Newbie Questions about a female Petersii

[Kosal]

Hi guys!

I got my first scorpion, a female H. Petersii, a couple of months ago, and so far she is been doing fine. She was super hungry right after I got her in her tank, she ate like 5 superworms in a week, and was active enough to patrol around almost every night.

The Tank should be ok, it's an exo terra medium low, I have a cork bark for hide and there's enough substrate (a mix of coco fiber, sphagnum moss and cork bark) so that she could dig a whole tunnel to stay put during the day, temperature is constant 28 C° on one side of the tank with a gradient to the cool side (where she dug her tunnel) and humidity is stable at 75% (it raises for a day or two to 80% when I spray it once or twice a week), I put a small water dish on one of the sides.

She last ate a superworm on the 13th of July, and has been burrowing since, peeking from the entrance of her tunnel occasionally. She refuses food, but she shows aggressive behavior towards the preys if she senses them near the entrance of the hide, going straight for a strike and then retreating in the tunnel.

Now the questions I have are:

1) Is she in premolt? The guy at the pet shop told me she could molt once or twice more before becoming mature

2)Is she gravid? She is bloated, but if the premise of her still growing is true, it shouldn't be possible. I'm almost sure she is a WC, so there is this possibility. Am I missing something here?

3) Secondary question: how big do Petersii actually get? My original plan was to get a Swammerdami or a P. Imperator as I was aiming for one of the "giants", but I didn't find any so I settle down for a Petersii. I read conflicting opinions on the actual size of this genus, and there's never a clear picture of a fully grown Petersii to understand its size.

I attach photos of her the day I got her and how she looked before she ate her last prey.

Thank you all in advance for your time!

 

[FrankiePinchinatti]

Unless you have freakishly large hands then by using them as a point of reference I would say the pet shop guy is correct and it's still a juvenile, which would rule out the gravid theory. Being that chubby and refusing to eat certainly points towards premolt to me, but I guess time will tell, just keep doing what you're doing.

As far as size, from what I understand the largest petersii will be smaller than the largest swammerdami or possibly imperator, but there's a decent amount of variation between specimens of the same species (like any animal of course) so that the ranking could change depending on if you have a giant or a runt. Or to put it another way, the size difference isn't all that extreme, you'll still have a pretty big scorpion once it's full grown.

 

[Kosal]

Unless you have freakishly large hands then by using them as a point of reference I would say the pet shop guy is correct and it's still a juvenile, which would rule out the gravid theory. Being that chubby and refusing to eat certainly points towards premolt to me, but I guess time will tell, just keep doing what you're doing.

As far as size, from what I understand the largest petersii will be smaller than the largest swammerdami or possibly imperator, but there's a decent amount of variation between specimens of the same species (like any animal of course) so that the ranking could change depending on if you have a giant or a runt. Or to put it another way, the size difference isn't all that extreme, you'll still have a pretty big scorpion once it's full grown.

I think my hands are a fairly normal size xD

Thanks for the input! I will keep trying to feed her once or twice a week and see how this goes, but it kinda reassured me that I can almost certainly rule out the pregnancy, one scorpion I can handle, more than ten, not really.

 

[Kosal]

So she molted in the end, I saw her peeking from the tunnel and the chelae were brown.

I have a question though: since she molted down in her tunnel, what do I do with the shell? Will she eat it like a centipede, the cleanup crew will take care of it or should I try to retrieve it? (I’d rather not do it, the tunnel is quite deep in the substrate and I’d have do dismantle the whole thing to get there).

 

[FrankiePinchinatti]

I've never seen any of them eat the molt. I wouldn't think the cleanup crew would eat it either, but that's just speculation. You can't reach down in there with some long tweezers and grab it?

 

[Kosal]

I guess I'll just dig back up this thread for my newbie concern.

My female H. Petersii I got this summer has been hiding in her borrow for almost two months now, not coming out to eat the food I'd offer her at the mouth of the tunnel she dug in the substrate. She should be an adult, since she molted in august, so I'd rule out pre-molt, and I haven't been seeing or hearing her at all, especially this last month. The Exo Terra medium low she is in is a tank quite big for one animal, I know, but I damp the substrate at least once a week by pouring water and she seemed to have enjoyed roaming around every now and then. The temperature though is my main concern: with winter temperature dropped in my house, and the 20w heatmat on the short side of the enclosure keeps it between 75 to 84 degrees, but only very close to the glass, while in most of the tank is 71-72. Is it too low and/or my scorp is in danger? Should I check if she is still alive? She has been in this conditions for a while now, and I'm really beginning to worry. How can I increase the heat if necessary?