Pics of arboreal sal laying eggs

[paris]

ok so here they are-shots of an arboreal sal in action of laying eggs-they cant be too clear cause i didnt want to disturb her like i did yesterday, since these are special pics i decided to make them 100 pixels larger across than my usual posts so you can see them better.
here is one of her in action taking with my night vision on, if you look closely you can see her back feet are anchored to the roof of the log she is attaching the eggs to

here is a shot of her in white light in the action of laying eggs

here is a close up of the eggs while she was laying more

 

[paris]

ok, and here is a real colour photo of her today, a day later.....i think she is done

the clutch is viewed from the side, its long from side to side-not including the stray one off to the left, now that she is done the male has gone under the log with her-i will see if he spends more time together with her than before (it was about 50/50)

 

[pamela]

Awesome Paris! That is quite a feat!

 

[jennifer]

Wow, quite a rare sight! Congrats!

 

[russ]

Nice. If she didn't bother them last time I'd just leave her alone with them instead of pulling them and not check again for 30 days. My clutch last year took ~75 days.

RUSS

 

[paris]

russ,
yeah that is one reason once i knew it was coming that i cleared the area up front-that way i can take pics from outside the tank w/o disturbing her log, they get fed about once a week and arent really big eaters (sometimes i have crickets left over by the next time i feed) im thinking on going light on feeding for a while so that
wandering crickets dont bug her, im also thinking on monitoring the temps so that i can releate egg development to temps, ive got one of those min/max thermometers and i can keep a weekly log easy enough.

(Message edited by paris on May 12, 2005)

 

[russ]

Good ideas.

 

[TJ]

Stunning!

What do you use to take night vision pics?

 

[paris]

my cam-its a video cam with night vision capabilities, it does still pics as you can tell but the memory is limited to 1MP and the optics of the lense arent outstanding.....

 

[paris]

i was wondering something, ..i kept mine with her till the hatched and russ removed his about 1/3 done....i know some birds will lay again if their eggs are removed before a certain time period and lions will kill cubs not theirs to get the female to come into heat soon after she looses them, so any ideas on if removing the eggs early will have her lay sooner than last time? i cant rule out the lack of good photoperiod i have for them-in that heavily planted tank they are in a constant state of twilight-i dont have a timer on the rack they are on.

 

[russ]

I suspect the removal of the eggs and my feeding regiment may both play a roll in the ability of the female to breed annually. In the wild she would set with the eggs through summer with little feeding, probably leading to the inability to ovulate in time for the next season. With the removal of the eggs early on and a heavy feeding schedule she may have enough fat reserves to facilitate ovulation in time for the next season.

 

[paris]

update-the lone egg off to the left is gone.....im wondering how soon till i should be able to see the the eggs are viable from a distance.

 

[russ]

I can't find my pics from last year but it seems like at ~30 days I could see spinal development.

 

[paris]

here is a latest shot of the eggs-they are definitely fertile and some dark folds can be seen in them indicating their level of development.

 

[russ]

Definitely. I took a peek at mine last night, you could see their vertibral line quite clearly. I wonder why mine are developing faster than yours? Temps?? Mine have been in the upper 60s to ~71F.

RUSS

 

[paris]

russ-
i keep my guys at 60 F-although as of yesterday i upped it to 63 in there so that animals on the high racks will be slightly warmer (trying to get the tylos up to 70 F)-arent yours also a week or so older than mine?

 

[russ]

Without looking (I'm in CA) I think I found the eggs 05May, and I had checked a couple of days earlier.