Painful lesson

[russ]

I learned a painful lesson this last week with the husbandry of Aneides eggs. I always keep the water level in the Perlite at just below the surface level, ALWAYS. The idea is to create high humidity without the eggs actually getting wet. On the 13th I added water to the cup containing my A.lugubris eggs. I immediately realized that I had overfilled it and standing water was touching the lower eggs (you can see this in the pic). I made the decision not to remove the excess water, though I can't really say how I came to that. The eggs began hatching the next day, so I thought no harm done. But, if you look closely at the pic I posted on the 14th you can see the gills are still on the individual that is completely hatched and the one to the upper right that is partially hatched has way too much yolk left. They've all hatched as of today and most of the earlier hatchlings died, the later ones are doing OK. I suspect the water caused the egg membrane to dissolve too early. A few died in the egg which I've never seen before this late in incubation, that one I'm still pondering.
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(Message edited by rust on July 20, 2005)

 

[jeff]

Sorry to hear that Russ. Hopefully those that hatched too early will pull through.

 

[paris]

i was wondering why yours were hatching so much earlier than mine, its a good thing you posted this cause i have thought doing that on purpose before-i moved mine onto damp paper towels from the java moss and have had no more deaths-but i am down to 7......

 

[russ]

And it just gets worse. I just arrived in GA with my collection (sans any GA native stuff) and found that only one of the hatchlings has survived the trip. I contemplated whether to put them on wet paper-towels or sphagnum moss. I chose the moss. The moss settled rather firmly with the three days of constant vibration and I suspect the little guys stressed out struggling in the stuff, the survivor sure was. Can I just start the year over??!!

 

[paris]

russ-you got 1 i got 2...not a good year all round, the last one still surviving?

 

[russ]

Last I checked. I had to leave town for 10 days (I'm on my way back now) but he had plenty of springtails. Just a rough year all around!

 

[josh]

dang russ, sorry to hear that. i hate moving! i a few things while moving to arizona from washington a few years ago...in the middle of summer too. well, better luck to ya next year! oh, any word on commin out this way for sure?? im probably gonna hit up so cal in the next month or so... depending on rains of course. take care russ

-josh

 

[russ]

I'm still planning on late March, we'll have to hit PV together. Unfortunately my new position doesn't lend itself to as much travel as my last assignment so one trip out this spring will probably be it.

 

[josh]

ok russ, sounds good. im gonna try to get out there as much as i can. i need to get a few female croceator for my boys as well. i cant wait to breed them. you'll have to give me some pointers when the time comes.

 

[paris]

update on my 2...they died, also a moving issue i believe, i had them in a temp container and didnt want too much moisture in there with them since they dont like it too wet, but it seems that moisture balance for these lungless sals in a temp container w/o buffers (like soil) didnt work, but check my new post for an interesting outcome of the move!