Erm... Love or Murder in Progress?

Noxocubed

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I (just this hour) brought home a ladyfriend for my male emperor scorpion 'Pincent'... within seconds (honestly, it was like 10 seconds) Pincent grabbed her by the claws, locked faces with his girl and started the dance!

Now, its almost an hour later and their still dancing away.

(Actually, this new ladyfriend is his long lost love that he has formerly already lived with and I just purchased her from the pet shop this morning because I felt sorry for them being separated. Plus I'd like to breed them.)

Anyhow, I grabbed my camera and shot the scene as it happened... I'm pretty sure he's not trying to kill her but I'd like to know what you all think.

Should I seperate them or is this behaviour ok?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_lnnhKyiaY

Oh and I decided to call the female...Claura (sounds like Laura.;) )
 

Noxocubed

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No sooner had I post the above when all of a sudden, they unhooked from each other and she bolted to the other end of the tank. The male is now walking around and then stopping and a weird 'shudder' passes through him... erm, is this him feeling the climax or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtRz_4b9G1I

Is this vibrating used to tell the female something?
 
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Noxocubed

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A flat slate? Sorry no, this is my very first scorpion/s and not sure what you mean. I guess its for them to do their 'dance' on and so the male can diposite his sperm package properly/pull her over it, etc?

They gave up eventually and are now chilling out in his burrow. What are his little spasm/after shocks for?

<edit> Ok, I did a little searching and now understand a bit more, flat slate is to allow the male to attach his spermataphore to and his vibration/spasm/aftershocks are basically him saying "Stay the hell away from me or I'll kill you!" Which is a bit weird considering they are both resting on top of each other in the burrow now, happy as Larry -while she eats a locust.

Hmmm... I'm kinda gutted I messed up the whole breeding thing but I never thought that they would instantly start to mate as soon as her feet touched the substrate, I thought maybe I would have to set the scene and provide some special conditions first but no, away they went. Thing is, how and will they get into the mood again soon? I am going to put some slate in the tank as soon as possible, I just hope they try again.

By the way, 'gravid' means pregnant right?
 
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EAD063

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Thats a defensive mechanism. When I did my first mate, I only read the article up until the lock claws part and when they were done I thought my poor boy was convulsing. LOL The juddering shakes the ground and the female picks up the vibrations through her pectines.... as long as you found a spermataphore you know teh mate was successful... It is long and thin, almost like a twig... look on hard surfaces if there are any or where they were mating to try to find it.
 

EAD063

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Yes gravid means pregnant, and actually the juddering maybe sending her some signals but usually the female consume the male.... Thats why we reccomend you seperate the male after a couple months.... gestation takes up to a year with this species... The slings will be white in color and they grow fairly slow compared to other species.. good luck, congrats, and if your concerned you should order some more species and try to breed them. :)
 

Arachnophilist

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I just put my two emps together recently and they instantly went into the dance.. and I dont know if the "juddering" is to tell her to get away.. with mine it seemed to be a way to get attention. I dont know though I will search it. My male dropped his spermatophore ontop of the hide. but it was after only 15 minutes or so :eek: hahaha anyways.. Im not sure about further mating and how that all works.
 

Noxocubed

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Thats a defensive mechanism. When I did my first mate, I only read the article up until the lock claws part and when they were done I thought my poor boy was convulsing. LOL The juddering shakes the ground and the female picks up the vibrations through her pectines.... as long as you found a spermataphore you know teh mate was successful... It is long and thin, almost like a twig... look on hard surfaces if there are any or where they were mating to try to find it.
Nah, I've looked but can't really see anything, what colour are the emperors spermataphore? It may be lost in the wood chippings. There was a weird patch of transparent glue-like stuff, kind of like a bead of clear super glue that ahd been squashed, but it looked nothing like the little white beads I saw on a scorpion documentary. Maybe it was residue left over from the bead of sperm and she has taken it up into herself?

My only experience of scorpion mating was from watching the Life in the Undergrowth desert scorpion segment narrated by David Attenbrough on DVD over the christmas holidays. :D

If there are no hard surfaces (there arnt in the tank unfortunately) does the male not bother to drop one? Is that why he then got angry and told her to get away?
 
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EAD063

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Nah, I've looked but can't really see anything, what colour are the emperors spermataphore? It may be lost in the wood chippings. There was a weird patch of transparent glue-like stuff, kind of like a bead of clear super glue that ahd been squashed, but it looked nothing like the little white beads I saw on a scorpion documentary. Maybe it was residue left over from the bead of sperm and she has taken it up into herself?

My only experience of scorpion mating was from watching the Life in the Undergrowth desert scorpion segment narrated by David Attenbrough on DVD over the christmas holidays. :D
It looks like a slightly thicker piece of hair... Im trying to find a good thread for you now.... If you can check out the males mouth for any substance, sometimes they eat it..... but it does blend into the substrate good. If your interested in mating you should mate a species with a faster gestation, like I said youll be waiting for up to a year.

Here is one of Brians threads... third pic is a spermataphore from a death stalker, although they're not exactly the same it is a good reference point.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=79949&highlight=spermataphore
 

Arachnophilist

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I just took a pic of my Emps spermatophore here ya go..



thats what I found after the dance time ontop of the hide :D hope it helps
 

EAD063

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Thats what I was looking for! Hiding all the good images are you arach? LOL Greta pic. :clap:
 

Arachnophilist

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Is there somewhere I could post that so its useful for ppl? :? aside from here obviously haha
 

Noxocubed

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Well, I don't think he dropped one of those things!:( Thanks for finding that thread/pic its a big help and very interesting. Now it seems like things went wrong, so how long do you think it would be before they try again?
 

EAD063

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How big is he, possibly sub adult? Either that or maybe he wanted something to drop it on, I would just wait. Mine went at it in under a minute also, but although I didn't find a spermataphore the next day, she shows the signs of being gravid. I'm just going to wait and see, she's killed all her males so far so I'm hoping this is just part of her process. :)
 

Noxocubed

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My male is almost two thirds bigger than the female. He is about six inches from his mouth to the tip of his tail. Is he in danger of being killed by her then, even though he is the bigger and stronger of the two?
 

Mr. Mordax

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So do people have more success breeding emps if they've been separated for some time first? I'm really hoping to breed mine, I have the slate, and I know they come out at night because of the strate I find in the water dish. But I've never found the spermataphore.

I think I need to get around to handling my aggressive one again (the male) just to confirm that it IS a male. I looked at both side-by-side from underneath when I first got them and determined I had one of each, but I was still new to scorpions.

Good luck with your endeavors, Noxocubed! :)
 

Noxocubed

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Although 'new' to me the scorpions I have now have some history together and are actually old 'fun buddies' from awhile back, you see; I was given the male as a suprise birthday prezzie back in November, he was purchased from the local petshop. I often go into the pet shop and on one occasion I noticed they had another emp (a female with babies on her back!) not for sale...

After a conversation with the sales assistant I found out that my male was actually the father of the babies and that they were originally a breeding pair somebody had given to the shop. After a few weeks of wondering if I should buy the female and reunite the long lost scorpion lovers I finally decided to go for it yesterday.

When I got to the pet shop I found out she was still there (thankfully) although her babies had all died (the assistant didnt seem to know why, just bad luck I guess) anyway I got her, brought her home and away they went, instant mating!

IHeartMantids: I think you could be onto something with the whole separation idea because my two were apart for nearly three months and it seemed to make them wild for each other! :D ;)
 

EAD063

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Scorpions will readily breed at most times, unlike mammals where mostly the female needs to be ovulating (spelled wrong) to usually accept a mate, like cat and dog breeding. In regards to the pet shops slings dying, I bet there was a screen cover on the tank in the pet shop, wasn't there?

Ed
 

Noxocubed

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In regards to the pet shops slings dying, I bet there was a screen cover on the tank in the pet shop, wasn't there?

Ed
I don't know what one of those is. As I understand it the tank was how it normally is in the shop on display like all the others, except over the price tag it had a sticker reading 'Not for sale'.
 
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