Parabuthus transvaalicus not being a good mother

x Mr Awesome x

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
449
My gravid female gave birth to her clutch yesterday while I was at work. I came home to find a deflated mom and pile of scorplings huddled together in front of her. She was eating some and it was obvious she'd been at it for a while. I gave her the night to see if the babies would get to her back. This morning the situation was unchanged. She is huddled over the mass of babies but there doesn't seem to be any interaction. I have covered her tank with a blanket and left her alone. I have not interfered in any way. Any advice? If they don't get on her does anyone have any suggestions on how to salvage the babies?

[YOUTUBE]baChdQjUpaE[/YOUTUBE]

-ben
 

red fury

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
46
im new to having scorpions.... not saying im right or wrong, personally i'de remove the female, and keep the temp/humidity up with the scorplings and in a few days, feed them with itty bitty crickets and see how many survive.... to me thats better than watching/filming mom eat every one of them...
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Messages
2,181
I don't know what else you could do. Leave her as stress free as possible and hope the babies climb on. They wont have much time however, you might need to remove them and try to get them to 2i on your own. I can't see the video my internet hookup is bad now. The babies might not be viable. Are they moving around at all?



I've raised a few scorpions that have been abandoned by the mother. The way I've done it is to keep the babies on a damp, not soaking, paper towel. The paper towel should be kept in an air tight container. Babies get most of their moisture from their mother until they are 2i. Their skin is not as water proof at this point. Dehydration is the problem. Don't feed them or offer any sort of stress. They won't eat untill they mokt anyways. Even doing the best you can probably half of the babies will die, if you are lucky. If your not lucky you'll loose them all. It's very hard to raise the babies away from the mother.
Good Luck
John
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
Hey Ben I haven't had that prob over here yet but this is what I might give a try: It's not working out anyway, so I'd try to scoot her over on top of the scorplings and drop a small deli over her so that she can't move off of the babies to see if some make it to her back, also hoping she stops trying to knock them off. If any make after a day or so, you could gently raise the deli(?) ...just a desperate idea, that sucks, good luck.
 

x Mr Awesome x

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
449
Thanks for the responses. I'll check in the morning to see if there's any change. If not, I may attempt to incubate them myself. She's maintained a position almost directly over them and none have climbed on. They are viable though and are moving around in their clump.
 

Michiel

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
3,478
im new to having scorpions.... not saying im right or wrong, personally i'de remove the female, and keep the temp/humidity up with the scorplings and in a few days, feed them with itty bitty crickets and see how many survive.... to me thats better than watching/filming mom eat every one of them...
You probably mean well, but scorpions do not eat at this stage. Feeding them would not make any difference ;)

To the OP, you could try to care for them, there are several methods on these boards (Like John's), but in general the results are poor, so don't expect too much of your efforts....But by all means, you should try it....
 

Chrome69

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
268
I personally would put them in an incubator right away, personally can't stand watching mother scorpions eat perfectly good young when it's possible to save them.
 

x Mr Awesome x

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
449
As of this morning nothing has improved. I removed mom, placed the babies on lightly moistened paper towels within a sealed sterlite container. I put mom back in by herself and I'm hoping for the best with the babies.
 

bluefrogtat2

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
913
good luck i also would have seperated from the mother.
congrats so far and heres hoping you are able to salvage some of them,
my fave scorp by far..
andy
 

x Mr Awesome x

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
449
long overdue update

Here's the update. Almost 100% success! The incubation trick worked awesome. I left them alone within a sterlite container which was air tight. I kept them near my space heater at about 84 degrees. After about a week they darkened and all molted to second instar. I had a total of eighty eight babies. I separated the first third of them or so about five days later and the rest four days after that. I tried to keep light moisture on the ones that I moved but wanted to use the incubated ones as a control. I had a few die offs from the first group but all ate well their first time. I fed the incubated group several days after the first by introducing crickets with crushed heads. They scavenged them as I'd expected. All in all I think this is an excellent method and from my experience I'd consider it the gold standard! Here's a vid:

[YOUTUBE]SEj_brDtODM[/YOUTUBE]

-ben
 

Chrome69

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
268
VERY NICE!!!!
That's amazing, good job on the success in the face of the odds!
 

Sir Aculeus

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 7, 2011
Messages
77
Thats sweet! Great job. Would have been such a shame to loose them.
Grats!!!
 

peterock44

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Messages
42
thats very exciting news, i thought they were gonners for sure. sure held the suspense on us with the update, hahaha, now sell me a few!!!!
 

Sir Aculeus

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 7, 2011
Messages
77
thats very exciting news, i thought they were gonners for sure. sure held the suspense on us with the update, hahaha, now sell me a few!!!!
Rofl. I was waiting someone to say it first ;P

Me too please lol

I love P. transvaalicus. I would buy some off you as well.
 

Moltar

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
5,438
VERY nice work. That's great, I love success stories like this. And, by the way, 88 scorplings? Obviously I'm more of a T guy, but I thought scorps usually had a couple dozen babies, not pushin' 100.
 

Chrome69

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
268
There are a few different species of scorpion across the genus' that have huge clutches, P.trans is one of them along with, say, L. quinquistriatus is known to have huge ones as well.
 

scorpguy

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
Messages
47
Awesome video and congrats on the scorplings!

At one point in the video I think I heard you say you were going to keep a few in a communal set up. Are they a communal species? I was under the impression that they weren’t.

Also, how long do you have to wait after removing the babies to mate the mother again? I have an Emp that just had babies and would like to mate her as soon as it is safe and healthy to do so.
 
Top