DUNE SCORPION BABIES!! HELP

[zekk]

Hi, I bought a few dune scorpions a few months ago and the fat one I had a feeling was gravid just gave birth!! I've heard breeding them in captivity is very difficult and raising the babies is even harder. I have never raised scorplings from birth, though I've been planning to and have everything I need, I think. I have a setup ready for them that can be held at 80 or 85. I can also keep them at room temp as it's summer and they are native to my state. Thinking of going with the tacklebox method but I can set them up individually too. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[MorbidArachnid]

Congrates! I've been trying to breed these, mind showing me how fat your female was before she popped? I had a pair but they never succeeded at mating, so I'm wondering if the female is already gravid. Full disclaimer I haven't raised this specific species before, however I breed US native scorpions and I have a lot of experience with keeping babies. I have a 2i and subadult Paruroctonus luteolus, which are also dune inhabitants and are very small.

The 2i one is probably smaller than those would be, though the subadult might be around the same size. For the 2i I'm keeping her at 80F, live feeding is kind of difficult as small feeders like springtails die quickly in the dry environment and I don't think she's very interested in scavenging sprintails, however she will scavenge pinheads and fruit flies. For 2i that are a bit larger, you can also feed pieces of mealworm, or pinhead crickets or roaches.

This is a 2i Paravaejovis spinigerus. I gave the luteolus pure sand, should work well for dune scorpions also. The most difficult thing with keeping them is balancing water. Small slings desiccate easily, but also will drown in excess condensation or moisture. Even excessively wet substrate can drown them if there's enough free water to cause them to get stuck in water tension. For the Luteolus, every few days I drip water into a corner, and watch to make sure it soaks in. If you drop water onto dry substrate it will bubble up for a bit first, which can easily drown a sling. Sand should absorb it fairly quickly though. I also occasionally mist the enclosure, you need a very fine hair mister, the kind that you would use at a salon works perfectly.

I got this one on amazon for fairly cheap. Bead organizers definitely work, or you can get little 2 oz deli cups.

The benefit of the bead organizer is its very easy to open all the containers at once and just sweep a light spray over every enclosure. Only reason I keep them in deli cups currently is because it's a bit easier to separate them out and pack them up for shipping.

This is my girl, really hoping for babies! Though I have not seen any embryos yet. She really hated my male, and he has since died so I was going to wait until next season to try to get another male. I figured if she doesn't pop after September she probably isn't gravid.

 

[zekk]

https://ibb.co/bJKf74N I couldnt upload it here for whatever reason. this photo is from august 13, you can see the embryos. The babies were probably born in the past few days, so the photo is around 3 weeks prior to birth. I definitely shouldve been paying closer attention to her but i wasnt certain she was gravid

 

[Veno Manus]

If you go the tackle box method, I found 2 gracilis 2i in 1 square when there should of been 1. So that ment it could climb up and push under the divider and the lid. Invest in a good one and not a cheap one if you can or line the top with some sort of filler to avoid them climbing out. Just a food for thought if you end up missing 1 or 2.