How to Breed a Pet Scorpion

If you're tired of the same old pair of scorpions in your tank, try your hand at breeding. Increasing your number of scorpions requires a relatively small effort on your part. Simply place your male and female together in a separate breeding tank and wait for the next generation.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Assemble a tank to house your breeding scorpions. This tank should meet the minimum requirements of an average scorpion's habitat and should be intended to house two scorpions for at least 1 week.
2. Provide a flat surface for your scorpions' courtship. Scorpions include dancing as part of their mating ritual. The interaction occurs after the male scorpion locks his chelae with the female scorpion's chelae and leads the female with rhythmic maneuvers. Use pieces of flat wood, rock or slate as a "dance floor"--smooth areas are important to successful breeding.
3. Place one male and one female scorpion into the breeding tank.
4. Remove the male scorpion and place him into its usual tank once you have noticed that the female has grown larger due to pregnancy. Keeping your pregnant female scorpion in her own, adequately maintained tank ensures minimal disturbance during pregnancy and birthing. Stress can severely upset scorpion pregnancies and can even result in cannibalism when the offspring are born.
5. Expect birthing to take place months after insemination and during particularly hot temperatures. Exact gestation periods for scorpions vary by breed, but high humidity and temperatures of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit help to induce the birthing process.
6. Watch for the scorpions' birth. Newly birthed, pale scorpions will quickly climb onto their mothers' backs and stay there for 1 to 2 weeks while they mature.
7. Separate offspring from the mother after they have molted at least once, crawled off her back and started foraging for their own food. Reintroduce the mother into her usual habitat, provide individual containers for each young scorpion and put them on a steady diet of pinhead crickets. Isolating the young scorpions in their own containers and keeping food supplies replenished curbs instincts for cannibalism.

Tips & Warnings

• One option, when separating offspring from their mother, is to use sweater boxes. This option is, of course, dependent on your species of scorpion and its needs. If you use sweater boxes when isolating your scorpions, make modifications to the sweater box like drilling holes at the top of the box to provide adequate air.
• The best time to separate mother scorpions from their young depends on the type of scorpion species. Research your breed of scorpion and determine after which instar (molting) separation should take place.