Emperor update. Photo timeline.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

The little ones are doing great. I can't believe how fast they grow! They were born the last week of March. 5 of them have already gone to their new homes. I'm keeping the remaining 10 for a while until I figure out which ones I want to keep. They definitely have different personalities.

Here is mom and dad last year..


Here is mom shortly before giving birth..


Here is a bad pic of the babies after they were born..


Here they are eating their super worm pieces with mom close behind..



More molts. More growth..




Here are some of the little ones now!


And here is jumbo mom!




I love my big creepy bugs!

[mark and marley]

dude that is awesome!!!nice pics and scorp family.
is your female way more assertive and aggressive than your male too?
how many babies do they typically have?how did you make that coco fiber cave???
how did the momma get so big?????mine are adults but not that big.sheesh.will mine keep growing?

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

dude that is awesome!!!nice pics and scorp family.
is your female way more assertive and aggressive than your male too?
how many babies do they typically have?how did you make that coco fiber cave???
how did the momma get so big?????mine are adults but not that big.sheesh.will mine keep growing?

My female is more jumpy but once I have her out, she is fine. Just takes a very quick hand to get her out without being pinched.

Mine had 16 babies (one died) but they normally have around 10. Give or take.

I use Eco Earth. It's about 5 inches deep so they make their own burrows. Once I took mom out, filled in her enormous burrow, and put the babies back in the larger tank, they went to work and had multiple burrows excavated within days.

My original pair were imports. As most adults at pet stores or expos are. So I don't know how old they were when I got them. The female did grow quite a bit in the year before she had the babies.

Offer yours a super worm (with tweezers or feeding tongs) once a month for a filling snack. They are too fatty to be a staple diet tho. Even better would be a silk worm. They are very high in vitamins and nutrients including calcium for their exoskeleton.

Females can get rather large if they are in the proper tropical environment and get a variety of foods. Crickets as a staple but the occasional worm feeder is great to ensure they are not lacking in any necessary nutrients.

My male died a couple months before the female gave birth. She must have known it was time because she starting getting aggressive with him. She attacked him once and had him backed into a corner. I put him in his own enclosure and he was fine for at least a couple months but then just died. I'm not sure if it was age or what. They live 5-8 years in captivity so I was glad that she had babies. Now I have some that I know their age and I know they do not have any parasites or illness associated with the wild caught ones. My big female is doing great though. I'll definitely be breeding a couple of the little ones next year. It was fun and interesting to see the entire process from birth to now.

Momma emperors are one of the only scorps that defend and take care of their young. They kill crickets and leave them fir the babies. Once the babies begin eating, then she will eat. I'd put a bunch of small crickets in and let mom go to work. Once she was done, I'd give her a super worm to fill up on while the babies ate. A couple times I cut up super worms into small pieces and dropped them at the burrow opening and the babies would come running out.

They are facinating.

[llovelace]

Awesome!!!!!!

[mark and marley]

awe that is nice i hope my couple have babies now.ill be making a false bottom this weekend .ill add some hills in there im guessing thats what they burrowed into in your enclosure?

rip male

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Actually, it started out fairly even. I leveled it all out but they dug and made hills and burrows. They dug out the hydro balls as well once they reached the bottom. This summer I'm going to re do it with a layer of plastic cross-stitch screen on top of the hydro balls to prevent them from digging them out. Then put the eco earth on top of that. They carry out anything they don't want in their burrow and put it somewhere else lol! They keep it clean and remove any cricket parts or debris.

Once I realized they were doing this, I turned my thermostat controlling the under tank heat mat way down to prevent over heating them since I know at least one burrow goes down to the glass.

[mark and marley]

hydro balls?????like for turtles?hahaha they made their own hills and clean up hahahaha.
yeah i dont use a heat mat for mine cause i knew they were going to get to it and it on the side doesnt do anything for the ambient temps.all mine get is a ir heat lamp with a dimmer.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I have a heat pad on thermostat and a ceramic heat emitter on top. I added that when I knew mom was ready to have babies just to bump the heat and humidity for them.

Hydro balls are what people use in the bottom of dart frog vivariums. It makes a separation between the substrate and the bottom so when you add water, the water can pool at the bottom without making it muddy. Mostly for growing live plants in vivs so the plants don't get root rot but they do work great in scorp enclosures as well. As long as you have some sort of screen between the hydro ball layer and the substrate that is. I learned that the hard way.

[mark and marley]

hmmm so should i use hydro balls instead of gravel for the false bottom?
what say you?

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I'd say yes because they are incredibly light. They won't add weight and won't tear up the silicone seals on the inside of the tank. Then just run to a craft store and pick up a couple sheets of the cross stitch plastic canvas screen for a few cents each. Cut to fit the bottom of the tank and put on top of the hydro balls. Then add substrate.

Live plants need to be in pots sunk into the substrate. Scorps will dig them up otherwise. If you add a plant, wait until they have dug their burrows and put it away from the burrows and they shouldn't bother it.

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...d-hydro-balls/

http://www.createforless.com/Darice+...utm_medium=cse