N. guentheri eggs

Well, Róisín and I soaked her N. guentheri Zanzibar eggs and we have waited and waited. Nothing! I've had a good look, so has Róisín and we can't find any eggs, not a one. I'm very disappointed for Róisín, this was to be her first foray into fish keeping and a terrific bit of learning for her. She was so excited and extremely patient, but now she is disappointed. I just hope she understands that sometimes these things happen, I'm sure she does, I explained to her. We learn, and move on and upwards.
I've got 3 packages of S.Am. annual eggs from the same seller which need a couple of weeks yet before being wet but I'm off to see if there are actually eggs in those packages before I continue storing and then wetting them.

Checked the Simpsonichthys santanae and definitely saw eggs in there. The due wetting day is tomorrow so I've just gone ahead and wet them now. So perhaps we can put the N. guentheri down to a mistake.
Bill

Sorry to hear that. Its shame but its how it is, there are ups and downs. Good think is there will be ups too for patient ones

Good luck

Tom

Sorry to hear this news Bill. The joys of buying bags of dirt over the Internet.
Dry them out again and try again in a few weeks.
I had one batch that had to be wetted three times before I got fry.
I have sent you a message.

As most of you have probably read by now, two of Róisín's 50 eggs have hatched so she is bouncing along on cloud nine at the moment Tonight I will remove the peat and dry it off again for a couple of weeks.
4 eggs of Simpsonichthys santanae have hatched out of 15.
Bill

hi . I wetted a batch of the same Sean kindly sent me at 18.30 but one and quarter hours later no sign of movement ,must be doing something wrong .

Give them time Robert.
You will have fry before you log off tonight.
There was a good few sets of eyes in the peat staring back at me before they went in the envelope.
A watched egg never hatches

robert wrote: hi . I wetted a batch of the same Sean kindly sent me at 18.30 but one and quarter hours later no sign of movement ,must be doing something wrong .

Anything yet Robert??
I am sitting here feeling what I think a father would be feeling awaiting the birth of his first born

Nothing as yet , must be doing something wrong , used the water from the community tank let it cool to 20 deg c . Are you hoping for a boy or girl or maybe twins

Octuplets at least Robert

Hi Robert,
I initially put the N. guentheri eggs into water at 15c. They had actually been in the water for 4 days before they started to hatch. You might have to wait the same length of time.
With the S. santanae I took some RO water and put it in the container and dropped an ice cube in to bring the temperature down to 10c. The first 4 of those hatched after about 4 hrs, I've left the container to climb on it's own to room temperature and and a few more have hatched today. Róisín's container has had two or three more hatch today so I'm going to leave them in the water until tomorrow.
What did surprise me was how tiny the N. guentheri are, I expected them to be slightly larger than the S. santanae but they are actually about 2 thirds of the size and with the peat background extremely difficult to see. I, very, very gently, used a spoon to ease the peat away from one end so that there is a clear section of the white container with very little peat on it and it makes them much easier to see.
I don't think you will have problems, it'll just take a little time, especially with warmer water. Those initial rains in nature are of a much lower temperature than the ground the eggs are in.
Keeping fingers crossed for you.
Bill.

Hi Bill thanks for your post , i have the egg in a semi transparent container and even put a sheet of while paper under it to make viewing easier , will check again in the morning ,but you reckon it could take up to 4 days , so there is hope yet .

It did for ours, but there are a few things that will make the difference; initial water temperature, stage of the eggs etc. I think the eggs you got from Sean were already eyed, so you might have a nice surprise within 24hrs. The frustrating part is that nature does things in her own time and she isn't a member of the forum and reading the same info we do lol

Any developments Robert?
As Bill mentioned , The fry could be lying on the peat and it would be hard to find them.
Their size is also why you have the debris from your pond prepared in advance as to have a food source in the form of insufuria small enough for them take.

As yet no signs of life , but Bill did say it could take 4 days so we live in hope

Checked the eggs at 18.00 hrs as i was leaving for work still no sign of life .

Just checked the eggs again ,no sign of life . So reckon i must be doing something wrong , anyone any ideas. Thanks Robert

I can't figure it Robert.
I saw at least eight eyed up eggs in the bag when I checked it before i sent it to you.
The only thing I do different than you did is that I wet the eggs a lower temperature .

I think it's the temperature, Robert. You're trying to hatch the eggs at the normal temperature for keeping the fish. I would normally hatch at 15c but on this particular occasion I had to drop the temperature to 10c before they hatched. It's possible to hatch at temperatures above 15c but percentages will be lower, belly-sliders will be higher.
Don't forget, these fry are really going to try out your eyesight something wickedly as well
Bill

was out for the afternoon and just back in and surprise I have one tiny fry , so just it until tomorrow and vsee what happens , Bill just checked the temp of the water its 18.2 deg c. if it needs to go lower how do I do that

robert wrote: was out for the afternoon and just back in and surprise I have one tiny fry , so just it until tomorrow and vsee what happens , Bill just checked the temp of the water its 18.2 deg c. if it needs to go lower how do I do that

First of many I hope Robert.
As Bill mentioned they are tiny so there might be another few in there.

For this species, I would usually incubate them at lowered temperature but hatched them at low 20s C.
Hatching would be normally very rapid (within 40 to 60 minutes after wetting) if a first wetting was sufficient.

I also would use aged water that had had fish in it (but not adult killifish though)

ian

Well still just the one fry , the water i used was from the mature tropical tank that i allowed to cool

and now there are none, found the one fry dead this afternoon .

Re dry the peat and try again in a couple of weeks.
What did you feed the lone fry ?
When you wet the peat again have another tub ready with water and moss in it so if any do hatch you can transfer them


Eric

Unfortunately all my fry have been lost.


Bar joining the BKA has any one any good source for killifish eggs going to give it a week let the microworms take hold then try hatch some more.

Regards
Craig

Oh off topic but Robert I finally got around to getting that app for your webcam tank looks great.


Regards
Craig

fishmad1234 wrote: Unfortunately all my fry have been lost.

I'm always wary of feeding any newly-hatched fish with anything other than infusoria, I'm not saying that's why you lost them, but that's how I always did it. So far ours are still alive and will go onto microworm later this week.
I'll second Eric, dry off the peat and incubate again for a couple of weeks.
Bill.

What's the best way to culture infursoria Bill

I agree with Bill.
Infursoria is a great first food for the tiny fry of some of he killifish species.
Have you got a planted tank Craig?
If you do you will probably have a culture going already unknowns to yourself.