methylene blue and Aph. australe

["Tyrone Genade" <Tgenade at sun_ac.za>]

Hi all

About a week and a half ago I 
pulled about 200 australe eggs in 
total from the mops in with my 2 
trios. The eggs developed normally 
and without too many initial 
casualties.

The eggs were incubated in a tub. 1 
drop of Tetra General Tonic was 
added per 100 ml. The tub was 
floated in the collection tank and 
water from the tank was used for 
daily water changes. All went well 
till recently.

I started getting premature hatches 
and well developed eggs that just 
died. I suspected the acridine dyes 
in the General Tonic may be to 
blame so I switched to Methylene 
blue.

Why Methylene blue? I needed a dye 
that would discolour dead eggs 
making them easier to spot, and 
Methylene blue has been shown to 
enhance the respiratory capacity of 
fish---and hopefully eggs. (I 
suspected oxygen problems to be a 
possible cause for the problems.

The Methylene blue did not help 
with the premature hatching at all.

Think think think...

Last night I checked the 
temperature of the tank... big 
surprise. 28°C (81°F)! The australe 
still look happy (except for one 
with a funny growth on its nose) 
but the eggs can't take it. I'm now 
incubating at 25°C and recollecting 
eggs.

Now for a few questions:
1) What is the effective end 
concentration of Methylene blue 
used for egg incubation. I'm using 
close on 0.2 mg/l.
2) In your opinion, do you think 
the high temperature was the 
problem?

Keep wellTyrone Genade
tgenade at sun_ac.za
http://www.tyronegenade.0catch.com
cell#: 084-3354-977

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P450 Lab, Biochemistry Department
University of Stellenbosch, 7602, 
South Africa
Ph: +27-021-808-5876, fax: +27-021-
808-5863
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"Seek your happiness in the Lord."
                  Psalms 37:4


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