dictator baby pic

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Jul 4, 2005
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Not much more to it. Pandinus dictator with babies, finally. More maybe on the way. I'm going to try to raise to adults before selling, get some breeders going.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Yeah I know what you mean. But since I enjoy it all, patience doesn't feel like a factor, it's almost a disappointment to sell stuff sometimes to me.
 

Sarkhan42

Arachnoangel
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Dec 29, 2015
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901
Out of curiosity, how long do they take to mature? I assume slow but are we talking brachypelma slow or like grammostola slow, if we can relate it to Ts.
 

MathiasVG

Arachnopeon
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Apr 12, 2016
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Out of curiosity, how long do they take to mature? I assume slow but are we talking brachypelma slow or like grammostola slow, if we can relate it to Ts.
At least two years I would say. It's taking a whole year for my fastest growing ones to reach just 4 inches (6 instar).
 

MathiasVG

Arachnopeon
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Apr 12, 2016
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Curious to see the mother full of babies on her back out in the open. All of mine hid in their burrows until their babies reached 2nd instar.
 

Connerl8k

Arachnosquire
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Apr 27, 2017
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Beautiful, keep us informed of there progress and the mothers progress.

May be interested in taking one off you in two years time!
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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You must not be very old, you get older and 2 years goes by pretty fast. My Aphonopelma moderatum tarantulas are maturing this year and they took 9 years, it sure didn't seem that long. I'm guessing 2-4 years for the dictators to mature. But why wait to buy mature scorpions? You have them for less time, they will die of old age sooner waiting for them to mature to buy. Hey Mathias, are you keeping yours together, had good luck with it? I've had bad experiences with that, they are more aggro than emps. I kept three babies I had earlier together, two behaved as if they had been stung and died, the bigger one is molted and healthy.
 

MathiasVG

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
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You must not be very old, you get older and 2 years goes by pretty fast. My Aphonopelma moderatum tarantulas are maturing this year and they took 9 years, it sure didn't seem that long. I'm guessing 2-4 years for the dictators to mature. But why wait to buy mature scorpions? You have them for less time, they will die of old age sooner waiting for them to mature to buy. Hey Mathias, are you keeping yours together, had good luck with it? I've had bad experiences with that, they are more aggro than emps. I kept three babies I had earlier together, two behaved as if they had been stung and died, the bigger one is molted and healthy.
Agreed. I would choose babies or juveniles, if available, over adults ever time.

Yes, I keep the adults together. I keep most babies with their mothers. I keep babies from 3rd to 6th instars from different mothers together. And I've never seen aggression among any of them or whatsoever. The babies hang around right in front of thier mothers' faces all the time. And their mothers have never failed to miss their babies when catching their prey. I've babies going for a same prey. But the first one that got it would vibrate. And the others would just back off. I'm not sure what happened to yours. Maybe your biggest has a different scorpionality. Or maybe the other two didn't die the way they seemed.
 

Connerl8k

Arachnosquire
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Apr 27, 2017
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I can't decide wether my next scorpion will be dictator or imperator!!
Could be a few years till I can have one anyway!
 

Tim Benzedrine

Prankster Possum
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Apr 4, 2004
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1,496
They look so goofy as babies.

Never kept any P dictator, but I'm raising a small brood of H. petersii after bringing them and their mother home from a pet store. They are pretty slow growers. There were six delivered (it was a second brood) One was deceased at the time I acquired their mother and them, and I gave two away when they were ready to go, leaving me with three.
Previous to that, I've been raising a baby that was given to me. I got it in 2016 after it had left its mother's back and became self sustainable. Today, calling it a juvenile might be a little generous. I've posted this comparison elsewhere on this sub-forum, but I'll just re-post it here.

I agree that it is rewarding to bring them up from babies, it's the only reason I am doing so, but at least in the case of my gang, I think I'd have a LONG wait before I could begin breeding my own. Which I guess is probably why most offered for sale are adult wild-caught specimens. Nothing wrong with raising your own with plans of breeding them, though.

Here is that original baby I mentioned. On the day I got it on September 27th, 2016with a photo I took close to a year ago (November 11th, 2018). I plopped the scorp back into the original container to indicate the growth progress.

m_IMG_5891crop2-horz.jpg
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Cool, yeah it takes a while but I don't really notice. I guess it's because I don't find myself waiting or anticipating, I just experience the whole process. Even though this one hasn't had many babies, they look larger than I've seen.
 
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