Oxygen Tablets

[Scott_sg]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me out. I have been trying to find out what i can about oxygen tablets. I have never used them until a few weeks ago (Selena again..) but information about them seems scarce. My understanding is to boost the O2 concentration of the water for hatching Simpsonichthys sp. in particular. So here are my questions..

Does anyone know what the actual chemistry is? I have some ideas but probably wrong. I am curious what byproducts remain. The only two ways i can see to do it without leaving byproducts in the water would be gaseous 02 or hydrogen peroxide. And one is impractical, the other a dumb idea unless you want to bleach the eggs.

The amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is proportional to the temperature. So how will the oxygen stay in the water? Under atmospheric pressure from what i understand the water will very quickly reach equilibrium with the amount of O2 in the atmosphere.

I know everyone here (Singapore) swears by them, but as they are totally new to me I am just trying to figure them out. So I hope someone can let me know how they work. Any ideas?

If some of my reasoning is correct then it would make sense to cover the hatching container with the O2 tablets in it. Has anyone ever tried this? or is that standard when using the tablets?

Also are the 02 tablets for inducing hatching in some species or preventing belly sliders or both? I seem to read different things everywhere on this issue. Personally for inducing hatching I can see the logic, but am not seeing how they can help belly sliders, other than increasing respiration on hatching.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for all the questions in one go..

Scott.

PS O2 = Diatomic oxygen, I just don't know how else to type it here

[timebomb]

Scott,

Don't know much about water chemistry but there was a discussion once on the usefulness of oxygen tablets. Click here to read what was said.

I once conducted an experiment to see whether having more CO2 or O2 in the hatching trays is more effective. The results are a bit surprising but since then, I have given up on experimenting but do what everyone here does. Results speak a lot louder than theories

Loh K L

[stormhawk]

Hi Scott,

The by-product from the use of these O2 tablets is this whitish stuff that I usually skim off the surface of the water when I start to see fry. I don't know what that is actually.

What I understand from the use of this O2 tablets is that they actually help to increase the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Covering the hatching tray with a tight-fitting lid may keep in the oxygen but it doesn't really help the fry in any way other than to kill them. I found that out the hard way some time back.

It is used more for helping the hatchling fry get the extra boost to hatch out and to become free-swimming. It doesn't help belly sliders in a sense and will be useless for eggs that were wet too early or too late. Too early in the development stage and the hatchlings are almost always underdeveloped and will not survive. Too late and many will turn up with a twisted bone and have major difficulty in breaking out of the eggshell.

I observed this many times previously so timing is of essence. The combination of cool water and O2 tablets seem to mimic the hatching environment of the eggs in the wild, as they're supposed to start hatching when the atmospheric pressure increases a little and it starts to rain heavily. Since I reckon rain is usually cold and that means it contains a high level of dissolved oxygen, I thought the same reasoning would apply to the use of cool water in conjunction with oxygen tablets.

The use of either CO2 or O2 to force-hatch eggs are varied from species to species. I would use CO2 to force-hatch non-annual eggs but will stick to O2 tablets for SAA species. It has always worked for me many times in the past.

If you need help in obtaining these tablets, let me know because they're pretty scarce in supply. The local distributor for JBL products has run out of stocks for this item so I suppose we might be able to work out a mass order for a carton of this product. I got some tablets lying around and if you like I could pass you a few to try with. You usually need only half or a whole tablet when you hatch one tray of eggs in peat.

[Scott_sg]

Thanks for the input,

Like i said it is really curiosity, I have never seen them or used them at all until Selena passed me a couple. All my S.magnicifus fry hatched but i still ended up with a few belly sliders, but nothing will be perfect. I just used a 1/2 tab and obeyed her instructions. But I did bring the hatching water down to about 18C first to simulate new rain - even here in Singapore it can get cold with rain, but it all went well, so I cannot complain. I am more just trying to figure it out.

Maybe I am just thinking too much. Or maybe a case of:

I have not seen any Elephants, my Elephant repellant must be working!

Scott.