Re: [Killietalk] Blue Gularis incubation

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

Pjeversman at aol_com wrote:
> If the eggs are truly infertile, how you incubate them is irrelevant,
>  
> Philip J.  Eversman D.D.S.
It sometimes is easy to distinguish infertile eggs from those having 
hatching difficulty. Unfertilized eggs tend to turn cloudy white rather 
quickly, and fungus finds and devours them if you have not done 
something to control it. If you have, they just stay cloudy and 
eventually disintegrate.

Fertile eggs will stay clear and usually eventually develop an embryo 
that is visible. Even when the eye is fully developed and staring back 
at you, such eggs may not hatch properly.

The larva must secrete a digestive enzyme that corrodes the egg chorion 
from the inside, so the shell is weakened and the larva can hatch out. 
If a cross-linking agent (tanning agent), like formaldehyde, acriflavin, 
or even harder water has toughened the shell too much, the baby cannot 
escape the shell and will eventually die.

An intermediate case happens when the egg is prevented from developing 
through the various stages. In that case, the egg may be fertile but 
stays clear forever. Eventually, bacteria penetrate and the egg is then 
killed and devoured by fungus. I don't know why this happens, but my 
guess is that temperature, pH and water chemistry (dissolve gas?) may 
interact to cause the stalled diapauses.

The above situations can all be observed with a 2 or 3X magnifying 
glass, and it may pay to determine which is at fault before trying to 
correct the problem.

This is all easy for me to say, because I have never tried to breed SJO! 
:-D

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley - 805 Valley West Cir., Bishop CA 93514 
whuntley at verizon_net 760 872-3995. Cell 760 937-2276

Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/aka/modules/content/index.php?id=9.
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/killietalk