C Sculpturatus - How long do slings stay on mom?

Taysha

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
96
Hey guys I got a small colony of C Sculpturatus about 2 months ago and 3 females have dropped babies in a week span. I was wondering about how long it takes them to molt and leave the mom?
After searching around I can’t seem to find good info on this particular timeline and figured you guys could help :)
 

Lubed Tweezer

Arachnolord
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
Messages
634
Normally it takes 6-15 days.
Be sure to maintain humidity, a light spray in one corner of the enclosure once per day should do it.
If you want to be sure that the babies will survive, it is best to catch and separate them after they hop off mom's back.
Any baby scorpion that is not on moms back is potentially scorpion food.
 

Taysha

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
96
Normally it takes 6-15 days.
Be sure to maintain humidity, a light spray in one corner of the enclosure once per day should do it.
If you want to be sure that the babies will survive, it is best to catch and separate them after they hop off mom's back.
Any baby scorpion that is not on moms back is potentially scorpion food.
Got it, and with these guys i know adults are communal, does that apply to slings or should they each have their own space?
 

Lubed Tweezer

Arachnolord
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
Messages
634
Some keepers have the slings communal as well. It seems to be OK.
Personally i like to keep them separated for the first few molts.
They go quick through the first few molts if you keep them warm. I put them together when they reach i4/i5.
Reason for keeping the really young ones separate is that i can observe every individual sling,
keeping an eye on their molts and possibly any malformation due to molts.
Feeding them is also easier, you give every sling a pinhead cricket/meal worm, or remove it 10 minutes later if the a particular sling is not interested.
That way there are never any left over cricket bothering the little scorpion if it would be in pre-molt.
Any scorpion that is freshly molted should be left alone for 1-2 weeks, certainly free from crickets who might knibble on a soft/freshly molted scorpion.
You will notice that they don't all grow up exactly synchronized, when the first sling goes into pre-molt some others might follow a week later and the slow ones even 3 weeks later.
In a communal setup you just dump crickets in there and hope for the best, that way a hungry sling gets it's food but a pre-molt or freshly molted sling will also be bothered by the food.
You won't know if they all survived because most are hiding out of sight, not easy to count them every day (compared to keeping them separate).
You also don't know who is in pre-molt, if you see a sling running from a cricket you don't know why: is it freshly molted, or just not hungry ?
At i4 or i5 they become more hardy and stronger, much less fragile, less sensitive to circumstances that are a bit too dry etc.
 

Taysha

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
96
Some keepers have the slings communal as well. It seems to be OK.
Personally i like to keep them separated for the first few molts.
They go quick through the first few molts if you keep them warm. I put them together when they reach i4/i5.
Reason for keeping the really young ones separate is that i can observe every individual sling,
keeping an eye on their molts and possibly any malformation due to molts.
Feeding them is also easier, you give every sling a pinhead cricket/meal worm, or remove it 10 minutes later if the a particular sling is not interested.
That way there are never any left over cricket bothering the little scorpion if it would be in pre-molt.
Any scorpion that is freshly molted should be left alone for 1-2 weeks, certainly free from crickets who might knibble on a soft/freshly molted scorpion.
You will notice that they don't all grow up exactly synchronized, when the first sling goes into pre-molt some others might follow a week later and the slow ones even 3 weeks later.
In a communal setup you just dump crickets in there and hope for the best, that way a hungry sling gets it's food but a pre-molt or freshly molted sling will also be bothered by the food.
You won't know if they all survived because most are hiding out of sight, not easy to count them every day (compared to keeping them separate).
You also don't know who is in pre-molt, if you see a sling running from a cricket you don't know why: is it freshly molted, or just not hungry ?
At i4 or i5 they become more hardy and stronger, much less fragile, less sensitive to circumstances that are a bit too dry etc.
Okay, i will definitely keep them separate then, I would rather take the extra time and do it like this than losing any of them :) I Do you find the babies need any higher humidity than the adults?
 

Lubed Tweezer

Arachnolord
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
Messages
634
Do you find the babies need any higher humidity than the adults?
They certainly do need a bit more when close to a molt.
If you have one that has been in pre-molt for a while, spraying the enclosure will often trigger them to molt.
A scorpion molting under dry conditions has a higher chance of malformations/complications or even death.
 
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