Gravid scorpio marus palmatus???

[Lisa Baines]

right i am currently browsing the net for a pic of the above scorp in gravid condition. Was going to do some research before i attempted to breed them but it looks like Im going to have to rush to get all info i can!

reason being one of the females i have just bought is rather fat as in round and elongated, the back plates starting to separate.
Other reason being is that she is kicking hell out of the male.. its not mating dance she is really being aggressive. the other male and female have settled down and you can get near them... the fat female goes into offensive position whenever you go near the tank and starts trying to tag as soon as you're within 2-3" of her. I have noticed the other female is staying well out of the way! She is approx 5cm length so i recon she is of sexual maturity. (cant get an accurate length i'll lose my fingertips lmao!)

The other two have settled in shallow burrows or under the cork bark. she is furiously trying to burrow deeper.

So for the males safety's sake i have separated her to another enclosure. I have offered crix to see if she is hungry. Im not counting out the fact that she may just be ready to slough but she looks like she may have sloughed not to long ago before i bought her, her body is still pretty shiny. Or it may be that she is a VERY feisty female!

If anyone has any pictures of a gravid or has successfully bred this sp please let me know, This is the first time i have kept this sp so any personal input would be great.

Lisa

[Colin D Wilson]

From past experience...........(though not my own i should add, a breeders advice to me)

single her out (stress from others is detramental)
provide her with about 5 - 6 inches of progressively damp (top to bottom) compost/sand mixture, start a burrow off for her in the middle.
all you can do then is leave her to get on with it.
She may not feed too often and i found that they like to scavenge in this state more than catch a living prey item so prekill a cricket (or similar) and leave by the burrow entrance in the evening once a week (remove if not taken the next day).
keep at an ambient room temp of 75-80 degrees, humidity will be fine and controlled by the depth she burrows, a small amount of water dribbled down the side of the tank into the substrate once a week will suffice.

Optomistically if she is WC then she may be gravid and produce, pessimistically (and being WC) this could be a parasitic condition, only time will tell i'm afraid.

Good luck.

[James Box]

good luck Lisa!!!

[Lisa Baines]

will be getting sand tomorrow for the enclosure, she is on peat/vermiculite at the moment because I haven't got any lol!

as for feeding, she was offered live cricket last night, she just tagged it and left it. I left some carrion today and she wasn't interested. she's just made herself comfortable by the heat mat. She's calmed down a lot now the male isn't around to get jiggy with her

Well if anything comes of it I will post again. fingers crossed for good news.

Thank you for all the info

Lisa xx

[Lisa Baines]

Just a quick update for anyone watching the thread, we got our jewelers loupe today and managed to get a closer look at her... and it looks like she is gravid, could see lots of little pale blobs through the membrane.

Chuffed to bits to say the least

[Colin D Wilson]

Looking good so far then Lisa.

Put me down for a couple when you have success, be nice to have SMP's in the collection again.

[Lisa Baines]

consider it done