# Pandinus imperator (Emperor Scorpion) Availability Update



## MrCrackerpants (May 19, 2013)

From Ken the Bug Guy:

In The News

So many of you have heard that the Emperor scorpions were banned from import.   Well that is partially true.  The last 2 countries that most of them were coming from were not returning reports on their populations.   They are a cities species so that is required.   So what this means is until one of those 2 countries starts sending those reports/studies then they will not be exported from those countries.  There is rumor that one of those 2 countries is in the process of doing the reports.  Also there are a couple other possible countries to get emperors from but it has not been done yet so who knows if it can be.   Long story short emperors will go up in price till something works itself out or maybe they will never get imported again....who knows.


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## ShredderEmp (May 19, 2013)

Saw this in the email he sent out. I think it would be beneficial to the population for the export to be halted for a while.


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## vespers (May 19, 2013)

He's not the only vendor that has increased the price, which has pretty much doubled on a few sites since the news hit.


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## MrCrackerpants (May 19, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> Saw this in the email he sent out. I think it would be beneficial to the population for the export to be halted for a while.


Yes, I strongly agree.

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vespers said:


> He's not the only vendor that has increased the price, which has pretty much doubled on a few sites since the news hit.


Yes, I noticed this. I'm going to step up my breeding program.


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## G. Carnell (May 19, 2013)

All the more reason to go CB!!


with the amount of WC Pandinus imported for the past.. what, 20+ years?

there are still few suppliers (0 in the UK I know of) that sell CB P.imperators apart from births of WC specimens
quite appalling on our part as breeders


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## Galapoheros (May 19, 2013)

The importer I talked to almost a few years ago said this would happen ...about now.  He goes down there to Africa looking for deals.  He said he was told(don't know where it got his info) that they were going to shut down the Ghana export and that they are eventually only going to allow only farmed imperator for exportation.  He mentioned the committee that made the decision but I can't remember the name of it.  Then he gestured with his arms and said, "...but who's going to farm these over there?"  I don't want to start rumors though, we don't know if what he said is accurate AND, things change, "they", whoever that is, can change their minds.  Imo, "they" is the United Nations and their sustainability project that trickles down through diff levels of government.  By the time it gets down to county and city, the people carrying out their orders don't really know where they are coming from imo.  There is also a new generation of enviro conscious younger people taught in school that humans should die, I'm exaggerating haha.  But I do think the pendulum might swing too far as it usually does.  btw they are $29.99 at a store here.  The mark-up is crazy though, wholesale prices are around $3 to $5 dollars each, I know because I saw a deal made one time, don't tell anybody Waaahahahahaha!


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## Cowin8579 (May 19, 2013)

There are still so many right now that the price shouldn't jump.  They do need bred though starting now.


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## Ludedor24 (May 19, 2013)

They are not going to disappear any time soon that's for sure


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## FearNot (May 23, 2013)

Hello!

I am mostly a tarantula keeper, but I have been thinking of getting a scorpion or two for a while. This is the species I was going to go for because I heard they were easy to come by, and also because they look quite impressive.

Do you suppose I should try to buy mine now before the prices go up any further, or should I wait a while until more CB projects get up and the price goes down again? Do you think the price will ever go back down, or will this just be the new normal for them?


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## illegalacid (May 23, 2013)

I heard about this as well crazy as it is I was at a local pet shop the other day and I knew I should have got some but they were going for 24 dollars each.  Im more into t's than scorpions but im sure that is a way good deal as to what they are going to be soon.  Im thinkin about going up there and buying the lot out for sure!


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## vukic (May 26, 2013)

Why aren't there many people producing captive bred???

Tiger

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2


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## G. Carnell (May 26, 2013)

I think it's just easier for sellers to sell the whole lot, rather than waiting 1 year for babies to reach adulthood, and another 9+ months for another brood 

lots of the UK breeders are more into Spiders it seems, and aren't really bothered with breeding scorpions!


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## callum b (May 28, 2013)

If you could raise an emperor from birth to adulthood in 1 year I think there'd be a lot more CB individuals around. The only person I've heard of breeding emperors in any quantity in the UK was PeterUK who bred them in a rack system similar to what many snake keepers use. Funnily enough he's given up on scorpions altogether now and only breeds tarantulas. 

I think the problem is their slow growth and long gestation time. A huge black scorpion is very attractive to potential new scorpion keepers, but an inch long greyish coloured baby that hides away for weeks on end and won't look anything like its adult counterparts for at least several years isn't. For there to be a regular supply of CB emperors here in the UK there'd need to be a reasonable number of scorpion 'nuts' who actually bred their scorpions. As far as I'm aware there's only a handful of people who are really serious about scorpion keeping here, maybe even only half a hand full lol. Already that means that there's probably not enough people who are devoted enough to scorpion keeping to have a chance and time to produce large numbers of CB emperors. There's also the problem that emperors are often regarded as beginner or 'novice' species and so more experienced or accomplished keepers have often moved on to rarer or more challenging species and so don't even bother keeping emperor scorpions anymore. Scorpion snobbery lol!! There'd also be no return on breeding emperors, even on a fairly large scale, I don't think. And whilst many hobbyists are not in it for the money anyway (could you ever be with scorpions lol?), would any of them be prepared to fork out a wedge of cash on a load of new enclosures, heating etc. plus the scorpions themselves (emps are pretty expensive over here) and clear half their scorpion room to make room for an emperor 'farm'? Mass producing emperors could easily be done over here, but I don't think it will. Hobbyists are hobbyists and so can't be expected to have the time, money, space to do it and there's no financial interest for some exotics 'breeder' to have racks full of emperor scorpions and produce them en masse, at least not in this country.

Adult emperors will become rarer and more expensive (I don't think they'll totally disappear, other countries to import from, smuggling, change their name to Pandinus africanus?!?), the odd baby will be available on forum classifieds ads, and WC red claws imported from Tanzania will fill the void left by the emperors.


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## MrCrackerpants (May 28, 2013)

callum b said:


> If you could raise an emperor from birth to adulthood in 1 year I think there'd be a lot more CB individuals around. The only person I've heard of breeding emperors in any quantity in the UK was PeterUK who bred them in a rack system similar to what many snake keepers use. Funnily enough he's given up on scorpions altogether now and only breeds tarantulas.
> 
> I think the problem is their slow growth and long gestation time. A huge black scorpion is very attractive to potential new scorpion keepers, but an inch long greyish coloured baby that hides away for weeks on end and won't look anything like its adult counterparts for at least several years isn't. For there to be a regular supply of CB emperors here in the UK there'd need to be a reasonable number of scorpion 'nuts' who actually bred their scorpions. As far as I'm aware there's only a handful of people who are really serious about scorpion keeping here, maybe even only half a hand full lol. Already that means that there's probably not enough people who are devoted enough to scorpion keeping to have a chance and time to produce large numbers of CB emperors. There's also the problem that emperors are often regarded as beginner or 'novice' species and so more experienced or accomplished keepers have often moved on to rarer or more challenging species and so don't even bother keeping emperor scorpions anymore. Scorpion snobbery lol!! There'd also be no return on breeding emperors, even on a fairly large scale, I don't think. And whilst many hobbyists are not in it for the money anyway (could you ever be with scorpions lol?), would any of them be prepared to fork out a wedge of cash on a load of new enclosures, heating etc. plus the scorpions themselves (emps are pretty expensive over here) and clear half their scorpion room to make room for an emperor 'farm'? Mass producing emperors could easily be done over here, but I don't think it will. Hobbyists are hobbyists and so can't be expected to have the time, money, space to do it and there's no financial interest for some exotics 'breeder' to have racks full of emperor scorpions and produce them en masse, at least not in this country.
> 
> Adult emperors will become rarer and more expensive (I don't think they'll totally disappear, other countries to import from, smuggling, change their name to Pandinus africanus?!?), the odd baby will be available on forum classifieds ads, and WC red claws imported from Tanzania will fill the void left by the emperors.


Thank you. You make a lot of great points. I breed them but it is a lot of work and it does take a long time for them to reach maturity.


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## Cowin8579 (May 28, 2013)

What is your average time frame to maturity?


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## MrCrackerpants (May 29, 2013)

Cowin8579 said:


> What is your average time frame to maturity?


I am not sure. I have 3 broods. My oldest brood is 3 years old and they are about half the size of a full grown adult.


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## Cowin8579 (May 29, 2013)

Oh ok thank you.  That's what I figured, not 1 year as people casually discussed.


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## Galapoheros (May 29, 2013)

I've had a brood mature in less that 2 years.  I currently have a brood that is taking approx 3 years to mature, less than 4 though.  I keep bad records, you might want to refer to old posts rather than depend on my memory lol.  OK, the way to do it successfully, it's not hard using your imagination, time is the only serious hurdle.  Raising your own feeders is cheap, but does require paying attention to.  Get one brood, KEEP THOSE, let's say there are 10 females out of that on the conservative side.  You can see the 'sustainability' the greenieweinies talk about so much after that.  Imagine 10 females have babies, down play it to 15 for each female, =150 emps.  Raise the price a little, maybe $40, and only the more serious will buy them, those will likely be people that want to breed them also.  It really shouldn't be that hard or expensive.  The only $ I've spent on emp broods is money for fish-flakes and dog food to feed the feeders.  Forgot about the delis to raise them in, they are cheap and they seem fine in those, like in a hole.


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## Formerphobe (May 29, 2013)

My first brood was born in April 2011.  When I rehoused the communal (one adult female, one 'younger' female, one adult male, 5 juvenile females and one juvenile male) in December 2011, I had a very hard time differentiating the adults from the babies.  All were of comparable size.  All the juveniles had paler ventrums than the older scorps.

Next two broods were born in January 2013 - one to one of the 'babies' (head count 23 for one, unknown for the other - rough guess ~20).  Next one was born April 2013 (rough head count ~20).  I'm not sure whether 'mama' or 'baby' gave birth to the other January brood.  
Babies from both January 2013 broods are now ~3.5+".  Babies from April brood are ~1.5 - 2.0".

I can't differentiate at all between 'mama' and 'baby mama' that continue to share the same tank with their respective broods.  I might could tell if I were to dig them out and look at them closer...  I've been rather amazed at how fast they grow.


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## vukic (May 30, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> I've had a brood mature in less that 2 years.  I currently have a brood that is taking approx 3 years to mature, less than 4 though.  I keep bad records, you might want to refer to old posts rather than depend on my memory lol.  OK, the way to do it successfully, it's not hard using your imagination, time is the only serious hurdle.  Raising your own feeders is cheap, but does require paying attention to.  Get one brood, KEEP THOSE, let's say there are 10 females out of that on the conservative side.  You can see the 'sustainability' the greenieweinies talk about so much after that.  Imagine 10 females have babies, down play it to 15 for each female, =150 emps.  Raise the price a little, maybe $40, and only the more serious will buy them, those will likely be people that want to breed them also.  It really shouldn't be that hard or expensive.  The only $ I've spent on emp broods is money for fish-flakes and dog food to feed the feeders.  Forgot about the delis to raise them in, they are cheap and they seem fine in those, like in a hole.


Yeah l breed my own feeders too so my Scorpion's don't cost me anything, so all good!!! 

So if I went for yearlings they'd be priced cheaper then??

Want some more as mine are still young ish... 1.5 years - 3 I'd say.. I was told they were 1.5 year's but since the bodies are 2-3 inches and from what I've just read they could be older??? And they both look male, one imperial and the other red claw...

Think I'll.advertise for some more, as based in Devon in the UK.. 



Tiger

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