collecting eggs

[matt_man]

Ok so i decided so spawn my N. eggersi in fine sand. Now it's time to collect the eggs I've got a fine seive that will let the sand through but not the eggs.

now my question is whats the best way to get the eggs off the seive without damaging them ?

cheers

[Alan]

Invert the net over a bowl and tap it on the edge of it, or use water pressure from the outside.

[matt_man]

ok thanks i'll try that.

had a quick count and gave up at 50 eggs and there was still lots more sand had only been in there for a week

[alanmin4304]

You need to take tha eggs out of the sand and store them in peat.

[Alan]

I'm pretty sure he is aware of that Alan, but what Matt has done is syphon the sand thru a sieve.

The sand has gone thru ok, but because of the pressure some of the eggs(the smaller ones) become jammed in tne mesh.

Thinking about it.

If the sand is put thru the net with shaking, like gold panning, then the pressure onto the eggs wouldn't force so many into the mesh, and those that do, wont be so tightly wedged.

I watched Aquanut do this the other day, and he had the same problem.

A bit of experimenting Matt and you'll get it right I think.

[alanmin4304]

I used to tip all the water and sand through a seive and had no problem. Would suggest you need a slightly finer seive (and therefore sand) so the mesh size is small enough not to wedge the eggs.

[matt_man]

ok so what I've done is seive the sand through a 600 micron seive and anything that passes through it is keep for the spawning medium.

when its came to retreaving the egg's i submerged the seive in water and poured over the sand and lightly shake the seive all the sand past through easly leaving only the egg's on the mesh. the eggs were just to hard to try to pic off the mesh using tweezers.

I ended up tapping out the seive over some paper then picked the eggs off that and put them on to the peat.. and now they've been bagged and put into storage.

cheers

[Alan]

#265 and #215 both pick the eggs like that, BUT, place them on trays of damp peat, so as the eggs can be seen and any fungused ones removed.

[matt_man]

hmmmm thats a good idea i think i'll do that with the next batch. would be a good way to monitor there development to

[Alan]

Yep, that's the way to go, then when you are passing them on or selling them, you can say 12 "eyed-up" eggs guaranteed, or what ever.

[matt_man]

well i guess i better get some more shallow trays.

i guess you cover the trys with plastic still to keep moisture in.

im looking forward to hatching out my fist bag of fish i've breed myself

[AquaNut]

Hi. I have done a few more sand spawns since Alan was here last. Ive now found the bestway to collect the eggs from the sive is to get your partners best black or dark blue face cloth and tap the siv onto it rather firmly. The eggs all come out and it makes it really easy to see the eggs and pick up with your fingers or sweezers. Remember that you should lay them on a bed of moist peat and try and place the eggs at least .5cm apart. The next couple of days is crucial. Pick the fungused eggs off the peat over say a five day period. Once you have done this there wont be any more eggs that will fungus up and you can safley store them for their 2-3 month incubation period.

Cheers

Tim

[ej]

Hi everybody!

I am sorry, but you are creating a lot of work for yourself, using the sand as spawning media and the then collecting the eggs and placing them in peat for storing.

Why not let them spawn directly in the peat placed in a small container with a hole cut in the lid, and have a couple of small stones to keep the container down.

Collecting the peat and eggs every 14 days, dry the peat and eggs on a newspaper, bag the content in a sealable plasitc bag marked with the day colected and the day for wetting.

I have used this metod for different Nothobranchius species, and have had no problems.

EJ

NZKA 216

SKS 156

[alanmin4304]

I used to breed hundreds of nothos on sand without any problems and I found the advantage to be that you can count exactly how many eggs you have and therefore your % hatch which is a lot harder to do on peat.

[caserole]

I breed SJO's and Notho's both ways,

the sieve way is much more work as ej said but the advantages are you know exactly what you have.

This can be handy if your relatively new to breeding Notho's as you will be able to see with out a doubt how well you are doing or not as the case may be.

Good work matt man, keep it up and remember never stop breeding your Notho's as you never know when you may have a failed incubation.

[alanmin4304]

The old story---- Do what works best for you.

[matt_man]

Just thought I'd post a pic of my latest harvest

N. Eggersi

[AquaNut]

WELL DONE.

Now you just have to hatch them.

Tim :-)