emperor cannibalism

[jake9134]

Well I just got my first scorps at a reptile show yesterday. I made a 10 gallon terrarium with a ton of hiding spots and fake rocks with just enough space for them to get in and out of. before buying the scorps I read up a bit about them and it said they were communal so I pre-ordered 2 a male and female. As I walked through the show I found another vendor selling them for $6 a piece. he had some large females in there that looked gravid so I got 2 more. well I place all 4 into the tank and added 3 crickets per scorp. I planned on removing the large females today and put them in their own tank but during the night the 2 smaller ones(including the male) were eaten.:8o the vendor I bought the females from, kept them in a large plastic bin which had 100-150 in there so I didn't think they would resort to cannibalism so soon.
What should I do, place them separately into different tanks
or keep them where their at in the 10 gallon?

 

[llamastick]

gravid females get very aggressive and should be isolated

also, totally sure they were all emperors and not some random heterometrus?

 

[jake9134]

well from what I gathered they are all WC emps(plus they have a dark red stinger smaller ones had a cream colored stinger), the forest scorps were much more $. the 2 gravid females dont seem to mind each other yet but will pull 1 just in case.

 

[AzJohn]

If they were housed in a plastic bin they are probably very fresh imports. That could mean that they've been kept in bad conditions for a long time. THey could have been very hungry. While kept in the plastic bin with 100+ other emps they might have bben to stressed to feel like eating. Once they got out of the crowed situation, it's time to eat. It could be that 5 are to many for a 10 gallon. I'm not really an expert on the genus.

 

[Stewjoe]

Mine will live together and crawl all over each other until feeding day. They will fight to the death over a cricket even if there's many more.

 

[Michiel]

If they were housed in a plastic bin they are probably very fresh imports. That could mean that they've been kept in bad conditions for a long time. THey could have been very hungry. While kept in the plastic bin with 100+ other emps they might have bben to stressed to feel like eating. Once they got out of the crowed situation, it's time to eat. It could be that 5 are to many for a 10 gallon. I'm not really an expert on the genus.

Exactly, in these conditions they are too stressed out to show agonistic or territorial behaviour. Pregnant females can be very agressive towards cagemates and owners hands

Communal is a man made word which is projected upon these animals, and not quite a good word. Tolerance is a better word......

 

[Spidershane1]

I was housing a male and female together for awhile and decided to put another female in there. Within hours, the original female ate the new one. The original 2 are still together living very peacefully though over a year later. I think that just like people, some emps probably just dont like some other emps, but do like others. Seeing as how both ours got eaten during the first night, and how mine had the opportunity to eat my male at any time but didnt, this goes to show that there must be some adversion to the 'victim' & that they are not eating them out of hunger.
Of course if they do get hungry enough, I'm fairly certain they would eat any cagemate they could, so I tweezer feed mine a few times a week and there is always at least a few crickets running around the cage at all times.


The first pic is the happy couple.

The second pic is a Liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and tiger mixed...bred for its skills in magic.

 

[gromgrom]

also, even communal scorpions will eat smaller ones. ive had smaller ones fine, i've also had them eaten.

 

[llamastick]

One thing that helps is to not introduce a new scorpion to an established terrarium. They're not aggressive, but they are territorial. You can remove the first one, then mix up/change the substrate, move everything around, and introduce them all at once.

 

[Spidershane1]

oh yeah I forgot to say that you should put at least one hide for each scorp you keep in there

 

[jake9134]

they were all introduced at the same time but think it was more of a stressed/fighting over food response, because only the 2 smaller scorps caught anything right away then they went into the hiding spot where the 2 bigger ones were hiding.

How often and how much should I feed these guys? they are between 5-6 inches from base of tail to claw.

I also got a desert hairy at the show(in his own tank of course) that seems to eat every time a cricket is offered. he has eaten 2 adult crickets already this week. should I keep on feeding him or wait

 

[Spidershane1]

For my pair of emps, I tweezer feed em about 3x a week. To tweezer feed, just grab the cricket or roach or whatever by the ass and keep tapping em on the scorps mouthparts and between its claws. They will usually just swat at it at first, but be persistant. It usually takes a minute or two for mine to finally grab em and eat, and if it takes over 2 min I assume they arent hungry. And I ALWAYS leave a few crickets in there(4-5) to just run around. If for some reason one of em gets hungry on a whim, you want them to have the option of eating something besides the other scorps. Just leave a peice of dog food in there for the crickets to munch on & they wont bother your emps.
As far as the desert hairy, just feed him until he's full. A cricket every day would be fine if he readily accepts them, but any more than that is not really neccesary. They know when they need food and when they dont, so just watch his eating habits for a couple weeks and adjust your scedule from there. Hope this helps, happy trails.

 

[H. laoticus]

cool liger

 

[Michiel]

cool liger

I thought it was a griffin. LOL....Keeping practicing and you maybe a great artist one day....

 

[Spidershane1]

I thought it was a griffin. LOL....Keeping practicing and you maybe a great artist one day....

Thanks! I'm also pretty good with a bowstaff

 

[Michiel]

Thanks! I'm also pretty good with a bowstaff

Excuse, english is not my mothertongue, what is a bowstaff?

PS. I have a dictionary, but not in my pocket right now

 

[H. laoticus]

Excuse, english is not my mothertongue, what is a bowstaff?

PS. I have a dictionary, but not in my pocket right now

Haha, that one threw me off too. I googled it and it's pretty much some sort of martial arts stick weapon. I guess that's what got me, suddenly going from drawing to fighting

Cool, Spidershane1. It reminds me of the original red power ranger (Jason, the best one).

Sorry for off-topic, I will stop now hehe.

 

[Galapoheros]

The Liger is scary lol, reminds me of one of the guys from KISS.