# H. hottentotta Communal Enclosure



## MB623 (Mar 3, 2013)

I set up some of my baby HH in a little communal set up to make room for upcoming broods. Their enclosure isn't the prettiest more necessity really, but I figured I would share a few pics. There is 16 scorplings in this enclosure.


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## ShredderEmp (Mar 3, 2013)

Nice! How do they behave?


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## MB623 (Mar 3, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> Nice! How do they behave?


They're great with each other. No fights, they're just like my stigmurus, they just crawl over eachother. They're so cute.


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## ShredderEmp (Mar 3, 2013)

MB623 said:


> They're great with each other. No fights, they're just like my stigmurus, they just crawl over eachother. They're so cute.


That's awesome. I would have thought they would be more defensive.


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## MB623 (Mar 3, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> That's awesome. I would have thought they would be more defensive.


They were quite defensive when I was putting them in the new set up, but not towards eachother, more towards my stick I was using to steer them into the new enclosure.


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## gromgrom (Mar 5, 2013)

I would separate them. Myself and my friend have experienced rampant cannibalism with H. cabos, which keep being reclassified in and out of H. hottentotta. Just a warning. Adults do great, but the kids find each other pretty tasty.


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## MB623 (Mar 5, 2013)

gromgrom said:


> I would separate them. Myself and my friend have experienced rampant cannibalism with H. cabos, which keep being reclassified in and out of H. hottentotta. Just a warning. Adults do great, but the kids find each other pretty tasty.


They act fine with eachother so far, even sharing food and sitting on top of eachother. If cannibalism does ensue then it's really not a big deal considering their mother is about to pop again really soon, not to mention the two stigmurus I have. I'm keeping my eye on them just incase they start consuming eachother.


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## ShredderEmp (Mar 5, 2013)

MB623 said:


> They act fine with eachother so far, even sharing food and sitting on top of eachother. If cannibalism does ensue then it's really not a big deal considering their mother is about to pop again really soon, not to mention the two stigmurus I have. I'm keeping my eye on them just incase they start consuming eachother.


The ones in the pictures do look pretty plump though.


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## MB623 (Mar 5, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> The ones in the pictures do look pretty plump though.


Yeah, I feed larger crickets than they really need, prekilled of course. Each scorpling can easily carry and consume a cricket their own size if not more. Also keeping close track on their numbers helps me know if they're eating eachother, that or scattered scorp remains.::


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## MB623 (Mar 8, 2013)

*Best Buds*

This is just a quick pic of a couple of them sharing some food. This also goes to show what I mean by larger crickets than they really need, plenty to go around.:biggrin:


The scorp on the left blends in and is kinda hard to see at first.


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## MB623 (Mar 11, 2013)

I just had to add this one last pic. All 16 still accounted for.



Three little scorpion butts.


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## voldemort (Mar 17, 2013)

MB623 said:


> I just had to add this one last pic. All 16 still accounted for.
> 
> View attachment 113993
> 
> Three little scorpion butts.


separate them. Under this conditions, only 1 or 2 will make it to adulthood, wait till they molt and you will see why.


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## MB623 (Mar 18, 2013)

voldemort said:


> separate them. Under this conditions, only 1 or 2 will make it to adulthood, wait till they molt and you will see why.


Under this conditions? I was completely aware they may eat eachother when I set this up. The current enclosure has plenty of hides and is only temporary, soon to be moved to a 10 gallon terrarium with even more hides. The set up is for personal observation and is down to 15 now, because I gave one away. I also sale them, but they're not very popular. If cannibalism does occur then so be it. It's a parthenogenetic sp. and the mother of these scorplings is currently gravid, any that are lost will be replaced. I don't want them to eat eachother, but if cannibalism does ensue then it'll just be an observation in my personal study with this sp., but I won't seperate them. I will post here when they molt or if any of them are consumed by one of their peers.


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## Taryllton (Mar 18, 2013)

It's not the normal day-to-day that you have to worry about. It's when one moults, you can bet one or two of the others will cannibalize it. I've tried communal enclosures with Babycurus, Centruroides, and Tityus and observed this behavior in each and every case. Never tried with Hottentotta, but I don't see why it would be any different. These things seem to have a sixth sense for when a conspecific has moulted and is vulnerable.

---------- Post added 03-18-2013 at 12:14 PM ----------




voldemort said:


> separate them. Under this conditions, only 1 or 2 will make it to adulthood, wait till they molt and you will see why.


Exactly my experience.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## MB623 (Mar 18, 2013)

Taryllton said:


> It's not the normal day-to-day that you have to worry about. It's when one moults, you can bet one or two of the others will cannibalize it. I've tried communal enclosures with Babycurus, Centruroides, and Tityus and observed this behavior in each and every case. Never tried with Hottentotta, but I don't see why it would be any different. These things seem to have a sixth sense for when a conspecific has moulted and is vulnerable.
> 
> ---------- Post added 03-18-2013 at 12:14 PM ----------
> 
> ...


I'm in no way worried about cannibalism. I knew very well thay could eat eachother when I set this up. Still I won't be seperating them. When they molt or eat eachother, I'll post it here in this thread.


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## Taryllton (Mar 18, 2013)

MB623 said:


> I'm in no way worried about cannibalism. I knew very well thay could eat eachother when I set this up. Still I won't be seperating them. When they molt or eat eachother, I'll post it here in this thread.


I don't care if you separate them, it makes no difference to me. I'm just saying eveyone else is right when they tell you that whether they display aggression towards each other or not doesn't really have anything to do with it. They're still going to cannibalize moulting individuals haha. Definitely sounds like an interesting experiment, though, keep us posted.


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## ~Abyss~ (Mar 18, 2013)

This is actually interesting I hope you keep this thread updated. And you should post what your complete set up, if this is succesful I would like to know what you did. I'm keeping my 2 H.H together too so far no agressions but so far no molts either.


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## MB623 (Mar 18, 2013)

Taryllton said:


> I don't care if you separate them, it makes no difference to me. I'm just saying eveyone else is right when they tell you that whether they display aggression towards each other or not doesn't really have anything to do with it. They're still going to cannibalize moulting individuals haha. Definitely sounds like an interesting experiment, though, keep us posted.


I never said anyone was wrong. I was just sharing some pics of a HH communal set up. I wasn't looking for information on the sp. nor their behavior in a communal set up. I get it, they could be consumed while molting, it's nothing new and no big deal to me. God forbid some HH scorplings are cannibalized. I'm not trying to be mean about it, I'm just saying cannibalism amongst this sp. is something I was well aware of when I first started seriously researching and thinking about keeping this particular sp. of scorpion three years ago.


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## Taryllton (Mar 18, 2013)

MB623 said:


> I never said anyone was wrong. I was just sharing some pics of a HH communal set up. I wasn't looking for information on the sp. nor their behavior in a communal set up. I get it, they could be consumed while molting, it's nothing new and no big deal to me. God forbid some HH scorplings are cannibalized. I'm not trying to be mean about it, I'm just saying cannibalism amongst this sp. is something I was well aware of when I first started seriously researching and thinking about keeping this particular sp. of scorpion three years ago.


It's all good bro. Like I said, definitely interested in the results.


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## MB623 (Jun 4, 2013)

*Molt*

Update: There are only six left in the set up because I've sold and gave away some of them. One of them finally decided to molt, so here's a pic.


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