Pulling Nests and Using Air Stones?

[tanglovers]

Hi All,

I have a question. I have attempted to hatch a couple of clown nests by pulling them the day of hatch and keeping them moving with air stones. I have had very poor success with this. The first time not enough motion - fungus set in, the second time too much, blew half of them off the nest, last time got only about 1/4-1/3 to hatch then fungus got the rest.

Any tips or suggestions. Do you use air stones or bubble wands? I have been using wands. All these nests previously were laid on tile. I just had a very small nest put down on a flower pot I am trying now.

Any info would be appreciated.

Scott

 

[kerusso316]

I use two types of bubble.I bubble thur wood and a low wand.I like the way the wood blankets the eggs, then the large bubbles knock the small bubbles off.Bubble should come in direct contact with the eggs.If they get knocked off: 1 turn the bubbles down a little 2 feed mommy and daddy a more nutrious diet.

 

[Kmiec123]

I have been kind of experimenting with this very thing of late, and it seems IMO the wands are not helping me. I thought the longer seem would protect more of the heater with circulation, but even turned low it seems the smaller bubbles have more ill effect on my turn outs. One course stone under the heater, turned just low enough to have surface movement and one course stone under the eggs on clay tile partially coming in contact with eggs and moving at about the same intensity as when papa fans. This has given me my best hatch results(which is about 75 out of 300 so I'm no pro-and only have batch 7 to hatch on Sat-Sun....Still learning everyday.)
That's all I got over my two months for p\laying around. Not sure if my turnout is above or below average, but 75 is better than a poke in the eye. Read turnouts can be better keeping the eggs with papa to assist and using a snagger, may go this route if advised or to continue experimentation and seeing what works best for my situation.
Hope this helps..and suggestions always welcome...Carl

 

[Kmiec123]

BTW kerusso316, I almost bought the wood one yesterday to try, but figured I'd give the course one more shot..May get one to try if it works for you. Carl

 

[aomont]

As we´ve been talking about hijacking threads I´ll ask a dumb question the second time.... (just got Hoff but no Wilkerson yet).
When you pull a nest you do this avoiding contact between the eggs and the air, or you don´t mind a little contact ?
Thank you Scott !
Anderson.

 

[Baalz]

I use bubble wands and turn em up enough that the bubbles just bump the eggs. Which is sort of high but the bubbles are very small. Never do I knock eggs off this way. And I can raise a nest from the day they are laid like this.

 

[olin]

I like the medium or coarse bubbles myself. I've had some damage from the superfine bubbles from the wood stones sticking to the eggs. They do well with these bubbles and keep flow moderate but not turbulent. My flow is probably lower than some, but I do a 5 min formalin dip before putting the nest in the hatching tank and that keeps fungus and protozoans in check.

 

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8716660#post8716660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aomont
As we´ve been talking about hijacking threads I´ll ask a dumb question the second time.... (just got Hoff but no Wilkerson yet).
When you pull a nest you do this avoiding contact between the eggs and the air, or you don´t mind a little contact ?
Thank you Scott !
Anderson.

No problem with that.Guys at ORA walk along the greenhouses with nests in their hands.

 

[aomont]

Thanks Luis !

 

[keefsama2003]

from my understanding and if i remember i think jhardman mentioned it that he had put the eggs on a tile into the hatchout tank and used slow large bubbles to just graze the eggs and keep a nice movement on them and that worked.

dont quote me on where i got it but thats what i remember for some reason.

 

[Noof]

Ok well here in Aus. we can walk round with the nests too. My hatching stuff is in a flat separate to the main house here. I have my main tank in the house..... Small problem if the eggs have to stay underwater.
Luis is right you can take them out.... wander round for a bit.... look at them under the scope .... take pictures and one for the fungus rinse them under pH adjusted temperature adjusted fresh water.
I have had fish hatch ...... from what I can tell when I went outside ( obviously dark)and into the flat. as soon as the eggs make the new tank there are fish swimming around. . some little guys just have to jump the gun eh?

As for the bubbles you can actually have them smashing the eggs if you feed the parents correctly. Dont quote me on this but I think that increasing parts of the parents diets can increase egg stickiness! ..... Try a few diets you will work it out.
Good Luck

 

[keefsama2003]

if you could shoot me your diet that would be great noof im just feeding flake right now and a mush mash of frozen form 1 / cyclopeez / flake food / nori / garlic xtract / zoe con / pellet spirulina / pellet something else cant remember

 

[David M]

Grated table shrimp fed to adults (MMoe's shrimp ball) will help if eggs are not sticking.

Yes I agree you can take them out of the water, I do it every time.

As I have said before, I am one of those neurotic individuals that has to constantly reinvent the wheel. A few months back I suddenly started having problems hatching with air. At the same time I had a new pair begin spawning that lays on the inside bottom of a flowerpot, how do you airate that I was having problems that forced me to pull early (day 4 or 5) and then losing a lot to fungas & blowing off the nest. To me the air bubbles have never seemed natural anyway, the male does not constantly agitate the nest. I built a better mousetrap with a small p-head and a wave timer. The p-head is inside a mesh enclosure so larvae can't get sucked in. I actually built something but you can use a Lee's breeder net. The intensity of flow can be adjusted simply by moving the nest closer or farther away or putting a valve on the pump. The wave timer can be set to agitae the eggs for 30-60 seconds and then let them come to a complete rest. This is much closer to what the males does anyway. It has been very successful with difficult nests but I still use air for simplicity when it will do.

 

[keefsama2003]

WOW GOOD information.

now i need pictures or how much would it cost to ge tyou to build me what your using.

im trying to get everything into order

 

[David M]

I just used stuff I had around, to go out a BUY a wave timer is probably not worth it, I think they're like $75-$100 ??

 

[keefsama2003]

cool i have like a maxi jet 600 but im not sure how i would use it to draw the fry into the fry net i can mount a led to the top of the tank so it shines in 1 general area so thats no issue either.

i just hope they decide to lay on the tile i will grab a piece of tile today.

is there anything specific i need to do to the tile?
or just rince with water and place it in

 

[Baalz]

Ive always just rinsed it well. I think you will be surprised how well they take to it.