SJO breeding experiment

[promethean_spark]

Well, on my eggs that are older than 3wks or so, I can see a pair of eyes in each egg. These are the first that I'm keeping on peat and observing like this, so I'm curious how 'eyed up' is sufficiently 'eyed up' for me to hatch them? On the 4 week old eggs I can even see a bit of a head around the eyes, but not a spine or body yet. Should I wait until the egg looks like it's got a rolled up fry inside?

I've heard some say you should wait until you see an iris around the eye?

I guess there're enough of them I could chuck one in a bottle of water now and then and see if I can force hatch it and produce a healthy fry.

BTW, the last batch I did, I left in the bucket for a couple days (relatives came to visit) before picking the eggs, and it looks like I had a much worse egg survival rate, maybe 20%. Perhaps it's best if the eggs are picked and put on peat ASAP, they may have already started to fungus in the water. My female also jumped 10" over the rim of the bucket and spent an hour or so unhappy on the bathroom floor. She looks like she'll make it, but I'm giving her a week off with extra conditioning for her troubles.

I've also found that they do better on dryer peat. I did a couple batches in peat that I'd boiled and squeezed out, and one that was left pretty wet. The ones with squeezed out peat had negligible mortality, while I lost 10-15% of the eggs on the soggy peat. This latest one where the eggs seemed to do badly were back on the squeezed out peat.

[TyroneGenade]

If you have a magnifying glass have a good look at the eggs. The eyes should be clearly visible with a distinct shiny iris. If you see this, then wet them. If they are not ready then they won't hatch. They will just sit in the water till they are good and ready. At least, this is my experiance.

Interesting observation about drier peat. Can you elaborate on how you were able to see the difference between the survival on the peats? Do you pick and place all the eggs on peat or only ones that look healthy? What is the total number of eggs and how many of the total survive?

About your observation about eggs left with mom and dad too long... I suspect the problem is polution from mom and dad. The eggs come out clean and then as they wait in the tank with mom and dad (who lets face facts eat like pigs) the bacteria are able to colonize and kill eggs. The bigger the fish, the more waste. The more waste the less eggs survive.

Regards

[promethean_spark]

I didn't count the fungused eggs, but I know the first two boxes I removed maybe 6 eggs that'd turned white, and the third (wetter) box I removed 30 or so. It doesn't seem like I've lost any more, and some in the soggy box even are starting to show little black eye-dots. Perhaps they'll develop faster in the moister environment. My spawning/picking procedure was identical for these three batches.