid it is best to separate them, until the scorplings are born and are no longer riding the mothers back. The stress of having baby scorplings on her back is going to be stressful enough, and if you really keep her with another adult scorp, then the chances of making it worse increases drastically. Since the mother is very defensive over her baby scorplings.

They may also eat their own young if the scorplings get knocked off the mom's back

Not really true on that part. If scorplings are knocked off, the mother will either pick them up or the scorpling will run back to cling on with the mother. Most of the time, scorplings will run back onto the mother if they're knocked off. But certainly they do not eat their young if they're knocked off. I personally think it is a misconception on that end. Most of the time when a mother does eat her young it is mainly because she is too hungry, since mother scorpions lose a lot of weight after birth or because of extreme stress. I never seen it with me or my friends (ex-hobbyist) scorps when we still had a pretty good collection back in the day.

 

[darkness975]

@Sommers The best way to confirm if it is gravid is to candlelight it with a flashlight.