Help please?

[Iktomi]

Hey all. I'm new to scorps...could someone tell me how to tell the difference between a fight and a dance?
My male emp is chasing the BIG female around. He does this little "shake" every so often. She runs from him and waves her stinger around while they grapple.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Andrew]

Yah i;d have to say thats a dance! Do you want them to mate? If you do i sugest that you have a stick or something so the male can put his sperm sack on it.
Andrew

 

[Iktomi]

I've got slate rock in there. So is the female just going to get in the mood? She's being a pain about the whole thing right now. Also, she's wild caught and fat so she COULD be gravid already...

 

[pelo]

The shaking you notice is called juddering.. it's trying to entice the female

 

[Iktomi]

Well, Dr. Evil must have stolen his mojo because every time he does it she runs away.
If she is gravid, will the male pose a threat to potential scorplings?

 

[Reitz]

That's a hard question to answer. The male could stress out the female to the point that she eats the young, or, if he's a pertucularly agressive emp he could eat/fight with the young once they start growing. On the otherhand, I've never had a problem. When I started out I'd always separate the mother. But it doesn't really seem to make that much of a difference. In fact, the biggest problem I've seen with raising young along with the parents is keeping the humidity high enough. I'd say remove the babies after the come off mom's back, and if the male seems to be disturbing her, take him out. Otherwise, don't bother.

This is, of course, assuming that she's already gravid!

Good luck,
Chris

 

[Silver.x]

re

What is the average gestation period for an emperor scorpion?

 

[Reitz]

From what I've learned, there's no such thing. You'll usually hear 6-9 months, but there are people on this board who have WC emps that have been in captivity well over a year before they popped. I'd say no less than 6 months, and no more than 1.5 years, but the latter is rare, and probably due to stress (this isn't a criticism of the keepers, I'm saying that the animals may have held off the gestation due to the stress of shipment, etc.)

Chris

 

[Tim R.]

I've had my female right at two years and on the 5 of November she began to give birth. She was my only scorp and in my care has never been in contact with a male. Pretty amazing!

 

[AK47]

The shaking you notice is called juddering.. it's trying to entice the female

-----------> Wrong!

Its called "bump-n-grind"