Male or female

[slimtim454]

I need help sexing my Emperor scorpion. I think it is a male, but I wanted a second, third or fourth opinion. Sorry bout the blurry pictures, I had the hardest time trying to take these pictures.

 

[P. Novak]

I wanna say female. THough wait for more experienced keepers to come and confirm it.

 

[~Abyss~]

pics a little blurry but i say male.

 

[Brian S]

Read this post and you should be able to go from there
http://venomlist.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=161&view=findpost&p=179350

 

[slimtim454]

Thanks Brian that site was very informative. I'm pretty sure its a male.

 

[Brian S]

I'm pretty sure its a male.

So am I
See, you're already learning. You'll get so good at this that someday you'll be giving us lessons

 

[slimtim454]

I really want to get a female to mate with him. Think a 20 gallon will be enough space? Or will his current 10 gallon be ok just for mating?

 

[Brian S]

Do you know what a plastic sweater box is? You get them at about any Dollar Store cheap. That is by far the best thing to keep them in IMO. Tanks like you are talking about usually come with a screen top and therefore it is a pain in the ass to keep it moist for them due to fast evaporation. You can drill a few holes in these sweater boxes and go about a month between times of having to flood the substrate. For a hide I use some tree bark. I get that from the woods behind my house (I burn firewood in the Winter). I use about 4 inches of moist (not soggy) peat moss. In the following pics are Heterometrus laoticus but your Emps have the very same care requirements and this is the exact same type of set up I used to keep them in.


As you can see here I keep several in 1 box. That is only about 1/2 of the specimens I keep in there. Note the light colored one that molted last night (pretty cool, huh?)

 

[slimtim454]

Very cool set up! So the purple looking specimen is the exo skeleton? How big do you suppose your container is? gallon wise? Great advice though, thank you

 

[Brian S]

Yeah the funky purple scorp just molted last night so it will take a week or so for it to turn completely black. There are 8 in there total with 3 adults and the rest being 1 molt from adulthood. In other words, it will be at least a year before I get any babies from these lol.
The boxes are 16 quart, thats what the sticker says anyway

 

[slimtim454]

So as long as every scorpion has there own hiding place they wont fight over territory or anything?

 

[Brian S]

If they are from the same colony, they will share hides. With you getting wild caught Emps, they may be from different colonies and therefore may fight. If you can ever find several in the same tank from your pet shop chances are they were collected in the same area and will get along better, so it might be a better bet to get several out of the same tank. Hope I'm making sense LOL

 

[slimtim454]

No i understand completely. So your scorpions are from the same brood?

 

[H. cyaneus]

If you need a female, I *think* I have an extra female I can get rid of. I'll have to check in the morning. Send me a PM later.

Mike

 

[Brian S]

Yes, they were born in August or September of 2005. I have been raising these to be my next generation of breeders. I also have 4 from a different female I'm raising but they are quite a bit smaller so I will probably end up just breeding all of the ones in that box together. I havent sexed any of them yet but surely out of 8 there will be at least 1 pair.

 

[slimtim454]

This is a little off topic but I was thinking about switching my Emps heating pad to the side of his enclosure. Right now its on the bottom and i dont think it provides enough heat. Anyone have any advice on this?

 

[Brian S]

What are your room temps? If you are wanting to breed them, I can say from past experience its easier to get them to breed when temps are at least 80F

 

[slimtim454]

Room temps are anywhere from 60-70. So puting the heat pad on the side would allow it to get hotter in the tank as oppose to it being on the bottom?

 

[Brian S]

Well those temps are very cold. A heating pad wont warm it up that much. I just heat my entire scorpion room with a baseboard heater.

 

[EAD063]

Room temps are anywhere from 60-70. So puting the heat pad on the side would allow it to get hotter in the tank as oppose to it being on the bottom?

Hopefully since your near me things will be the same, but I noticed at PetSmart they had 6 or 8 inch (i forogt) heat lamps on sale for 7.99. Those are the good ones too which can safely hold both infared bulbs and ceramic. The bulb I think was on sale too for 8 and change. I bought 1 75 watt infared and 1 100 watt, because the prices were like pennies difference and I want to see ho wmuch hotter the 100 gets. Thats a fast and easy idea. Just don't pick up crickets or any other live thing while your there.