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Methylene Blue egg incubation (Read 2068 times)
Morgun Werling
Ex Member


Methylene Blue egg incubation
Oct 26th, 2022 at 4:17am
 
While I'm waiting on my starter Gardneri to reach sexual maturity, I decided to pull some platinum ricefish from their 110 tub to collect some eggs to practice manual incubation and growing.
I pulled the eggs from the mop, and placed then into a 4x4 or 5x5 Tupperware (1.5" of water with an airline and a tint of meth blue).
The "fungus" covered eggs are easy to identify and pull, but what about the eggs that absorb methylene blue but don't turn opaque?
In my first container I have 3 eggs due to hatch in the next day or so. One is still clear, and I can easily see the development of the fry. The other two seemed to have absorbed some of meth blue, and seem to have some development (dark spot and a slightly blurry spot around it) but seem to be slightly cloudy on the inside. Are these two not viable?

I guess my questions are:
other than "fungus" how can I distinguish between the viable and non-viable eggs when incubated in methylene blue? Should they be crystal clear the entire time? Is it ok if they absorb the meth blue? What about eggs that are slightly yellow tinted?
I'm guessing that even though these are ricefish eggs (I've heard the ricefish referred to as Killifish-lite) are these questions/experiences still applicable with other non-anual killi's like Fundulopanchax or Fundulus?

I have a second container with around 20-30 eggs that should be ready to hatch next week. Any info, or tips are appreciated.
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Russell Feilzer
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Re: Methylene Blue egg incubation
Reply #1 - Oct 27th, 2022 at 1:49am
 
While I've never worked with Medaka I can't see why they would be different that killifish.  My guess would be the eggs that absorb the methylene blue are infertile eggs.  If you watch the other eggs you should be able to see the fry develop.  If you have access to a microscope it is pretty fascinating to watch the progress of development.  It starts pretty early with cell division and progresses rapidly to discernable features like bones and a heart and eventually you can see the blood cells circulating in the fry.  On another note, while water incubating gardneri eggs certainly works, I've always had better luck incubating the eggs on top of very moist peat moss.  When eggs fungus and they will, it doesn't spread as fast to other eggs, giving you time to pick out the bad eggs.  It's pretty easy to tell when they are ready to hatch, you can see the fully developed fry in the egg.  This way you can hatch a batch of eggs pretty much at the same time.  If you want more information I can elaborate.  Good luck and enjoy the process.
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Morgun Werling
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Re: Methylene Blue egg incubation
Reply #2 - Oct 27th, 2022 at 5:36am
 
Russell Feilzer wrote on Oct 27th, 2022 at 1:49am:
While I've never worked with Medaka I can't see why they would be different that killifish.  My guess would be the eggs that absorb the methylene blue are infertile eggs.  If you watch the other eggs you should be able to see the fry develop.  If you have access to a microscope it is pretty fascinating to watch the progress of development.  It starts pretty early with cell division and progresses rapidly to discernable features like bones and a heart and eventually you can see the blood cells circulating in the fry.  On another note, while water incubating gardneri eggs certainly works, I've always had better luck incubating the eggs on top of very moist peat moss.  When eggs fungus and they will, it doesn't spread as fast to other eggs, giving you time to pick out the bad eggs.  It's pretty easy to tell when they are ready to hatch, you can see the fully developed fry in the egg.  This way you can hatch a batch of eggs pretty much at the same time.  If you want more information I can elaborate.  Good luck and enjoy the process.


Thanks for the reply!
I have heard of incubating the semi-annual species over peat moss, but never any specifics as far as peat moisture or temperature. I would assume that peat incubation would require a slightly warmer temperature than water incubation? Or would you want a similar or lower temperature since the purpose is to slow development of the older eggs to get an even hatch?
If you wouldn't mind elaborating, It would be appreciated.
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Russell Feilzer
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Re: Methylene Blue egg incubation
Reply #3 - Oct 30th, 2022 at 11:34pm
 
I never made any effort to use a lower temperature.  Whatever temp my fish room was was the temp that the eggs were incubated at.  For most species like gardneri it didn't take much longer for the eggs to incubate.  For that matter this isn't only applicable to semi-annual species, any plant spawning killies can be treated in the same manner.  The only caveat would be species which prefer alkaline conditions, i.e. pupfish, there eggs just won't develop on peat.  The main advantages are the possibility of isolating the eggs in case of fungus and the fact that you can get batches of eggs to hatch at a similar time for predation when raising fry of different ages together  I hope this make some sense.  I'm happy to further elaborate if needed.
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