# Stupidity Alert



## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

Well, it's a dark flippin morning. Thought I would share my idiocy with the hope that someone avoids major trouble. Since I am always grateful for those here that share their failures and mistakes, I decided to I needed to do the same.

My eggs are run in a simple drawer container. I mist three times per day. Thus far it's worked very well. While my tads are a little slower to hatch out, the process has worked. I had a 100% hatch rate through small clutches totalling about 22 eggs thus far.

This morning I woke up and went to mist as I always due. I lost three late stage Bakhuis tads as they dried out, causing egg cases to dry and fail.

It's been cold the last couple of nights and the heater has been running. I suspect it is pulling the humidity down significantly.

I will create a 10 gallon incubator with heater and false bottom today to avoid this problem go-forward.

Keep an eye on your eggs if the heater kicked on at home.

Sucks big time as this was potentially avoidable. I should have anticipated this. Everyone knows that it is less humid in winter.


----------



## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

sorry to hear that z.


----------



## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

Yes furnaces definately pull a lot of humidity out of the air but drying out clutches can happen in AC as well. My last Variabilis clutch was about 10 eggs from 2 females which all were developing but dried to dust when I forgot to put the top of the petri dish back on after adding some water.


----------



## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

Kris just sent me her post on her incubator, as I requested. Off to the store. 

And thanks. I know that we all have to deal with things out of control sometimes but this one frosts my pumpkin as it could have been avoided.


----------



## Kalakole (Jun 30, 2011)

zoomie, same thing happened to me 3 weeks back, I completely forgot they were putting the heat on in my building and whoopse, no more eggs.


----------



## Shohin (Sep 21, 2011)

Sorry to hear about that, Zoomie.

But, really, it is good that people like you still post about these types of things. I am willing to bet you caused more than a few of us to check on our clutches.

And probably saved more than a few eggs in the process. Hats off to your post, sir!

-Troy


----------



## Steve88W (Jan 21, 2011)

I just started housing the eggs in the plastic drawer box since I was losing too many eggs due to mold when housing them in the sealed incubator. My success rate has gone way up.

Are you 'flooding' the Petri dish?
(not entirely over the top of the egg, but a layer of water covering the bottom of the dish). This seems to have helped too.


----------



## MrFusion (Jul 18, 2011)

It'll dry out your bug cultures as well so don't forget to keep an eye on those.


----------



## dartsanddragons (Jun 6, 2004)

I think we have all had this happen at one time or another..and it really sucks. I keep my eggs at room temp in the petri dish that they were in when I pulled them from the tank..fill with water not to cover the Eggs..and cover with dome lids I found years ago made by Solo Cup...kinda like the lids for a slurpy from 7-11..keeps them from drying out and no mold issues.


Scott


----------



## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

Steve88W said:


> I just started housing the eggs in the plastic drawer box since I was losing too many eggs due to mold when housing them in the sealed incubator. My success rate has gone way up.
> 
> Are you 'flooding' the Petri dish?
> (not entirely over the top of the egg, but a layer of water covering the bottom of the dish). This seems to have helped too.


I am running the same thing. Yes, I flood the Petri enough to make contact with the gel, but not enough to cover the eggs. I then spray down the inside of the drawer as well.

I recently moved them to another shelf after putting up a second rack. That in itself should have told me to check on them. I checked the temp a number of times throughout a 24 period prior to moving them but failed to watch for accelerated evaporation. 

And Mr. Fusion, thanks for aheads up on FF cultures. I moved them as well. I am about to start running a room humidifier.


----------



## stu&shaz (Nov 19, 2009)

Gutted for you Zoomie,its hard learning lessons this way,it will happen to all of us i guess sooner or later,the man that never made a mistake never did anything!! But these hard lessons are not easily forgotton by us stockman,i doubt it will happen again. Utterly commendable this post,some solice to be drawn from that, kudos to you
thank you 
regards
Stu


----------



## Dendroguy (Dec 4, 2010)

My setup is simple,I put the petri dish in a small tubberware container with a moist paper towel on the bottom of the tubberware to keep up humidity,I don't even mist the whole time they're in the eggs


----------



## Tadbit (Jul 16, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your misfortune Zoomie. Changing temps and heaters kicking on can be a costly learning experience in many areas. I had a $3,000 instrument crack and ruin because I left it out of the case and semi-close to a heater vent after a playing session. 

Good luck with your incubator! I bet it will make a world of difference in these colder months, and will probably be less labor intensive.


----------



## jbherpin (Oct 16, 2009)

To repeat my age old story... I got started into darts because of my mother's interest, and then success in keeping them. Blah, blah, I help her to breed them, and give advice on how to care for pulled eggs...

What I told her was to wait at least 24 hrs before pulling the eggs. After that they were transfered to a mini viv(left on the petri dish) with the exact same parameters humidity/temp wise. After they hatched, they were transfered to a rearing container by means of flooding. If molding is a problem, seed the egg rearing vivs with springs, and don't overly mist. I also instructed her to lay a leaf broad enough to conceal the clutch during development over the top of the eggs. this will reduce evaporation. Just some thoughts.

JBear


----------



## Froggyplush (Oct 28, 2011)

thanks for hot tip getting cold in wisco


----------



## Froggyplush (Oct 28, 2011)

someone else up late im in frog room watching red eyed trees frogs beat up on some crickets and my yellow galacs front legs are popping out right now un believeable


----------



## Zoomie (Jul 3, 2011)

Froggyplush said:


> someone else up late im in frog room watching red eyed trees frogs beat up on some crickets and my yellow galacs front legs are popping out right now un believeable


Good stuff !


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Steve88W said:


> I just started housing the eggs in the plastic drawer box since I was losing too many eggs due to mold when housing them in the sealed incubator. My success rate has gone way up.
> 
> Are you 'flooding' the Petri dish?
> (not entirely over the top of the egg, but a layer of water covering the bottom of the dish). This seems to have helped too.


I've used sweater boxes in the past to house the petri dishes. I typically use a hole saw and cut two vents in the lid, one on each end and then plug them with foam rubber as that allows a reduced air flow and can be controlled by simply removing one or both of the plugs. 

Ed


----------



## evolvstlldartfrogs (Oct 5, 2007)

Thanks for sharing, but don't feel too bad. Too many of us have done something similar. In fact, I had my own stupid moment last week. I had a bunch of tads on a shelf in a room with a space heater, and even though the heater wasn't near the frogs and I'd checked on all of them that morning, by night, the water in three containers had evaporated and the tadpoles had baked. I'm still mad...and surprised that it happened so quickly. It's easy to forget that winter mucks with humidity on that level.


----------

