Very rare Heterometrus sp.

[Jarvis]

After a couple of days of mating I have recently seperated the male and female. I decided to seperate them since I have noticed that the female has started to bask herself under the heat lamp at night, so hopelfuly it won't be long. I tried to take some pics of them mating (they are really bad, since the mating process was very quick after the male found a good place, maybe 3 to 5 mins).

 

[NevularScorpion]

Sweet I cant wait for it to pop. :drool:

 

[Jarvis]

nothing really to report right now, still waiting for the female H. Mysorensis to molt. The female H. Madraspatensis is plump (dosen't look like she is about to pop at any moment yet) and eats like crazy, roughly 4-5 gut loaded crickets every other week.
I did realize that I didn't have a breeding pair of H. Swammerdamis but instead had 2 males (which explained why one wasn't gravid yet) so I had to trade one of my males to get a female. I just got a female today and she is starting to settlle in, I will keep her seperate for a couple of days before I introduce her to my male, hopefuly in a year-15 months I can get a brood from her.

 

[Maikardaaion]

Nice scorps
Looks like You have two females H. Mysorensis. The one You labeled as male is an adult female Males are thinner and have longer pincers. And are much more difficult to obtain than females

 

[Jarvis]

Nice scorps
Looks like You have two females H. Mysorensis. The one You labeled as male is an adult female Males are thinner and have longer pincers. And are much more difficult to obtain than females

No, he is a male I have seen them try to mate already and leave a Spermophre however the female is still a juvie so she didn't accept, your right though the males are much thinner (as well as smaller) than females, and have much longer pincers

 

[Jarvis]

I decided to finaly put the Male H. Swammerdami with the female in hopes that they would mate... It was a success here are some pics

 

[Nanotrev]

Sweet deal! I'm glad everything to appears to have worked out. She seemed very aggressive and I was really put off by it when I saw her being so nasty to the other male. Is that normal for this genus? The two P. imperator I have seemed almost lazy when they went about it.

In other news, my tiny H. spinifer just finished moulting this morning. :biggrin:

Say, I read in a book the other day that there are seaside scorpions. I'm doing some research on Bing.com right now though maybe someone could give me some more information on them. They seem very interesting. On a side note relating to the topic...

What would one define as the rarest of the Heterometrus species to find in the hobby? My thirst for knowledge is insatiable as is my curiosity.

 

[lancej]

Very nice scorpions! I hope you are very successful in breeding them all!

 

[Jarvis]

Alaright maybe someone can help me out, I am considering on hopefully obtaining a breeding pair of H. Fulvipes, however the only reason why I am just considering them instead of getting them is becuase they are so much like H. Madraspatensis which I already have. I have tried to look up the difference between the two and have found very little between the two, not considerable enough to justify getting them. I guess the only reason I would be getting them is to have another heterometrus sp. and hopefuly help establish more heterometrus sp. in the US.

 

[tdark1]

You should get the H. Fulvipes in my opinion. You never know what the future holds, your female H. Madraspatensis might not birth, or something unforeseeable could happen. Also it would be great to have H. Fulvipes being established in the US.

 

[felmor]

I decided to finaly put the Male H. Swammerdami with the female in hopes that they would mate... It was a success here are some pics

now is the time you need patience.. I've heard swammerdami's gestation is more or less 1 and a half year? Good luck!

 

[Galapoheros]

I've been reading this thread and what I've noticed about the 5 swammerdamies I have is that they are growing faster than my emps. The swammys are 4 to 5 inches now. A brood of emps I have average about 3.5 inches and they were born before the swammys. I think the swammerdamis have one more molt but I don't know for sure. Are they just a lot bigger in the end and take longer for that reason(?), I'm not thinking so as of now, time will tell. I think the average size is hyped and that the bigger ones come from specific areas, like emps(speculation) still a really nice scorpion to me though. I think emps would be just as desirable if they were as hard to get.

 

[Jarvis]

@ felmor, yeah the gestation I've heard is anywhere from 9 months (one breader somehow was able to get a brood in 9 months) to 22 months, I'm not in a hurry since I have other projects going on and besides there is no way to speed up the process, right now they seem fine cohabitating in the same 20gal long tank.

@ Galapoheros thanks for the post, I've never compared H. Swammerdami's growth rate to P. imps. I know that H. Swammerdami's do have much longer gestations than P. imps (sometimes double), but they do grow faster, as well as get bigger, I am not sure how this (if this) relates to how long they live, since from what I have read they both avaerage around 7 years in life span. I think that the average size for a H. swammerdami is overly exaggerated and is closer to 7.5-8 inches however they are still bigger than the average P. imperator which is more like 6.5-7 inches.
and I do agree I think P. imps would be just as desirable if they were harder to find, I personaly am not a huge fan of them since they are such pet holes.

 

[tdark1]

Jarvis,

I was just curious if you decided anything regarding the H. Fulvipes? Your collection is outstanding! Would you happen to have any other photos of your H. Madraspatensis that you would be willing to share?

Cheers,

Rob

 

[Galapoheros]

(lol the new smilies) Those lengths are too long, are you measuring from the mouth parts to the telson?, that's the standard way of doing it. Most people that think they have a 6 inch or more emp will find that it is shorter than 6 inches when they actually measure it. Finding an emp that is 6 inches or longer in the pet stores isn't very easy but I have one, I saw one 7 inch one, MAN!, it looked huge. Anybody, please, go ahead and measure your adult smammerdamis and post pics next to a ruler in another thread or this one, if it's OK with Jarvis. Also, measuring this standard way, I'm betting that the adult swammerdamis people have average around 6 inches, maybe even shorter. I think it would be good for people to see the size of adults next to a ruler to clear up average size expectations, imo it's no good to only "trust" claims over the internet, how many times has that gone wrong lol.

 

[Jarvis]

@tdark1, I'm thinking of getting 3 of them (in hopes to get a breeding pair) either next month or the month after, I am also going to to get a breeding pair of H. Phipsoni at the end of next month, I'll put up some pics of them once I get them in, I'll take some more pics of the H. Madraspatensis and post them soon. I am still looking to add to my collection of Heterometrus sp. I'm hoping to find a breeding pair of H. Flavimanus and H. Barberi one of these days.

@galapoheros, Yeah that is the same way I measure my scorps, I was just giving a rough estimate on lengths for the 2 sp. it might be off, I have 2 larger specimens of H. swammerdamis (compared to the others I've seen) and will try to take pics of them with a ruler. If others want to put pics of there H. swammerdami's next to rulers in this thread I don't mind.

 

[Jarvis]

alright as promised, I have taken pics of all three breeding pairs, I also took the pics of the H. Swammerdami's next to a ruler and they are around 6 inches respectively.

 

[Jarvis]

here are som pics of the H. Madraspatensis

 

[Jarvis]

ALright and last here is some pics of the H. Mysorensis

 

[Galapoheros]

Cool thanks. The female swammerdami looks like a solid 5 inches(the first inch being skipped on the ruler), the male looks just short of 6 inches. This makes me wonder if I might have one or two that might be mature already, man that'd be weird because they were born last year. So I think mine have at least one more to go. Is the female mysorensis mature? My Heterometrus get that look when they are about to molt, but that might be the normal color for some individuals mysorensis(?), I've never seen one in person.