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Terranatos dolichopterus 'V96/7' - My Journey with the 'Sabres', 1st log.-

Picked up my two bags of eggs on Nov 28th 2003, which was the eve of forum gathering.

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 031208 -  bag labelled;  Collected Sept 20th 2003 / 30 eggs and a 'through-bag' view of the egg.
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10X stereoscope.
Eyecup next to dish.
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Shot taken Dec 6th 2003
 Dec 8th 2003


There were a good number of eyed-up eggs and from past experience, peat incubation in our warm 27 to 32 degree Celsius, is generally shorter.

So I picked out a dozen eyed-up eggs and from under the scope, chose the 3 most developed fellas and dunked it.  Time was 7.30pm


My 3 heros...

The other eggs were placed into another container, in case I wanted to wet them.

At about 10pm, I noticed jerky movements and believed I saw a split in the shell.  Oh good... it won't be long now.

Another minute later, I saw what looked like an eyeball that has popped out of
place!!!  It wasn't a pretty sight and already, I feared for the worst.

I have no idea what was going on...

Meanwhile, the other two eggs are inactive.
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Due to dehydration, some parts of the shell has collapsed.  Added some water to their container and hoped that the worst case scenario doesn't come true! aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!

The roundness of the egg returned after 15 minutes and I did an individual check on all the eggs, to see if I detect the heart pumping.  Some were and some weren't... :o(

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Curved then straight but still born...
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The following montage were a series of photographs taken over a 3 hour period.  The hatchling was clearly a still-birth, but strangely, the rest of the body did slowly emerge from the shell...

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can explain this strange phenomena.



Meanwhile, I've returned all eggs to peat bag and I'm not touching it again until Jan 20th 2004!  This has been a disappointing evening...

Links:
http://www.fishbreeding.dk/frame.html?artikler/art_t_dolichopterus.html~Main