# eggs good or bad?



## Guest (Nov 8, 2004)

I just noticed these yesterday and they are my first clutch I've noticed. Can anyone tell whether they are good or bad? How do you tell? 










Thanks!


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

they look good, you will know for sure in 3-4 days.


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2004)

*how do you tell?*

how can you tell?


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2004)

Cause they look sunny side up


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

experience...I hate say that, but it is true


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## Jace King (May 5, 2004)

I like the dark coloration, i assume they are from your alanis. Usually all the darker eggs with no white are good for me. And after Melisa has seem about 4million eggs i would guess experience could tell her almost anything.


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2004)

*LEUCS!*

I'm sorry, that is pertinent info. they are from my leucs. Havent seen a single one from the tincs. 

is there something to look for if they are bad? Maybe runny, or the wrong color, or extra nasty looking? How do you know when he has done his job?


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

*Re: LEUCS!*

Matt,

All the things you mention are a factor. Take the eggs you have from your luecs. If part of the eggs begins turning gray, or one side begins expanding while the other doesn't, you have a bad one.
If you do not see any development in the eggs after a week, they are probably bad. 

There are so many factors & possibilities it would be near impossible to list them all.

Overall, congrats on the good eggs you got!!! You should begin to see some divisions in the eggs in the next could of days.

Melis




wcumagic said:


> I'm sorry, that is pertinent info. they are from my leucs. Havent seen a single one from the tincs.
> 
> is there something to look for if they are bad? Maybe runny, or the wrong color, or extra nasty looking? How do you know when he has done his job?


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

You can tell they were fertilized when there is a liquid covering on the eggs and the surrounding area, the eggs themselve dont go much beyond the black center, but the rest of the goo is from the male.


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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

geckguy said:


> You can tell they were fertilized when there is a liquid covering on the eggs and the surrounding area, the eggs themselve dont go much beyond the black center, but the rest of the goo is from the male.


I'm not sure if I'm reading your post correctly, but if you are indicating that the jelly mass is produced by the male and the yolk is produced by the female, that's not correct. Just like a chicken egg, the frog egg contains a yolk (the dark part) and the jelly mass (much like the egg whites in a chicken egg). The male simply fertilizes the mass of eggs, and the yolk will begin to develop if it is fertilized and the deposited egg was viable.

Like Melissa said, the most sure-fire way to tell if the egg is good is to keep it in a moist environment and watch for signs of development (beginnings of a spinal cord, then tail formation, etc.) for the week following the deposit. Congratulations!


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2004)

*"LIQUID"?*

"Liquid", huh? 


Yeah, I do see that. Are those little "blobules" around the eggs from him or undeveloped eggs? 

I think I might set up a devoted 20 long tank to grow algae and tadpoles. I'm still reading about it though. If anyone has a good link on tadpole care or raising leucs specifically, I would be interested in seeing it.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Never heard of this one...like Homer said, the male doesn't need to be present for the female to lay. As for the 'goo', the female leaves quite a bit around anyways, especially when the eggs soak up water.

The best sure fire way is wait and watch for development. 

Melis



geckguy said:


> You can tell they were fertilized when there is a liquid covering on the eggs and the surrounding area, the eggs themselve dont go much beyond the black center, but the rest of the goo is from the male.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

I am talking about the liquid that usually extends past the eggs by about 1"-2", I was answering his question about how to tell if they were fertilized or not, when the female lays, there is very little goo around the eggs beside the sack that encases the embryo. I have witnessed this myself, and it is also from the dart frog book, by wattley, samples. The best way to tell if they are going to develop into tadpoles is too wait and see if you start seeing development.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

What I was trying to say, there is no way of using that observation to tell if the eggs have been fertilized. There are a lot of other variables in that observation. 






geckguy said:


> I am talking about the liquid that usually extends past the eggs by about 1"-2", I was answering his question about how to tell if they were fertilized or not, when the female lays, there is very little goo around the eggs beside the sack that encases the embryo. I have witnessed this myself, and it is also from the dart frog book, by wattley, samples. The best way to tell if they are going to develop into tadpoles is too wait and see if you start seeing development.


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2004)

*I think they're bad*

I checked them today and I beleive they are bad. they are about 70% grey starting at the bottom. They grew a good bit, but I dont see any distinguishable features. 

I guess I'm glad that they lay often so we can try again. That little male is calling his little heart out.


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## benmz (Feb 18, 2004)

Woah, wait a minute.

Don't throw them out yet. My tinc eggs go gray/white on the bottom as well. This usually happens as the egg develops. The bottom part will become yolk feeding the developing tadpole, while the tip will develop first a dark line then you'll see the little head and tail and pretty soon a tadpole with a large gray "belly" that is the yolk sac that had turned gray. 

When my eggs go bad they develop really white and kind of bloat/blow up from all sides. Sometimes I remove the bad ones, sometimes I don't. I don't think that the bad eggs spread fungus to good ones. I've raised clutches both ways, but by taking out the bad ones, once you know they are bad will make the clutch neater and a bit more worry free. 

So wait a few more days before tossing them, you could be tossing tadpoles.

-Ben


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

*Re: I think they're bad*

Hope you didn't throw them out...the eggs are grey on the bottom. 

Wait a week before you make a decision to throw any eggs away..




wcumagic said:


> I checked them today and I beleive they are bad. they are about 70% grey starting at the bottom. They grew a good bit, but I dont see any distinguishable features.
> 
> I guess I'm glad that they lay often so we can try again. That little male is calling his little heart out.


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2004)

*maybe*

When I got home this afternoon, I checked them and there were two that still looked pretty good, just a little grey on the bottom half. The third one was totally grey and a little nasty looking. I chucked that one . The two remaining eggs havent grown much. I've got them with their lid in a critter keeper with 1/4" of water in it, just enough to touch the edge of the eggs. From what I've been able to read, this should work. There at a little warmer than room temp, probably 72 to 74 degrees constantly. 

Any ideas to help my last minute rigged incubator? I appreciate the comments so far. I'm really exited about these eggs, even though I know most first clutches dont fare well.


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## benmz (Feb 18, 2004)

Sounds like your incubator is just fine. Mine is either the tops of the tanks (heat from the lights way above) or in a tupperware with some heat under it.

The only other thing that I would say is when these eggs get looking like mini-tadpoles, you may want to start getting some tadpole tea ready. I just store some tapwater (so it dechlorinates) and mix in some Tetra Blackwater Extract available at most fish stores for very low cost. You could add some dried red oak leaves to it as well or instead. I use that water for the eggs and tads. 

I don't transfer the tads from there dish until they have broken out of the eggs themselves and are pretty active. They can survive for a while on egg yolk in their gut, like up to 2 weeks in some cases. And since I use the same water for the eggs and then rearing of the tads they are acclimated to the chemistry of it. OH yeah, don't forget to feed the tads once they are in cups. I have been using Ed's fly meat tadpole food. I think you can rear up to like 30 tads on one container. But a good fish flake food that's algae based has worked for others.

-Ben


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## Guest (Nov 13, 2004)

*f*

Just wanted to post at the end of this long day and say that I can now notice a little egg sac and backbone and little tail starting in the eggs. It is day 5. I'm startin to get wound up about them hatching!


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## benmz (Feb 18, 2004)

Congratulations WCU,
Patience is key with this hobby. I hope they turn out well. My leucs just laid their first eggs, and they look like they may be bad, but I'm holding on to see what happens.

-Ben


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2004)

*I think theyre good.*

Here is a pic of the Eggs of my little leuc on Day 7. I may just have to post every day or two, cuz these little things hardly had a tail two days ago, and now they are very much little tadpoles with yolk. I gotta figure out a tadpole system really soon, dont ya think? :roll: 

If you go to my gallery, you can make this pic full size and you can see their little gills and eyes! :lol:


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2004)

*d*

I just wanted to post an update pic on the leuc eggs. This is the end of day 9, Nov 17th. 












At this point, I think its a good bet that they're good eggs!     
I love the way their gills (?) are developing, like little blood vessels running into the yolk. You can ALMOST see the eyes if you imagine hard enough!


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