Re: [Killietalk] water for hatching eggs

[Barry Cooper <bjc3 at centurytel_net>]

Diane,

I don't have much experience with SA peat spawners but I do hatch a lot 
of Nothos. I don't use rainwater, although I know some good breeders who 
do, especially if their tap water is very hard. I hatch in the same 
water I use in the tanks, but it has never been in a tank. In other 
words, it is out of my storage tank, or a garbage can of identical water 
I keep for such purposes, simply because it is easier to get it out of a 
20 gal container than a 300 gal one. My tap water is well water that is 
naturally very soft. I add minerals to it and that is what I use for 
hatching. I did the same when I was in upstate NY, where the well water 
had a conductivity of about 170 ppm.

Different strokes for different folks. If you are sure that the eggs are 
eyed up but won't hatch, even after repeated drying and wetting, I see 
no reason not to try softer water. Cutting your tap water with RO or 
distilled should work OK.

Regarding the nidus required for formation of raindrops, I don't think 
that would have a measurable effect on collected rain water. I think if 
you measure the conductivity of clean, freshly collected rain water it 
would be negligible.

Barry

Barry J. Cooper
Sweet Home, OR 97386



debunix wrote:
> Ok, so the consensus is for rainwater as hatching water, rather than 
> breeding tank water.
>
> I live in an apartment building with gutters that do not have an 
> accessible open drain spout.  I do not know if it would be safe to 
> trust water off my roof even if the spout was accessible.  In the 
> apartment I lived in  last summer, I did have quite a few bucketsful of 
> rainwater draining in through the roof of the apartment, but 
> fortunately that doesn't happen here.   I could put a sweater box out 
> on the porch, but we're going through a bit of a dry spell and the rain 
> has been pretty sparse--not a lot falling and not often enough (it is 
> impressively intense but usually quite brief)--so it will be an 
> upredictable amount of time before I can get my hands on it.
>
> Distilled water, on the other hand, is something I have sitting on the 
> shelf right now, and I have access to millipore filtered deionized lab 
> water (in small quantities) if needed.  The logistics are simpler.
>
> Would diluting tank water with distilled water be a reasonable 
> substitute?  And is it known what it is that the minerals in tap/tank 
> water might be inhibiting--some kind of chorion dissolving enzyme?   
> And if so, which ions/minerals are inhibitory?  And does having been 
> wetted and redried damage the eggs if they are developmentally ready to 
> hatch but are inhibited from doing so?
>
> Just pondering the options in case I can find any viable-appearing eggs 
> from the current batches of not-hatching peat.
>
>
> Diane Brown in St. Louis
>
> http://www.well.com/user/debunix/fish/fishIndex.html
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