# Baby Arizona Bark Scorpions!



## Captain T (Jul 20, 2012)

Hey everyone, I'm new to the board, and new to scorpion keeping. I was hoping for a little advice.

I picked up what turned out to be a pregnant female Arizona bark scorpion sometime around April.
Watched her get fat but still had no clue she was going to give birth. Collected a couple more scorpions, about a month ago, one of which I added to her glass dwelling, and one I kept separate. 

She had her babies sometime during the weekend after the 4th. Monday the 9th, I discovered her chilling under the rock with her brood. I removed the other scorpion immediately, and waited.

I'm beginning to see small scorpions venturing around, and what I feared were a couple of corpses. 
My questions are, are these the molts that I'm seeing? They are so tiny it is difficult to tell.

And, how much longer before I remove mom and separate the youngsters to something more adequate?

I poked a twitching cricket under her rock last night, which she seemed to readily take. I was hoping she would feed her young this. I've been keeping them well hydrated. She was poking out from under the rock this evening, so it seems she's ready to move about again. 

Any advice on how to properly care for these little guys would be well appreciated.


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## Olsin (Jul 20, 2012)

Captain T said:


> Collected a couple more scorpions, about a month ago, one of which I added to her glass dwelling, and one I kept separate.


Hi Capt .. If the scorps you collected were the same species as your bark scorpion then no problems .. however if not then it's probably not such a good idea to mix species unless you really want one to kill the other.



Captain T said:


> I'm beginning to see small scorpions venturing around, and what I feared were a couple of corpses.
> My questions are, are these the molts that I'm seeing? They are so tiny it is difficult to tell.And, how much longer before I remove mom and separate the youngsters to something more adequate?


If you are already seeing small scorplings wandering around then now would be a good time to remove them. House each small scorp separately in a small plastic container with damp cocofiber or equivalent as substrate and a small piece of bark positioned up against the wall of the container so that the scorpling can hang from it when it moults, Keep the substrate damp and position the small containers in a warm area...And the small bodies you're seeing could very well be moults or they could be deceased scorplings. If your humidity is to low then lower instar bark scorpion mortality could be high. Fish one of them out and have a good look at it. A molt will simply be an empty case without substance while a dead scorpling will of course be a dead scorpling. Use a magnifying glass if you can't make it out by eye.



Captain T said:


> Any advice on how to properly care for these little guys would be well appreciated.


Once you've removed each one into it's own container then it's simply a case of maintaining humidity and warmth plus feeding them proper sized prey. For prey items you could use pin head crickets, head crushed micro mealworms or very small roaches. Head crush or remove the heads of the roaches to stop them digging down into the substrate. Feed them 4 or 5 times a week until they start refusing food. Don't leave prey items in with them if you suspect they are in pre moult or make sure prey items are incapacitated in some way so that they don't interfere with moulting. 3 or 4 days after moult you can try and introduce prey items again.
As long as you keep the substrate damp then your humidity should be ok. Choose containers with lids to keep the humidity in although remember to puncture some air holes around the sides of the containers to ensure adequate air flow. Temperatures should be high 20'sC (80 - 86F) with a drop of at night although if you've found these scorps locally then your temps are probably already just fine.

Good luck with the youngsters mate


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## KDiiX (Jul 20, 2012)

The first 14 day's there is now need at all to feed the mum or the babies. I heard a couple of times that people feed them early because they fear the mum would eat them because she gets hungry. In nature the scorpion don't hunt while the scorpions are on the back of them mother so if the mum eat some of her birth that may have other reasons but not hungryness.
If they have melted first time you can see pretty easily. First instar the scorpions seem actually not finished in development( best you can see at the stinger which don't look pretty sharp) also first instar are pretty fat if you compare to I2(that a nutrition storage which give them all they need until next most, after melting into I2 they stark hunting on them alone,but wait after molting at least 5-10 day's until they hardened the skin completely before feeding.
The best time for separate them is when the children leave permanently the mother and do much bigger circles around the mother then first day when they leave her first time. It might be that they flew to the protective area of the mother if they are disturbed. But no worry about that. If they hardened and be most time alone in the enclosure they are ready even if they are still easy to frighten ;-)
With keeping this species I have no expirience. But scorpions in general you should keep a bit colder and a bit more moist then adults. Centruroides sp. often are very communal even as juveniles so often is a communal setting possible(as I said I'm not a expert o  this special sp.) If you don't want to risk any cannibalism keep them single. Cannibalism can happen with the most social sp . So everyone have to decide if the risk is worth it to loose may be a couple of them by cannibalism. 
I hope this helps for the first ;-)

Edit: head crush roaches  to avoid digging is not necessary they can localized prey even if it's couple of cm hunter the surface. 
But I would recommend to feed only twice a week. Better every five days. If you "disturb" them to often they need much longer to most and enough food they get with twice a week anyway.


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## Olsin (Jul 20, 2012)

KDiiX said:


> ,but wait after molting at least 5-10 day's until they hardened the skin completely before feeding.


This would be applicable if they were older scorplings but from instar 2 to 3 i feel a shorter wait is ok. As they progress through instars the pre moult and hardening periods will be longer. I've had many bark scorpions that have begun to feed again after just a few days when moulting from instar 2 to 3.



KDiiX said:


> head crush roaches  to avoid digging is not necessary they can localized prey even if it's couple of cm hunter the surface.
> But I would recommend to feed only twice a week. Better every five days. If you "disturb" them to often they need much longer to most and enough food they get with twice a week anyway.


They may be able to sense them under the substrate but they won't be able to get to them if they're a couple of centimetres down .. You then run the risk of them coming to the surface at an inopportune moment when you scorpling is in the act of moulting. Crickets are the worst for munching on moulting and freshly moulted scorpions but roaches could also pose a risk if they stressed or disturbed the moulting scorpion.....and your advice about feeding every fifth day or twice a week is a little on the lean side in my opinion. I'll gladly feed my scorplings every other day until they refuse prey (not always because of pre moult, sometimes simply because their stuffed) and i've never experienced that scorpions fed at a lesser rate moult and develop faster than those that are fed more often..on the contrary..well fed warm scorpions moult and develop faster than hungry colder scorpions.....As they develop through instars feeding regimes can be slowed down but when young i feel plenty of food is beneficial. 
You don't have to disturb them when you feed them. Simply gather prey items in advance, remove lid of scorpion container (if it's a screw lid i always leave it unscrewed but in place), bung said prey item in and replace lid. There's no need to lift the scorpions hide to see if it's going to eat or disturb it in any other way. Doing it this way results in no more disturbance than a sudden gust of wind in nature.


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## KDiiX (Jul 20, 2012)

Sorry that I have to say every touch of the container will disturb them! Even if you enter the room where you store your scorpions might disturb them! Many scorpion and tarantula keeper which have a separate room which they do not enter to often report much faster growth then choose who don't have a "scorpionroom". Anyway I never said you should keep them cool and feed less. I just said if you touch almost every day the container that it decreases the growth speed! Sure they need enough food to grow fast but where is now need to feed almost every day. Twice a week a big meal is enough to grow at "fullspeed".
Sure they might take food few days after molt but this also can injure them because they didn't completely hardened. 
Do you really think the scorpion isn't able to dig too? Or why you think that they can't reach a diged roach?


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## Olsin (Jul 20, 2012)

I know scorpions can sense even the most minuscule of vibrations around them but to equate that with disturbance is slightly over the top in my opinion. Being aware of movement and being disturbed by it are 2 different things. I'm in no doubt that my scorpions can "feel" when i open and close my front door or when i walk up the stairs but that they should be disturbed by these vibrations is open to discussion. Sure, constantly moving their enclosures around and walking with heavy footsteps around their enclosures probably does disturb them and by extension stress them but general low level disturbance wouldn't be more disturbing than wind blowing through trees or other natural movements. These are bark scorpions and as such will be used to living in a "living" environment.

And about bark scorpions digging under the substrate to catch prey ... I've never seen or heard of any doing this so i have no reason to believe they do although if you have experience to the contrary then i've no problems deferring to that.


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## KDiiX (Jul 20, 2012)

Few days ago my L.mucronatus did dig out a roach. It's a different species but think the aren't that different to say that centis won't do that at all.
Btw it's no good argumentation to say that something won't be able because you have never seen. I never seen any alien but I won't bet my live on the nonexistent of aliens!
If you call it disturbing or what else doesn't matter. The fact is that the people who have extra room for their arachnids and hold a contact to them on minimum have much more success in growing fast their animals then those who "disturb" them more then necessary. I know that in nature also scorpions are disturbed but in nature scorpions need much longer to grow adult then in captivity possible is. Believe or not I actually don't care ...


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## tdark1 (Jul 20, 2012)

I find them all the time around my house and outside here.  I have never seen them digging for food, they are always perched somewhere vertical.  Also you can leave the babies in with mom if you don't feel like separating them out.  I have friends with giant groupings of these guys in 20-40 gallon tanks, they just leave all the young in... Some die, some don't (if you don't want to separate tons of barks out).

Cheers,

Rob


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## KDiiX (Jul 24, 2012)

tdark1 said:


> I find them all the time around my house and outside here.  I have never seen them digging for food, they are always perched somewhere vertical.  Also you can leave the babies in with mom if you don't feel like separating them out.  I have friends with giant groupings of these guys in 20-40 gallon tanks, they just leave all the young in... Some die, some don't (if you don't want to separate tons of barks out).
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rob


Might never seen them digging because in nature they don't have to. But when the only prey they can localized and they are hungry then they can and do dig for them.


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