# Egg rearing setups



## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

I did a search and come up with nothing for this topic, plenty on tad rearing setups.

I tried bumping an old post about tad rearing that had a small part on eggs but it is getting all added posts about tads. So I thought I would try one for just egg rearing.

Do any of you have a good setup for eggs? Mine keep molding over.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Steve,

I saw your bump on the other post and as somebody else mentioned there a lot of us use the same set up to hatch the eggs as well as to grow out the tads.

Here's my post on my set up.
http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23115&highlight=tad+set

Here's eggs in with the tads.









I don't think it's your set up causing the eggs to mold. Have you had any of the eggs hatch? Maybe the eggs aren't fertile to begin with.

You could also try spraying the eggs with a weak meth blue & water solution.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

I'll be a little more specific....

What I am looking for is as good a description on how to "house" the eggs as people have given for how to "house" the tadpoles.

I do my eggs exactly the same way as most people do with their tads, i.e., in a rubbermaid container with a false bottom, a heater, eggcrate, and the petri dishes on top of the eggcrate. I fill the petri dish with RO water to about 1/4" and I use methylene blue. But they still mold over. I have had several make it to tads but I would like to see a better rate. Is the water too much?


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## Tripod (Jun 5, 2006)

Steve,

What concentration of methyl blue are you using? Some have found that much higher concentrations than normal are required in "moldy" situations. I use about 4-5 drops mixed with 10 oz. of aged tap water. 

Steven


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Are you submerging the eggs in water, or are you only filling enough water for it to cover the bottom of the petri dish and touch the eggs (but the top of the eggs are still above water level)?


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## jmoose (Jun 21, 2006)

KeroKero said:


> Are you submerging the eggs in water, or are you only filling enough water for it to cover the bottom of the petri dish and touch the eggs (but the top of the eggs are still above water level)?


Was gonna ask you the same thing. I think 1/4" water is too much
If frogs lay eggs on a leaf, I put a whole leaf on a petri dish and spary distill water to make sure the eggs are moist 
No MB here and I don't completely cover up the dish so that the eggs are exposed to fresh air (while making sure the eggs don't get dried up)

Good luck !!


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

> Are you submerging the eggs in water, or are you only filling enough water for it to cover the bottom of the petri dish and touch the eggs (but the top of the eggs are still above water level)?


Yes Corey, I am submerging the eggs. Here in Colorado the humidity is very low so if I only put in a small amount, the eggs would dry up by the time I got home from work. It was stated online here that this was exceptable.

As of tonight, I have started using a Gladware container, bottom lined with wet paper towel, and just a small amount of RO water mixed with the meth Blue (2 to 3 drops to 8 oz. of RO) sprayed on eggs. Then the lid put on. Hopefully this will make a difference.


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## O2 Plastics (Jun 28, 2006)

The eggs have to be above the waterline for oxygen exchange, or else they'll die.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

There is actually some debate with certain frogs on if their eggs can/should be submerged or not... it's more of a case of people being successful trying certain eggs submerged. I've never kept any of my eggs submerged, and I've not kept leucs, so I can't really comment on them in particular.

Eggs I've incubated have always been in small, closed containers in an environment that is set up to be saterated with humidity... petri dishes set on top of filter floss, with the filter floss full of water... then the container has an air tight lid. This allows the water around the eggs to not be the only water that would be evaporated, and also make it so that no evaporation would really even happen!

But mostly I have gone back to letting nature do it's thing and have the parents take care of the eggs and trasport tads


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## Alan (Jan 12, 2005)

I would concentrate in housing your eggs in a container that maintained sufficient humidity without you having to submerge the eggs in water. That much water can cause problems - including encouraging mold.

I would also recommend that you not use meth blue UNLESS you are treating a known problem for which MB is the only proven solution.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

> I would also recommend that you not use meth blue UNLESS you are treating a known problem for which MB is the only proven solution.


Why is that?

I was under the impression that the Meth Blue helped prevent the mold, not cured it once it showed up.

The eggs are doing much better now that I stopped submerging them in water. I have taken out 4 tads in the last week. Someone noted that they close their containers air tight. I have opted not to do this because the lids are too hard to get off once they on tight and it disturbs the eggs too much. Laying loose on the container does not seem to effect things any.


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## O2 Plastics (Jun 28, 2006)

sorry, but got a ?. If I cap my petri dishes after spraying them (not air tight) is there any reason to open them up to respray as long as they stay moist? Or do I need to exchange the water with fresh?

I'm working on a combined egg/tadpole setup and being able to spray the eggs once or twice and otherwise leave them alone would be nice.

Back to the OP, I'm in Wy (avg about 20% humidity) and I just sprayed twice a day or so, but I left the eggs in the viv so humidity wasn't a problem. 
which was good because for some reason shortly after spraying the dish was always dry. I think we were getting some wicking from the moss. I got 2 tads out of our first 6 eggs. 2 never got started, 2 looked like they did and then failed. But they never got moldy or ever looked dried out even when there was no standing water in the dish.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

I used to use a sterilite shoe box with a wet paper towel on the bottom and stack the petri dishes on top of one another. Each container would hold 15 petri dishes. I would use methylene blue as well. I would not place the top of the shoe box on tightly, instead I would turn it over and place it the wrong way on the container. That allowed for additional airflow. 

I noticed I would still get mold on my eggs if I didn't break the setup down and clean it with bleach water solution or chlorahexidine solution 1 time a week. 

Melissa



dragonfrog said:


> I'll be a little more specific....
> 
> What I am looking for is as good a description on how to "house" the eggs as people have given for how to "house" the tadpoles.
> 
> I do my eggs exactly the same way as most people do with their tads, i.e., in a rubbermaid container with a false bottom, a heater, eggcrate, and the petri dishes on top of the eggcrate. I fill the petri dish with RO water to about 1/4" and I use methylene blue. But they still mold over. I have had several make it to tads but I would like to see a better rate. Is the water too much?


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## Alan (Jan 12, 2005)

Like many other - I use a Sterilite container with a paper towel bottom, lightly moistened.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

> I used to use a sterilite shoe box with a wet paper towel on the bottom and stack the petri dishes on top of one another. Each container would hold 15 petri dishes. I would use methylene blue as well. I would not place the top of the shoe box on tightly, instead I would turn it over and place it the wrong way on the container. That allowed for additional airflow.
> 
> I noticed I would still get mold on my eggs if I didn't break the setup down and clean it with bleach water solution or chlorahexidine solution 1 time a week.


Thank you Melissa (and Alan, yours is close to the same thing) this sounds like a very good idea. I will try this.


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## jlb (Oct 15, 2006)

Here is a picture of the breeding setup at http://www.brianstropicals.com. His basement is setup for his frogs. The breeding picture is shown in the bottom third of the page.

http://www.brianstropicals.com/basement.html


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

> Here is a picture of the breeding setup at http://www.brianstropicals.com. His basement is setup for his frogs. The breeding picture is shown in the bottom third of the page.


*Yes, Brian has a great system, but it is for tadpoles, not eggs.*

I have since made my own tad set up that looks just like his. Works very well so far.


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## bruce (Feb 23, 2007)

*Just what I do..*

I normally remove the eggs to a petri dish and spray them once a day with a dilute solution of blackwater extract (light tea colour) and cover it with the other petri dish half, if/ when the water in the dish rises beyond just touching the egg mass I empty it, eggs normally stay put. I do make sure additionally to change the petri dishes in the tanks BEFORE they start to look grungy too, so at least it starts off cleaner. 
Best of luck.


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## Alex007 (Apr 15, 2007)

KeroKero said:


> There is actually some debate with certain frogs on if their eggs can/should be submerged or not... it's more of a case of people being successful trying certain eggs submerged. I've never kept any of my eggs submerged, and I've not kept leucs, so I can't really comment on them in particular.
> 
> Eggs I've incubated have always been in small, closed containers in an environment that is set up to be saterated with humidity... petri dishes set on top of filter floss, with the filter floss full of water... then the container has an air tight lid. This allows the water around the eggs to not be the only water that would be evaporated, and also make it so that no evaporation would really even happen!
> 
> But mostly I have gone back to letting nature do it's thing and have the parents take care of the eggs and trasport tads


 That is what is the best part of having frogs is to let mother nature run it course in reality the mother frog does all the work and no petri dish, no moisting no tadpole rearing just like in the jungles of South and Central America.


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