Egg Tumbler

[benjavan]

When I was trying to figure a good way to collect the newly hatched larvae of my orchid dottybacks, I looked to my African cichlid tanks and came up with an idea. What about collecting the eggs instead. i built a tumbler out of some old undergavel filter parts and some nylon and placed it into a small tank with the eggs inside. A few days later I had an almost 100% hatch rate.

 

[james37128]

have any pictures you can share? I am a little confused still.

 

[Nagel]

Egg tumblers are quite commonly used for dottybacks. Some people also make a kreisel for tumbling their eggs.

I made a simple tumbler out of a 5g tank and a cut up 2L soda bottle. You can use air, but some species do not do well with air bubbles. Another option is to use a very low flow water pump, with the intake screened off with a fine enough screen to protect any newly hatched larvae.

 

[benjavan]

I am out of town right now but I will post pictures when I return next Sunday.

 

[billsreef]

Always good to be able to DIY such things. The commercial tumblers, McDonald Hatching Jars, run around $70 or so. Looking forward to seeing your DIY version when you return