RE: [Killietalk] Infertile Egg Fungus... timeline

["Mark Pearlscott" <mark at pearlscott_com>]

> As Lee points out, infertile eggs will turn white within a day or so of
> spawning. However, for Nothobranchius at least, that does not necessarily
> mean that all of the fertile eggs will then survive the incubation period.
> I
> do not know for sure the reason for this but some eggs may die and
> disintegrate at some later stage during incubation (in damp peat moss).
> Many
> times, I have heard people say something like: ".....there were plenty of
> eggs in the peat when I bagged it but I got only a few fry...."
> 
> N. ocellatus is a typical example of this tendency and is a major reason
> that makes this Notho so difficult to maintain over the long term. They
> are
> not very prolific to begin with but one can put away what looks like a
> good
> spawning, only to find that 3-4 months later all, or most, of the eggs
> have
> disappeared. I have noted this tendency with some other species as well
> but
> not nearly to the same degree.
> ___________________________________________
> Brian R. Watters
> University of Regina
> Regina, Sask. S4S 0A2, Canada
> Ph: (306) 584-9161 (home); (306) 585-4663 (work)
> Fax: (306) 585-5433
> E-mail: bwatters at sasktel_net

Brian,

I have had that experience (with eggs that are fertile not making it through
the whole incubation period) too, and I think it is probably due to many
factors.

My main reason for asking was to find out how long to wait before taking an
initial count of the eggs.  I like to know how many fertile eggs I put into
a bag for incubation.  It might give me interesting information later on,
such as 300 eggs and only 2 fry, but then I might see that it is a species
that normally develops in three months and I let it go for 9 months... which
when compared with a different hatch of the same species (300 eggs for 3
month incubation yields, say, 200 fry... that) would be quite interesting.

Thanks again for your input.

Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Pearlscott, killifish addict.
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