HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I don't know if anyone here remembers, but at the end of June I was concerned because one of my two original scorpions was all swollen up and I couldn't figure out why. A week later and I saw the both of them and they both looked okay, so I figured it was just them overeating.

Well, I figured out the why tonight. BABIES!!

(I squealed so hard earlier I actually have a sore throat now. )

This whole time I thought they were brothers. And if I had had a clue that one was a female and that she was prego I would have separated them. I have no idea if the male is still alive or not - lady scorps tend to get murderous when there's babies to protect... Just have to wait and see what happens. But now I know why one was sitting out so much these past few months! Must have been giving mom room, so I'm hopeful he's okay.

Anyway, I saw at least 5 little ones, and they're somewhere over 2 months old. I have NO idea how I missed seeing them for so long. I feel so bad! I've only been feeding their parents this whole time. We ran out 5 minutes after I spotted them for some teeny crickets so they could have a good meal. They do look really healthy though. Would love to get a headcount, but I don't want to tear their tank apart to do it. They look like they should be molting soon, so if I'm lucky and they all end up on the surface, I can count molted exos and find out that way.

(By the way, this whole thing is bizarre. Emps aren't supposed to be able to reproduce until they're close to 4 years old. They also carry their young for 9 to 18 months before giving birth. So my little momma was 18 months old when she got knocked up.... I also don't have the right kind of breeding set-up (no flat rocks), and to the best of my knowledge dad was sharing a burrow this whole time, which is also unheard of. So... yeah. My house is full of weirdness. O.o )

Still babies!
Now, to find homes for my other litter of 14, or I won't have room for all these things...
(Did I mention I was walking into the room with a brand new pregnant scorp that I bought today when I looked up and saw these babies? I was missing having scorpion babies so much that I couldn't pass her up when I saw her. Yeah.... I'll be swarming in Emps in another month. :roll: )

I would be happy to take in several.

That's crazy I know nothing about scorpions but would love to see babies!

Nate the great wrote:I would be happy to take in several.

I am quite honestly terrified of the idea of shipping them, especially at this time of year. I know that heat packs and overnight shipping and everything should be safe, but these are my very first scorpion babies! Maybe come spring?

I'm not even sure if I'm ready to rehome them yet. In a perfect world they would stay here permanently, but space is tight and their food costs keep getting higher (doubled as of today) so while the plan was to keep them, it is looking like that is not an option anymore. I've spent more time with them than with any of my others, so they're really near and dear to me.

nana3 wrote:That's crazy I know nothing about scorpions but would love to see babies!

I don't have any pictures of the new little ones yet, but this is their mom and dad the day I brought them home and now their babies look exactly the same. (July 5th, 2011. They were exactly 2 months old.)


And then this is the older group of 14 the day they were born:


And just because it's cool, this is what they look like right after molting. Unlike hermits, they only molt a set number of times while they grow to maturity - it's supposed to be 6 times for males and 7 times for females, but they can sometimes have an extra molt. It's also supposed to take 2 years for them to fully grow, although mine were done in just over a year.

Very cool!!

WoW! Congrats That must have been so exciting!

I wouldn't feel too bad about not knowing they were in there and not feeding more. You had no idea what was happening, and the fact you saw a few means they found a way to survive. And once you figured out there were little ones, you went out to get them some yummies.

Way to go wode! Or should I call you the invert love doctor
Don't worry about the others, just focus on getting the ones you can help nice and fat and happy I mean heck, if they eluded you for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if they have some really neat hiding places in there and are still camping out. Maybe you should toss some crickets in there and see if any come running out? (just thinking out loud, I really don't know much about scorps except that I want one (dozen) )
But hey, are you coming up to Canada any time soon?

Congrats! haha, I hope the best for you and them!

That's so awesome! Congrats! (I would be squealing too)

Rose7314 wrote:That's so awesome! Congrats! (I would be squealing too)

I gotta admit, I would be squealing as I would wonder if they could get out of the tat and make me go into hospital!

Yeah that too lol good luck!

aussieJJDude wrote: I gotta admit, I would be squealing as I would wonder if they could get out of the tat and make me go into hospital!

These aren't your killer aussie bugs. Unless you're allergic to bees, their sting is only about as bad as a wasp. If you are allergic to bees, then yeah, immediate hospital trip as it will cause anaphylaxis. They also very rarely actually sting - when they get ticked off the adults will pinch rather than use their stinger since their claws are so powerful. Babies are much more trigger happy, but that's just because they're so tiny and vulnerable so they go straight for the sting.

I read up on all the envenomation reports I could find before I decided to get them, and the worst case I found was a guy who had one get out while feeding and who then ran up inside his jean pant leg to hide. Because of the tightness and the movement of the fabric as he was trying to get it back out the scorp panicked and started stinging his leg like crazy. I think he reported like 7 or 8 stings. He should have gone to the hospital or even just a doctor for treatment for that much venom, but instead he stayed home and dealt with it himself. Reported his leg swelling up twice it's normal size and like two days of serious hallucinations, but in the end he was okay. I could live with that. I would be in the hospital, but it wouldn't be life threatening. All of the other stories ranged from - it hurt like a hornet sting for a week, to it hurt for five minutes and then nothing. It really depends on how much they pump into you and how you react to it. So far I'm okay with bees, so while I don't purposely handle my scorps or put myself at risk, an accidental sting probably won't be a problem.




I flushed out one of the little ones while cleaning in there. Manged to get two bad photos as it went flying across the tank looking for cover:



All you can see is the stinger in this one :




Cleaned their tank up, trimmed the plants, and added more hides:







There's only maybe 5 inches of substrate in there as it's settled so much over the past 2 and a half years. I was actually planning on taking the tank apart to add in more before I found the little ones! Now I'm just going to wait until they get much much larger before I try it so they don't get hurt. I'll probably have to tear it apart to get them out anyway once they get to the point where they need more space, so maybe this time next year? Sigh...


Also, photo of Shirley, the new preggo:



I mean, she could be overfed and fat, but my gut is saying babies in her future:



She's huge. This is her in a critter keeper:



And this was Goji last fall in the same critter keeper, and y'all know how big he is! :

She is one big beautiful momma! Go wode!
Man, I wish my plants would look that green and... alive. I kill every plant I touch

It's that fern species. I don't even know what it is! (Possibly Fluffy Ruffle or Sassy. It's an Exotic Angel plant.) I got it on clearance for a dollar two years ago as it was a dried out stick at the time. I felt bad for it so I brought it home (story of everything I own), and then it just exploded with growth. It's grown something like 10 times over, and all the ones you see in that tank spread themselves out from that one little plant. I've even pulled five or six more starter plants out of there because it was getting too full! I've lost four other types of ferns that just would not grow in my tank, although the lemon button I picked up last month seems to be holding it's own and I just got two more of those on winter clearance yesterday that I need to rinse and get in.

Also, philodendron (the big dark green leaf) cannot be killed. It grows like crazy in a pot of water!

Rocky wrote:She is one big beautiful momma! Go wode!
Man, I wish my plants would look that green and... alive. I kill every plant I touch

LOL, I soo with you! Every plant that I placed in the tat so far, it died in a week! The longest plant I had in there so far was duckweed, they managed to survive 2 months!

wodesorel wrote:These aren't your killer aussie bugs

haha, sorry, i just used to the killers that we have in aus! But still, I would be screaming - they remind me too much of the killers over here! So far I haven't been stung by a wasp (and don't plan to change that status) but I did get stung from a bee when I was 3, it killed - well, for my 3 year old body, it did!

I love your ferns, super cute! Reminds me of the Boston ferns that i have growing outside or trying to grow - kill - in my tank!