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Eggs in peat (Read 4177 times)
Troy sandlin
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Eggs in peat
May 5th, 2021 at 6:26pm
 
I have pulled peat from my nothobranchius tanks, and they had eggs in the peat. Exact counts not sure, but at least 10-15. I dried the peat to a slight moistness and then bagged for 10-14 weeks. After the 10-14 weeks (eggersi) I could not find any eggs visually in the 3 separate pulled batches. I soaked peat and after 3 days nothing. Re-dried, waited 3 weeks and did again. Nothing. What can I be doing wrong? I spent a lot of time looking for eggs before second wetting and found nothing. Can the eggs mold up and disappear? Any help would be appreciated.
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Matt Kaufman
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #1 - May 6th, 2021 at 3:32am
 
Tell us more about the peat. Sometimes very acidic peat causes eggs to die out. Also, how are you searching for the eggs? A "light board", basically, a translucent tray with light below it can be really handy for seeing eggs.

What temp were the eggs incubated at? The article on Nothobranchius here: https://aka.org/!area_Public/publicLibrary/publicLibrary.html says 10-14 weeks for Eggersi at 74-75F, might be if your eggs were stored cooler than that, they're not yet ready.
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Tyrone Genade
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #2 - May 6th, 2021 at 9:23am
 
Hello,

Eggersi can develop in as little as 3 weeks. This is more of a problem when the peat is damp and kept warm (above 76oF). How were you incubating the eggs?

The best route to success with Nothos is to check the eggs at least every 4 weeks for development and then hatch the eggs when you can see a gold ring around the eye/iris.

It is not uncommon for eggs that have eyed-up to die after a while in the peat.

Please tell us more about how your incubate the eggs.
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Troy sandlin
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #3 - May 13th, 2021 at 12:00am
 
My first pulled eggs were just in rinsed peat, latter I’ve added coir at about 50\50.  Eggs were placed in a ziplock type bag, using same peat they were laid in. I let peat dry to it was still a dark color but not damp. The bags were placed in a storage container and put on top of my cabinets in the house. Temperature was probably high 60’s. The light board idea sounds great. Any recommendations on what to use?  Thanks for advice.
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Tyrone Genade
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #4 - May 13th, 2021 at 10:10am
 
...

What I would suggest you do is find eggs in the peat and lay them on top of the peat for easy monitoring.

If all the eggs die (turn white) in the few days then there is a fertility or bacterial issue in the tank. If the eggs don't fungus then you can monitor them for development and take the guess work out of the incubation. When you see gold rings around the iris  then they are ready to hatch. you don't want to keep them waiting too long.

I use petri dishes bought off Ebay and sealed with parafilm. You can use any container so long as it seals well to keep the humidity high.

Starting out, getting the timing right on hatching is the biggest trick. Eggersi isn't the easiest species out there so some extra effort will be needed.
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Troy sandlin
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Re: Eggs in pea
Reply #5 - May 13th, 2021 at 6:40pm
 
Again I appreciate everyone’s suggestions. I will try Petri dish and your suggestion of laying eggs on top to make it easier to monitor. I have been just verifying I have eggs without counting but I just ordered a light board and I’m hoping this will help me find all the eggs without spending hours hunched over with a flash light and magnifying glass. I also might be using to much peat. Typically I fill a 4-6 oz glass 1/2 full so there’s at least 2” of peat. It usually swells up when I put it in the tank and goes all over. So when I do pull eggs I vac up all the peat outside the cup too. Occasionally small snails are in the peat and I don’t always see them and remove when bagging the eggs and peat up. I’m wondering if the dead snails are fouling the peat too. I kind of looked at pull peat and eggs as not needing to be extremely sterile because in the wild all kind of crud drys up with them. But maybe I better be more thorough and sterile. Thanks again. Photo is of how I bag eggs. Currently I have 5 nothobranchius species that I collect eggs and recently acquired 2 more pairs that are young and I haven’t started collecting eggs from. But eggersi was my first, and so far no fry.
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Tyrone Genade
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #6 - May 14th, 2021 at 8:44am
 
Hello,

The eggs are much denser than the peat so while the peat spills out of the glass, the eggs should remain.

How are you preparing the peat? I prepare peat in bucket. I take the peat and pour boiling water over it, covering it and stirring, and then let it settle. The peat is then rinsed just before use. I use Jiffy 703 pellets or coco coir peat.

I spoon the rinsed peat into a tub and fill the tub with water to the brim. Once settled I put a lid over the tub and sink it into the aquarium so the peat doesn't spill. If you are using a glass, you could just put some plastic film over it.

Using more peat is better than less, especially if you are working with long-incubation species.

Online you will find estimates on incubation times but I find that incubation times varies greatly with the keeper. Being able to monitor the eggs keeps guessing to a minimum and improves success. Once you know how long a certain species takes to incubate under your conditions then you can just bag peat and set a reminder in your calendar to check at a certain date.

Try to keep snails out of the peat. They can indeed foul the peat and kill the eggs.
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Troy sandlin
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Re: Eggs in peat
Reply #7 - May 14th, 2021 at 10:43pm
 
I prepare the peat similar. I mix with coir and boil, drain and then squeeze out excess water through a nut milk bag.
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