Emps in a 20 long

[SpiderFood]

I should be getting 2 more emps next week from Kellygirl, I was wondering how easily it would be to breed them in a m/f ratio of 1:3? Will I have to worry about cannibalism? I will set them up the same way as I have my 10 gallon now with the gravel bed humidity control described in Dave's "sticky" thread on this forum about emp care. I usually get good advice and help on here so thanx alot in advance.

Later

Dale

 

[skinheaddave]

Dale,

So you're the guy getting her emps. Well, first of all, you will need more than 10 gallons, but you obviously already figured that out. The ratio is absolutely perfect, BTW. That being said, there is always the risk of canabalism. In fact, I have a H.spinifer female that kills all other females when she becomes gravid. I don't know if she also tries to kill my male, but he seems to survive every year, so at the very least he can fend for himself.

Now, I have also been thinking recently and came up with a protocol that I have not tested out at all yet. I was reading the chapter in "Scorpion Biology and Research" on reproductive ecology and learned some interesting things about Pandinus/Heterometrus. In the wild, Pandinus mate on a seasonal basis. Contrary to our general conception of plentiful rainforests, there is actualy a heavy seasonal variation in available prey. Most of the time, the only prey readily available is large and heavily armoured. There is, however, a yearly influx of small, easy prey. Around that time, all the females give birth and immatures tend to moult to maturity. That also seems to be the cue for the males to go out looking for love. Makes sense, as the females they will find are likely to either be recently matured or will have just given birth.

Next, an observation by Wade made a while ago that when he put his emps into pairs, they almost all started mating instantly. Perhaps seperation does make the heart grow fonder.

Thirdly, moving into speculation, when I removed the young from the back of my one Heterometrus female this year, I did so intentionaly early to test out a new raising system. When I replaced her into her tank, she was bred almost immediately by my male. Could the removal of a litter by a male allow him to subsequently mate with females? Canabalism of young by males is definitely more common than by females (Scorp Biol + Research again), which is hypothesized to be the result of the females living in what could loosely be termed "sister groups", whereas wandering males are going to be somewhat unrelated. Perhaps their canabalism also serves to prep females, as it does in lions (though obviously involving a completely different mechanism, as we are comparing apples and oranges, or better still, lions and scorpions).

Okay, so put that all together and what do you get? I bought some of the materials the other day for a sort of scorpion aparment complex. The idea is to have layer upon layer of sister groups of the various forest scorpions. The males would be kept seperately. Some element of seasonality would be introduced (read: check the international weather sites) and the males introduced at the right time as indicated by the females producing young. If I can get the whole system in synch, it would be a bit of an isight into the natural order of things.

Now, with mine I am going to be doing a lot more background research and some more planning (input is welcome), but in your case you could easily try out the same system by keeping the male seperate. Keep in mind that this is only theory. Basically, you should be minimizing canabalism risk but at the risk of losing mating opportunities.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[SpiderFood]

Dave,

Thanx for the once again plethera of info. I will definitly be trying the breeding of these cool scorps. With 3 females I should have some success. I am sure I will be dropping a pm or email or maybe a post if I have other questions. Thanx

Dale