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Re: Premature hatching



Doug, Chris,

I have the same problem with A. australe. I don't think that it is
temperature related, because I tend to get in in summer as well as in
winter. Now I will pay attention to temperature, maybe there will be a
trend. 

My _guess_ would be that this is genetic -- excess production of the
enzyme that dissolves the egg shell and thus dissolves it prematurely.

I also have a strain of A. elberti where the opposite happens: In a
certain percentage of eggs there is not enough of that enzyme, the
membrane does not come off easily and the fry try to swim with a "hood"
over their heads. They can be helped by mechanical action -- sucking
them up in a wide-mouth eye dropper and then squirting them out.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not and the fry die. Microworms don't seem
to help much.

Best,

George




Christopher Graseck wrote:
> 
> Doug,
> 
> I'm having the same problem with A. australe.  After 5 or 6 days some of the
> eggs have tails sticking out of them.  Some of the eggs are hatching
> normally and others too soon.  The fry that are hatching too soon are
> obviously under developed, with large yolk sacks. I'm water incubating
> without  any Acriflavine.  I think that the problem has more to do with
> temperature than anything else.  What temperature are you incubating the
> eggs at?  My apartment is in the 80s.  I'm sure that the eggs would rather
> it be in the low 70s.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris Graseck
> Mahopac NY

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