# Heterometrus longimanus Breeding



## Longimanus (Jul 7, 2011)

Hailing from Borneo, this is a species I more or less grew up with. I caught my first one when I was 11 years old two houses away from mine under some planks. A large female. At one time, I had almost 40 of them in a large communal tank, but this was ancient history. 





Revisiting the captive care of this species, I've manage to collect roughly 20 specimens. Most were found not far from the City Centre and designated urban areas of Kuching, Sarawak.





*the two pics above portraying the sexual dimorphism that clearly distinguishes males from females.

It is often the case that wild-caught females may already be gravid and so I merely isolated them in their own terrarium cubicles.











All that was left to do was to wait. This could take forever. Nevertheless, in mid April one female gave birth...





... followed by 3 births in mid May all within 2 days of each other; which seems to suggest that there is a reproductive season for this species here in Borneo.






The young molt to 2i roughly 3-4 days after birth.





Though most people, I've heard will tend to separate the young at this stage in concern for maternal cannibalism, I opted to allow mother and young to remain together until the young get a bit older, based on observations I've made in the wild.

By the 3rd instar they begin to exercise some level of independance but still depend substantially on their mother's protection and care.





Particularly for the capture of larger prey items.











From my experience, scorplings left with the mother tend to grow faster and healthier than those separated at 2nd instar.

When the mother shows signs of weaning off the young by spending a greater deal of time outside the burrow away from the young, it is time to isolate them.





Two of the four broods were extracted and housed in these tubs...
While one was allowed to remain in the original den while the female was removed...





... and another is currently still with their mother.





Even when temporarily separated the mother will still be receptive to the young and show no cannibalistic inclinations in any event the young are re-introduced to her...

I hope this was helpful to anyone hoping to keep and breed this species or any other Heterometrus scorpions.

Cheers and best regards

Reactions: Like 1


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## gromgrom (Jul 7, 2011)

amazing post! Thanks for sharing!


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## Xanthopus (Jul 7, 2011)

Wow very nice and detailed post! Thanks for this, i never really figured out the sexual dimorphism because ive never seen a male and female side by side. Wow borneo have so many longis, if u have too many longis in breeding to handle u could release them back haha :}.


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## william_wang (Jul 7, 2011)

Can I get some???haha


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