Maternal P. imperators

[Formerphobe]

I harvested some of the babies from the communal during feeding time today. This recently molted January baby was one of the ones I was able to catch. It still has its chocolate 'I'm-not-done-yet' color.

 

[ShredderEmp]

Love it. How many do you think there are in there now? Are any females gravid?

 

[Formerphobe]

Love it. How many do you think there are in there now? Are any females gravid?

Between 3 broods, there were a total of 70 young. (Convenient that they should produce even numbers. LOL) I can't seem to locate my exact counts from when I transferred them to the new tank, but I had traded/sold ~20, so there were about 50 babies left. I'd gotten 5 new Emperors to add new blood to the colony (1 adult male, 1 immature male, and 3 unsexed). I put each of the three adult females in with the adult male for about two weeks before returning them to the big colony. Two of the females went back in with the babies and I put the last female and the adult male in with the other four new juveniles/subadults.
I guess I'll find out next year if the females are gravid.

I wondered how the babies would fare with the females after having been separated for awhile. At each re-introduction, multiple babies swarmed out of the burrows to greet the respective females. It was pretty cool to watch. In both cases, the females still had their britches in a twist from having been pulled out of their burrows and relocated. They alternately raised claws and tails to me, and greeted the babies that formed their welcoming committees. I have no idea if the mothers recognized their offspring (and vice versa) or if they were just greeting previous burrow mates, or just other emperors.

There are two primary burrows in the large tank. Sometimes there will be one mama per burrow, sometimes both will be in the same burrow. No rhyme nor reason. The babies have created several auxiliary burrows. The best I could tell, until I pulled about 10 out today, there were still about 50 babies in there.

ETA: my memory isn't what it used to be... I got off my butt and looked at my records: there were 60 total babies, I sold/traded 19, and I rehoused 41.

 

[ShredderEmp]

Jeez, that's a lot of babies. That would be a cool thing to witness, own, and see how it evolves. Good job on putting up with that extraordinarily long pregnancy period. Have you ever had a gravid female "absorb" her young?

 

[Formerphobe]

Jeez, that's a lot of babies. That would be a cool thing to witness, own, and see how it evolves. Good job on putting up with that extraordinarily long pregnancy period. Have you ever had a gravid female "absorb" her young?

Well, the very first brood I had this decade, in April 2011, was a small brood of six and they were HUGE compared to what I remembered P. imp babies being from having raised them decades before. I know she only had six because I watched her give birth. She had six and raised six. We had had a couple power outages over the winter and, try as I might, I couldn't keep the temps up to what they were used to. Now this is just an assumption, but, I suspect the mama may have gotten too chilled and resorbed some of the babies. The six fittest survived to be born. It's remotely possible that she carried them longer, too, resulting in bigger babies. I could be totally wrong on both counts. She may have only ever been meant to have six that first brood and they were just monster babies. These last few broods have been the size and numbers that I remember.

 

[ShredderEmp]

Ok. So its possible. Thank you.

 

[Formerphobe]

Ok. So its possible. Thank you.

As far as resorption? Well, it happens in mammals. I would think the same thing possible with inverts, as well. Someone else may have more scientific data. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it until proven otherwise.

 

[ShredderEmp]

As far as resorption? Well, it happens in mammals. I would think the same thing possible with inverts, as well. Someone else may have more scientific data. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it until proven otherwise.

I didn't know it happens in mammals. You learn something every day haha.

 

[Formerphobe]

I didn't know it happens in mammals. You learn something every day haha.

If a fetus expires in early pregnancy, it is frequently resorbed without issue. Depending on stage of pregnancy, it can cause infection to the detriment and sometimes demise of the female. Usually the further along the pregnancy, the higher the risk of infection due to the amount of necrotic tissue involved. Deceased fetuses can also mummify in utero at various stages of development. A mummified fetus may not cause problems ever, or could become problematic.

 

[ShredderEmp]

o o
-

This is for charachters.

 

[Formerphobe]

One of the April babies caught molting.

 

[ShredderEmp]

Awesome! How big are they now?

 

[MrCrackerpants]

Plants arrived! Now they just need time to grow. New batch of isopods will be in next week. All those babies wreaked havoc on the isopod colony!

This^^^^ is just amazing. Great job!

 

[Formerphobe]

Awesome! How big are they now?

They range in size from ~2 to ~4 inches. When that molting picture was taken, that individual was ~1.5 inches.

---------- Post added 07-26-2013 at 07:08 AM ----------

This^^^^ is just amazing. Great job!

Thank you. Now that the substrate has settled more and the scorps have made their own modifications, I need to add more. Some of the plants are doing well, others didn't make it. :-( The moss can't decide what it wants to do. LOL

 

[Formerphobe]

 

[Formerphobe]

Since I last posted on this thread: I deliberately paired two mature females with a mature male (cohabbed in a smaller tank one month each July, August 2013). In the large communal: one mature female (Big Bertha), two subadult males, ~7 juvenile/subadult unsexed, 40ish some babies. I harvested and sold/traded about 35 scorps, mostly youngsters and males, over the past several months from the big tank, leaving approximately 7ish scorpions in the 50 gallon.

As of yesterday, I have at least two clutches on the ground in the large tank (born ~March and April judging from their sizes). One clutch definitely from Bertha. The other from one of the subadults - all of whom must have been more mature than I thought... And there is yet another good sized female in there that appears to be gravid. Nearly all of the January 2013 'babies' I harvested had dark telsons at time of sale/trade, so the remaining gravid female may be one of those.

In a separate tank are the two adult females I cohabbed with the male. Both have babies on their backs. One I noticed the last week in May, and the other I watched being born on June 3rd. So their gestation lasted almost exactly 10 months.

Big Bertha, the oldest female was acquired as an adult in winter 2009/2010 and is still going strong. I saw her out of the burrows collecting crickets for her babies when I fed the other day. She is huge! Easy 7 inches stem to stern, possibly more.

The two females in the 20 gallon are sisters, born April 2011. Despite having ample space to stake out their own territory, they have elected to share a communal burrow/nursery and raise their babies together under one 'roof'. This is second clutch for both of them.

 

[Formerphobe]

How many scorplings can fit in one hole?

Feeding time at the pig farm...

One of the mamas