# Grosphus ankarana



## Lummi (Apr 27, 2013)

Hello,

I want to share my photos with you. 

Both are from import right from the Madagacar :laugh: 


Care sheet:
I'm keeping them separately in plastic boxes 20x20x15cm after they mated. 
//I don't think that they are so social to be kept in one tank// 

Temperature is between 26-28°C during the day and 20°C during the night. Humidity is 70-80%. Substrate is peat with sand (2:1). I read that they like to hide under bark but my female also likes to climb on something so one big cork bark is fine. Also it is necessary to provide them water dish.

They are kinda like garbage bin eating whatever you put in the box. 

I didn't have the pleasure to test their poison yet but I guess it is like 3/5 max(!).

Grosphus ankarana is kinda small - about 100mm (males are bigger and thiner)

Behavior is defensive - they rather hide than attack. Except for gravid females. 


And now it's time for some of my favourite photos. 

Box with female





Detailed photo





Male eating dubia roach 












)

Reactions: Like 1


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## ShredderEmp (Apr 27, 2013)

Is that what I think it is on the back of the female?

You should talk to Abyss. He also has some and maybe you could compare how you keep them. His male and female have both molted and are doing well despite an ant attack.

Oh, and these guys are my favorite species, so I got pretty disappointed when I realized you're from Europe.


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## Lummi (Apr 27, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> Is that what I think it is on the back of the female?


Yup! 24 hour old babies right there! 

This species is kinda expensive here but im so glad that I bought them  Im writing all informations about them especially now when my female have babies so i will bumb this thread with everything what comes to my mind.


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## ShredderEmp (Apr 27, 2013)

Good luck!


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## Galapoheros (Apr 28, 2013)

I have a few of these, I like them also, cheap entertainment.  I only have one female but she is not mature yet, I hope the males I have left don't kick the bucket in the mean time.  I read they have a pretty big size range, some small, some pretty long.  I also read that in the wild they are often found around limestone bedrock along rocky creek beds and have been found in trees in the wild.  They might be even harder to get later so congrats.


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## G. Carnell (Apr 28, 2013)

Hey,

Firstly lovely pics and nice species!


Gala, are you certain your female is subadult?
Like you mentioned about sizes, i had an adult male who "looked" 2 instars smaller than a WC female I had (his mother!!) (was G.limbatus though)
I had a male and female separated because i thought the little one wasn't adult! 

really nice genus


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## Galapoheros (Apr 28, 2013)

Hmm, yes that's a possibility, good to point that out.  I will go check more closely and put her with a mature male, see what happens.  I had some large Centruroides, 13cm(male), many male offspring were only around 5cm!  I thought "no way those are mature" but they were so, yeah, I better go check that.


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## ~Abyss~ (Apr 29, 2013)

I couldn’t resist this thread…I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this species I can’t even begin to tell you. They might be expensive in your country but they’re near impossible to get here so as shredderemps mentioned a recent ant attack nearly gave me a heart attack. Anyways I’ve done as much research as possible with this species and I’m in the process of writing up a very detailed caresheet send me a PM and I’ll share my notes with you. From what I’ve read by the way I think you might a little too much on the humid side. They do enjoy humidity but also like a semi arid environment I keep my enclosure 50/50 split with sand on one half and moist peat on the other. 
@ Gala, the males of this species are slightly larger than the females but the females are still pretty big I think you’d know if it was mature if you compare the size. Just a heads up so you don’t lose your only female as lunch.

---------- Post added 04-29-2013 at 09:04 AM ----------

my set up
http://www.scorpion-forum.com/t9729-detailed-gankarana-set-up

Reactions: Like 2


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## Galapoheros (May 1, 2013)

I had forgotten that crossed my mind before, I put her with a male a long time ago, maybe I'm losing my mind to forget I did that!  She looks like she could molt any day now and hopefully I can pull a Lummi.  How many do you think you have there, 30 or so?


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## Lummi (May 1, 2013)

~Abyss~ said:


> my set up http://www.scorpion-forum.com/t9729-detailed-gankarana-set-up


Wow, great idea! I will buy larger enclosure asap.
Oh, give me few days and i will write down all information I have. 



Galapoheros said:


> How many do you think you have there, 30 or so?


I don't think that there are this many :/ It looks like 20 - 30 at the best. I read that they have 40-60 babies per one pop so I'm kinda confused now. Female is well fed, she has right temperature and humidity so I guess she had good conditions to have this many babies. Is it even possible to have from 40 to 60 per one pop? 


Anyway, I've came home after work to this.










Female changed her position and one of them fell off. I found him dead.... :/ 

This baby is 4 days old and nearly 12mm long (almost 0,5''). I put it in the freezer for later research (examine?).


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## ShredderEmp (May 1, 2013)

Lummi said:


> Wow, great idea! I will buy larger enclosure asap.
> Oh, give me few days and i will write down all information I have.
> 
> 
> ...


I read that Centruroides bicolor has 50 babies per birth, but that seemed pretty outrageous. But shoot, why do the good die young? Poor scorpling.


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## ~Abyss~ (May 1, 2013)

Lummi said:


> Wow, great idea! I will buy larger enclosure asap.
> Oh, give me few days and i will write down all information I have.
> 
> 
> ...


From what i've read on the Euro-forums is 30 is pretty average for this species. I've also seen other grosphus species and from what I've seen at least 3 different scorps with broods of about 25-30.

---------- Post added 05-01-2013 at 08:32 AM ----------




Galapoheros said:


> I had forgotten that crossed my mind before, I put her with a male a long time ago, maybe I'm losing my mind to forget I did that!  She looks like she could molt any day now and hopefully I can pull a Lummi.  How many do you think you have there, 30 or so?


Mines are also premolt been like this for a month now! still fasting and starting to spend most of their time in the humid side of the enclosure 
G.ankarana premolt Male

 

G. Ankarana premolt Male

 

G.Ankarana premolt FEMALE

 

G.Ankarana Premolt Female


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## 2nscorpx (May 2, 2013)

Is this the first brood that that female has had? The first brood and then the last few broods are usually smaller in size...a beautiful species, regardless.


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## Lummi (May 14, 2013)

*Guess what is under the bark?*










There are over 30 little guys but they run away before I could take a photo. The rest is what you can see

Reactions: Like 4


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## ShredderEmp (May 14, 2013)

Purely awesome!


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## Ryan2 (May 14, 2013)

These scorpions coloring are awesome; how much does one of these usually cost?


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## ShredderEmp (May 14, 2013)

Ryan2 said:


> These scorpions coloring are awesome; how much does one of these usually cost?


I saw some for $40 once. I think they were scorplings.


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## Ryan2 (May 14, 2013)

Thank you.


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## ShredderEmp (May 14, 2013)

Ryan2 said:


> Thank you.


Welcome. Also, by the way, I would say they are the holy grail of scorpions.


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## ~Abyss~ (May 15, 2013)

Ryan2 said:


> These scorpions coloring are awesome; how much does one of these usually cost?


I just paid $140 for another subaudult female. Very difficult to get ahold of, figured with two females now I'll make my money back.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Galapoheros (May 15, 2013)

Son of a diddlydoodle!  I didn't realize these things were so expensive, I got mine in a trade.


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## ShredderEmp (May 15, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> Son of a diddlydoodle!  I didn't realize these things were so expensive, I got mine in a trade.


What did you give the person, a diamond? I would never let people touch their cage if I had one.


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## ~Abyss~ (May 15, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> Son of a diddlydoodle!  I didn't realize these things were so expensive, I got mine in a trade.


John was pretty gracious when he had his for sale, I'm pretty sure he wanted people to breed them but I dont see anyone with any ankaranas in the U.S at least no one posting it publicly


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## cantthinkofone (May 15, 2013)

if i had one it would be like locked away underneath my house in a secret facility with 20 workers to keep it happy and if any one came near the door i would imprison them. i can see why no one says they have them... its prob because they dont want to get ransacked for it. lol


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## Galapoheros (May 15, 2013)

Things do get hyped up though, it's amazing how things spread, turn into fads, then comes back down to being more reasonable later, supply and demand.  Not that these are not nice looking scorpions, it's all opinions anyway.  Remember when somebody paid $700 for a swammerdami?, could have been a rumor but the air was let out of that one.  Swammerdami are cool though, still really hard to get over here as well and still not cheap though.  The ankaranas, the color does dull with age/molts, a nice scorpion of course.


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## ~Abyss~ (May 15, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> Things do get hyped up though, it's amazing how things spread, turn into fads, then comes back down to being more reasonable later, supply and demand.  Not that these are not nice looking scorpions, it's all opinions anyway.  Remember when somebody paid $700 for a swammerdami?, could have been a rumor but the air was let out of that one.  Swammerdami are cool though, still really hard to get over here as well and still not cheap though.  The ankaranas, the color does dull with age/molts, a nice scorpion of course.


For me it’s not just the coloration. They’re also really big and wanna-be bark scorpions. I always find mine in weird bark positions and during the night they are VERY active. It has quickly become my favorite species because 
1.They have awesome colors 
2. They are huge
3. Active scorpion (good for display) 
4. Hardy eaters, always fun to see them eat
5. They don’t burrow or become pet holes. 
6. They’re pretty aggressive scorps but don’t have a tendancy to sting, instead they make themselves big and raise their tails up higher than any other scorp I’ve seen. 
But your right, it’s all a matter of opinion but I really really like this scorp.


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## Galapoheros (May 15, 2013)

Yeah the behavior kind of reminds me of H. arizonensis with more color and don't dig.  The ones over here do like hide under things, expected.  I've got so many things, I have them in large delis right now, ...blasphemy! haha.


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## ~Abyss~ (May 15, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> Yeah the behavior kind of reminds me of H. arizonensis with more color and don't dig.  The ones over here do like hide under things, expected.  I've got so many things, I have them in large delis right now, ...blasphemy! haha.


then you really aren't experiencing them to the max. Blasphemy indeed!


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