a taste for blood(or wierd scorpion traits in the 21st century)

orkimedies

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
Messages
102
i have noticed that some of my scorpions are truely very very different, and recently some have exhibited very strange behavior, most notably my forest scorpion who has begun an extremely strange hobby which i shall elaborate upon further but first.


my first scorpion ever was an emeror i bought from a breeder, talking to the breeder i found out that he has been raised his whole life on pre-killed meals, and no matter how much i tried he would never hurt anything, literally, he is very very docile so much so that he makes other emperors apear as jack the ripper.

he does not mind being held and even my friends with crippling fears of anything with more then 2 legs became accustomed to him. he is in fact so docile that he never makes any aggresive moves, if you un earth his burrow he will just turn around and look at you not even raising his claws and if you put your hand anywhere near him he will climb right on.

any attempts to ever aggravate him be it dangling prey in front of him or brushing his claws results in him doing nothing, not even a defence position, in fact you can pet him in your hand with your finger gently and he still does not mind,

note however that he is not lathargic and is very active, he is just super mellow. however 4 days ago he killed his first cricket ever, and sense then he now actively stalks his cage no matter how well fed slaying any cricket foolish enough to get in his way, and he doesnt always eat it, once he killed a cricket and brought its corpse back to his burrow in it's claw where my female eventually ate it. purhapse his killer instinct has awoken or he now has a taste for blood?

further more even more confusing behaviour i have witnessed twice in my forest scorpion tank, one of my smaller laoticus loves to dig, and one night i saw him walk out of a tunnel he had dug to the very bottom of the tank, walk right up to my very large spinifer who was just chilling under the infra red heat lamp and procede to bury the spinifer completely in peat moss, at first i thought him to be digging a new hole, however as soon as he finished he walked right back to his hole and climbed back down it.

the only thing remaining on the surface as evidence of the spinifer was his stinger sticking out from the ground and one of his claws, amazingly the spinifer did not care at all and latter unearthed himself to go drink, i have seen this behaviour once more when i was playing gears of war with my friend late at night and odly enough it involved the same two scorpions.

this is very strange and i do not understand what purpose this would serve in the wild, i am soon going to go buy a digital camera to try an capture this trait should it happen again,

interestingly enough the spinifer now shares the same tunnel that the scorpion who buries him dug :confused:

has anyone else ever seen this wierd behavior before amongst this or anyother species? although i thought it strange at first i eventually just chalked it up as a strange anomoly however after witnessing the exact same activity twice now both times involving the same two scorps has me wondering,

and although i do not like jumping to conclusions one night coming home from work i found a huge pile of dirt in thier water dish rising so high that it had completely eliminated the water source and i belive it to have been my digger as when i searched the tank i found him with mud all over him(although another could have done it and he simply climbed around in it)

what is the wierdest thing you have ever seen a scorp do?

p.s. i hope to catch them in the act once i buy a camera(hmmm which to buy first, camera or a new T? decisions decisions)
 

Arachnophilist

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,252
Thats a very cool story :) quite funny, I hope you can capture that on film. I cant say I have seen anything really strange from any of my scorps. some of them like to wag their tails when there is prey about.. that is quite fun to watch.. but I havent had any long enough to notice any strange behavior traits. only with my Ts so far.:D

*edit

Actually now that I think of it my H.hottentotta have a funny thing they do.. at night when they are all out, anytime I come to look down at them (all in separate deli cups in a big tank) they all bend over backwards with their claws raised and open and look right at me like little baby birds when mom comes to the nest :D okay so I lied I have weird scorps too lol. it's hot in here.. hard to remember things ;)
 

Pimperator

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 8, 2007
Messages
10
H.laoticus

All three of my H.laoticus like to cuddle in one little burrow together. The strangest thing I've seen mine do is come out and push a piece of cork bark out of the corner of the tank every time I fix it.
 

Selenops

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
844
Two of the unusual things I have seen a pet scorpion do.

A H. troglodytes I once owned would place it's pedipalp up my hand, palm, or fingers when I laid my hand down beside it on the substrate.

A L.q. that was patroling or foraging at night came to rest against the glass facing me and when I crouched forward with my face looming inches from the glass, after about three minutes elapsed it's claws rose suddenly and tail struck at the glass without provocation and then fled away.
 

Urizen

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
63
O.Pugnax

I am keeping two O.Pugnax, I think 2nd/3rd instar. They used to burrow and sleep on top of each other. Then one day the one started to become increasiningly greedy, up untill then they had equal amounts of food, the one o.pugnax grab a cricket, started to eat it, grabbed another and even attempted to grabbed another! Then the one evening, I woke up hearing little *donk* sounds, to my surprize, the greedy one was busy eating a meal worm, and holding his flatmate's tail in the other pedipalp!! :eek:

I managed to get them seperated, but the pinched one hasn't really been the same. The greedy piglet has taken on a rather aggresive stance in general now.

I'd count that as weird. :evil:

From cute to psycho :/
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
Ha! The largest Emp I have lunges at my hand. It will hunt my hand down all the way across it's cage and wildly box and pinch at me. But I'll pic it up anyway. This isn't that crazy, but I have a few P. transvaalicus in the kitchen. They used to run and hide at the slightest vibration when I first got them. Now they slowly come out when they feel draws open and shut and don't run away anymore. As a matter of fact, they come after me too as if they are wondering if I'm something to eat. I think they are funny acting scorps.
 

EAD063

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 3, 2006
Messages
1,415
Very interesting. My 2 funnies are from h laoticus and only one emp in particular. Laoticus like to hang from the top of the screen cover (the covering used to retain moisture is on the top of the screen) and the oother funny is the gravid emp i have who likes to flip her coconut shell hide over and sit in it, does it practically every night. All my other scops act normal except those 3.
 

kahoy

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
859
thats the effect of global warming...
:D



maybe your emp needs a girlfriend or a boyfriend that is an emp also... :p
 
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