Amazing Success - Hadrurus arizonensis molt

Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Early last year I got what I thought was an adult female that was ready for breeding with an adult male. Both having been living deep inside an enclosure made to mimic AZ. The substrate is roughly a foot deep with a false bottom made of rock. There's water in there most of the time, keeping the very bottom of the sand / clay mix moist. The female has molted. At first I thought she had consumed her mate but the shell is like paper, as are the claws she shed out of. I'm absolutely stunned. I'll take pictures when I can get them up.

I have located the male as well. Both scorpions are alive. The female has definitely molted.



Information from my first thread.

Eight inches of substrate consisting of 5 parts play sand to 2 parts Zoo Med Excavator substrate. There are two inches of large pebbles creating the false bottom. The substrate is still drying though it's hardly moist at all and the first inch or two is completely dry. I've noted that the female started on the side that hasn't been drying with the heat lamp. The substrate is slightly difficult for me to dig in, but I know it's less compact the deeper it is. Despite this the scorpion has shown more interest in creating a burrow faster than the previous occupant did with slightly less compact substrate though I haven't had a great number of them to compare with so one can't say what they prefer. (The previous occupant is still living, just in a different cage.)

I'm going to insert another into the soil but on the hotter side there is a relative humidity gauge that currently reads 80%. It's just under three inches below the surface against the glass. I'll be keeping the sub-adults more humid than usual until they reach what I think will be the final molt and then the substrate will dry out almost entirely except for the area nearest to the false bottom. Right now the female is spotless in terms of mycosis and I've started two small scrapes angled in the same way that desert hairy scorpions like to burrow. As mentioned she chose the one on the cooler side and I've positioned it so that she will hit the glass and hopefully dig alongside it to the right just as the other scorpion did before. The previous scorpion did it all on his own, so I positioned it in the same spot as it had. If all goes well I'll be able to check in on her any time I'd like.
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Ivymike1973

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She is a beauty. Very nice. Have you been co-habbing them the whole time?
 
Danimal

Danimal

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That's great and impressive man. This species is extremely hard to get to molt in captivity. Nice job!
 
Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Ivymike1973 said:
She is a beauty. Very nice. Have you been co-habbing them the whole time?
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Surprisingly, yes! They were underground most of the time and I saw neither the male or the female for almost six months. I figured one had killed the other for certain, yet I found both alive deep inside the enclosure. The male was four or so inches below the surface while the female was a little deeper. I'm pretty sure they've made contact a few times and the burrows are pretty narrow though I'm sure there's room for them to turn around inside. While I was digging I would remove the substrate in large chunks and I could see their tunnels as I worked.

It's pretty interesting stuff and now it appears that having a moisture gradient with a larger, bone dry portion above a humid portion is the key to success here. My next plan is to begin breeding them if they've not mated already. A separate ten gallon enclosure will be obtained to create an environment in which I hope to raise the young H. arizonensis pallidus.
 
2nscorpx

2nscorpx

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Nanotrev said:
It's pretty interesting stuff and now it appears that having a moisture gradient with a larger, bone dry portion above a humid portion is the key to success here.
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Nice work! Remember, though, that this has to be tried several times before a definitive conclusion can be made. Good luck with the mating.
 
Olsin

Olsin

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Well done ;) ... I've heard of a few other people also experiencing success with getting H.arizonensis to moult by using basically the same deep setup you mentioned...So, even though you've accomplished it just once, others have used the same recipe for their own success. So that would mean that your observations of a deep substrate coupled with a functioning humidity gradient in the lower levels of the substrate, is a valid observation and one that could quite probably be the decisive factor for success with this specie...
 
2nscorpx

2nscorpx

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Olsin said:
Well done ;) ... I've heard of a few other people also experiencing success with getting H.arizonensis to moult by using basically the same deep setup you mentioned...So, even though you've accomplished it just once, others have used the same recipe for their own success. So that would mean that your observations of a deep substrate coupled with a functioning humidity gradient in the lower levels of the substrate, is a valid observation and one that could quite probably be the decisive factor for success with this specie...
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Well then, there we go! Well done OP! What's your plan for breeding them?
 
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Galapoheros

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The one I have over here molted a couple of days ago in a deli cup with a cap of water in it, no problems. I think it's adult now. It molted on it's back like Parabuthus transvaalicus usually does.
 
Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Galapoheros said:
The one I have over here molted a couple of days ago in a deli cup with a cap of water in it, no problems. I think it's adult now. It molted on it's back like Parabuthus transvaalicus usually does.
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What's funny is I didn't even know she had molted, or how long ago it was. There was a period of months upon months that I didn't see either one of them and before long I presumed that they may have bitten the dust. Imagine my surprise when I found the female, a molt, and the male. The male still has his spot of mycosis on his tail and the female is a little larger now, thus making it easy who had left behind the present for me.


2nscorpx said:
Well then, there we go! Well done OP! What's your plan for breeding them?
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I plan to mate them in a separate container without room to dig. After that, she will be kept in a different enclosure until the young are born. The young then, will be put into the glass cage that their female parent grew to adulthood in.


Also, I really wish I knew at what time she molted so I could give out the conditions in which she was successful. She was already darkened with a hardened exoskeleton when I found her and from what I remember it takes a few days for it to occur.

...not to mention it's been six months since I saw her last before yesterday. Oie!
 
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Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Galapoheros said:
The one I have over here molted a couple of days ago in a deli cup with a cap of water in it, no problems. I think it's adult now. It molted on it's back like Parabuthus transvaalicus usually does.
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Apologies for the double post, but were you able to see any condensation inside the deli-cup when it molted? I'm a little hesitant about using water itself and not just moisture so close to the scorpion being that my very first Hadrurus sp. came in with mycosis (the seller knew I was ignorant at the time) and after I did my research on it I'm still paranoid about it eons later.
 
Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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I'm going to pair the two scorpions tonight. Being that I can only find the source threads of AzJohn and myself as getting this far in the US I'm going to document everything that goes on with these guys in the next year. If anyone knows where I can get some nice deep deli cups please let me know. I'm going to use the same method in a more compact environment to get the young to molt. Something else I've noticed is that if the younger specimens get a hint of mycosis that people have been finding that they lose it with their next molt. Interesting stuff, and I'll keep you guys posted. It's really too bad I can't read and write German or else I'd ask those guys for advice.
 
Greenjewls

Greenjewls

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Great work! I've never had a molt... then again I think I've only had adults. Is the adult the 7th instar? I think I used to know that...
 
Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Thanks! AzJohn might know which instar they become adults, or Wayne of Southwest Inverts when he used to sell things here on AB. I was told the male was an adult when I purchased them as a pair. The female at the time was noticeably smaller but now she's a hair bigger after the molt. Wayne was the one who sold me the pair and they're comparable in size to the other desert hairy scorpions I have. I wish AzJohn were here to comment on this...
 
2nscorpx

2nscorpx

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Nanotrev said:
I'm going to pair the two scorpions tonight. Being that I can only find the source threads of AzJohn and myself as getting this far in the US I'm going to document everything that goes on with these guys in the next year. If anyone knows where I can get some nice deep deli cups please let me know. I'm going to use the same method in a more compact environment to get the young to molt. Something else I've noticed is that if the younger specimens get a hint of mycosis that people have been finding that they lose it with their next molt. Interesting stuff, and I'll keep you guys posted. It's really too bad I can't read and write German or else I'd ask those guys for advice.
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You can find relatively deep plastic boxes, like Rubbermaid containers, at department stores such as Target, Walmart, etc. They may be a bit more expensive than deli containers, but still relatively cheap and good quality. I know they have been used before and I have used them myself. On several of the German forums, people can generally understand questions, or your computer can translate. Nice work getting this species through a molt!
 
Nanotrev

Nanotrev

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Interesting idea! I've never thought of that. All I've ever kept my inverts in were aquariums. Displays appeal to me quite a bit but I'll have to stop by Target and pick some stuff up! A close friend I work with uses Sterlite containers so perhaps I should try those as well.
 
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